139.0 lbs!

Good ride this morning....didn't get to make the 30 minute 'live' ride I wanted to do cuz had to pick up the kitty from the vet....so I did a 30 minute On Demand class with one of my fave instructors, Christine, and she's always good....also did her 5 minute 'cool down' ride and I'm realizing how important the cool down rides are to do and how good I feel afterwards. I've decided to do at least a 30 minute ride with cool down every day to really kick up the calorie burn and it seems to be working with a drop on the scale this morning...finally putting me back in the 30s. I'll do a 'low impact' ride at least once a week but the other days I'm not worrying so much about the difficulty level if I like the music playlist and instructor....I just do what I can.
Also added a 5 minute yoga class with Ross only teaching one pose, this time being planks (which I love). And a 5 minute stretching/meditation class with Ross.
Ordered my free 'Century Ride' Peleton T shirt this morning that they give members for attaining 100 rides!!! So fun!!
We've had our bike since April 1 and when I first started riding I never thought I'd be doing 30 minute rides this soon....it was kind of hard at first and I stuck with 15 minutes, then 20....it's amazing how fast my stamina has built up!
Consistency is the key for me, just have to stick with it and not lose my resolve... And once I get back to my wt. goal I'll still be on my bike every day and working towards increasing to 45 and 60 minute rides....with a little higher difficulty level. I can do it!

Did a good 30 minute ride this morning with a 5 minute cool down ride. Maybe it’s just me but I find these rides just not easy, even the 5 minute cool down rides. But it’s getting easier and I keep trying to not avoid the higher difficulty levels and just push myself and just do what I can. The instructors are so good and always saying if you need to turn down the resistance do it and just do you so sometimes I just do the best I can. But the competitor comes out in me when there’s a challenge and expectation. Slowly my stamina is getting better though and I was pretty out of shape starting out so I think I’m doing ok. I’m doing a 30 minute ride every day and I’m so addicted to my bike. Love it!🚴‍♀️❤️

Hopped on the bike early this morning to squeeze in a 20 minute ride before we had to head over to the ball field to watch the grand daughter play a game. I'm starting to get my rides done very early in the mornings to get it accomplished and not have to make the time later in the day.
After we got home though I felt energetic so hopped back on and did a Christine 15 minute ride, lots of climbs and high resistance in the saddle, then a 5 minute cool down, for a total of 40 minutes.
So jazzed that my increase in time with rides is resulting in some weight loss and seems to have broken the plateau I've been on. Sweet!
Hoping maybe next week to start doing some 45 minute rides!!

137 lbs...
Wt. still the same today....it seems to be the pattern I'm in, go for four or five days without a loss, then loss of a lb....then repeat....

I've upped my bike times, did my first 45 minute ride two days ago, then a 30 minute ride yesterday, then did a 45 minute ride this morning and it was easier than the first one I did two days ago! I thought I was going to die on that one! This mornings ride was easier, did Christine's low impact ride which was perfect....I worked up a good sweat and I never get tired of her encouragement. She's a professional velodrome cyclist and she has so many good tips! The ride was a steady pattern, about a 5 minute warm up, then 8 minutes or so of a faster cadence and lower resistance, then 8 minutes or so of a higher harder resistance and slower cadence, then again with the same pattern over and over....at the end of the 45 minutes the last 5 minutes or so was a steady level road faster cadence and 20 - 30 resistance, gradually getting lower and lower.....then I did one of her 5 minute cool downs which I've really come to appreciate. She just slows you down along with your heart rate for that 5 minutes until you feel ready to get off the bike, after some good stretches of course.

So I'm trying to do at least two 45 minute rides a week mixed in with the 30 minute rides and I'm going to try to do at least two rides a week with arm/weight exercises mixed in. There's a sleep program I'm starting tonight with daily classes of sleep meditation that lasts for a couple of weeks. Also doing daily planks with the 5 minute meditation/stretching I'm doing before I ride in the mornings. I really like planks and will try to increase the time my planks last as time goes on.

Tomorrow morning I'm looking forward to a 'Live' ride at 8:30 a.m. with Cody, almost 8000 people already signed up! Theme is XOXO, all love songs.....should be good! Lots of WW friends will be there!

136.2 lbs....

So my strategy lately is to slowly increase in spinning times, yesterday I did my second 45 minute ride....so I'm not surprised I had a 1 lb. drop this morning when I stepped on the scale. I'm working damn hard to burn calories and get this wt. off!

This morning I did a 30 minute very fun 'live' ride with Cody..there were over 9,000 people taking this live class as he's a popular instructor and it was more fun than I imagined. The music was sooo great, flashback to one of my favorite songs in the 90s to work out to, 'Baby Got Back'..

Higher difficulty level and I felt like I had to really reach to stay within the instructor's guidelines but I tried and did my best. Definitely burned some calories and had a good sweat! I got a little fan with octupus twisty legs that I wrapped around the bars so it blew in front of my face and chest and I love it! I would be happy riding in a wind tunnel if I had my way. It's a kind of distraction sort of like white noise that I like..lots of wind! I also have a big fan and another small one close by....

I'm also doing a 10 minute meditation/stretch class mixed with some yoga and planks before my rides and a good cool down ride afterwards.
Also starting a sleep meditation program tonight to just relax in the evenings and promote good sleep hygiene, instructors are a few of my faves so I'm looking forward to it! Am I addicted to my bike and all it offers?? YES!! What better to be addicted to! The Peleton social club is amazing....

Already have my ride planned for the morning...another 45 minute ride with Christine, low impact....burn calories, burn...

135.0 lbs...

So didn't ride the bike yesterday at all which was the first day in over a month that I didn't exercise but I at least did a 10 minute meditation/stretch/yoga/plank session that was nice. I just had too much going on yesterday and also a twingy low back so it was a good day to take a break.
To make up for missing yesterday's spin I did a 5 min. stretch/yoga session, then a 45 minute hard ride with Christine, then a 5 minute cool down ride with Christine....love how she just slows my body down and calms me on the 5 minute cool downs. I've decided to do a 5 minute warm up ride before every long ride, then a 5 minute cool down ride along with my stretching/yoga/meditation. And I'm doing a 'sleep program', I'm on day 5, that is an evening meditation schedule for two weeks. Although last night it didn't help with sleep because the power went off at midnight just long enough for the alarm clock to blare out and woke me up....so the 45 minute ride I did this morning was really hard considering I only got a few hours of sleep last night. Hope I catch up tonight because I'm planning to do another 45 minute ride tomorrow.
I've also signed up for a 'live' ride Thursday morning, a 30 minute XOXO ride with one of my faves Cody. The same type of his class I took last week was hard but so much fun so I'm looking forward to it. So far almost 7,000 other riders have signed up...can't wait!!

135.0 lbs.....

So wt. hasn't budged for a week since I last posted in the gym log. This week I started increasing my workout times to burn more calories and see if I can lose a little faster. I'm on the bike every single day doing at least a 30 minute ride with a 5 minute cool down ride...and at least twice a week I'm doing a 45 minute ride with a 5 minute cooldown. I don't think I can do a 60 minute ride, 45 minutes is about it for me. 60 minutes is just too long to sit on a bike pedaling hard....
But this week Peleton started classes in 'Barre' which I'd never heard of before. It turns out (after research on my part) that 'Barre' means a ballet barre.....so this form of exercise is described as a combination of ballet, yoga, isometrics....lots of ballet 'plie' type squats with 'pulsing' which I'm not used to doing. I love planks but their planks had 'pulsing', core type work while you're doing the planks, and side to side planks which were interesting....and hard. I was very intrigued when I saw chatter on my WWPeleton group site about 'Barre' so took a 5 minute class a couple of days ago, then took a 10 minute 'Intro' class, then this morning did my third class of another 10 minutes and it concentrated on the 'plie' type squats, pulsing them, with heels up...then more moves concentrating mostly on thighs and core strength. I'm loving 'Barre' more every day and I think it might be just the strengthening zero impact workout I was looking for.
And the 30 minute ride I did this morning had a 4 minute arm interval with 2 lb. hand weights that felt really good. So I'm hoping that with the combo of a little yoga, lots of bike riding, and the 'Barre' classes my wt. loss will start to speed up!

134 lbs.!!!
I put most of my workout today on my main journal page but this morning's workout was so good and the most important thing is that I stuck to Day #2 of my new plan to get my workouts done early in the mornings after my coffee, breakfast, and hot shower. I was in and out in an hour, got in a yoga/stretching/meditation class, a Barre class, and a good 30 minute bike ride that had lots of hills and cadence intervals. It sure felt good to get the workout done and dusted!!
Tomorrow I'm planning on an hour and a half so I'll get started a little earlier because I want to do a 45 minute bike ride, with a 'Queen' theme so the music will be so good. Higher difficulty level than I'm used to but I'll do the best I can. Before the ride I'll do a Barre class and my usual yoga/meditation.
Hopefully I can keep up the momentum with this wt. loss!

133.2 lbs.....

So after I weighed when I first got up this morning I was so surprised to see almost a lb. loss....it really motivated me to get myself in gear and make it down to my workout room to get my workout done and dusted for the day. This is Day #4 of the early morning workouts....I get up long before daylight anyway so I figured why not get it done and not have to be agonizing later in the morning about when I was going to get my workout done. So got down in my little room about 5:45, did 5 minutes of meditation along with a couple of yoga poses to stretch my lower back out...I'm trying to enjoy the meditation more and spend all of the 5 minutes meditating..so after the 5 minutes of meditation I stretched my legs and groin good, then did a 10 minute Barre class...which was easier this time to get the poses right. Barre has a theme of strengthening the core, abs, and legs, picture a 'plie' and up on your 'high heels', heels up while squatting. The music helps so much if I can manage to stay with the beat, .

Plan was to do the 45 minute ride I've been wanting to do but again I decided to just do a 30 minute ride...but this time I did a higher difficulty level than I've been doing this week, did the Cody XOXO ride I did 'Live' a week ago and oh my, it was so good to do it again, I sweated up a storm and enjoyed it as much as the first time 'live'....lots of good hill climbing and speed intervals. And I got my heart rate up to the 130s and even a little into the 140s zone which is what I need to do. I try to go with how my body is feeling when I decide how long of a ride to do and I've decided that it isn't so bad that I do 30 minute rides if I opt for a higher difficulty level and not give in to doing always a low impact or easier ride. It's so easy to make the decision to go easier instead of harder...need to get out of that mode. I need to push it a little more and get my heart rate up to where it's doing me some good.....I'm doing at least 30 minute rides every day and if I only do a 45 minute ride when I'm feeling especially energetic that's okay too...and if not, that's OK. Always that mental tug of war in these decisions...I want to get where it's just automatic and no arguing with myself. I've already written down the plan for tomorrow morning. Have to get it done earlier than I have been because I want to do a Hanah C. 'Live' ride at 6:30 a.m. so I'll be starting at 5:45 with meditation/yoga, a Barre class of 15 minutes, (increasing the Barre class time now that I've done the intro classes), then Hannah's ride for 30 minutes with a cool down ride...and all 'done and dusted' by 7:15 a.m. The grand kids have ball games all day tomorrow so I'll be busy watching them so it will be nice to have my workout out of the way early!

Onward and downward on the scale and I'm also feeling so good physically...if my neck feels a little wonky I'm doing Canna salve and some heat if I need it so I feel like I'm strengthening my neck and back muscles, also the core and abs with Barre and maybe it's just what I needed to be stronger overall and deal with the osteoarthritis effects of aging and the neck and back fusions I've had done....I want to feel good when I get to my 70s!!!

133.2 lbs....
Yesterday was a hard workout.....as planned I got up, had my coffee and tinctures, very hot shower, then went right to my workout and started with a 5 min. meditation/stretching session, then did a 15 minute Barre workout, the first 15 minute class I've done since I just started Barre a week ago. I was done with that a little too early for the 'Live' Hannah C. class I had signed up for at 6:30 a.m. so I did another 5 min. meditation/stretch class, and with even a little more time to spare I did a 5 min. Barre class just to get a little more stretching and calorie burn in. As the 'Live' class time approached I signed in a little early to see if Hannah was going to do a little chatting with everybody doing the class and she did and I love that part of the Live classes.

So the class was very hard but I managed to hang in there completing most of what she asked for in parameters, and if I couldn't do the resistance I was only under by a few numbers...one of the things I love about all of the Peleton instructors is that they constantly tell you to strive and just do the best you can but if your body is telling you it's too much then back off and just do you. I love that because then I don't feel like a failure if I can't quite get to the parameters they outline. There's definitely something about a 'Live' class that really motivates me to push and do the absolute best I feel like I can. So after 30 min. of intense climbs and speed intervals and Hannah's 5 min. cool down where she is like a bird stretching our arms and slowing our body down I was finished with what I found out later was a much higher difficulty level class than I usually do....I worked up a massive sweat and got the heart rate up to a good number and with the program recording the 'zone' levels I was up in a good power zone too. It was a good workout and the best part for me was that I got a 'shout out' from Hannah as she was calling out Leaderboard names! That's like the holy grail in Peleton, to get a shout out....So I was so tickled and thrilled....out of about 2300 people taking the class I was lucky to get one.
So being very slow moving and sore when I got up this morning I almost opted to do a rest day which I don't normally do, but after my coffee and tinctures and a very hot shower I was ready to do just a light workout today....So I did a 5 min. meditation/stretch class, a 10 min. Barre class, then 15 minutes of low impact bike riding with a 5 min. cool down ride. It was just perfect for today and tomorrow morning I'll ratchet it up a bit and get back to a 30 min. ride and maybe I can pull out a 20 min. Barre class if I'm not still as sore as I am this morning...I joined a Barre challenge to do 6 Barre classes in 7 days which is easy because I'm addicted to it now and will do a class every day anyway!

133.2 lbs....

So still sore from the hard workout Sunday morning...I'm glad I did a lighter workout yesterday, trying to listen to my body...and I told myself yesterday I would ratchet it up today and I did.

Started this morning's workout with the usual 5 minute meditation class in which I've also tried to incorporate some back stretching, (child's pose mainly) to get my back prepared for the Barre classes I've been doing. I'm always so stiff and sore when I first wake up and I need that preparation time before the really hard stuff starts. I do a good hip stretch by putting one ankle across my other leg just above the knee, hanging onto the bike bars and dropping down to really feel that hip/groin stretch on both sides, love that one. I'm trying to enjoy the meditation for the whole 5 minutes but then in between that class and the Barre class I get the rest of my stretching in....

Next I did a 20 minute Barre class, trying to progress from the 15 min. class. When I first got up this morning I thought ugh, I'm so sore I'll just re-do another 15 min. Barre but last evening I had written down that I was going to do a 20 min. class so I stuck with it and did that...it helps me so much to write down my plan and I'm much more inclined to stick with what I've written down. It was a good class.....and the first 20 min. Barre class I've done. Joined the 'Do 6 Barre classes in 7 days' challenge too.

Then I had planned on a 30 minute bike ride but instead of opting for a low impact or low difficulty level ride I checked the 'theme' rides and just jumped in and did the 30 minute XOXO
Cody ride I did 'Live' a couple of weeks ago and it was so much fun....again. Love Cody....Just to watch him dancing on the bike is so fun and he played twice one of my fave 90s workout songs 'I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie'....that song really gets me going and I remember riding to it on my bike in the 90s as I pedaled all over the roads on the No. CA coast.....
Anyway, this morning's ride was awesome and a higher difficulty level at 7.7 than I normally do....which I want to change from now on. I'm going to just jump in and not worry anymore about the difficulty level, just do the best I can.
All in all it was a very satisfying workout this morning...a good sweaty sanity was had!!!!

132.0 lbs....

Had an early morning appt. so opted for a light workout very early and didn't even work up a sweat. My heart rate stayed around 110 at the hardest part. Just did a 15 min. ride with a 5 min. cool down. And the Barre class was only 5 min. with a 5 min. meditation/stretch.
So thrilled with a 1 lb. wt. drop when I weighed this morning and I think my workout schedule the last two weeks is really helping. Yesterday I did a difficult 20 min. Barre class with lots of leg rotating and lifting to affect the hip joint and could definitely feel yesterday's class this morning. Once I loosened up it got better. Barre is getting to some interesting joints and tendons that I've been ignoring I guess.

I might do another Barre class this afternoon just to get some good stretching in, it feels so good on tired muscles. After yesterday's bike ride my legs aren't sore at all, just tired...and the feeling of a good stretch/motion is nice.

131.8 lbs...

Inching closer to my goal wt.....6 more lbs. to go.
Legs still feel a little tired, easy to get a burn in my quads...Did my usual 5 minute meditation/stretch, then did 10 minute Barre class...yikes, my thighs were screaming but I can also feel the effects of the Barre moves in my abs, core and low back so I know how good these classes are for me.
Opted for my ride this morning to do a low impact 30 minute ride with Hannah C., it was perfect with my heart getting into the 120s and I love the stretches she incorporates into her rides.
Then a 5 min. cool down ride....very satisfying workout.

131.0 lbs...

Down a few more ounces....workout this morning was moderate, a 5 minute med/stretch class, a 10 minute Barre class and a 20 minute mid level difficulty ride. It was just right for this morning and got it out of the way early...

130.2 lbs...

Opted yesterday to skip my usual workout, just did a 5 min. meditation/stretching class. Felt like I needed to rest my quads after the daily bike rides and Barre classes.
This morning I did a 5 min. med/stretch class, then a 10 minute Barre class, and then did a 20 minute bike ride with Hannah C. that was a good difficulty level, didn't expect to work up a sweat but did and got my heart rate up to where I was satisfied with it, around the mid 120s....
Tomorrow I need to push a little harder and do a 30 minute bike ride with a little higher diff. level, and possibly a 15 minute Barre class, I'll see how I'm feeling. My goal is to as the week goes on keep doing harder and harder bike rides until by next Sunday I'm doing a daily 30 minute ride and harder difficulty level. Sometimes if I pick a ride by the good music I like I just dive in and not worry about the difficulty, just do it! Those have been some of the most satisfying rides, especially when I'm shocked I did a ride that hard!