Today is a good day. I experienced the wonder of getting a full night of sleep, woke up on time, did my workout, made a stellar breakfast, had an easy daycare transition and made it to work early. Very rarely do I get days that flow that easily. I’ve ridden the positive wave this entire day. I enjoyed not feeling sore from my workout. A coworker told me she could really see the results of my workouts now. I had an extra bounce in my step. I didn’t even grimace at the massive pile of paperwork on my desk, knowing that I could get through it.
The workout today went much of the same way. I had a little issue with my muscles not wanting to obey me during the warm up but once they figured out who was boss we did a great job… until the very last set. My arms shook from all of those last exercises. When I started this I could barely do a push up and I went from that to Insanity, go figure. I think after I finish this program I’m going to challenge my brother to an arm wrestling contest… just to see how it goes.
I am extremely grateful I am doing my workouts in the morning. Yes, I physically groan when I set the alarm for 04:30 but after the first couple days it became easier and easier to actually wake up in the morning and not take 15+ minutes getting out of bed. It is so much cooler in the morning. Yesterday we reached a high of 108 degrees. Today is supposed to be 106. I cannot imagine trying to work out in the afternoons with this heat. As it is now I can barely drag myself from the car to the air conditioned house. The little monster just doesn’t understand why we can’t be outside if the sun’s shining, I haven’t figured out how to explain the heat wave to him. I tell him it’s HOT but he just laughs and I can see him thinking, “Yeah right Mom, the only HOT I know about is in the kitchen!”
I do not have a heart rate monitor. Most people I talk to that has done Insanity or other workout programs has one… I feel a little left out and I am extremely curious to see just how many calories I burn per workout. I am after a good quality heart rate monitor that is accurate, tough and useful. Yet I do not want to break the bank on this; I don’t have the funds available to just drop $100+ on say the Jawbone Up (cool as it is.) I just can’t justify spending that much money on something like this.
It’s taken a lot of research, prowling a lot of online stores and reading a ton of reviews to finally narrow it down to what I am looking for. In everything I read the most accurate monitors also have a chest strap to more accurately get readout of heart rate, calories burned, and all that fun stuff. The best two I have found within my price range are the Polar FT4 and the Polar FT7. The FT4 seems easy to use, durable and a reasonable price. The FT7 is also easy to use, durable and has a few more interesting gadgets than the FT4. It can tell the difference in between your workouts, if you’re working on fitness or if you’re actually burning fat. It also stores up to 99 workouts, allowing you to see your highest heart rate, the most calories you’ve burned and the totals.
Both seemed interesting and I was sure I could get along with both models… what it really came down to was the money. I found on Amazon that I could buy the FT7 for $8.00 more than the FT4. I’m such a sucker for a deal. It’s on order and I am hoping by Monday I will be able to finally see just how many calories this Insanity workout is burning for me.
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