My elliptical and me

One of my new year’s resolutions is to tone my body.

When I was a teenager, I was fortunate to have a good metabolism, I weighed 110 lbs. at the most and at 5’2’’ tall I felt extremely comfortable in my own body. Since then I have put on more weight as my metabolism slacked off and my bad habits grew. This is uncomfortable for me to tell you, but at the most I weighed 145 lbs. Since then I’ve lost 10 lbs. and right now I weigh 135 lbs. My goal is to be 120 lbs., in good shape, with good eating habits.

I bought myself an elliptical with my Christmas money and I can’t wait to start using it on a daily basis. My plan is use it in the evenings when Cameron and I watch movies. I will start with 20 minutes on tension level 1 the first week and add 20 minutes each week until I hit an hour, then work my way up the tension levels in a similar fashion.

Adding aerobic exercise or “cardio” to your workout routine has numerous health benefits including building endurance and strengthening your heart, reducing the risk of heart attacks and high blood pressure. Aerobic workouts also help you burn calories and lose weight.

Aerobic exercise is physical exercise of relatively low intensity. You should be able to carry out short conversations while doing aerobic exercise. If you are having trouble getting enough air while you’re talking, you are most likely performing anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise is medium to high intensity exercise that concentrates on building strength, speed and power. In some cases anaerobic exercise occurs simultaneously with aerobic exercise.