B2B Challenge Review

B2B W7: 115/250, **, 3 stairs

Wow! Week 7 of the Back to Basics Challenge! Halfway through my minutes. Eating on plan has been sketchy and the definition changed a few times. I'm comfortable with where it is now. I'm tempted to make this more complicated with a points system to keep it interesting. Funny how I can get "bored" with something in just 6 weeks.

There are some things I would like to push to do. They're mostly in the arena of increasing my exercise intensity. I would like to be able to walk at 3.2 miles per hour on hills going into the 3rd quarter of the year. That's when I start C25K. I can push myself of the elliptical really easy, but on the treadmill, I'm a wuss at 2.8 mph. I really want to be able to run, but I HATE the treadmill. The B2B challenge is just about building good habits. The next challenge will be about doing it well.

Yes, I could walk on the track at the gym, but machines are callibrated and I can tell how fast I'm going and I can make them make me go faster. When I'm freestyle walking, it's very difficult for me to up my intensity, unless I'm going from walking to running. Over long (and I do mean looooong) periods I can see my time improve, but nothing beats upping the intensity on a machine and going faster or harder and knowing it.

I'm really looking forward to adding strength training in the next challenge and I almost want to jump the gun on it. When I created the challenges back in December, I thought I would to the Body For Life strength training routine because it seems to be the most comprehensive. If you know of another really structured plan that's simpler, please let me know. I'm thinking of just doing 3 sets of 12 reps on each machine alternating with upper body and lower body days, one machine per muscle group. I like the idea of keeping my workout pace up, but I don't know what's meant by keeping the pace up. I'm not into expensive equipment so I won't get a heart rate monitor.

Also, at the beginning of this challenge, I set the reward of going to the hairdresser if I have a complete on plan week and did my minutes. Getting my minutes in has been relatively easy. I've only had one on plan week and I didn't take the reward for that week as it was also the week I gained .2 lbs and I was fuming.

Picture by Andy Shaffer