[Gemme]

35 minutes on the elliptical plus the 5 minute cooldown plus a good stretching and a few minutes of ab work are DONE.

My goal was to burn 200 calories. I know these machines can be up to 25% off base and I was going to take that into consideration but I wound up (according to Life Fitness) burning 359 calories, so even if it is off, I'm still above my goal of 200 calories. I managed to 'ellipt' to 3.19 miles. Yaaaay me!

I wanted to do something significant but not push myself too hard. It's been too long since I was on the exercise wagon to be going balls to the wall just yet.

That will be next week.


I understand what Kelt was saying about addictive behavior just switching from food intake to exercise output (paraphrasing, of course). When I was going routinely to the gym, unless I felt poorly that day, I would always try to better my previous performances in some way/s. There was one day that I burned....according to the machine....well over 1500 calories. For a regular person....not an athlete or someone striving for a particular fitness goal that that might be in line with....that was too much. I pushed myself very hard and burned more calories than I ingested that day. Granted, I felt like I achieved something wonderful...and I did....and I still carry pride in myself for being able to do that....but it wasn't necessary. It was my more, more, more button stuck in the 'on' position.

That damn button has gotten me injured and created some pretty annoying frustration too in the past. I'd like to avoid that this time around. 2012 is about reaching manageable goals and maintaining my sanity whilst in the middle of the passing storms of my life. I want to improve, but not at the expense of injury or frustration because I just couldn't seem to eck out another hundred calories or just couldn't make it one more mile or minute. I'm trying to balance listening to my body while gently disciplining it to crave healthier things like exercise and whole foods.

Good luck to everyone!