Week 7

**I was on a family vacation with limited computer access the previous week, sorry about the delayed posting**

Here's the summary of July 12-16:

I also had a second session with Ariel a lifestyle therapist at the Harbor Weight Loss Institute. Even though I have only had two sessions both have been helpful. I have never done anything like this before but Ariel made me feel comfortable as we talked through my fitness and weight loss goals. I left the session with a better understanding of what has prevented me from reaching my weight loss goals in the past and several simple strategies to use to gage my hunger and eating patterns. We scheduled a third appointment in several weeks.

The workouts:

Monday:

This session focused on arms, specifically biceps and triceps. Jesse had me start with a killer 3-minute plank! I did well holding form for the first two minutes but really started to falter from the last 45 seconds. It’s a huge mental challenge.

We then transitioned into monster sets (not super sets, monster sets!!) of two different types of bicep curls and then immediately followed by tricep extensions. I did four different weights and each set was around 50 reps.

Wednesday:

Shoulders- by the end of this session both my shoulders felt like giant, burning softballs. Jesse had me do a sequence of eight different shoulder exercises. I don’t have a lot to add other than….. I know I got a good workout.

Week 5 & 6

Well, over the last week and a half I'm down 3 more pounds. Although I'm inching along I feel stronger and more confident. One addition to my workouts with Jesse have been several appointments with the Harbor Weight Loss Institute Life coach. I'll go into a bit more depth in my future posts but I can say that the appointments have been very helpful as I think through why I'm trying to lose weight and strategies to help me combat my urges to eat food that not great for me.

Back to the gym....

Here is a summary of the last several workouts with Jesse.

Monday, July 5th:
After the weekend I was really focused on having a strong first day of the week. Jesse really let me have it about my eating over the weekend. I really need to focus on eating the right stuff in order to achieve my goals. An important point that Jesse made was to be sure to include family and friends into your eating. Letting them know that you can’t eat certain things is really key to being successful.

Mondays Workout:
-warm-up
Arms:
-1 minute on the treadmill walking on a 15 incline @ 3.5 pace
dumbbell hammercurls 8 lbs

Wedesdays Workout:
-warm-up
Balance and Conditioning:
-I started with one activity of balancing on a Bosu ball while throwing a medicine ball at the
wall and catching it.
-A 1 minute plank and a set of 30 push-ups and 30 sit-ups
-The next activity had me standing on a Bosu ball (one on each foot). Jesse started with a 10
lb medicine ball and bounced or threw the ball at me. I had to catch it and maintain my
balance. This activity was 15 reps per round. Each round was followed by an increase in
weight on the medicine ball.

Hard work but it feels Good!!

Week 5

Didn’t gain or lose anything this week. I’m excited to get it to a normal every other day routine. I was able to schedule three workouts this week (M-W-F). I’m hoping to keep this schedule up for the next several weeks. Although I’ve said this in earlier posts, having regular appointments with your trainer not only helps you when you’re in the gym but it also keeps that little voice in the back of your head when you’re about to order that dessert or eat that junk food.

One area that Jesse has really helped me in is to take time for myself to get in shape. Many times I put my work, family, and other commitments in my life ahead of keeping my body in shape. It doesn’t mean you have to devalue the other things, it just means you need to really focus on your own physical fitness in order to help impact other areas of your life in the long run.

Here’s a brief outline of my three workouts with Jesse over the course of the last week. All of them were killer workouts!!
Monday:
-warm-up:
back/core
-end of the bench knee raises
-medicine ball ab throwing @ the wall
-20 push-ups
-20 tricep push-ups
-punches on the punching bag
-hitting stick against punching bag
-punching bag squat, pick-up, thrust forward- literally hell!!!
-plate squat over bench
25 lb 1 min.
35 lb 15 sec / 2 intervals
Wednesday:
-warm-up
chest:
-dumbbell presses
-5 set’s flat bench
-5 set’s incline
-5 set’s incline; punching
-treadmill jogging: 3.5 incline 4.5 speed 7 mins.
Form: locking out elbows, going deep
Friday:
-warm-up
legs
-leg press- 5 sets
-2 1 minute planks between sets
-upstairs machines
-hamstring curls-4 sets
-leg extensions- 4 sets
-calf raises 3 sets
5 minutes on the treadmill; full incline, 3.5- 4 speed, 8 lb dumbbells

Week 3

Down two pounds!! Yes, I know it’s not a lot but that was my weekly goal and I keep telling myself, baby steps…

I was only able to work out with Jesse one time during the week of June 21st due to a family vacation to California. Man, was it a workout!! I started with the basic warm-up routine of walking/running on the treadmill and then some dynamic warm-up with a medicine ball.

The workout started with some intense conditioning drills. We started on the basketball court with six different balls spread around. For the next 15 minutes Jesse had me run sprints around the court to each basketball. When I reached each basketball I had to shoot, if I made it awesome, if not five push-ups. Let’s just say I ended up doing a lot of push-ups.

From here we headed back into the weight room for a number of different chest presses. I learned about the proper form needed to complete these workouts. By the end of the 30 minutes I felt positive moving forward.