With all my anxiety and moodiness lately, I've had a hard time feeling really great about my progress. Year end retrospection doesn't help make me feel amazeballs about my weight loss. Don't get me wrong – I know I'm on the right track. I just feel as if my wheels are a little wobbly lately.
Last week's 5K (hard to believe it was actually OVER a week ago- results STILL aren't up) gave me a moment where I realized my progress – 8 full minutes of awesome progress. This week, however, my elation has gone away and I'm left feeling like a stick in the mud.
This morning, it was ridiculously hard to get up. It's so cold outside and I am already OVER it. I hate getting up in the pitch dark freezing weather to waddle to the gym. In my mind though I know I'd hate doing the same waddle in the dark after work. So with a big *le sigh* I got up and moved my ass.
I got to the gym late, so only had 45 minutes to do cardio. I did 30 minutes on the Arc trainer, and the whole time I was talking to myself, pumping me up to try something that would make me see how I've progressed.
Oh the Stairmaster. AKA “the crazy people machine” (that's what I call them at least). When I started working with Trainer Rob, I could barely do 60 seconds on it without feeling like I was going to die. I avoid the Stairmaster at all costs. My bad knees plus that feeling of crazy wheeziness from before has scared me away. But today? I needed a kick in the rear.
My goal? 5 minutes. That's all I need and then I can go on the recumbent bike.
I hop on, and start going. I'm going at the slowest pace, which is 23 steps per minute. 3 minutes pass and no wheeziness. Feels kind of good. Heart rate is in a good spot. I get to 5 minutes and decide to do 7 minutes. I make it to 7 minutes and think, “OMG, I can do 10!” And hot damn, I made it to 10 and thought- 12! I can do 12! At this point, the sweat was dripping off of me. I felt like a hard core Biggest Loser contestant dripping sweat on the machines (and yes, I cleaned it up after- gross!). I hit 12 minutes and realized I could make it to 15. At 15, I was feeling fatigued but am sure I could have gone longer. Instead, I hopped off and did a 5 minute walk to cool down and then jetted out of there so I could get ready for work on time.
15 minutes on the Stairmaster? I did 22 flights of stairs! I don't care if I was going the slowest the machine would go, I couldn't believe my body did it. And I didn't feel like I was dying! I must be progressing after all!
The mind chuckle came at around minute 5. I was watching where I was stepping, so my head was down. I was reading the “caution, don't start any exercise routine without physician guidance” and “don't use this machine without the siderails attached” labels. The last bullet point I saw on the label was:
Maximum User Weight: 350 pounds
I had a panic. “OMG, I'm 100 pounds over the weight limit. I'm going to tear this sucker up. Damn I hate that half these machines aren't made for FAT people!”
After a few seconds of panicking, my mind kicked in. “Silly Emmie. You are only 18 pounds above the maximum. Not 100! YOU BETTA RECOGNIZE, you crazy lady!”
So woot! Suck it Stairmaster!
