Progress at the gym!

So, Maegan and I have been going to the gym 3 times a week for about 2 weeks now! The scheduling isn't perfect but we always get in three work outs every week. We went shopping at Old Navy to get some new work out clothes because we both only had one pair of pants to wear and that was getting difficult with working out three times, but I stayed caught up on laundry. Now I have 2 pants and 2 capris and now I look all snazzy when we go work out.

On our first day we were doing 20 mins on the elliptical, now we are just doing 10. My goal is to go a mile in 10 minutes, which so far I have been doing. After the elliptical, which sometimes I think might kill me, we go do weights, starting out with leg extensions. We do two sets of  15, then we go around the corner and work on our arm flab. We are only lifting 5lb free weights. We want to tone, not look like The Hulk. We do bicep curls, arm raises, where we raise them from our sides up to shoulder length, keeping our arms parallel to the floor (I hope that makes sense...) and lastly, we raise the weights above our heads. We do two sets of 15 for each arm work out. Sometimes, because we're wienies, we will do our arm routine once, then go do the rest of our work out, and come back and do our last set of arms. So after we finish our set for our arms we stretch our legs, arms and back, which is my favorite part of working out. It feels SO GOOD! After we stretch we get one of those big exercise balls, and I resist the urge to dribble it across the gym, and do some crunches. We do 30 crunches, leave our balls, and go do some leg machines. The leg machines that we do put you in VERY compromised positions, but at this point we just want to not die and finish our work out. I'll have to look and see what the name of the machines are when we go work out today but, on both of them you sit down and put your legs on these little cushions. One of the machines you push your legs out into a spread eagle (again, awkward, especially since it's mostly guys in this gym) and the other one you start in a spread eagle and you bring your legs in. It works your "saddle bags" really well! Each of us start on one of the machines, do 15, and switch. Once we have both 2 sets of 15 on each machine, we go back to our exercise ball for 30 more crunches. We repeat that process 2-3 times. After we finish our legs and crunches we go down our last set for our arms and walk over to the treadmills. We hadn't done the treadmill to begin with but decided to add  it in for some more cardio and it serves as our cool down. We walk at about 3.5 MPH for 18 minutes. Why 18, why not 20 you ask? Well, I'm glad you did! Some where in the middle of our 20 minute treadmilling we jog for 2 minutes. Yes, we only jog for two. We are wienies, remember? If we did it for any longer we would fall on the treadmill, and then we would look like a cartoon character that goes flying off the back of the treadmill. As fun as that sounds, we rather not. After 20 minutes has passed we walk a VERY slow pace of 2 mph. I can crawl faster than that, but we do that for about 3 minutes in the hopes that our heart will no longer be trying to jump out of chest. Our whole work out takes between an hour and an hour and a half, depending on how slow we're moving.

I haven't really been getting THAT sore after workouts. It might hurt a little, but not so much that I can't move or anything. I am still able to go do stuff, pick up my nephew, clean the house etc. My advice if you are wanting to start working out: build yourself up to things. I know everyone goes in there and is all gung ho and that's great, but remember that you DO have limits and unless you want to bed ridden for a few days because you can't move after your work out, I strongly suggest you pace yourself. Remember, no matter how little you are doing, you are still lapping all the people that are sitting on their couches. My other advice is to take music to listen to. Music is a HUGE motivator for me!

So, that's my Work out, Southern Soapbox. I hope this helps some of y'all get started. I'm off to get ready to go to the gym!

Day one at the gym!

Today was a busy, productive day! I woke up late, as usual (be jealous but don't judge!), but after I woke up I ran to the government building and picked up the registration tag for my dad's truck, then went to Target for some much needed work out clothes! Major bonus... they were on SALE! I have two pairs of yoga pants but they're either too short or too long. So either while I'm working out I look like a complete dork (or more so than usual) with pants that are caught somewhere between Capris and normal length pants.. or the other option is that I wear the ones that are too long, trip on them and fall flat on my face. I have enough coordination issues, we don't need to add pants to that equation.

*quick break* ALABAMA WON THE BCS CHAMPIONSHIP! For those of you who don't know, I was born in Alabama :)

Ok, back to my day! I went to Target to get some normal length pants. Sadly, they only had one pair in my size so I got those and 2 new sports bras and a long sleeve shirt. Everything was on SALE! Epic! I'm happy. Of course after I bought my new clothes I had to put them to good use! I met Maegan, my sister, at the gym we signed up for on Saturday. We were a little pathetic. We did the elliptical for 15 minutes. I went about 1.1 miles, which I thought was pretty good. Then we went and did some ab work, which we thought was REALLY easy (then again, maybe we weren't doing it right? who knows) and lifted some free weights to work on our arm fat. Then we decided it would be a good idea to ride a stationary bike. Ya, we were dumb. That thing was heck in a hankie! My heart rate got up to 180 bpm! It was exploding out of my chest. We only did the bike for 20 minutes but that 20 minutes was WOW! After we finished the bikes we went back and did our abs and arms again. By then, we were POOPED! Our total workout lasted about an hour and a half.

We will be hitting the gym again on Wednesday! Hopefully my body isn't falling apart tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, guess what! I got a new nannying job! I will be watching a sweet little baby on Monday and Wednesday mornings! I want to get another nanny job or maybe just a part time job. If I can make enough money, Ryan and I can FINALLY get married!

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox for the day! Have a good night and ROLL TIDE!