It's Fitness Friday, Yo

I swear there's a muscle in there. I'm going to use it to fold that laundry.

Today concludes my first week at LA Fitness. I skipped Wednesday, but I probably should have and could have found a way to squeeze in a work out, but that was the day I got maherrs did my hair cut and well, it just threw my day off. I'm not too bummed about it since I was able to let my super sore glutes and hip flexors rest a bit.

Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday I divided my time between the elliptical and treadmill. Those workouts didn't defer too far from what I described on Monday. This morning, however, I decided to try the cycle class. I'm a little undecided about it and I'll tell you why.

The class was big; there were 4 tiers, packed with bikes. Spinning at the Pilates studio was much more intimate with a max of six people in the class. With a large class, the instructor has to wear a headset mic which she fiddled with for most of the class because it wouldn't work properly. Also, I wasn't stoked on the music. I don't know if the instructor there chooses the music or if, since it's a large gym chain, it's something that's provided, but I wasn't a fan.

The bikes were really nice, but because they were different than what I was used to, were uncomfortable. I'm sure I will adjust in time. What I did like about the bikes is that they had a digital display which showed you your RPM, time, distance, calories, and resistance level. It was nice to have that information, and because we had it, the instructor would tell you what RPM range you should be in at certain times, which I liked. I also liked being able to see what resistance level I was on. The bikes at the studio have a hand crank and you just have to kind of go off of how it feels to you. With being able to see the levels, we'd start at our personal baseline then build off of that by her telling us how many to add or remove.

The workout itself was challenging, sure, but it was just... different than what I'm used to. So far, routine-wise, I prefer what all the ladies at the studio do to what this lady did. Though, other instructors may be different, so I'm going to keep going and see what happens.

Going back to knowing how many calories I burned, I can definitely see that there's room for improvement in my spinning. In 54 minutes I only burned 311 calories. I know I can do better than that, and to keep on par with what I've been doing the rest of the week, I hopped on a machine after class for 20 minutes to burn another 200 calories.

Going to the gym has been beneficial with really amping up my calorie burn, but I really miss Pilates already. I could easily add strength to my workouts, and I know how, but I don't like it nearly as much as Pilates on the reformer. I like how strong it makes me feel, and I like the changes that it made to my body.

As for my food, I'm still doing pretty well at eating healthfully and giving my body what it needs before and after a workout. I'm switching to whole grains with everything that I can, knocking back a bunch of veggies, eating slow-burning carbs when I can, and trying to keep my added sugar intake under 10g per serving. Well, that is, if I am eating anything with added sugar. I like it to be much less, but sometimes it's just not possible.

With all of these efforts, I did make a little progress this week!

January 18th, 2013 (-this week, -since 1/4/13)

• Weight - 151 (-1, -3)
• Calf - 13.75" (0)
• Knee - 15.25" (0)
• Thigh - 24" (0)
• Hips/Butt - 41.5" (0)
• Belly - 39.25" (-0.25, -0.25)
• Waist - 31" (-0.5)
• Bust - 37.25" (-0.25, -0.75)
• Arms - 12" (-0.25)

I'm okay with these numbers. I only lost a pound and half an inch, but this isn't The Biggest Loser, and a pound is a pound, and I lost it.

Are you on a fitness/health journey? How's it going?