Last Thursday I had a chance to meet with Stacey, my exercise guru from Alegent. We talked about how the walking and swimming I'm doing now is going well. She said to make sure I didn't "overdo". She is also helping me "train" for a new challenge. (I'm not ready to say yet what that is.)

She also demonstrated many resistance exercises that can be done with a resistance band or dumbbells. She asked what my goals were. I told her I wanted to become stronger, I have no upper body strength. I also wanted to get rid of the "underarm dingle dangle" and "belly fat". She said it was very important to "strengthen" our core so we don't risk injury. She also said we need to take a day off from exercise because the body needs a day of rest. (Thank you!)

I asked her if I could carry dumbbells while I walked so I could "kill two birds with one stone". She said it's not a good idea because you change your walking speed and you pay more attention to what you're doing with the weights and not your stride. I agreed because I have a hard time doing two things at one time anyway.

I really liked the "triceps dips" , these can be done with a chair or picnic table at the park. An old one that most people know are bicycles, this help strengthen the core. I think the thing I learned about resistance exercise is don't do it fast but slow and do what you can to start with and so many reps. My goal is to work resistance into my exercise plan at least twice a week not on consecutive days. Start where I can and increase the weight, number done, and reps as I go. She said this is a good way to burn calories for a longer period of time which should help with weight loss. I'm willing to give it a try, I hope you will too.

There is a class at the YMCA called "Body Pump" which employs many of the exercises she showed me and it's done to fun music. I've tried to get there before school starts. It's at 5:50 in the morning in Atlantic which means I have to leave home by about 5:20 to get there on time. I have a hard time bailing out that early . She has given me a back up plan to follow now when I can't get myself up. So now I don't have an excuse when I oversleep.

Thank you Stacey for the time you spent with me as I am a kinsthetic learner. I have to see, hear, and "do" to learn something new. Today is my "first" day of resistance training. I know my arms and gut are going to be sore tomorrow, but if they weren't then I would know that I hadn't done something right.

I did get all my walking in last week and I started the new week yesterday with Trudy. Tomorrow I will walk in Atlantic again with Jodi. I love my friends because I push them and they push me.

Blessings,

Laurie

PS-I found a website that gives lots of information about resistance training and actually shows you the exercises with animation. The site is www.abc-of-fitness.com . Type in resistance training with free weights or body weight.