Weigh In and NSV

Today I am 169.2.  Back out of the 170s, woohoo!  At the gym this morning, during power hour, I was able to do the jumps in between the double burpees.  Yep, I am a total rockstar!  Things like that are so much more important to me than the number on the scale.  It's just a number.  What should gravity's action have to do with my happiness with myself?  It's silly.  Yes, I have lost 75.8 pounds.  It is much more important to me that I can do 2 hours of zumba non-stop now when I could barely walk 15 minutes before.  I can do like 100 squats with 45 pounds on my back.  I can do push-ups.  I can do burpees and jump between them. I have lost 50.75 inches total. I have gone down more than 22.4% body fat, not really sure on that one because I didn't check it until about 2 months in and haven't checked it since April (darn broken machine). I have gone down 13.9 BMI points.  I have dropped my glucose levels from diabetic to normal.  I have dropped my cholesterol to healthy numbers.  I have lowered my blood pressure to a healthy score.  All of those things are so much more important to me than a silly number on the scale.

Zumba and Weight Lifting Woes

I have become a zumba addict and a weight lifting addict.  I think these are very good addictions and do not plan to try to recover from it.  I recently discovered that I can now wear zumba clothes.  I fit into zumba clothes! Zumba clothes run kinda small, so I was not expecting to be able to fit into them yet.  I bought this outfit as something to work toward.  It is an XL (they go up to XXL).  I'm very happy about being able to wear zumba clothes now, but now I have trouble.  My normal zumba class has been canceled and will probably not resume until June.  With it goes my weight lifting (body pump style) class.  I am annoyed to no end.  The contracting company that pays for the class instructors at the base gym used money that was supposed to be for them to pay for other things (refs for games and such) and now they are out of instructor money until the new contracts start June 1.    We asked the instructor if we could pay her and she said that she was told that if she let us do that she would be breaching her contract.  Excuse me?  They already did that by not paying her, how can they tell her that she can't let us pay her?  I have a place I can go to for zumba, but I will have to pay for classes and it won't be my regular teacher.  I also have the Wii zumba game, but while it is fun, that is really not the same.  Plus, I have no way to replace my weight lifting class. The instructor was sweet enough to give me the CD with the class playlist on it and I can use the weights, but it still won't be the same thing.  I need her!  I'm pissed off and very worried that I will lose some of the progress that I have made.

Exercise Plan and Weigh In

Ok, so here's what I'm doing:

M,W,F: 

Power Hour - This is 1 hour of weight lifting to the beat of the music.  We use lighter weight than we would use for typical weight lifting because we are doing it to the beat and there are tons of reps.

Zumba - A 1 hour Zumba class which is directly after Power Hour

Tu, Th, Sa:

C25K+ - I am doing the Couch to 5K program (tomorrow is week 3, day 3), but I usually continue on the treadmill after my daily C25K plan is finished until I get to 60 minutes (walking and some running).  I am concentrating on finishing the program this time instead of speed, so right now I am walking at 3mph and running at 4mph

2 days per week:

Personal Trainer - I have hired a personal trainer to teach me how to do weight lifting and other strength training.  This is something I have been wanting to get into, but I didn't want to head into the weight room on my own and end up seriously hurt.  We work out twice a week for an hour at a time.

I am loving my new workout schedule.  I feel strong and energetic.  It is amazing how using energy to exercise gives me more energy.  I am also discovering muscles I had no idea existed and good goddess am I sore sometimes.  I love that too though.  Who would have thought that I would ever enjoy being sore from working out?  Me?  If I were to tell this to the me from a couple years back she would completely laugh in my face!  

I had to buy some lifting gloves for Power Hour since we use a free weight bar and not machines.  I know it is a funny little psychological thing, but putting on those gloves makes me feel like a little strength training beast!  HaHa!  

Now once the scale catches up to all that I am doing, all will be well.  I'm ok with the slowness there though because I have come to a place where I am in it for more than a number on the scale.  Plus, I know that it WILL go down eventually as long as I keep on keepin on.

Current Weigh In:

This mornings weight was 187.4

Strength

Today I was on my elliptical for 45 minutes. I then went on to do some strength training. For my strength training I am currently using 5 pound hand weights and thinking of moving up to 6. During my workout today I was thinking back to when I could not finish 5 minutes on the elliptical, when I was using 2 pound weights and could barely get through the exercises with them.

I love how much stronger I am these days and I can't wait to see how much stronger I get as I continue on this journey. I think that has a lot to do with the success I am having. It is not just about losing pounds for me this time. It is about getting stronger and healthier. I am impressed with myself and I'm ok with saying so.