Fitness Journey 2017
Goals:
Get weight >195 lbs
Waist back to 36’
Improved cardio
Improved flexibility
Reward:
New fitted golf clubs!
Starting: 234.4 lbs. Jan.9, 2017
Current: 230.2 lbs. Mar. 1st, 2017
Loss: 4.2 lbs.
Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
After a VERY long layoff, I’m back at it. Very little golf because of snow, but played three good rounds before the latest storm front…73, 72, 73 and dropped my cap to a 3.
My back issues are a bit better because I’ve given everything a rest except for sessions with Jenny and I’ve had several massages. But I need to get serious about knocking off some pounds! I begin again!
Friday, January 20th 2017
Really didn’t feel like hitting the gym, but pushed through and went in the mid afternoon anyway. My thoracic spine is definitely out of whack on the right side. My right shoulder blade won’t sit flat on the foam roller and it grabs once coming out of any exercise with a thoracic stretching component. Did two sets of HIIT cardio, complete MFR routine and my upper body exercises. Burned 980 calories over 1 hour and 55 minutes.
Monday, January 16th, 2017
Training session with Jenny Grills. She went relatively easy on me today…only burned 554 calories instead of my usual 600+. My thoracic spine is still a problem….extra stiff and sore. Not sure if Shawn’s chiro treatment last Wednesday didn’t aggravate it a bit. Jenny suggested I ice my back next time I get adjusted.
No luck signing up for massage therapy at Fort Langley Massage Therapy. They’re all booked two weeks in advance and I don’t want to wait. Jenny gave me the name of a massage therapist in training who may make house calls…so I hope to sign up for several weeks in a row with her. Kathy - newly returned from her Costa Rica yoga retreat - would also like to address some issues with RMT.
Some progress the last week on the weight front…just need to keep chipping away and eventually I’ll get to where I need to be come April or May. Jenny reminded me to improve my hydration too…apparently I’m in permanent water “debt”…to the point her fancy scale won’t be able to read body fat, etc, if I drop a % or two lower! She also made the point that less hydrated tendons and connective tissue = stiffer and more resistant tendons and connective tissue, which is exactly what I’m working to remediate with my MFR program.
Wednesday, January 11th, 2017
Strength training, abs and stretching classes
Chiro treatment….stiff SI and thoracic spine…really need to loosen my thoracic area up. Feeling like it’s going to spasm at the end of many exercises when I’m coming off equipment or have to shift position majorly. Ah, the joys of aging!
Tuesday, January 10th, 2017
Cardio/Full Body MFR/Cardio
Monday, January 9th, 2017
Finally started in on a fitness and diet routine again. Sadly, I weighed in at a portly 234.4 lbs…the highest my weight has been since I retired! I was injured four separate times in 2016…which provided me all the excuse I needed to abandon any semblance of a program. The last nail in my weighty coffin has been the month-long golf hiatus imposed by the sub-zero weather in December and early January here.
Went to a session with Jenny Grills in the morning - my first of the year - and burned 638 calories over the course of my hour with her. Nothing but stretching and lower chain release exercises but for the hight intensity interval cardio the first 10 minutes.. I’m so stiff my heart rate gets up over 142 / min regularly when I’m doing the more challenging stretches,…particularly those on the TRX. Lots of in-built resistance — my muscles and tendons are like extra-firm Therabands — so I’m working hard even on relatively simple drills. Still…the journey has begun.
Later in the day I hiked up my skirts and checked out the 30 Min Core class at my gym, Fitness Challenge. Met the trainer Chantal and two older ladies — Audrey and Elaine — both more flexible than I. They all seem very welcoming. After the class I did my Upper Body Myofascial Release regimen and another set of HIIT…good for another 612 calories total. Tired but nothing feels thrashed or gorked….so I’m counting this day a victory.
Started the New Year off sick in bed for two days thanks to a cold Kate may have gifted me after Boxing Day. Since injuring my back late last summer, I have not been hitting the gym much and this bad habit has resulted in significant weight gain.
Early in 2015 I was 195 lbs. To my horror when I stepped on the scale Jan. 1st the long slow creep upward had culminated at 226.2 lbs! I was ill enough that that number dropped to 222.1 today…a tiny silver lining to having picked up this nasty bug.
I was too whacked out from my cold to go to my usual Monday training session (in fact I’ve decided to put off serious golf training with Jenny G till February). Instead I went to my first restorative yoga class at Yogaroots, the tiny studio Kathy goes to in the Fort.
The studio occupies half of what in my boyhood used to be Mallory’s Store , where I went each Saturday to spend my dime allowance when we lived on Church Street. Mallory’s had an impressive array of penny candy, with many items three or four-a-penny, and a cat, which I’m pretty sure had free range over the sweetie tables. Once I recall Robin and I, dimes burning up our pockets, knocked early on the door of the closed shop. Mr. Mallory, likely still at his breakfast, very kindly let us in.
Restorative yoga is for rank yoga beginners, people recovering from injury or those dealing with chronic health issues. As I can tick off all three of those boxes, the class is a good fit. There are just three other students — one being my niece, Megan — so there’s lots of room. Having so few bodies in the room creates to a very peaceful and intimate atmosphere .
The studio is tiny but well equipped with various bolsters and blocks and straps…all of which I needed to make use of. In fact, I’m so inflexible that Pam, the instructor, had to nip over a few times during the session with an extra block for my head just so I could approach assuming the proper position in several poses. Much of the class is devoted to thoracic and lumbar spinal stretches, which are certainly areas I need to work on. I found even kneeling on my shins on the bolster a bit of a stretch (no pun intended).
I really enjoyed the unhurried pace of the class, which allowed me to settle into each position once I’d finally worked my way into a pose. The yoga focus is different than my usual training regime in that you’re asked to monitor your breath and body and then consciously allow yourself to relax into an even deeper stretch. I think I’m going to enjoy the class and that it will complement the work I’m doing with Jenny G.