My Journey With Health And Fitness – Getting Stronger

Finally it is happening, the weather is improving or at least so I thought. It stopped raining here by about 8am today so I thought if the sun comes out I am going for a super walk (at least 8km). Sure enough the sun appeared so at about 10:30am I hit the road. I had already done what I usually do before heading out side, I checked the weather. It was pretty clear to me that toque, scarf and gloves would still be required. Turns out that was a great decision given I was walking along the beach and there was a pretty cold wind happening. Didn’t really matter though, it was just so nice to do a really long walk outdoors and by time I got home I was happy that I had opted to do that.

This week starts the beginning of me upping my game to work on my upper body strength. Now I have been very diligent for the last 7 weeks at including at least 5 days of strength training each week. I have successfully been working with my 5lb weights toning in particular my arms. I never let it get too easy so had increased from 3 sets of 10 reps to 3 sets of 12 and then I upped it to 3 sets of 15. I’ve been doing the 15’s for the past 2 weeks when I came to that fork in the road, do I up the number of reps or do I up the weight? Well, I decided to go with the weight.

Yesterday was my first time using the 8lb weights and I know I need to work slowly to build myself up so I started with 3 sets of 8 reps. Ok, there may be some of you reading this who think that doesn’t really sound all that challenging but trust me, those extra 3lbs are brutal. I am not doing this to gain any sort of bulk in my muscles, it is just about getting them toned. That is why I had stuck with the 5lb weights for so long. I realized though that I had decided this year I am going to (cautiously) push myself so a new goal, getting up to using 10lb weights (I can’t even imagine that right now).

I am, of course, going to have to find a game plan for when I am in Mexico the month of May. I already have a yoga mat at the condo (for doing modified crunches and full bridges) and I have some 6lb weights. However, as I keep telling my husband, I refuse to lose any ground when it comes to my fitness on this trip so it looks like I’ll be buying some heavier weights. Regardless, I will just keep doing this along the slow and steady path to get me to where I want to be.

Yes, it is all about getting stronger at this point in my journey.