Day 192

... and I'm back from Laos!! And very, very eager to restart my gym training and all... what with it being the new year. Still fresh with resolutions and a general need to get rid of my gut. :D

My aims are very humble... just to lose 5kg by 30 June 09 and hopefully another 2kg by the end of 31 Dec 09. Time flies, so don't be aghasted by the huge time frame. :)

My colleague at work who is also a semi-gym rat (I say semi because we are shackled to our cubicles... like, the only thing missing is the physical chains) and I have a weight loss goal for 2009. He wants to lose 8kg (from 83kg to 75kg) and I want to lose 7kg (from 5xkg to 4xkg, hahaha).

Started with cardio only today.... get the heart rate up again. Took serious discipline (and a constant reminder that I've already paid for parking so I might as well stay @ the gym longer) to go through 25 minutes of Cardio Wave, 20 minutes of the strider (at "Fat Burn" level) and 15 minutes on the threadmill at a gradient of 6.5, walking speed 5.8kph. Not bad... didn't die at the end of the training and I feel really refreshed. Especially when I got home and had a really nice Italian salad as well. Healthy living doesn't really sound so bad. Heh heh.

Anyway, I want to complain about the "Fat Burn" level on the strider. I think it's a load of crap. You key in your age and your weight, and you're given this "ideal heart rate" for burning fat. Apparently that ideal heart rate for me is 126. I achieved that heart rate within ... 5 minutes on the strider, and I think it only took that long because the machine is screwed up. (Think about it, I was already on the Cardio Wave for 25 minutes beforehand). The strider starts you off at high resistance until you've achieved the "ideal heart rate", and after that, the resistance just tapers off for you to "maintain" at that heart rate.

So you can imagine lah.. after 5 minutes I kept getting these scrolling messages telling me to slow down because my heart rate is already at a constant 156 and the resistance was practically 0. If I slowed down any more, the machine actually went into "pause" mode. Hahahhhaa. Damn stupid. Seriously, maybe I have heart problems? I don't think I'm that easily "exhausted", because if I really push myself, the heart rate can go up to 171 or something like that. 156 is actually my ideal rate because it shows that I'm going strong and not breathing too hard. My own measurements. But based on the chart at the gym, even a 10 yr old kid is not expected to have such heart rate on the machine. The highest they go to is 130 I think. Or 140.

Legs are a bit sore at the moment, think I'll take a breather tomorrow with some Hot Yoga. Was quite sad to see that Kishore is no longer an instructor... so I don't have to specifically go for Hot Yoga on Wednesdays only.