Week 11 - Tuesday (October 17, 2017) AKA Tuesdays with Tori

Tori, Four (aka Paul), Patty

It was Week 9 of the 12 week Challenge.  I was still over 250 pounds.  We were in a semi-private workout, and there was probably six of us that morning.  We were doing a circuit of exercises and one of them was jump roping.  Well, in the past I had bought myself a jumprope because I could do that on the front or back porch and get myself some exercise.  However, when I actually tried to jump, I couldn't because I was so heavy and out of shape.  So this particular morning, I started jump roping and my smile was ear to ear, because I was doing it.  I was pretty damn happy with myself.  On the third round of the circuit while I was jump roping, I heard (and felt) an audible POP from my left knee.  My leg buckled and that was the end of the jump roping.  This was in March of 2016.

Many Dr. visits and physical therapies later and some set backs, I am back to squatting.  The biggest thing I need to do is speak up if something is hurting.  So far though so good.  So today, Tuesday, is Leg Day with Paul.  This begins at 8:00 a.m. and Tori always joins me.

Front bar squat (aka Mummy squat)

Here we are starting out with a front bar squat.  Tori is holding the bar differently than me because I have a "wrist" issue.  So I "hugged" the bar lightly and she "held" the bar lightly.  Here we did 5 sets of 10 squats with the bar (45 #).  Most times Tori can handle more weight on the bar than I can, but honestly just the fact that I can do these really does make me happy.  For me I am always working on keeping the weight on my feet off of my toes and getting low enough (they call that depth.)

More leg work.

Next we did a circuit of 3 exercises and 5 rounds.  20 TRX squats (really working on form), 10 stepups each leg (Tori with 30# kettlebells in each hand, me with 20#), and sled push (no idea how much weight was on there.)  I tend to be a little slower when it involves legs so this was the extent of our workout today, but it was a great one.

On to cardio for me.

From there, I went to the AMT (Elliptical) and did 70 minutes.  My headphones had died so I did it without headphones.  Let's just say a lot of you were prayed for today.  Today I did steady state which meant I just kept going for 70 minutes straight (no intervals) while trying to maintain a hr of 141.  

The reason I am doing so much right now is because I asked for a 20 week plan.  In order to lose weight, there must be a deficit of calories in versus calories out.  I am trying to make that deficit larger during these last 10 weeks.   With every pound lost, I feel better, I receive positive news from blood tests that I'm required to take (for Rhuematoid Arthritis and Underactive Thyroid.)  I can keep up with my kids.  I have a ton more energy.  The list goes on and on.

So there is my Tuesday.  For the rest of the day I have a teenager who has his last "drive time" after school today.  Then in about a month he can get his driver's license.  I will make sure again that I eat well and eat enough.  Between the leg day and the elliptical I once again have over 1000 calories burned, so this will be helpful in reaching my goal.

Some people have asked me what a typical week looks like - that is the purpose of these posts.  That's my Tuesday.