Ups and Downs

Funny how I started off the week on a mental high... felt like I was soaring on Cloud 9 over my 9% body fat loss.  But then by Thursday,  I was in pain and just plain mad.  My back muscles hurt, could barely bend. My biceps hurt, could only do about three shoulder presses at a time.  Tried to tell Nigel, but somehow the more I talked about pain, the more he smiled.  About 22 minutes into the work out, I told Nigel, " I want to leave."
"You want to leave?" he asked.
"Yeah, I want to leave."
Without a beat he said, "Get on the treadmill!"
"Nigel! I--"
"Get on the treadmill!"
"Ok. Fine.  I'll do 15 minutes..."
"38 minutes"
"Nigel!!"
"38 minutes!"

I left the gym mad.

Yipeekayaykayay- Today is a lovely Day!!!

So like, OMG!  I've been depressed for the last few months because I have not been seeing a change on the scale.  Been 185 for a while.  However, clothes were fitting different, and I was getting comments from others about looking smaller... but still...  I had a hard time mentally.  Did a body fat analysis with Nigel on Tuesday of this week and I had gone from 33% (in July) to 24%.  What does that mean?  I lost 9% body fat and gained 6% lean muscle.  That's approximately 16.6 lbs of body fat lost and 11.6lbs of lean muscle gained.  It also means:

It means that my body fat is in the Fitness category for women!!! I went from being Obesity to Fitness!!!  How super duper cool is that??  Kinda hard to even associate myself with such a term but I'll take it for now!

"Belly Band"

Nigel told me to buy a "belly band" for when I'm doing my cardio.  I think it's supposed to help me keep my abdominal muscles tight while I work out.    It felt kinda weird going to the sports store asking for a "belly band" but I've since learned it can go by other names such as the "tummy sweat belt", "exercise waist belt" or the brand name of "belly bandit".  My "waist belt by weston" does not look as cool as this picture to the left.  My own is an odd blue on the outside and a bright red on the inside.  It also doesn't fit as neatly and smoothly as this one.  It came with no instructions, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to wear it under clothes or over clothes.  I don't think I've seen anyone at the gym wearing one, so I'm a bit reticient about wearing it.  Anybody ever used one or know somebody who used one?

Update:  It seems like a lot of versions of this belt target post pregnancy women...I'm thinking I'm 14 years late...