Impossible is a typoRunning my pants off and loving myself along the way

And how are you spending your Ouchie Thursday? Me? In the fetal position, crying like a little girl of course. What? You don’t know what Ouchie Thursday is? Well, it’s the Thursday following a Wednesday when you apparently think it’s a good idea to do a 3 mile interval run, followed by kettlebells and ab work, topped off by a grueling hot yoga session. Thus, you are left with Ouchie Thursday.

I think I’ll recover with a nice 3 mile fun run.

Back to running 3 miles even on the dreaded treadmill! I guess I got tired near the end huh?

My gym is offering this really interesting 12 week challenge called Finish Strong. It combines personal training, nutrition, small and group fitness classes. The gym has offered these types of training challenges before but what made me sign up is that the course is designed to teach you how to essentially be your own trainer. It’s supposed to teach you how to train in your target heart zones and whatnot.

So what have I learned in the first three days of the program? Fat Girl might run, but she sure is damn weak. My core strength sucks and I have the upper body strength of a small rodent. I got a long way to go. And that’s ok right as this is a journey I’m only half way through.

My heaviest was 274lbs back around 2000-ish. Fat Girl has obliated much evidence from that time but I did manage to find one photo where I was probably over 250.

Fat Girl in 2005-ish

This is me at my sister’s wedding last year, circa 220.

Fat Maid of Honor

Here’s the same dress minus 20lbs.

Dress Redo

And this the Before picture they took at the start of the Finish Strong program.

194 - 80lbs down.

The other cool thing about this program is that they do a whole work up on where you are right now. And I do love me some good stats and numbers to look at.

Weight: 194

Fat: 63.8lbs – 33.2%

Lean Body Mass: 128.2lbs – 66.8%

BMI: 28.35

Basal Metabolic Rage: 1746kCal

Daily Energy Expenditure 2793kCal

Chest: 41.5in

Waist: 40.25

Hips: 45

Thigh: 22

Bicep: 12.5

AND they do some physical fitness testing –

Plank on toes and elbows: 54 seconds

Push ups – 6

Sit and Reach: 19 inches

Balance on one foot: 2mins 45sec.

What does all this mean? Nothing really. It’s just numbers that don’t really tell me anything. It is a starting place, so I know where the finish line is.

There was a twitter discussion on kettlebells. You know, those weight things that look like a cannon ball with handles? I lamented that I feared the kettlebell. Being me, and my middle name NOT being Grace, I thought I’d drop one on my head. I passed the little row of kettlebells at the gym yesterday and walked right on by opting for my nice safe little 5lb weights.

Fate is a fickle mistress!

I was in the book store last night, flipping thru some fitness mags, and lookee! Prevention has a quick 20 minute kettlebell workout! Well, gee, call that a sign smacking me on the head.

Inner Fit Girl: Oh my god! This looks like so much fun! I wonder if Target is still open. I think I remember seeing Kettlebells there!

Inner Fat Girl: Seriously? We are not buying another piece of fitness equipment that we are never going to use.

Fit Girl: I use my fitness equipment!

Fat Girl: Oh yeah? How often have you gone bike riding? You dropped like a billion dollars on a bike you never use mmmkay?

Fit Girl: The Anti-Bike movement is all you girlfriend.

Fat Girl: That’s besides the point. And the foam rollers you keep trying to get? What’s up with that huh? Another useless toy laying around.

Fit Girl: Those are for you so you’ll stop complaining about your quads hurting.

Fat Girl: Whatever. I want a cookie.

Target was indeed closed by that time. I read the article again this morning and it said that you can use a dumbbell instead of kettlebells. Yeah, the dumbbell things was way awkward. Go get a kettlebell if you want to try this out.

Anyway, the Prevention workout was fun. I hate lunges. I just don’t feel balanced in that position and I am prone to falling over. As soon as I even have a whisper of a thought about doing a lunge, Fat Girl is all up in my face telling me I can’t do it and lunges are stupid. Passing the kettlebell around my leg while doing lunges actually made them fun.

I did note this line in the article:

Unlike typical strength exercises in which you lift and lower weights slowly while keeping the rest of your body still, you swing the kettlebell rhythmically through full-body motions to get your heart rate up fast and target more muscles, especially in your core. The result is a speedy routine that triples your calorie burnup to 400 calories in 20 minutes.

Yeah, NO. BodyBugg told me I burned about a 100 calories in that 20 mins. Maybe if I was in a class or something and really working it with a heavy weight. Regardless, I think I will pop over to Target this week and get a real kettlebell!!