Sunday, October 17, 2004

2nd Progress Evaluation Results

Well, I had my second progress evaluation on Saturday. Wasn't feeling in top form, but I did okay. I've lost 1 lb. My heart rate has been all over the place. I think part of the problem with that is that I can't do jumping jacks (which is what the evaluation has you do), so I do hops with arm movements. My lower body strength stayed the same at 50 squats. I did one less push up (I did major upper arm/chest workout on Friday, so I may have just been fatigued) and I was able to do 6 more crunches. Mostly progress and I'm a lot more comfortable doing the movments... maybe I will get a DDR Dance Pad? Is that online enabled?

I did a little treadmill work yesterday, too. B-O-R-I-N-G... after the challenge of the Yourself!Fitness, it seems really boring to just watch TV and walk. I still want to "mix it up a bit" with my workouts, but I'm going to have to find a way to make the walking a little more interesting.

I also found out that my heart rate monitor doesn't read properly while I'm on the treadmill. Something breaks up the reception. The only way I get my heart rate is if I hold the watch right next to my chest (and that's not the most practical way to workout).

Oh, and I've reached "silver" status on the Yourself!Fitness. That gave me a new environment : Alpine Retreat: there's cows, (sadly not sheep), in the background and a guy riding a bike. I've decided it's Matt riding along warming up before he goes up the Alp d'Huez. It also unlocked a new music genre: techno. The best music to date. I actually like this one. The only problem is if you aren't done with an exercise and the music ends, you get silence until the next exercise. Just a small glitch (and one that I've heard mention on the official forum) and not something that really bothers me. Just watching Maya keeps me in beat.

Anyway, I decided that I wanted a step bench to go with it, so we picked one up today (and some 3lb weights. I was getting too fatigued with the 5lb on some of the exercises). Now I've got a whole new set of steps to trip my feet over.

(sorry, got distracted watching the Eagles run an interception back for a touchdown: now that was a piece of beauty)

So I'm trying very hard not to be discourage with the lack of weight loss, so I'm concentrating on removing all that plague build up in my arteries.