Caring for My Chaos

After months of going with my sister in law to the gym, I finally joined!

This is my new enemy. You know how I said that the elliptical machine was the spawn of Satan? I was wrong. At least I could make it 15 minutes on that thing! My darling sister in law said "Let's do something different!" and put me on this thing. It hurts! Really bad! I couldn't make it 10 minutes! It's horrible! And she said she's gonna put me on it again next week! I just need to keep reminding myself it's a good thing. It is a good thing, right?

As you join me in this fitness journey I have gone on, I decided I would share as I go! Do you know what this machine is? It is an elliptical machine. It looks harmless doesn't it? Do NOT let its looks fool you. This machine is the spawn of Satan. If I thought Pilates was the spawn, I was wrong. My sister in law has worked out on these before and had told me on Tuesday that we were going to try these today. The way she put it to me was, "After the first 20 minutes, the feeling that you are going to die goes away." That made me really hopeful. Well, I was proud because I made it almost 30 minutes before I had to stop. But, this is my new goal. I will beat this sucker and be able to stay on it 45 minutes at least! I had spaghetti legs when I got off! But, we did some arm weight lifting thingys and then another 45 minutes on the treadmill. So, I think the day was a success! And of course, we did the massage chairs after. That was heavenly.

I went to the gym! The stars all aligned and me and my sister in law finally got to go together! No snow, no ice, no sickness! All we did was the treadmill today but I really enjoyed it and I kept up! We have a date to go on Tuesday and this time she's putting me on the elliptical. She promised that if I push through the first 20 minutes, the feeling that I am going to die will pass! =) I told Hubby that I am going to sign up and get my own membership so the girls can go with me too. And he can go with me when he's home. Oooh, and the best part was that we took a turn in the massage chairs. Those are fantastic! The best part of the whole work out!

I thought this pic was cute for discussing exercise. I had posted before I was going to start going to the gym with my sister in law. Well, because of schedules and inclement weather, that hasn't happened. So, in an effort to get into shape, I stumbled upon a website that I have come to believe is run by demons called Fitness Blender . It has thousands of free exercise videos and you can choose from varying skill levels and what kinds of exercises you want to do and even what areas you want to target. I really do like it because I can do a different exercise each day and not get bored. Well, yesterday I decided to do Pilates. Pilates is evil. But, not as evil as the Tabata exercise I did today. It was the kind where you do 2 different exercises for 20 seconds each and then you get a 10 second rest. This may not sound like a lot of time, but when your abs are screaming at you in agony, those 20 seconds are a lifetime! I must say since I started, I have noticed I am not as winded a...