stacked in your favor

i woke up at 6:30 yesterday morning, and couldn't fall back asleep for about an hour. normally i wouldn't have an issue with waking up then, especially as i prefer to get up early, but since i went to bed less than 6 hours before, i wasn't having it.

i fell back asleep after tossing an turning for about an hour and a half, then woke up and glanced at the clock. it said 10:10, and my brain said, "the gym! THE GYM!" as in, you were supposed to be there over an hour ago! which really isn't that big of a deal, except for that i like to get out of the gym by 11 on weekends so that i have the rest of day free. instead, yesterday morning i booked a last-minute massage appointment for 11:30 and decided to head to the gym afterward.

i had a shiatsu massage, which was lovely, then did an hour of cardio and some strength training and some work on the stability ball. also, i'm all over the assisted pull-up machine these days. before i went to maui i told my trainer that someday i'd like to be able to do a pull-up. i should have known better, because before my session was over, i was on the assisted pull-up contraption pulling 100#. my arm (pits) hurt so much the next two days! but i was hooked, and have been adding them to my workout routine, with and without my trainer.

now here's the part where you know i'm cuckoo:

i joined a gym for the time i was on maui.

my trainer put together a nice travel workout and a water workout routine for me, but i missed having the gym routine, so for less than $50, i joined the gym for 10 days. and while the gym was kind-of a dump, it's super close to our home there, and provided everything i needed for my workouts, all 7 or so times i went. and each time i went to the gym on maui, i ended my workouts with a session on the pull-up machine, even adding in some tricep dips.

i got on the scale yesterday morning after my workout and shower and lost roughly another 2#. i've been at a plateau the last 6-8 weeks, and i was thrilled to see a drop again. when i tell my trainer about my additional loss, she'll likely shrug her shoulders and say, "i told you so!" because her advice is to eat more. she's a hardcore athlete, done the ironman several times, and regularly participates in triathlons. (can i just say i love her? she's the perfect trainer, so motivating and encouraging, but kicks my ass when i need it, too.)

anyway, i met with a nutritionist the week before my sister's wedding, just to make sure my eating was on track and to get some ideas for good-for-me meals. i'd been eating about 1500 calories a day, and my trainer was like, um, that's not enough with the working out you're doing, you should see how many calories your body uses at a resting rate, maybe try metacheck? the nutritionist i saw didn't do metacheck, but the club where i workout offers it, so i had it done. there was roughly a 1500 calorie difference between the formula the nutritionist did and what the metacheck read -- that is, the metacheck claimed i needed 1500 more calories than the generic formula.

anyway, i have no idea what got me started on this tangent. all i know is that i'm living better, feeling better and eating better.

and i swore this wouldn't be a workout blog.