Last week I shared with you my concerns about being skinny fat and the importance of strength training. So that's why a week ago yesterday I started circuit training with weights, thanks to Jillian Michaels and her easy to follow fitness dvd. Let me clarify that statement, Jillian explains moves very well, but her workouts are kick butt, and are especially hard the first couple times attempting to do them. After day 1, I couldn't hardly walk, get out of bed, or do stairs for 3 days. That's when it really sunk in for me that I wasn't in as good of shape as I thought I was; however, each day doing the workout has gotten easier and I can make it through the entire 45-50 minute tape without breaks or drinks of water. Trust me, it's a pretty good feeling!
My weight loss had been at a standstill the entire month of February, which is also part of the reason I started circuit training with weights. I knew my body would not only benefit from it, but it also needed a new challenge. I've also cut down on my lengthy runs, and have swapped them for shorter runs, 2 miles, followed by lengthy walks with added incline. Try walking a mile at 4 mph at 15% incline and you will be sweating your butt off! The kicker is to not hold on to any of the bars either, that's cheating and you don't get as much out of it. Just by increasing the incline to 5% will allow you to burn about 15% more calories than a level treadmill. By slowing incoporating incline into treadmill workouts, you can burn almost at many calories as running on level, which is great for all you non runners who would rather die than get on a treadmill.
While my weight really has not changed in the last week, which is perfectly fine with me, I have seen lots of results from my changed workout! I took several measurements last Friday and then again yesterday because I'm the type of person that needs to know that something good has been happening to my body because of the circuit training with weights or else I could find myself wanting to quit it altoghether. So here it is, I lost a total of 2 3/4 inches in ony 1 week! This includes 1/2 inch in my upper arm, 1/2 inch around my chest, 1/2 inch in the smaller part of my waist, 3/4 inch in the widest part of my waist, around my butt stayed the same, much to my husbands pleasure, 1/4 inch around the widest part of my thigh, and 1/4 inch around the widest part of my calf. This may not seem like much to some of you, but this is results from only 1 week! I have not changed my diet, other than cutting out potatoes for Lent, and I have not been working out excessively. I did circuit training with weights 4 times and hit the gym 4 times. Looking in the mirror I can see my muffin top is slowly melting away, which is my number one critique about my own body.
As I said before, I'm sticking with my Jillian tape for a solid month, and then at that point I'm probably going to have to find a new endeavor, such as Insanity or Cross Fit, so I can keep my body challenged. If we continue to workout using the same exercises over and over, eventually our body gets used to it and no longer challenges us. That's why we have to incorporate new and different workouts into our lives so our bodies can be in the best shape they can be. So go on, find yourself a new challenge :)
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