Ch-ch-ch-changes

I've finally gotten back to going to the gym regularly after my injury. To be honest, the holidays delayed this more than anything else. With all the build up to Christmas, the travel, and celebrating the new year in the middle of the week, it took a while to get back to a normal schedule. But things are finally leveling out.

I went to the gym three times this week. Each time I walked on the treadmill at an incline for the duration of a Friday Night Lights episode. I've done away with the idea of intervals now, instead keeping the incline at about 3, then increasing it every ten minutes until it's time to cool down. This helped me reestablish my routine without putting too much strain on my knee.

Today I decided it was probably time to start lifting again. I decided to take it really slow for the sake of me knee. So even though I can lift over 100 pounds on the leg extension and similar machines, I dropped the weights way down, to 30 or 40 pounds. Then I went slow, focusing on my form, and held the various positions for counts of 3 or 5. It still felt like I was working out, but it definitely wasn't as much as I had been doing. It's really hard to balance the fear of hurting myself with wanting to lift more and get stronger. And, to be honest, to get skinnier faster. Hopefully walking uphill so much will help with that.

I was also frustrated to discover that, after two months away from the gym, pushups have gotten a lot harder. I struggled to do five in a row today. Though that could also be because I was going slower and lowering myself all the way to the floor. Yeah. That's what I'll go with.

I'm restarting my sessions with my personal trainer this week. Actually, I'm starting with a new trainer. And since I only have three sessions left on the contract, I dom't really know how this will work out. At this point my only goal is to not injure myself before the wedding. I'd hate to spend the honeymoon hobbling around.

And maybe I can get a flatter stomach by then, too.

Wish me luck.