Short circuit. . .

After 20 minutes of floor exercise instruction and nutrition information, Mike put me on a 30 minute "circuit cardio" workout. Seems that cardio is not about quantity but quality, and last night's hour long session, while not pointless, could have rendered better results if I'd known then what I know now.

So I started out "cruisin'" at 3.5 mph on an incline of 6 for five minutes, just to warm up. Then I learned to alternate my speed and incline to keep my heart rate up around 165. For 30 seconds I adjust from 3.5 mph to 3.7 (doesn't sound like much, but with my short stride it's a serious effort) and up the incline to 8. After 30 seconds of "pushing it" I bring it back down to my original "cruisin'" speed and incline for another minute. This goes on for the remainder of the workout. The hardest part was remembering to lengthen my stride. I have a tendency to walk in small steps (must have been that "8 to the 5" they drilled into us in band) so I sometimes found myself jogging a bit which I don't really feel ready for, yet. My arms are sore from holding myself on the treadmill and there's a small blister on the ball of my right foot caused by my new workout shoes.

The next hour I spent doing the floor work. Mike encouraged me to workout in the weight room, first because of all the mirrors, and second because with all the men in there I'd be sure to concentrate on my form. Now I'm not generally a shy girl, but for my first go-around I opted for the floor area of the women's section. Good thing too since I nearly fell twice while working on my lunges (apparently I have a thing with balance).

My body hurts, but in a good way. I finally went grocery shopping and filled my fridge chock full with fruit, vegetables, chicken, ground turkey, etc. Not my normal fare, for sure. It's almost a little awe inspiring. There's not been that much healthy food in there for like, oh, let me see. . .uh, ever. My big struggle this week will be keeping a food journal ("if it goes in your mouth I want to know about it") and managing to drink all the water. I thought I was doing pretty well with 64 ounces, but Mike would like to see that number doubled if I'm serious about dropping the weight. Good thing my next door classroom neighbor is there to support me in this. One hundred forty-eight ounces of water is sure to put an interesting spin on my school day.