This week marks two months since I got off my lazy butt and joined the gym. I think my goals last month were a little lofty.

**Month One Goals:
Four days a week at the gym.
One Spin, one pilates, and two days cardio/strength

At Home Workout
1-2 days of cardio on my elliptical at home
Ab Work**

The reality was more like 3 days a week with every other Friday. I gave up spin and pilates. Spin class just isn’t working with my schedule. The night classes are way too late and the weekends the classes are clashing with work.

I really like pilates, but it takes an hour and on weekdays when I take the babies to the playroom I only have an hour of workout time. It leaves no time for strength or cardio.

As for working out at home. Let me just say - hahahahHAHAHahahah. What crack was I smoking?!? I am SO NOT working out at home.

My current schedule:

Monday night when Jeff gets home from work I go to the gym. Let me say what a nice break! Leaving the house, blasting music in my car because I am FREE, getting a break from the night routine and putting babies to bed. I don’t have to rush through my gym routine. The babies are still a little sketchy at the playroom and get antsy if I don’t come back after an hour. Monday nights I can get a really long workout in with zero worry. Also, small as it is I can’t listen to loud music when the babies are in the playroom. I leave one ear open to listen for my name called over the intercom “Lesley Barr, please come to the playroom”. It has only happened once, but you never know if it will happen again. Soooooooooo, anyway, when I go on my own I can blare music as loud as possible in my ears voiding out all the outside noise. I loaded up my ipod with tons of loud, angry, hardcore music that keeps me pumped. I run for 30-40 minutes and do strength - shoulders, back, arms, legs, and abs.

Wednesday morning and every other Friday morning the babies and I go to the gym. Shenzie is getting much better and hasn’t cried the last 3x I’ve left her. Heaten seems to enjoy his playroom time. The gym just pumped up a HUGE bounce castle so hopefully that will keep them happy. I run for 30 minutes and do a mini version of Monday’s strength routine.

Saturday I go to the gym when the babies go down for their nap. Once again I am free and it feels so good to work out really hard.

This months revised goals:
Gym 3-4 days a week. Cardio and strength - two normal workouts and two long workouts.

At home:
One day a week do abs, lunges, dips, and push ups.

Observations:

I thought I would lose weight. I have not lost a pound which surprises me. I did not start working out to lose weight specifically, more to tone up and get stronger, but I really thought I would lose a little something. I’m not bothered by this at all though because I am seeing results.

My trainer suggested using the Elliptical for my cardio. I hated cardio. It was SO boring, the minutes dragging by. The same thing when I work out on our Elliptical at home - BORING. One day I decided to try the treadmill. SO MUCH BETTER. I wasn’t watching the clock nearly as much. I ran track in high school and forgot how much I like running. Apparently I am clumsy and I almost fell off the treadmill so I decided to try the indoor track instead. SO MUCH BETTER! I can do sprints without having to change the machine and then change it back, blah blah. The scenery is much more interesting. The track goes around the entire top floor of the gym with floor to ceiling windows around half of it making it seem much less “gym-y”. The gym is HUGE so there is a lot to see while running. Much less boring than staring at the guy in front of me with a sweaty back. The first time I got on the treadmill I would be huffy puffy after 1 minute. It became 5, then 10. Now I can run for 20 minutes without stopping. And by running I mean jogging - sometimes slow, sometimes fast with occasional sprinting. My goal is to run the entire 40 minutes easily.

I upped my beginning weight on all of the machines by 10 pounds. I am noticing more muscle everywhere. Much less jiggly, more tone. Firmer arms, legs, and booty. I have a mini four pack, but my poor lower belly is just ick. The extra skin from getting so HUGE with the twins is so discouraging and I’m so self conscious about it. I think I am stuck with it minus having surgery which isn’t really an option.

No matter how rough a day I had or how much I don’t want to go some days I always feel SO good leaving. Knowing I did something positive for myself. Getting a break to refresh and recharge is essential to my sanity. As iffy as I was to join and leave the babies in the playroom (my first time leaving them with strangers, so kinda a big deal to me) I feel really positive about joining. I am enjoying working out and getting more fit and strong. Now if I could only stop eating all this chocolate!