Well, as you can see from the title of this post, I've decided to really make an effort to bust my belly fat before summer starts. This is not going to be an easy challenge. I'm a 45yr old woman who has had two pregnancies. The odds are stacked against me, my age, my gender and the fact that I still have extra skin on my middle from when I was pregnant. I suppose that's why its called a "challenge", if it was easy it wouldn't be a challenge. It would be a walk in the park, a ray of sunshine, a day at the beach.....you know what I mean!! Wonder who coined these phrases anyway, not everyday I've spent at the beach has been.....well, a "day at the beach".
Anyway, I've digressed.
Day one workout of the BFC (belly fat challenge) I decided to flip my usual workout upsidedown. This decision was due to what I discovered yesterday about the best workouts to beat belly fat. (check out yesterdays post if you missed it)
I started off with 10 mins on the elliptical. I still think this machine is bizarre. I feel like someone/thing is pulling my arms and legs. I managed to maintain an average 58rpm during the 10 mins. Then I went over to the treadmill. Normally I would do a gradual increase on this but after my research yesterday, I decided to start off more quickly and intensely. Most of what I found in my research suggested that a more intense cardio component was more effective to burn fat. So I started at 6.5 elevation and 3.5 speed. After 5mins I increased the speed to 3.8. At 10 mins I increased the elevation to 9. Then at 20 mins I increased the elevation to 11. At 30mins I hit the "cool down" button. I have no idea just how accurate the readings are on these machines, but I will tell you at the 25min mark my heart rate was 159. According to the readout, I completed 2.1 miles and burned 326 calories.
Up next in my workout, I wandered over to the weight machines. I did 10 reps on various arm machines, working my pecs, biceps and that wobbly bit that we women have under our upper arms. Charming. Then I went to find the machines that work my legs. I did about 10-15 reps each of the inner and outer adduction machines. Then about 20 reps on the leg press machine. I was trying to find something where I could do ab exercises, where you raise your legs, rather than crunch in, but I didn't find anything. I will check again tomorrow.
Lastly, I wandered into the aerobics studio and finished my workout with 40 crunches (I place my feet on the wall with my knees bent at 90 degrees) I did 20 side rockers, on each side, left and right and then on my back also.
My final 10 mins was stretching, legs, arms, back and neck.
My plan is to do this workout, and alternate with my boxing working, 4 to 5 days per week until the start of summer, which is Wednesday, June 20, 2012. This gives me 15 weeks to try to decrease my belly fat.
Diet: Yuck; my least favourite thing to keep track of. Like most people, I like to eat. Its one of the few pleasures in life that anyone from any lifestyle, background or social status can enjoy. Even if you cannot afford lobster and steak (personally I don't care much for lobster) anyone can prepare tasty meals from any combination of fresh, simple ingredients.
I am not going to post every single thing I eat in a day, each and every day over the next 15 weeks. That would simply make me crazy!!!! And likely bore you to tears!!! Instead, I will post a summary of the highlights and the epic fails (like indulging in 2 sour cream dipped donuts).
This morning; I made myself a breakfast burrito. Using the food information on the packaging of the ingredients I used and information I found on the internet, my estimate of the total food value of my breakfast, including one cup of frozen prepared juice beverage is as follows:
Calories: 668
Fat: 26.5 grams
Protein: 23.3 grams
Sugars: 31.7 grams
I used this website to determined an estimate of the food value for my breakfast (and I also used the label information for foods that were labeled; like the tortilla)
Here are the ingredients for my burrito:
1 large white tortilla
2 large eggs
2 tsp canola oil
1 brown mushroom
1tbsp chopped leek
1tbsp canned tomato, diced, no salt added
3tbsp grated marble cheese
1 /3 cup chopped iceberg lettuce
So now on to the days to do list.
Until tomorrow, don't sweat the small stuff
No comments:
Post a Comment