New Timetable Underway, New Cardio Fitness Tracker Working

Hi all, I have been outrageously busy, yesterday evening we got a nasty surprise that threatened our already slightly dubious financial position in the form of a water bill for $200.00. This was a surprise to say the least, and as it didn't arrive until after 5:30 p.m. yesterday we weren't able to follow it up with the water department straight away. My poor partner was racked with worry about this bill as it threatened to really put a damper on our Xmas holidays, and our trip to Dubbo in about two weekends time. Suffice to say that I have beena ble to sort it out this morning and it looks like we don't have to pay the account, but I have to make sure it gets to the agent so that it can be paid or else our entire complex will be without water! Hope we can avoid that, just waiting for the agent to call and find out where to send the bills.

My partner had been contacted by the gym during the day about her 3 half hour personal training sessions at the gym that she got as part of the deal I signed her up under. She set one of them down for last night at 7:30p.m. so once I heard this I decided that my twice a day routine might as well start right then, and I went along with her. I decided to start with something a bit light to get used to it and did a workout on my biceps and triceps. It was quite difficult to workout at 7:30 as the gym was enormously packed. My partner and I decided that we wont be going back at that time, and I will use the afternoon for my workouts instead of the evenings. I think this should work okay for me - there will be enough time to recover from the cardio workout and still put in a decent effort.

I did manage to do a reasonable arms workout, and I was glad that I had chosen a small muscle group to work out. It took ages to get any of the weights to use because of the large number of people there, most of whom were young guys hogging a huge number of massive dumbells that they weren't even using most of the time. In any event, I did alternate dumbell curls, tricep pushdowns, ezcurl barbells curls, tricep dumbell extensions, and finally some standing pulley curls to finish off. My arms really felt it by the end of the 1/2 hour, and I did notice that there was some stress in my back so I will have to be careful about this. However, I felt good and it was good to get through the first workout. In future I think that the muscle and strength building workout that I do will only involve my arms and my back. The rest of my body will make do with workouts modelled on what the trainer used to have me do.

So, last night I finally finished off what I am calling my Xmas timetable, a daily plan that sets out what I do, and when I am supposed to do it. This should have me fighting fit by the time I head off on holiday and aside from the 5 day trip to Dubbo from 25-30 of this month, I think it should be fine for me to stick to it. If any one wants to have a look at my proposed timetable, they can download it by clicking here, or from the spreadsheets page of the web site directly of course.

I have also redesigned my cardio tracking spreadsheet so that it has a couple of features that are improved over the earlier versions. First and foremost it calculates totals for all of the data that you enter into it. Also, the graphs work a bit better now, and they look a whole lot better. You can download the spreadsheet that I am using by clicking here, or directly from the spreadsheets page of the web site.

This morning I got into the gym as planned and according to the tiemtable. I did, in the end, 3 25 minutes sessions on the treadmill. At the end of the usual two I saw that I needed just over 200 calories to get to the 1000 calorie mark so I figured I would grind them out on the treadmill rather than transfer to the cross trainer or the cross ramp as I did have a slight pain in one knee and the trainer had suggested not using those machines if that ever happened. By the end of the workout I had done 75 minutes, 9.52kms, and 1166.9 calories. Not a bad effort considering it was backing up from last night, and I felt really good at the end.

I decided to do some ab work as I think they are the cause of the slight trouble my back is giving me. I did 3 sets of 20 situps on the Swiss Ball followed by 3 sets of 20 leg raises on the bench. I felt pretty good at the end of these exercises, but I thought that would do for the first day. I have all of that to do again tomorrow morning, along with my first workout tomorrow afternoon where I will be trying to emulate what the trainer had me do. I'm looking forward to it, and will be designing the workout this afternoon. I have a good idea of what to do, it hasn't been that long since I last saw the trainer.

I also spoke with the trainer yesterday afternoon. She was really good about it, and even offered to train me 2 times per week on what amounted to a credit system - meaning I would pay her when I could. She said that she thought of me as more than a client, and she was very sad to hear that I couldn't afford to see her anymore, but she understood. I thought about her offer quite seriously, but as I can't be sure when I will be in a position to pay her I can't really incurr any credit as I hate not being able to pay people and it could turn sour. She says she'll be happy to answer any questions that I might have and she'll still see me at the spin classes on Saturday mornings. It was sad talking with her and ending an 'era' for want of a better expression. I feel a bit of doubt about what lies ahead, but I am also determined to continue on with losing weight.