Day 2 - Cardio Circuit

Yesterday's workout was a bit crazy; 40+ minutes of it too.  I won't go into all the details, but it was a good deal different from the first workout.  For the circuit workout, you go through a series of movements multiple times before breaking.  One example of this:  I was given exercises like suicide drills, heismans, high knees, butt kicks, jumping jacks, and mummy kicks. You are given about 30 seconds for each exercise with no breaks - the first round is at about 50%, primarily used as a warm-up.  After you complete a "circuit" you're given a 30 second break, and you do it again at about 75% effort.  After another 30 second break you do the circuit a last time at 100%.  Through this video, we went through two separate circuit sets.

I feel like I'm keeping pace better than before, but I still can't make it through an entire workout without stopping.  I think as I progress I'll be able to not take as many breaks, but I expect extra resting to be a normal thing.  Heck, the instructor takes breaks sometimes.  I'm no fitness trainer.

So along with my exercising, I've been trying to control my eating a little better too.  I'm not doing as much "calorie counting" as I did before, but that's primarily because I want to do something that can be a lifestyle change.  I don't want to count calories my whole life.  I keep track of how many calories are in my food to a degree, but that's mainly because I need to re-teach myself the goods and the bads of my eating habits.  I'm trying to stay in the neighborhood of 1500 to 2000 calories a day.

As another tidbit - I recently read that drinking ice water can help you burn extra calories (not many).  It makes sense that it takes energy for your body to bring ice water temperatures up to your normal body temperature.  A site I was looking at calculated 8 glasses of ice water to burn somewhere around 70 calories.  Not much, but still not bad considering it takes zero effort.  I've also started taking One-A-Day Energy pills.  I'm not sure that I can tell a huge difference yet.  I do know that yesterday I was feeling extremely tired at work, and wasn't sure why - later I realized I didn't take my One-A-Day.  About 30 minutes after I took it (and after dozing off in my desk chair for about 2 minutes) I felt great for most of the day - whether I should attribute that to the energy pill or the cat-nap, I don't know.

As a final note, I tried a peanut butter Nature Valley granola bar this morning for breakfast.  Ah-Maze-Zing, and only like 190 calories.  I plan on buying a box of these when I get off work.