Happy Days Are Here Again!

It’s been almost two months since I sent off our heart rate monitors to get new batteries and be resealed.  It ended up taking that long because the place lost our stuff! 🙁 For weeks I was calling to get an update and find out when we’d be getting them back. The guy finally said he lost them. I was pretty upset by the news and delegated the issue to Michael. I knew I couldn’t keep a cool head. He thankfully called the guy and worked something out. The guy said he’d build us both new heart rate monitors free of charge and send them to us within 10 days.

Well they finally arrived! Just in time for the weekend workouts too. You have no idea how happy I was to get my HRM back. I love that thing. While I got used to working out without it, I don’t like that. I hate not knowing how many calories I’ve burned or if I’m in my heart rate range. I am so glad I have it back.

How I’ve been calculating my calories for the last two months: estimating. If I use a machine like the elliptical I go off what the machine calculates I burned and subtract about 100 or 150 calories from that number. For example, the elliptical typically says 650 calories burned in 55 minutes. I record that as 500 calories.

What I am most excited about is seeing the actual number burned with my heart rate monitor to see how far off my estimations were. I’m also curious about what that number is for spin class!

Saturday morning I went to the gym and started with the elliptical machine. I did about 60 minutes. The machine said I burned 653 calories.

What was the reality? My heart rate monitor calculated a much smaller number. 525!

So I was a bit off in my calculations but it’s not the end of the world. Especially since I’d been UNDERcalculating my weight lifting sessions for the last month. That’s always difficult to calculate without a HRM but I guessed I burned about 100 calories when in reality I was burning about 200. In the end it all evened out.

After my cardio I spent about 40 minutes doing some free-weight routines. Some of them were suggested by Suzanne and they are awesome. I love how the free weight routines wear me out more than using the weight machines. It’s almost like mixing in some cardio into it because of how high my heart rate spikes. Check out my progress photos! I’m so happy with my body right now. I can SEE the results of weight lifting.

Stomach is flatter and toner, my legs are toned (I think from both squats and spin class). I love it!

GYM STATS:
Time: 1:41
Calories Burned: 745

I finished my routine with a bunch of stretching and abs. I incorporated some yoga stretches for my lower back and calves. My calf muscles have been tight lately. Here is a photo of my progress in real clothes!

Michael and I went out to dinner Saturday night to use a Groupon that was close to expiring. We went to a fantastic restaurant called Iorio. I’ve been there once before for my birthday and the good was amazing.

We split the calamari appetizer, which was probably better than Jake’s (the best calamari in Portland) and Michael got the Caesar salad. I had a few bites of the salad and ordered a glass of Malbec wine. The wine was delicious; light and mild.

Michael got the fresine dish (pasta with fresh parmesan, sauce and sausage). I got the ravioli of the day which came with beef inside and was smothered in a spicy red pepper sauce. My sauce wasn’t spicy though, it was sweet. There were hints of nutmeg and cinnamon and maybe even pumpkin….? My dinner tasted like Christmas! It was fantastic though.

For dessert we split the flourless cake with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. The dessert was kind of a joke. It was teeny tiny! But we split it (so we each got 3 bites?!) and it was pretty amazing. I just wish there had been a little bit more.

It was a really nice date night! Lots of decadent food and delicate flavors and I got to get dressed up a bit to got out with my honey. The highlights of my weekend.

QUESTION: How accurate are you in your calculations?