Back to the Weight Machines

After my first Yoga class yesterday, and waking up with a slightly stiff neck this morning, I thought I better get back to exercising on a regular schedule. I felt pretty good after consistently exercising every day back in January. But then life got busy, and exercising took a back seat.

I can’t get up early to exercise, since I want to stay in bed, to the very last minute that I can, in the morning. I can’t exercise after supper, as I’m ready for a shower and glass of wine. I can’t exercise in the middle of the day, as I better be outside with the horses. When do I exercise? I better find that time, and find it fast, because this body isn’t getting any younger, or any less pudgy in places.

Yesterday, I used the weight machines and walked on an elliptical machine for 12 minutes. 10 minutes forward and 2 minutes backward. You’re not suppose to go backwards, but backward pedaling mimics the movement that you feel when you ride. I love it that my legs are strong and I only had a slight tightening in my calves after using the machines, and none this morning. I don’t love that I have almost zero, zip, nada upper body strength. Oh, I’ll take that back. I have some strength, and I can move the weights, but on the very lowest weights.

Back in January, it didn’t take very long to move the weights from near zero to 3 or 4 levels higher. I could tell the difference, not only in my biceps, but in the movement that I had through my shoulders. I used to struggle with “opening my chest up” when riding Centered Riding. The weights that I did in January reinforced that movement and loosened up my shoulders. By the end of 2 weeks, I could feel my legs toning up and my shoulders ached less.

Now, I’m not quite back to square one, but almost. I think muscle memory is helping. My shoulders don’t hurt. I think my neck hurts, only because of the Yoga stretches yesterday, and possibly doing too much stretching along with just starting weights again. Yesterday I could only walk 12 minutes, today I walked 15 minutes, and I felt like I could do more.

Hand in hand with exercising is eating well. But I love red meat. I’ll compromise with a salad when I eat a steak. No potato. No bread. I’ll eat more fish like we had tonight. Broiled on the grill, lightly seasoned with minimal salt and pepper. I need to learn how to season meat, but I need to season with herbs that don’t bother my stomach. Oh, and I also had a salad tonight. With Italian dressing. I dipped a piece of fish in the Italian dressing and it didn’t taste too bad, but the dressing is tangy, so I would season the fish with it, but with a very small amount.

You are suppose to wait for 2 hours to do Yoga after eating a snack and 4 hours after eating a meal. Hubby said that what I am used to eating, I ate a snack instead of a meal for supper. I think I’m going to be hungry later.

I’ll put in my Yoga dvd now and I’ll try to follow along. Then I plan on soothing my body and soak in a tub filled with very hot water.