Self improvement

As you may or may not know, I have been doing a fitness/nutrition program since September. I signed up for the TrymGym program at the U of C, and it's been great. I've learned so much about how to eat properly, what to look for, how/when to exercise and all that other good stuff. My main goal in the course was to increase my levels of physical activity, get more energy and lower my blood pressure. And of course lose a bit of weight! =D

Anyway, they're starting to do the final testing to see how far we've progressed in 3 months. I got my blood pressure taken yesterday. In September I was on average 155 over 90. Needless to say, higher than it should be. Yesterday I was an average of 140 over 86. Yea for me! It's still a bit high, but much better than it was. Blood pressure is one of those weird things. I can't FEEL the difference from September to now, but there is one.

In other progress, I've lost about 3.5kg (7.7 lbs). Not a lot, but boy are my pants baggy! I think I've been gaining lots of muscle mass. I also ran more laps (2 as opposed to a half) during our 12 minute walk and/or run test and it didn't take me nearly so long to recover my breath/heart rate as it did in the past. I could also do double the amount of push ups.

All in all, I'm pleased as punch with my progress. I'm also exceptionally proud that I have stuck with this and embraced the lifestyle changes that are necessary for me to be healthier. I've signed up for a yoga class and deep water workout (twice a week) for Jan to Apr to keep going with activity. One of the most important things that I've learned is how I exercise. I'm definitely not a go to the gym by myself kind of person. I like the social part of it. I also get extremely bored quickly, so classes are better for me than just buying a gym membership.

So YAY ME!!