I had intended to do the other half of the fat burning workout in my Men's Health Gym Bible this morning. The book says that you should take a day off to recover between them, but I thought I was feeling fine. What could it hurt? That was last night, about 15 hours after the first half of the workout. This morning, about 24 hours since the sweat session, I woke up in pain.
I feel as those someone used laproscopic surgery to insert white hot pieces of rebar into my quads. This is how Atlas is going to feel the morning after he puts down that big globe of his and takes a nap.
So rather than do the Men's Health torture routine, I only did about 15 minutes of weights. I focused on my upper body...because I figured it was less likely to bring about tears. After the weights, I did a solid 20 minutes of interval cardio. I tried to keep my heart rate above 120 the whole time. During the intense intervals, it got up to 145. Sufficed to say, it made me sweat like a pig, and my heart was singing soprano by the time I got off the elliptical.
When all was said and done, I stepped back aboard the scale for the sixth time since I started this program. Last week I weighed a svelte 214 pounds, this week I weigh 213. For those of you non-math majors, that's a one pound loss after another seven days of sweating and being sore. All told, I've lost eight pounds in the last five weeks.
Stepping off the scale, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated. Is this supposed to be this hard? I guess I just expected that as much as I've changed my routine, the fat would just drip off of me.
My feeling of frustration followed me to the locker room, and it wasn't until I started getting dressed that I made a happy discovery. My jeans have gotten pretty loose. I can't quite pull them down without unbuttoning them, but it's close. I don't know if that means I've dropped down a size, but it did make me realize that I'm making real progress.
Rome wasn't burned in a night. This is going to be a long road. Lucky for me, I've committed to at least another 47 weeks of traveling.
James, Keep up the hard, painful workouts. You didn't put all of that weight on in 7 weeks and you aren't going to loose it that fast either. You are doing such wonderful things and not only are you making yourself healthier but your stories are both entertaining and motivating for me! (I'm sure others too!) Keep up the work...it will all be worth it!
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