Hello, my name is Susan. I’ve been exercising since the 13th April (11 weeks) and I haven’t lost an ounce! Not a pound, not a kilogram. How unfair is that? I know I started off gung-ho. I can tend to get rather zealous with things and fitness is one of those things. I can easily adopt the adage, Go Hard or Go Home…until I do an injury and am incapacitated for weeks.
I learned that I was exercising so my MHR would go too high, which means it is not burning fat. Then I had an epiphany. Later on, I had 2 weeks off. Ugh, getting back into was not easy, despite Miss A’s encouragement and the backyard full of gym equipment. So, I joined Contours. All along, my motivation level has been pretty high, considering how tired I feel. Still, I constantly feel like it is two steps forward, three steps back. It is hard work. I do not enjoy exercising.
My type of leg press-using a machine
Anyway, I joined Contours on a month-by-month basis as I hope to get back to the point where I can join another gym – a *real* gym. 😉 I want to lift weights, heavy weights. I’m just not fit or strong enough yet. I know that might sound strange but I really am not fit. I don’t feel as though I’m progressing or getting anywhere.
So, for now I’m exercising at Contours 3-4 times a week- slowly building strength. Miss A does (real) leg squats with weights. Get this! 100kg weights! Man, that girl is a machine! I wanna do that too. :rotfl: However, I’m using a pin-weighted machine (isolation exercises on a pin loaded machine which are not as effective as compound exercises using free weights) for leg press and just this week I have managed to be consistent with pushing 59kgs!
Last week, I had a scheduled rest day and was supposed to go to the gym the following day. However, life situations happened that prevented me from going in the morning and by the afternoon I was feeling stiff and sore. In one sense, this is nothing new as I’ve been sore and hurting for 11 weeks now. But this was a different sore. This felt like my muscles were starting to tighten and seize. After being ‘good sore’ for awhile I realised that I didn’t like this stiff sore. So with lessons and housework done and Miss A buddying with Master C to cook tea I zipped down to the gym! I don’t usually go there at 5pm
Miss A does this with 100kg barbell
but I just knew I needed to. Golly, was I pumped when that was over! I felt good again. I felt sore, but it was the sore that comes from working out, not a static soreness.
So whilst I am pretty sure that I will not lose any weight and feel destined to be this weight forever I will not stop working out. Because I like the benefit that comes from working out. I don’t like leaving the house and going there, nor do I necessarily like doing it but I do love the benefit of it. So the pay-off is worth it. I may not reach my target goal weight, but I can still reach my other goal – Fit n 40…because it is an attitude. 😉
How are you going with exercising and working out?
I really admire your stick-ability Susan, and your fitness regime. Well done.
Fitness is not something I’m doing well (actually doing at all!) at the moment.
I was tap dancing for fun, but I had to give it up because it was just too hard/disjointed with the kids/sharing nights etc. I miss the dancing, but not the class (if that makes sense – it’s a “people” thing!).
I try to walk one morning with a friend, although that has been lacking with the cold, dark mornings.
I quite enjoy aerobics/step and I even got a step last year for Christmas – but I’m just not motivated to get it out and DO something.
I know I need to … and that I would feel better for it – but I’m just slack.
Ho hum – I think I need to do some serious goal writing!
Thanks for being an inspiration!
Fee x
Isn’t that the pits. I did CrossFit for 7 months (3-4 times a week) in 2007 and didn’t lose a pound either, not an inch… nada. My Naturopath said it was because I was pregnant 4 times in those 7 months (lost them all).. but you know what, I’m on week 8 of this years efforts to trim off the weight after a baby, and I’m still not losing weight or size. Yes I’m still nursing my 1 year old, Yes I’m hoping to get pregnant soon.. but I want to be stronger. If I can’t be slim, I want to be strong.
But still, there has to be some other answer doesn’t there.
I am taking my “womanly” week off every month. I suffer from endometriosis, so the pain in my legs is not conducive to exercise.
Yes, let’s keep going, because we want to be 120, being a testimony to our Children’s children’s children.. teaching them to walk with God. That’s what on my prayer heart these days.. the blessing to be able to witness the lives of my children’s children’s children and teach them to love God and walk in His Ways.
Do not ask…pitiful, sick and pressured. So I guess you are going MUCH better than me……hoping to loose it in Manila :airplane: …..SIGH…….
Exercise faced me fare and square I lost :-*
Never mind I am an eternal optimist
Says me NOT sleeping at 1.42 am
Go woman, you must be doing something in that bod!!
Luv Me
Hi Fee,
(Yes, I did get your email- will get back to you soon). Oh it’s a shame you had to give up dancing…your photo’s seemed like you really enjoyed it. But I know what a logistical nightmare it can all be just to get out the door!
Part of my motivation is my boys! I don’t want them to grow up and shy away from hard work. I want to teach them an aspect of self discipline. They are a large motivator for me.
Hi Sombra, I’m sorry to hear about the pain in your legs due to the endometriosis. 🙁 Although taking that week off probably is a good thing. It could have the effect of keeping your body and metabolism on its toes. Even gym junkies need to do things to ‘change it up‘ as the body sinks into a pattern or rut very quickly.
Hmm, I do wonder about the role our hormones play in it all. My hormones have always been akin to a roller coaster. I don’t suffer with emotional symptoms but I wonder if weight/metabolism issues are somehow related. And if so, what to do about it?
Yes, I do want to be around for my grandchildren- and wow, God willing, even my great grand children!
Ah Cathy– I totally get where you’re coming from…although in my own way. I know for me, whenever I know we’re going to be moving house again I just cannot focus on homeschooling lessons. All routine as we know it, goes out the window! I can keep on with some things because they don’t take much effort or focus but nutrition and homeschooling just seem to lose.
Why were you up at 1.42am? Woman, unless you were tending a sick child or praying then get to bed at a respectable hour! You need sleep!
Actually I do feel I have improved in my body. Not so much in cardio fitness but I can now start to do abdominal works!!!!! I couldn’t do it before because my back would hurt a lot. (My back has always been my weakest area since I hurt it in a car accident when I was 17). But, I’m now doing several different ab exercises. And I know they’re working because I can feel the strain in my abdominals! so yeah for me- something is happening!
Oh I am really not well again….whatever Miss 4yold had I got it too, now I have a bad voice…..AND am in middle of Birthing lessons……big ones that matter dear friends having first babe……PRESSURE…but tonight is last night. I am thinking too much…..not really worry just checklist stuff….
Also a bit consumed with how to teach fellas about Birthing especially intelligent educated ones…..so woman directed…they men matter too. Anyway I still have intermittent temps but do not feel terrible
Oh well Vitamin B and C here I come
Bed is alluding me at the moment……my house is a bomb……no energy
But actually pretty positive in the midst…cannot wait for Manila! I am being so neglectful of AHSite I feel guilty….I love encouraging as you know…..but gotta do what I gotta do to leave by 25th!!
Love ya dearly
Praying for you
Cath
Cathy wrote:
Oh pish posh! The website isn’t going anywhere…it will be here when you return from Manila. And being sick is always yucky…real life has a tendency to take over from an online life, doesn’t it? sometimes I almost wish it weren’t so. My online life isn’t quite as cluttered and messy. 😀
Hi Elizabeth, how nice to *meet* you! thanks for popping by. No, I don’t really think it is a self deception (but I too, could be wrong). I really do think it is more difficult to lose weight once we get a bit older. Yes, I can understand about putting on the weight in Lithuania. I eat a lot of warm, fatty, comforting foods in winter whereas in summer it’s easier to more salads. I also drink way too many calories in winter- too many tea’s and cappuccinos.
Ha ha! I loved the graphic. I want a second opinion, too!
I did very well with weight loss (diet and exercise combination) and lost 30 pounds in 3-4 months, then maintained that for a year. What kept me going was the thought that God really wants us to be healthy, and there are those anti-glutton verses in the Bible!
But THEN, I went to Lithuania to teach for two weeks in the middle of the winter where everyone eats heavy meals to stay warm in the -20 temperatures. I returned with a number of souvenirs, including ten pounds of additional fat!
I have been trying to several months to eliminate it, but, alas, it is taking more effort this time. Still, there are those verses about gluttony, so I keep at it. Not gaining more, I think, is some kind of progress. (Or maybe that is just the way I deceive myself into being happy!)
I WANT A SECOND OPINION, TOO!
😀
In short…don’t ask…..the wheels have fallen off big time!!!
I have a gym membership…but getting there is so hard atm…and I’ve got less than 7 months until ds wedding day…..I keep telling myself that I’ll get up early one morning and go to the gym before work…or on the way home from work…or on a Saturday morning…or Sunday afternoon…but it never happens!!!
I’ve been really busy with work…tons of extra hours which means good money…but less time for me to work-out….
For the past week or two I’ve had a brewing cough/cold thingy and working out hard would make me feel worse!
I’m hoping that when the warmer weather arrives I’ll feel more motivated to get up early to go to the gym…it’s the whole getting out of bed and getting there thought that does me in…once I’m there I’m fine and glad to be there…weight is slowing going on again…straight to my tummy…my energy levels are low….
Dh wants to start a home gym in our converted shed next year after our son gets married…then I’ll only have to walk across the backyard to the gym…but I don’t want to spend all that money to set it up and then not to use it!
wrt Miss A…remember that she is 20 years younger…but that still a great acheivement! I like using weights too….but I’m staying away from leg presses now…I did my back last year while using one!
xx
Oh no Lisa! I am so sorry to hear that you haven’t been able to get to the gym. You are looking SO good! (pictures on FB) However, like with Cathy, life gets in the way at times. I know I feel like I’m starting to get a bit col/flu-ey too…and unlike many people I do not lose weight when I’m sick. I put it on!
Yeah getting up early in Brissie is easy and beautiful. Y’know, I haven’t been able to get up at 5.30am since being back here in SA? I think it’s just a QLD thing. Hey that’s great that Dh wants to make a home gym. Go for it! nah, get yourself a copy of CrunchTime and just go for it. We’ve got our equipment set up in our verandah area but we’d love to have a slightly larger area. It’s pretty cramped.
Jacqui- you know how much you inspire me? Heaps! Sharing your ups and downs over the years has been a great inspiration to me. And 6 kg? way to go!!! But like me, the benefits of exercise are more than the weight loss on the scales- it’s internal, it’s emotional, it’s spiritual…THAT is worth it! 😀
Well Susan, As you know, I joined Contours at the end of January. It is now the end of July and I am happy to say that I have lost six kilos. I am now down to 88.8 from 94.5. It has been slow and frustrating. That equates to one kilo per month but the first two months showed nothing so I guess the weight loss started about the end of March. I have come to the conclusion that it isn’t going to happen overnight, in fact it might well take two year or more to reach my goal. Weight loss is no longer my motivating factor. I love the gym for the freedom it gives me from the house and chores, looking after other people etc etc. I love driving on my own with the music blaring…….not the Wiggles songs either! I love speaking to other adults who encourage me and compliment me on my improvement. I love the adrenaline rush! I love feeling better about myself because I am doing something for me. I love the way that depression has taken a back seat to the enjoyment that exercising has given me……..pure and simple the endorphins have done me good.
Keep on keeping on! It is a step in the right direction.
Way to go Susan. No comments to add from me I’m afraid. Very afraid !:shock:
Oh Susan, I do not exercise. I wish I did. I get tired just reading your exercise tweets!
Go Girl!
Hahaha, oh Ruby, what are you afraid of? The fact that you may not have been exercising???? 😉
Hi Jeanne, this might sound like a silly question, but I’m not trying to be silly, nor rude but…why don’t you exercise? Are you one of those naturally think ad toned women glowing with natural health and vitality? 😛 If so, I want what you’ve got! But seriously, I hate to sweat. I mean, I really hate to sweat. I also don’t like to be puffed or out of breathe so I tend to not like cardio. But I like weights 😉
Yes, I’m on a Christian Homeschool Mama tweet group which is why I post my #XRSize tweets. I’m getting stronger. Yay for me!