Notes by Nectar

I’m still struggling to get back into my exercise routine.

I went to the gym on Sunday but walked fast for 3 km (28:03).

I had a session with Pete on Monday morning. I began with a warmup on the treadmill:

• Walk x 1 min
• Run x 400 m
• Walk x 1 min
• Run x 400 m

I usually end up running until I hit 1 km and managed to do that in 8:37. I did some stretches and Pete told me I’d be doing mostly weights in the session. The set of exercises were:

• Incline pushup x 12
• Chest press x 12
• Flutter kicks x 30 s

I did that three times, had a quick water break and moved on to the next set of exercises:

• Wall squat x 20 s
• Bench squat/twist x 20 (10 on each side, 20-lb weight)
• Butterfly situps x 20 (10-lb weight)

After three sets of that and some water, I did the next set of exercises:

• Low row x 12
• Inclined dumbbell row x 12 (15-lb weights)
• Russian twists x 20 (10 on each side, 10-lb weight)

And that was it. I thought there would be more, but it wasn’t too bad. The session went really quickly! I did some stretches and went home. My upper body was a bit sore the following day but it wasn’t too bad.

I woke up on Tuesday and wasn’t in the mood to do anything. So I did nothing.

I had another session with Pete on Wednesday morning. I started with a treadmill warmup:

• Walking x 1 min
• Running x 400 m
• Walking x 1 min
• Running x 400 m (to 1 km)

I managed it in 8.37. I did some stretches and Pete told me it was going to be a sweaty session. The first set consisted of three rounds of the following exercises, without any breaks:

• Step up on treadmill x 10 on each side
• Shuttle runs x 10
• Hanging knee raises x 10

It took me just under 5 minutes to do that. Then came an abs set:

• Mountain climbers x 30 s
• Scissors x 20
• Leg sweep x 30 s
• Double crunch x 20

I then got on the cross-trainer for 4 minutes, alternating 20 seconds of sprinting with 10 seconds of an easy pace.

After some water, I did the next set of exercises:

• Jerks (like a combined deadlift/shoulder press) x 10 on each side (15-lb/10-lb weight)
• Jumping jacks x 60
• Tricep dips x 10

Again, it was supposed to be three continuous sets and no stops. Well, that didn’t happen. I absolutely hated the jumping jacks! And to think that by the end of that set of exercises I’d done 180 of them. I did that group of exercises in 11 minutes.

I had some more water and then Pete said we’d finish with an abs circuit:

• Crunches x 20 (low arms)
• Crunches x 20 (raised arms)
• Reverse crunches x 20
• Crunches x 20 (arms overhead)

Just as I finished the crunches, Pete said I had enough time to do another 4 minutes on the cross-trainer. Dammit! Once again, I alternated sprints and a slower pace for 20 and 10 seconds. And then I finally did some stretches and went home! It was a tough session. Pete even commented that he hadn’t seen me struggle like that in a long time…

I felt fine the next morning and went to a Hatha Flow class at Eco Yoga Sanctuary.

And I didn’t work out again over the weekend.

Total distance covered this week? Just 3 km.

Low point of the week? I still don’t feel very motivated.

High point of the week? Managing four workouts, even though I didn’t feel like it.

Weight loss? Ugh. None. And when will I hit my goal weight of 65 kg? According to the Libra weight-tracking app that answer is still ‘NA’.

Read more updates here.