Relaxing Day

It's lovely going to the gym in the morning on a long weekend. First of all, hardly anybody else is there. Secondly, it's much later than I usually go. Thirdly, I'm not going to be dashing off to work once I've finished. Hmm, this sounds like every weekend. The best thing about the long weekend is that there's an extra day of late starts and no rushing to work.

I didn't end up doing Body Balance because the class wasn't until 11 and I had to be on the bus at 12 as I was meeting up with a friend to go to the movies. I did the "Aerobic Training" session on the treadmill for 20 mins at 5.6 km/h on level 6 and then finished off walking at 6km/h until I reached the 3 km mark. That took 31.5 mins all up. I forgot my HRM for the second day running, so I'll have to estimate the calorie burn. I seem to be doing these sessions more easily all the time, so I'll have to be conservative. I also forgot my pedometer, but 3 km of walking is 5000 steps for me, so that's ok.

I've had a few people comment on the amount of exercise I'm doing lately. I'm half way through a 12 week fitness challenge that Fernwood is running in conjunction with Biggest Loser. It might seem like I'm doing a lot, but there are women at the gym who are easily outperforming me. Not many, I admit, but there are a few.

The contest works on a points basis - 25 pts for a workout, 35 pts for a cycle class, etc. With another 100 pts for attending my p/t and slim sessions, I'm getting to the gym twice a day on work days and once a day on weekends, so I get a minimum of 400 pts a week. I've managed an average of 440/week over the 6 weeks, which I'm pretty pleased with. Mind you, some people are managing 600+ points in a single week. To get the extra points you have to be able to (a) go the gym an extra time a day; or (b) get to more classes than I'm doing. While I could get to more classes, I'd have to give something else up, like my weekly trivia night.

I set my goals for the fitness challenge as follows: (a) get to the gym twice a day on work days; (b) get to the gym once on weekends, even when I'm in Melbourne; and (c) finish in the top 5.

I realised that the points for the cms lost were going to wipe me out of the top 5, so I've changed that goal to finish in the top 5 before the cms lost points are added to the totals. I'll have to have a serious look at the points chart this week. I have been in the top 5 since the start, but a few people have upped their effort lately, so I might have to get myself to a couple of extra classes. I wasn't at all interested in classes at the start of the challenge, but I've been enjoying the ones I've tried so far so I'm a lot more willing to try them now.

The challenge has been great for me. I needed a push to get my weight loss back on track, and this appeals to my competitive nature. Because we're organised into teams, those days that I don't feel like getting myself to the gym I use the "get the points for the team" to motivate me. I've typically been really slack on the weekends I'm in Melbourne, but now that I've proven to myself how easy it is to fit in a visit to the gym in Yarraville I have no excuse not to exercise when I'm at home.

Getting involved with the black team has also been great. We've entered a team in the Canberra Women and Girls Fun Run on 1 April, and they are organising another team for the Mother's Day Classic. I'm pretty sure I'll organise my Melbourne trips so that I can run with them on that day too. I was pretty tentative about doing an organised fun run, and it will be so much easier with a group of people I know than it would have been on my own.

I'll be doing the Global Corporate Challenge (a walking challenge) with a team from work this year, and I think we'll probably have a serious attempt at a top ten finish this year. We entered for the first time last year, and were surprised to find we finished just outside the top 20. It's whetted our appetite to give it a serious go, and getting my fitness up now will make me a better team member. I started at about 12k steps a day at the beginning of the challenge last year and ended up walking 25k steps a day for the last 25 days. It was quite an effort, but you clock up steps faster running than walking, so I think I'll be able to improve significantly.

I realised some time ago that if I'm going to keep the weight I've worked so hard to lose off, that I have to be a more active person. I'm working hard to become that person.