Fess-Up Friday

Me in November 2009 at my highest weight

I love that title and I admit, I borrowed it from a friend and fellow writer, Marie Anne St. Jean. She is one of the freelance writers embarking on the weight loss journey with me. Marie Anne had this wonderful idea about using Fridays to talk about what we achieved throughout the week, whether it is personal goal, weight loss efforts, writing goals or any other type of goal we might have set for ourselves. It might even mean talking about our struggles and failures. I think it’s an amazing idea and I plan to employ it here.

I set Mondays as my weigh-in date, though, so I won’t be reporting my weight today. Many of my fellow journeyers are reporting losses for their first week and I am encouraged by all the good news. I hope I can report a loss come Monday as well.

So what have I been doing? Well, a lot actually. I am trying to keep my workouts varied and interesting. If something becomes too routine, I get bored and I’m not as likely to stay with it long term. I already owned the Wii Fit Plus exercise program and a treadmill. I added the Wii Fitness Coach 2 and Wii Zumba for this year. On Monday I attempted the Zumba beginner level, set at the shortest possible duration – 20 minutes – and it almost killed me. I think you need to already be fit to do Zumba but I am not giving up. I made it through half of the class before succumbing to fatigue accompanied strange sounds emanating from my throat as I gasped for air. I will attempt Zumba again today.



Tuesday I used the My Fitness Coach 2 program and was pleasantly surprised. After completing a profile which asked a few questions about my age, preferences and things like would I define myself as a hammock-lounging couch potato, a moderately-fit dog walker or an Olympic decathlon medalist, it created a workout program suited to my condition and goals. It lets you pick 2 areas to focus on such as weight loss, muscle toning, reducing the tummy, etc. I tried to pick them all but it limits you to 2 at a time. The workout combines stretching, toning and muscle building. Squats, knee-push-ups, marching (to warm up) and leg lifts were a few of the exercises in my routine. It offers a lot more but I’m sure I’ll be talking about the other features as I work my way through them.

Wednesday I dusted off the treadmill and walked at a speed of 3 mph for 20 minutes. Yep, I walked a mile and it felt great. I wanted to do more but didn’t want to push too hard my first week. I’m trying to learn where my current limits are again.

Yesterday I did the Fitness Coach 2 again. The routine only takes about 10 minutes once you’re familiar with the exercises. This didn’t feel like enough so I followed it with 17 mins of Wii Fit Plus aerobic exercises.

All in all, I’ve done really well with trying to fit in 20 minutes of activity each day. I didn’t make it the first day but I have since then. I think the goal is setting realistic goals. Achieving them gives me the reinforcement I need to push forward.

I’d love to hear how you’re doing. Leave a comment or link to this blog post and I will try to return the favor.

Check the list of bloggers I follow on the right. Here is Marie Anne's post about Fess-Up Friday