Day 32--Flexibility

I have never been a very flexible person. My hamstrings, especially, are really tight. I have to stretch them every day for weeks, if not months, before I can touch my toes without bending my knees. Even when I've had really low weight and high muscle percentage, I've still had a hard time keeping my hamstrings limber. Years ago, Christy Turlington was on Oprah to promote her yoga line and she mentioned she had the same issue. I think the only reason I remember it is because it made me feel a lot better.

There is a yoga move in the Wii fit Plus that they call the spine extension. It's just moving your one leg right behind the leg on the board and then leaning forward. The part that trips me up is putting my arms together behind my back. You're supposed to put them back there palm to palm, which I can't seem to do, but don't know which muscle is actually preventing me from doing it. After some discussion and attempts it seems to be a forearm muscle issue. There are about a million muscles that it could be though. I'm hoping that some time will help with it.

Day 31--Hangover

I don't have an actual hangover, because I only had a few beers, but I still feel a bit off. Thursday was a rest day and I didn't have any time at home yesterday to work out, so I'm two days without a workout. yesterday was the first time in a month that I hadn't weighed in on Wii Fit Plus. Of course, the balance board gave me a hard time about missing a day, too. I did have my bowling league yesterday, so that is some exercise at least. Our team won all of our games and total pins, so we went 7-0 last night. We were in 4th place going into last night, so I'm pretty sure we'll move up a bit. The good night at bowling and then the post-bowling fun at karaoke almost makes up for the fact that the few days off are evident on the numbers on the scale. It's not like I gained 10 pounds, or even 5, but I did gain a little bit and I even weighed in this morning before having any coffee or water. Normally, the dehydration of a few beers will be good for a temporary loss of a pound or two. Ah, well, off to another day of trying to be good and not eat a bag of Doritos with Frank's hot sauce on them. (Don't knock it, it's delicious)

Day 29:Fueling up and chilling out

Hello, everyone! This is PBBW guest blogger Jenni. Rebecca is unable to come to the computer because she's way too tuckered out to type. She had an intense workout, and she treated herself to a filling and delicious (and healthy) Chinese meal, so she's now taking a well-deserved rest on the couch, watching The Office. I think she might fall asleep, so I should type quietly.

It's very important to make sure you get enough sleep and downtime, so that your muscles can repair themselves. You should also fill your tummy with enough nutritious calories to fuel your workouts and keep your metabolism chugging along, both of which she's doing. Yay for Rebecca! I mean, yay for Rebecca!

Day 28--Weight

I did the scheduled exercise in the 30 day challenge before I weighed in today. My weight still showed a slight weight gain, much to my disappointment and annoyance. I then did 30 minutes worth of activity in Wii fit plus before weighing myself again. My weight was about 1/2 pound less than it had been 30 minutes earlier. Impossible? Maybe. It did lead to the question of where the weight went. I did a quick search and found the answers. Every time you burn energy, the waste products are water and carbon dioxide. If the energy comes from stored fat, there is also heat generated by the body when converting the stored fat into usable energy. That process is called lipolysis.

Day 27--Kicking Ass

A little bit of weight loss and a workout that kicked my ass. Literally. The EA active has exercises that take place on a track. Running and walking are pretty straight-forward and I can even get away from doing them in one place and go up and down my hallway. While on the track, they also have you do high knees and kick-ups. Slow kick ups stretch the back of my thighs and high knees stretch the front of them. Fast kick ups kick my ass, though. Literally and figuratively. With that and the jumping side-to-side, I was winded for the first time since starting the 30 day challenge.

I'm surprised that I'm not hating the running portions of my workouts. I haven't enjoyed running ever. I have horrible memories of timed runs during high school that would leave me limping for hours, if not days. I wore orthotics to keep my flat feet from hurting from the time I was 5 until I was 18. I stopped wearing them when I realized they didn't make any difference in my day-to-day life. I never really run, so I don't miss the orthotics at all. I have a really, really good pair of running shoes, but every time I've tried them, my mind and body have given up on running well before my feet. I had a co-worker tell me to try running in 1-2 minute increments until I overcame my mental block. It seems like the EA active game is having me do exactly what she suggested. And it's working.

Day 26--Progress

I was able to do 20 push-ups before giving up. I'm also noticing that I can hold yoga poses much more easily. I'm still not able to do the triangle properly, but the rest of the Wii yoga moves are now possible for me to hold for the 15 seconds without having to fight against my body's desire to tip over. When I first started doing the yoga almost a year ago, I blamed by inability to hold my balance on my lack of an arch, but that doesn't really play into it at all. I spent the first 15 years of my life being told by my stupid podiatrist that I couldn't do gymnastics because of flat feet. Stupid jerk. Maybe if I had done some gymnastics as a child, I might have been able to touch my toes sometime. I can do it right now, but it's still a big challenge.

Day 25--Measurements

I'm 4 weeks from my first post, so I thought it would be a good time to redo all of my measurements.

Waist: 31.5 Yay!!! (was 32)
Hips: 38.5 Double-Yay!! (was 39)

My waist to hip ratio is .818 (was .821) I'm getting closer to the goal of .80 for a low risk of heart disease.

I have 27% body fat (was 29%). 36.2 Pounds of fat (was 39.4)and 97.8 Pounds of lean (muscle, bone, body water) (was 96.6).


Upper chest: 34 (was 35)
Under bust: 31 (was 33)
Thigh: 21 (same)
Calf: 13 (same)
Wrist: 6 (same)
Bicep: 11 (was 9)

Four weeks of work and I've managed to lose 3 pounds of fat and gain 1 pound of muscle. It's easier to monitor my weight and use that as a gauge of if my work is having any benefits, but it's clear that weight isn't the only way, or even the best way to monitor my progress.

My resting metabolic rate is 1328 calories per day (was 1316). Increasing my muscle mass allows me to eat a little bit more every day without it affecting my weight. If I keep working out, I can eat up to 2000 calories a day and still maintain.