Shoutin’ from the Rooftop

Just when I’m about frustrated in my weight loss journey to the point where I think I am going to throw in the towel once and for all, something small happens that reinvigorates me.  Sometimes it is a person I haven’t seen since I lost my weight saying that I look great.  Sometimes it is being able to fit into a smaller size of clothes instead of aimlessly searching for something…anything…that will fit me in the Woman’s section.  This time, it was the ability to last longer than 7 minutes on the elliptical machine at the gym!

A new YMCA has been built where I live and my husband and I joined it.  As a perk for joining back in November, we got to use the already existing YMCAs for free until ours opened.  So, I took advantage of that, I tried out several classes (spinning and strength training were the 2 I stuck with) and made myself go work out several times over the course of those 2 months.  During that time, I tried the elliptical machine since Kristen always raves about it.  The first time, I made it about 4 minutes before being fairly certain that every ounce of strength that I possessed in my body had been depleted.  I literally could not stand.  I tried again a few days later and made my goal 5 minutes.  I made it back to the 4 minute mark, and then the last minute lasted approximately 3 hours.  It continued on like that until I worked my way up to a whopping 8 minutes.

It was then that I decided the elliptical and I were not going to be friends.  I could tell the people using it were getting a good work out, but I was also silently envious of their ability to make it go that long.  Really, was I that out of shape that I couldn’t even keep it going for 10 minutes?

In a word.  Yes.

Because fast forward to this past Saturday.  I went to the Y to get on a treadmill and all of the treadmills were full.  That left me either walking in circles around the workout room (thanks but no thanks), using a sit down stair stepper thing that I still haven’t quite figured out its purpose, or the dreaded elliptical.  I decided to think nice thoughts and give the elliptical one more shot.  I mean, we’d had a bumpy road thus far but was it really the elliptical’s fault?  I needed to prove that I could do it.  So, I got on and decided I would be thrilled with 10 minutes.  At about minute 8 (which was as long as I could humanly trudge through the last time) I felt great.  I was a little out of breath but not huffing and puffing like a asthmatic climbing the stairs of the Sears’ Tower like I was the last time.  I kept on going.  When I hit minute 10, I thought that this was amazing!  I was still going!  I made it all the way to 20 minutes.  Truth be told, I could have done 30 but wasn’t sure how sore it was going to make me the next day.

That one small success turned around my whole week.  I came home, ate better, tracked my points more reliably, and was sure to drink all of my water….and that trend has continued into today.  My goal for this week is to just keep doing those things all week so I can see what kind of effect that will have on my weight loss.

Knowing that all of the hard work I’d put in in the last 2 months had actually done something, really, really motivated me to keep doing it.  It is so hard to see the results on a day to day basis, but for me and my weak and out of shape body, going from 8 minutes of pure torture to a fairly enjoyable 20 minutes was all the proof I needed!

Until next week!!

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