I completed my first week of CURVES! In order to get my running and CURVES workouts in, I made it a goal to get in to their fitness center at 6:30am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The first workout left me wondering if it was possible to sweat during their circuit. There is one machine that measures your heart rate and my target was to get it between 132-152 bpm. When I hopped on and started moving, my heart rate was at 103. I sped up but only managed to get it to about 106. I decided that if this CURVES workout was going to be worth my time, I needed to somehow make the circuit harder.
I am a goal person and so for my second workout I was ready to take it up a notch. I decided that before I got to the heart rate machine, I needed to have already gotten my heart rate up because that machine alone was not going to do it. During the cardio circuit stations, I did jumping jacks, jumping knee lifts, and whatever jumping exercise I could come up with. I felt a little out of place because all the other ladies were just walking in place. I tried not to let that phase me and just kept going. When I came to the heart rate machine, I had definitely broken a sweat! My heart rate: 132. I'm used to working out in the 145-165 range and so I knew I needed to kick it up another level. With the CURVES workout, you go through the entire circuit twice and so the second time around, I pushed harder and manged to get my heart rate up to 141. Not bad for my second workout. I left feeling optimistic about their set up. If you want to get a good workout at CURVES, it is possible.
During my third visit, I pushed harder and got my heart rate to 152. Very fun! The only complaint I have about their workouts so far is that I was not sore at all. This of course could have to do with me. I guess I'll see how it continues to go. Since I have finished my first three training workouts, I will get my SmartCard on Monday. From now on, my workouts will be personalized to me. This of course makes me super excited because now I can track my progress!
Another thing I did this week was try their eating plan. I was pretty happy with my current eating habits but decided that since this is CURVES month, I should test out their plan. Here's what I think after one week of being on it. I'll start with the positive things first:
1. Good recipes that are organized by phases and specific meal plans.
2. Recipes are written for one person.
3. Good variety of foods used.
4. You don't feel hungry throughout the day.
5. Provides vegetarian alternatives for almost all of their recipes.
Some of the not-so-good things:
1. Recipes use a lot more processed foods than I would like.
2. Many of the recipes include cheese. This can get expensive especially if you buy organic.
3. High sodium vegetarian alternatives.
4. Because of the processed foods, there is craving for more of the processed stuff. This could be just my thing because I really like the whole, minimally processed food which pretty much eliminates cravings and the tendency to overeat. I found myself gravitating towards the not so healthy food choices this week.
Overall, not a bad eating plan but I don't think it's the right one for me. I decided to go back to my regular eating for now.
My goal this week at CURVES is to strike up a conversation with someone during every visit. I tend to focus on what I'm doing and sorta ignore other people, which is something I realize I have to work on. There's more to fitness and health than achieving physical goals. Relationships with others bring a level of well being that can't be achieved on a treadmill. I love interacting with people but my natural tendency is not to initiate encounters. I am very friendly when others approach me but rarely take the initiative myself. This week, I will try to step out of this comfort zone and reach out to my fellow CURVES ladies. Wish me luck!
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