Although I am a tad late with my first fitness diary, I believe in “better late than never” so…. here we go!
I am on a serious quest to get back in shape and get my fitness and health in tip top shape. The last two weeks I focused on exercise more so than nutrition. I know that you cannot “outwork a poor diet” so while I am not “obsessing” over what I take in food wise, I know that needs some help. I will focus on eating more complex carbs and lean proteins in the coming weeks… and laying off the beer! I. LOVE. BEER! Guinness to be exact.. give me all of the Guinness all of the time!
My good friend and co-worker, Ashton and I, have been taking lunch time classes at Balance Gym in Foggy Bottom. The one we have been the most consistent at attending is their Balance Barre class on Mondays. We shoot each other and the instructor dirty looks throughout the whole class but are always so happy once we have completed the intense plies and releves that our instructor so fondly adores! When we cannot make other classes, we are lucky enough to work at an amazing building with a gym space in the basement that we do our own circuit training using the tabata app.
I knew I was going to be on travel at the end of May so over the Memorial Weekend holiday, my partner in crime and I got some tennis racquets and decided to play one of our favorite sports to get in shape. We braved the oh so HOT weather and played an hour of tennis! My fitbit charge HR read that I spent 60% of my time in the fat burn zone and 30% in cardio based on my heart rate. Let me just say… I LOVE this little contraption. I can plug in what I have eaten, how much water I have consumed, what my sleep patterns were and of course my active minutes aka workouts!
Before starting tennis I went on snapchat and put myself out there with a goal of burning 600 calories in 45 minutes. Although I did not reach this, I did blast away 607 calories in 1 hour and 7 minutes so I am pretty content with it. I do not rely heavily on the accuracy or inaccuracy of these calorie readers so I always deduct about 150 from what it states! Back to my goal though…. I know that meant that the next time I played, I would have to push myself a bit more. So 3 days later, my PIC and I were back on the court but in a more tropical locale, FLORIDA!!!!! This time we played for 1 hour and 37 minutes in 91 degree heat and I scorched not only my skin but a whopping 850 calories! Oh you know that statement of pushing myself more the nxt time I played…. HA! I struggled like all heck! I do not know if it was playing on an empty stomach or even worse, the heat index of 98, I was the worst opponent! After our game I ran a few laps around the court and did some suicides to make myself feel a bit better about my lack of effort prior. I do have to watch it though as my heart rate was pretty high for most of the game. I danced around the 160bpm for most of the game and I was lackadaisical!!!!
Like I have previously mentioned, I was am an athlete! When I quit basketball in high school, I decided to try a new sport and joined the tennis team. Although I had never played, my speed and quick learning, helped me secure a spot on the Varsity team. That was in 1999! But hey its like riding a bike…. I got right back on lol! And well I was pretty darn impressed that I could get the ball over the net AND in bounds over 50% of the time. Go me!!!
Tank: Tees in the Trap | Skirt: Danskin, Option | Visor: Walmart | Shoes: Brooks Adrenaline GTS 15| Racquet: Wilson (Federer)
I think that I am going to incorporate tennis and other sports into my daily weekend activities while trying to lose this extra weight and become heart healthy! For those of you out there who absolutely loathe conventional gym workouts such as logging miles on a treadmill or looking like an uncoordinated fool on the elliptical, I fully endorse playing sports or playing around outside as an effective workout!!! Heck grab some friends and play a game of tag outside or take it real old school and play red rover or anything that will get you moving!
Off to the beach…… its time to get my melanin glowing a little more!
