Experiment Update and a Confession

Well, that's going to leave a mark!

The Gym Buddies, 30 (ish) of you readers and I are halfway done with January's Great Fitness Experiment. And what do I have to show for it? Sore muscles every single day, a ton of sweaty gym laundry and a bruise the size of a softball on my thigh. (Okay so technically the last one isn't Lindsey's fault - I tripped over that weight plate and banged into the weight stand and bit my lip so hard trying not to cry on the weight floor that I had blood-flavored lunch, all by myself. Technically.) All in all, all the makings of a great workout!

Lindsey Mathews of Lean Bodies coaching has the Gym Buddies and I doing a 5-day workout with two days of high-intensity interval cardio (that make me want to barf), one day of interval circuits (that make me want to barf), one day of Tabata intervals (that made me barf a little in my mouth) and one day of weight lifting (in which there was no barfing at all but as I explained, much bruising). And of course we kept TurboKick! I'm not sure what she has the rest of you doing but judging from some of the e-mails I've gotten it's been as puke-tastic as our workout.

True story: Gym Buddy Megan has taken to reliving her days as a cheerleader by chanting across the weight floor, "You can do it if you try! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!" To which I yelled back, "What are you spelling?!?" I was so fatigued from sprinting on the treadmill and then going straight to V pushups that I had lost all ability to spell. You know it's a tough workout when you can no longer decipher your native language.

I'm not complaining though - I asked for her butt-kickingest workout. I haven't had a really good, really intense workout since the early part of my pregnancy. And, oh wait - remember that thing I did two months ago? That's right, I HAD A BABY. See, I need to keep reminding myself of that fact because while I like to think that I'm back in black, the last two weeks have shown me how weak I really am. It's a little depressing to realize how much strength I actually lost. But thankfully it does seem to be coming back, courtesy of the 10,000 lunges we've been doing.

Which leads me to the progress portion of tonight's program: I've definitely gained some muscle. It's hard to quantify without a body fat test but my pants are a little looser. In addition, I've lost two pounds. Ish. My weight goes up and down so much that yo-yos are jealous (today I learned that breast feeding makes me lose a half pound instantly! Apparently the Jelly Bean drinks about 8 ounces.) so it's hard to say for sure. I also re-remembered that I can exercise until the cows come home but I won't lose weight until I get my eating under control. Which is why I've gone back to logging my calories on FitDay.

I'll wait for the collective gasp from the audience.

I know, I don't food journal. I HATE food journalling. My food-nazi-journal-spreadsheet-obsessive-nonsense was a big part of my eating disorder and I felt so liberated once I finally gave it up. Yet, here I am. My plan is to only journal until I lose the last of the baby weight and then I'll chuck the sucker once I get to maintenance mode again. Highway to hell? I fully expect some of you to admonish me in the comments. I probably deserve it. The good news is that this time I'm limiting myself to the incredibly UNuser-friendly FitDay site rather than my own overly involved Excel spreadsheets. So the sheer frustration of that site should help keep me in check.

Lay it on me: How have your workouts been going this month? What workouts make you want to barf? Do I have no business being a nursing mother and counting calories?