Plugging along

Hello followers,

Candace and I are moving with our exercise program. We are spending around 75 minutes at the gym 4 days a week now as Candace mentioned in her last post. On Wednesday night, we went to the library to check out a few new books to supplement our activities. We also did some research on ideal heart rate while working out.

Candace has been concerned about keeping her heart rate at what the aerobics machine said was ideal for her. I also wondered if my heart rate was high enough to be doing me any real good or was I just going the motions. So Candace went the Mayo Clinic website and they have a tool called the target heart rate calculator which helped us determine what our ideal heart rate should be. Candace found out that her ideal heart rate is between 134-163 and I am between 130-152. This gave Candace some piece of mind in her exercise regime. At first she was trying to keep her heart rate at lower level and she felt like she was moving in slow motion on the elliptical machine, instead she can work out at faster speed. It helped me realize that I was actually being too easy on myself so now I work out a little harder.

We got quite a few books on healthy eating and living, we got the Volumetrics books that Amy recommended and so far we like what we are hearing from it. I can't say that I agree with everything that is being said, but then again we only got 25 pages into it. We will write a review on it once we finish it. We also got a diet book from Dr. Nancy Schnedierman (yes the same person from t.v.) and we really like what she has to saying about dieting and eating better. Again we will write a review on it once we finish it.

As many of you know, Candace got a job working as a real estate photographer assistant. This will could add an interesting challenge for us, going to the gym while at least one of us has a real job. It should be interesting for me since historically I gain weight when I have to work. I know, I know I am a part-time student getting money from unemployment, but I will be living Candace's schedule, so I am working vicariously.

Anyways, its late and I am sleepy, so until next time....