Heart Rate Monitor

So I really wanted to know how many calories I was burning from my workouts. So I went to Target today, and purchased this heart rate monitor.

I used it during my 30 Day Shred Jillian Michaels' DVD and during my elliptical today. After seeing the results, I checked the reviews online, and it is a fairly high rated heart rate monitor on the target website and also on Amazon.com. It was $42, so not a super high-end one, but it calculates better than the other cheaper watch that was only a calorie tracker based on activity.

So, that being said, I was good and made sure to wear it properly, and checked my heart rate several times during the workouts, whenever i changed intervals on the ellipical, and during every change in exercise on the DVD.

I burned 374 calories during Jillian's workout, and 200 on the elliptical. And you know what? I believe it. It's a very good monitor of heart rate, I nearly die from each workout, and I couldn't have checked my rate more often to make sure it was recording properly.

So, DAMN. 574 calories burned. Not including the nice bedroom time I had with my man earlier (which, as it turns out, doesn't burn as many calories as I thought!).

EDIT: I found this calculator online, that someone created using the official formulas for calculating calories burned using age, weight, and average heart rate. I checked, and using the averages I had from my two workouts they are pretty close to what my HRM says. So yeah. I'm kicking some ass. Shannon, you should borrow it for the cardio kickboxing someday. Or maybe I'll come over and try it with you!

Here's the link to the calculator:

http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/?page_id=483

I'm shredded...

Today's foods were just 1/2 of an iceberg wedge, and 1/2 of an order of steak tips, 3 sugarfree cookies, and then 3 pieces of pork ravioli at Fridays, plus the Jack Daniels flat iron (probably 6 oz, it was small) and mashed potatoes.

At Target, after hearing great things from Shannon about the Jillian Michaels workout DVDs she's tried, I bought this one

and it definitely does what I want it to. It's got 3 20 minute (actually 22 minute) workouts, starting with level 1 intensity, up to level 3. I'm not sure I could ever do level 3, because though I completed the level 1 one tonight, it KILLED me. But I like how she does it, its easy to follow.

Its 2 minutes of warmup (jumping jacks, windmills, etc), followed by three 6-minute sections consistening of 3 mins strength, 2 mins cardio, 1 minute abs, and at the end is a 2 minute cooldown.

So the level 1 you do start with 3 minutes alternating pushups and arm weight exercises, into 2 minutes of jumping jacks and jumprope, and into 1 minute of crunches. each 6 minute section changes up the different exercises.

I could DO them all, but there were a few where I'll admit, i skipped the last 2 reps because it was killing me.

I checked up the average calories burned doing level 1 through the sparkpeople team for this DVD, and the average is over 200 calories. I'm going to plug an estimate of 200 calories in for doing this. That's lower than most people (they seem to be between 215 and 260).

I think this DVD is supposed to be done every day for 30 days to gaurantee like, a 20 pound weight loss, but I think I'm going to aim for 2-3 times a week, mixed in with the Pilates DVD, and add my elliptical and other exercises. Oh, and Brad was nice enough to buy a DVD player for the livingroom TV (its one that converts to 1080 HDMI so it plays like HD) so I was able to do my workout in the livingroom, but now that I've seen it I could do it in the basement too :)

I followed up my DVD with 10 mins on my elliptical. What a good girl I am today!