PLEASE HELP FILL MY RED KETTLE FOR THE SALVATION ARMY!

Life this week

So I ended up going to a Spinning class that night last week that I wrote the blog. It was quite an enjoyable class.

This week is quite a different story. I am on the road again for work and am staying in my little house in the mountains in Georgia. There is no gym here and it happens to be surprisingly too cold to do any exercise outside. So I find myself sitting for a week. I also don't have control over the selection of my meals, so I need to be really careful.

On a brighter note I know that I am making some progress. My body fat has decreased .2% and I have lost three pounds (one pound each for the past three weeks). So despite the fact that it will probably all come back this week, I am thankful for seeing the little progress. I need to focus on the positive. In the meantime, if I don't see (or really feel) more progress over about the next month I am going to go shopping and buy some bigger jeans. My pants are all tight on me and uncomfortable.

I started a new Bible Study/ devotional book. I started the "Jesus" series by Beth Moore and so far I have been really blessed. I tend to be one of those people who reads the Bible and has questions about what I am reading. I don't just believe blindly a lot of times and I like to think about it. I am still in the beginning of the study and it has a lot to say about Mary's pregnancy, which has always been one of the questions I have had--did it really happen exactly like that? How does the Holy Spirit "come upon" (Lk 1:35) someone like that? How did she know? Why did Gabriel come to her when she was all alone? What made her highly favored? etc. It's a good study and I am being blessed by it.

This week I will just have to spend more time focusing on my spiritual life and put the physical stuff on hold for the week.

Thank you, LORD for this reminder of time needed to be spent with you.

Pondering exercise?

I didn't feel like going to the gym early this morning. I slept in instead. Now I find myself sitting at the computer after work wasting time instead of going to the gym. I thought I'd be productive while doing so and I began to read online the advantages of different exercises, mainly cardio.

Today is supposed to be the day that I swim, but honestly, I just don't feel like getting in the pool today so I thought about adding the lap swim later this week. My body is a little sore from my workout yesterday so swimming would be a good thing, but then I read that swimming does nothing to help drop any weight. In fact, it may have the opposite effect (due to the body cooling down and not heating up). With other cardio workouts the body heats up and burns calories for up to 18 hours afterward. The same is not true with swimming because the body never really "warms" up.

This is what I found:

Calories Expended During Exercise for the regular workouts that I do

(for my body weight; at a moderate level; for an hour in duration--based on some formula)

biking-635
running-635
tennis (singles)-635 (my husband and I love to play!)
weight lifting-238
hiking-476 (rarely get to do it, but I enjoy it!)


Looking above are my regular workouts minus the Spinning class and some other cardio machines. Almost all of them burn the same amount of calories according to the formula, so why does it matter which workout I do? Why does my wellness coach want me lifting weights three times a week?

And alas, I am pondering exercise.

New routine

I met with a "wellness coach" over a week ago now and we discussed some of my difficulties with working out and we talked about the weight that I've gained. After we came up with yet another plan I left the gym wondering--why do I feel like every time I move to somewhere new that my exercise habits have to change? Part of the answer is quite practical--they have to change. A new place with new responsibilities lead the need to be flexible with a past rigid workout plan, etc.

But what's really getting to me is that it seems like everyone else in the gym has a buddy to workout with and I don't. Now it's never bothered me before because unlike some other people in the gym I am not there to socialize...I am there to workout..or so I used to be until now.

Moving to Atlanta has been hard on me. I am adjusting to a new life and am adjusting to being far away from family and friends and while I've made a few friends in the three months that Andy and I have been here, they are all members of my church or are extensions of that church group. I am missing my non-churched-pre-christian conglomerate of friends.

In NY they were everywhere. Every now and again I could hang out with them or talk to them and not have to worry about work related things (I work for the church I attend) all the time. I don't have that luxury here...at least not yet and I am left wondering...what is the LORD teaching me in all of this?

So as I go to the gym I am also trying to build relationships. Ultimately I want to build relationships and live in a way that models the life of the LORD I follow, but I want to be able to do that in a way that is not defined only by my clergy title. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do and wouldn't trade it for the world. I really believe that it's a calling, but that doesn't mean that it isn't difficult from time to time--just like going to the gym.

So along with my new routine comes a new outlook on going to the gym.

New gym= New music

I've noticed some interesting differences between the gym in NY and the gym in Georgia. Among them are the people living under the trees next to the gym, the age of the members of the new gym, as well as their ethnicity. One of the things I noticed today was the difference in music played at the pool:

Suffern, NY: Jack Johnson and similar music
Westend, Atlanta, GA: Barry White and some old time soul and R & B

Stairmaster

My new gym has a Stairmaster. It has been a few years since I have ventured onto one of these machines.

I was on it for ten minutes and it felt like I was exercising. While I was in graduate school I used to love the Stairmaster and would listen to some exciting music and workout on that thing for a good twenty to thirty minutes. It would excite me. Not so much anymore!

The Stairmaster is a good component of a cardio workout because not only is it cardio, but it helps to build muscle mass. I've also heard it said that working out on the Stairmaster helps one to lose body fat faster. Both of these are good benefits in addition to burning some calories.

The Stairmaster is on the second floor of the gym in front of a very large window which left me with the oppotunity to people watch. Watching people come and go from the parking lot wasn't as interesting as I expected so I began to look around and I noticed a tent city for homeless people under some large trees just beyond the fence on the side of a hill. It was interesting to see and it isn't the first one I have seen here in Atlanta. Next week I will check to see if they are still there when I get my climb on once again!

Ode to Spinning!

I haven't gone to a Spinning class since I was in graduate school. Today was the first one and I am feeling it! It felt really good to be with a group of people who were hardcore about exercising. It was a good class and I liked the instructor.

The thing I enjoy about Spinning is that it is different from other workouts and from other group exercise. You use almost all of your muscles in your body, it isn't boring, and you keep moving. By the time I climbed off of that bike I felt like I exercised. I also enjoyed using the bike to stretch. Those stretches felt so good!

Spinning is a cardio workout that increases and decreases tension, is done sitting and standing on the bike, and is low impact. In addition it burns a lot of calories. I love the intensity of it.

I am looking forward to the next class!