Gym Class Day 1

This is my third year of taking these winter gym classes. Day one we always do fitness testing to set the bar, if you will, for improvement.

I did better than I thought I would in some aspects. I am a weakling in others. All in all, I was slightly surprised that I had my natural strength considering I have been a very lazy butt since October.

I ran a surprisingly decent 14.92 second 60-yard shuttle. The slower girls were running 16-second times while our fastest were in the 13-second range (who are both awesomely fit and gifted athletes). My time was only slightly slower than one of our speedier players, so I was kind of happy.

My balance tests were awful. We have to stand on one leg, with our arms crossed over our chest and our eyes closed (hard to do!) for 60 seconds. If you wiggle too much, lose your balance at all or touch your foot down, you get a point. You count all of your points at the end. My left leg had a 4, while my right had an 8.

I was not so bad in the pull-ups, but I did the 90-degree pull-ups from the ground versus the full-weight hanging style. I know I couldn't get even one on those, but I had 14 in the 90-degree.

Push-ups were my worst. My full plank was only 7. That said, they were full plank and not on my knees. Later, I used the power-wheel to do pike-ups and had a 6.5. I fell attempting my 7th, because I didn't keep decent form (which means I'm done).

We had to do a weighted-throw with 20-kg balls. My chest and my backwards throws were decent, a 17 and a 15 or 16 I think. Not too weak, but could be better.

And my walking lunges holding a 12-kg weight in each hand sucked horribly. I only made it about 12 yards before I was done. But that's a bigger weight than I initially wanted to use, so that's pretty good considering. My knees were bothered, but boy were my legs not happy. They did not want to move up.

So, tonight, we have our team indoor sessions. Lots of running and ball-handling. I need that cardio badly, but I know I will be sucking wind. Worth pointing out, it will only cost me $5 for all eight indoor winter sessions. $5!

Thursday, I'm back at the gym and I'm not looking forward to the big workout, but the sadistic inner fitness babe in me says bring it on.

This week ...

The holidays are officially over. Sad.

I love the holidays so much so I hate seeing everyone take down their christmas trees and seeing them laying in the snowbanks by the roads.

This week is also the first work week in four weeks that I'll be here all five days. I had some vacation time and then all of my holiday time off as well. It was fun while it lasted. But there is the MLK day off in two weeks, so yay! I've decided that that day will be my personal organization day at home - my finances, setting up my new office space (with all of my old stuff), all kinds of fulfilling goodness.

Tonight we start our gym workouts for my sports team. I am an amateur athlete and part of a sports club team. This is our offseason, but we start our conditioning and organizing for the spring now. I have been very lazy since we finished up our last games and practices way back in October. I haven't done much of anything fitness-wise. So these classes will be painful, but exactly what I need to jump back into my fitness.

These gym classes are twice per week with a certified trainer in a class of my teammates for 8 weeks at just $15 per week. And I don't have to join the gym. It's really a very good bargain and one I feel is a important investment in my health and fitness each winter (physical and mental!), not just for my sport. Additionally, I have set it up so I can pay for my 8 weeks in two smaller payments of $60 each tonight and again in four weeks. I set aside money on my last payday into my irregular expenses to cover this, so I'm square on my budget.

I clarified two of my goals for 2008 in my sidebar and added a new one.

I said originally I wanted to lose 15 pounds. For the record, I am a genetically-blessed 5-7 woman (actually like 5-6.8, but hey still a few inches taller than the average American woman at 5-4) who's natural body shape is thinner and athletic. My sport and genetics keeps me in the healthy Body Mass Index range even when I know I'm out of shape. Currently I weight 150 pounds. This puts me at the higher end of "Normal Weight".

But I don't take care of myself very well and am pretty lazy. I know that my healthy weight should be 135 and I could maintain this by eating better (than I already do), drinking more water to stay hydrated (I'm a diet soda addict) and exercising regularly on my own (not just with my team schedule).

So the clarifcations are that I will lose at least 10 of those 15 pounds by March 1 and I will learn to like running and run at least 20 minutes 3 (or more) times per week by March 1.

I've already started trying to incorporate less meat and more fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes into my diet. Which isn't too hard since I love my veggies!

I'm not going cold turkey on the soda. If I focus on improving my health and fitness, my unhealthy pounds will decrease, my muscle and cardio will increase and I will naturally want to not drink soda (it's happened before).

And I figure all of this along with my finance goals (which take priority) are already enough for big goals.

Additionally, staying busy with fitness and healthy eating means I'm not out there spending money, falling prey to all the media messages telling me to spend, spend, spend and in general, getting healthier and stronger to build that big snowball.

Oh and I added two new blogs I like - I've Paid for this Twice Already and Generation X Finances.