Goals

I haven't posted about the gym in a while. Not because I haven't been going (I have), but because I'm still trying to figure out a routine that really works for me. For most of the winter, I was doing I good job of getting in four times a week - trainer on Wednesday, lifting by myself on Saturday, and cardio on M/Th or T/F. But ever since the wedding I've had a hard time sticking to that. A big part of it is that my routine just got so thrown off. Then weekends were so busy that it seemed nearly impossible to get in on Saturdays. But I'm trying to get back on that schedule.

In that vein, I decided it would probably be helpful to define some goals. The main goal, obviously, is weight loss. But I've been trying that for a year, and I have yet to lose any weight (well, except for the two pounds I gained on the honeymoon, does that count?). So I'm going to try and focus on fitness goals. Places where I should be able to see actual improvement in the coming weeks.

So from short-term to long-term, here we go:

Step Ups. I have a love/hate relationship with step ups. The thing I love about them is that it's really easy to pretend I'm Buffy while I'm doing them. Which makes it easy to get into a rhythm and keep my motivation up. But my balance isn't great. I usually start wobbling about 7 in. So goal number 1: make it through a full set (10 on each side) without wobbling. Then up that to 15.

Modified (Inverted?) Push Ups. I started doing these modified push ups that are just hell on my abs, in a good way. Instead of putting your hands on the floor, you grip some dumbbells or use a stair or something. It requires more balance, which engages your core muscles, which results in your entire torso being sore the next day. They're fantastic. Also I can actually go down farther when I do these, since my boobs and stomach don't hit the ground. Currently I can do three sets of 5. I'd like to be able to do 3 sets of 10. Or even 20 all at once.

Legs. I need to stop focusing so much on my quads and start focusing on my hamstrings. That's poorly defined, as far as goals go. I have a couple of exercises to do, but I hate them. Maybe it's just a matter of doing them until I hate them less? Or maybe I should look into other, hamstring-specific exercises. The real goal here is to build up muscle to protect my knees in the future. Currently it's all unbalanced, which is why I hurt myself so easily last Fall. I don't know, I'll figure this out.

Pull Ups. As it currently stands, I do pulls ups on the assist machine. You stand on a weighted lever thing and it helps make pull ups easier by reducing your own body weight. I have no idea how much it reduces it by or even how to figure that out. The scale goes from 1 to 16, and I currently set it on either 9 or 10. I can do two sets of 10 at that level. My goal here is to do one unassisted pull up. I have an impressively long way to go, given that the last time I tried it was like my arms simply weren't responding to my brain, which was a very strange feeling.

Biking. Okay, this is a really fuzzy goal. And it would require me to invest in a bike and then carve out time to actually ride it regularly. As of last year (ish?) I could ride about 4 miles comfortably and push myself to 10 before I actually felt like dying. So long as there weren't any major hills. So this goal (which I'm still waffling on) would come in two parts. (a) Bike to work. My office is about 10 miles from home, on bike trails. It's all downhill there and all uphill home. But if I could do this once, if I could get to a point where I'm doing it once a week, if I could get comfortable with that sort of distance, that would be a good thing. (b) Maybe sign up for Bike MS next year? There's a 30 mile component. It's at National Harbor in June. It would be for an excellent cause. I don't know. We'll see where I am when that rolls around.

Weight. Okay, weight loss is still a goal. But in a more abstract sense. I'd like to look the way I did in this picture:

We represented Westeros at the 2012 Winter Beerlympics

That was taken about 2 1/2 years (and 25 lbs) ago. I don't think I need to lose a full 25 pounds to get back to that size (~8), since I'm building muscle and that weighs more than fat. At any rate it seems like a perfectly reasonable and doable goal. If I could just lost that first pound.

Anyway, this is where I am. I'm hoping to knock out the first 2-3 by Labor Day, then up the ante on them. Or come up with new short-term goals. I'll keep you posted on my progress.