Mar. 19: Adventures in the Gym

I've decided to gym hop a little bit to decide where to join (plus to give myself a little more time to come up with some $$$!). Today was my first real gym workout since I started this journey.

I felt really awkward trying to figure out what the heck I was doing, but I got through it. I'm going with simple movements, one exercise per body part, and the heaviest weights I can lift properly.

Here is what I did today:

2 sets: Chest Press: 90 # x 9, 100 # x 5
2 sets: Curls: 40 # x 6
2 sets: Cable Pushdowns: 30 # x 10, 40 # x 6
2 sets: Shoulder Press: 10 # x 6, 10 # x 5

I used machines for everything except the shoulder press where I used dumbbells. I can hardly lift my arms now, so either that means I have a sudden weird neurological disorder or I worked really hard.

When I go home I had to charge my Ipod for 10 minutes or so, then I took the dog for a brisk 30 minute walk. Okay, it would have been brisk if she had not had to stop and sniff the pee of the other dogs every five seconds for one stretch.

I'm having weird issues. My weight is actually UP 6 pounds right now, and I can find no good reason for it. My calories are well under maintenance, I'm exercising way more than I was previously, and I consume very little sodium. I'm chalking it up to some hormonal weirdness but I am decidedly unhappy about this turn of events.

The only thing I can do is hang in there. I know that I am doing everything one should do to lose weight in a healthy manner. To borrow a little quote I saw on another site, I'm not a "precious unique little snowflake." The basic rules of weight loss are the same for nearly all of us. Eat less, move more - that is the long and the short of it. All the other stuff is fluff - useful fluff for your health, but if you don't make those two points (particularly the "eat less" part) the basis of a weight loss plan, you will not achieve weight loss.