Happy Wednesday!
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t know that Spring is supposed to be here and that I should be flaunting lovely Spring dresses and adorable flats.
Instead, I donned my long North Face and Hunter boots today as I skipped through the puddles, snow, and sleet.
I spent thirty blissful minutes stretching and rolling my tight muscles. The lovely Anne featuring a wonderful guest post yesterday which highlighted the best stretches for athletes.
I brightened up my morning meal with my fun, bright placemat!
Lunch was my standard Greek salad from Pax filled to the brim with romaine, chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, celery, and feta cheese. This combination is absolutely delicious and keeps me filled for hours!
My North Face Endurance Challenge water bottle inspired me for the upcoming race as I sipped plenty of water throughout the day!
After work, I ventured back into the horrible weather for my first Equifit session with Lauren, my new trainer at Equinox on 19th street.
The Equifit session is Equinox’s version of a diagnostic fitness test. It is basically an interview and fitness assessment which allows the trainer to personalize a workout plan to meet your body’s needs. Lauren spent an hour getting to know me, my fitness and health history and future goals, my current weight and height, BMI, blood pressure, and even the ins and outs of my muscular and skeletal system through different balance exercises.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll share with you my results:
- Resting heart rate: low
- Blood pressure: low
- Height: 5’9 and a half
- Weight: 171.5 (After a day of food and liquids, I was 170 this morning when I woke up.)
- Body Composition: 22
After our hour long session, we established the following goals:
- Do one unassisted pull-up
- Reduce Body composition to 19
- Run a 2:10 half marathon
Due to the fact that weight alone isn’t the best indication of fitness, we are focusing more on body composition and strength.
Our plan is to workout together every Wednesday evening, spending an hour on a workout and 20 minutes on stretching. I look forward to sharing the different exercises and lessons I learn from Lauren with you all!
After the session, I stopped in Paragon to pick up the last of my National Half Marathon supplies: Cliff Shot Blocks and socks.
The Nike+ Run Club was there giving out awesome technical t-shirts to shoppers who signed up for their run club emails! If you’re interested, the Union Square Paragon features a Wednesday evening run club at 6:30pm. The run consists of a 2 mile warm-up, 2 miles speed session at the East River Track, and a 2 mile cool-down.
The rest of this evening is going to be spent packing, organizing, and getting ready for Friday’s trip down to Washington, DC with Theodora and Ali!
Fun Fine Print:
*Equinox and I are partnering to bring my readers more health and fitness information from their trainers, instructors, and more. This will include free classes in the future for readers, giveaways, and more. I am however paying for my training sessions.
*Please realize that weight is personal and I am putting it on the blog in hopes of building a stronger community and helping readers understand my starting point. Please do not think that my plan or my weight is right for everyone.
I wish I lived in a big city and had an Equinox. I went to one in LA and loved it. I’m looking forward to the rest of your posts with them! Good luck at the National Half this weekend!!
I stopped reading your blog a while ago — not because of YOU but because I was becoming way too obsessive about weight loss, driving myself nuts, etc… so I stopped following a lot of weight loss / fitness / nutrition blogs. ANyway, I just saw your tweet about “admitting your weight” and came to read your blog, and I want you to know how much I appreciate your honesty… and also how wonderful it is to hear of a woman who looks as amazing as you who isn’t posting a 115-145 lb weight. That makes me feel normal, and healthy, and attractive… I got down to 177, ran a marathon, felt and looked great, but couldn’t get “out of my own head” enough to think that 170 was a good goal weight for me (I started at 250). I regained a lot of weight, and I’m trying to lose it again with a much different attitude… one of loving my body instead of loathing it, and of accepting and embracing that I’m never going to be a skinny little thing, but I can be a healthy and slim person. 170-180 is my goal weight.
Thank you so much for your honesty. IT really helped me.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Jessica for your honesty and comment. I want everyone to know that healthy can look different on everyone! 🙂 Hopefully lots of people will see this post and it will help them just like it helped you. I always try to be honest with my readers as there is no point in blogging if I’m not going to be honest. 🙂
Equinox sounds really interesting. I agree that focusing on body composition and strength is more important than weight.
Can I just say…THANK YOU!
I am a tall girl with a pretty athletic build. At my fittest, I wore a size 8-10 and looked and felt great, but I always had such a hard time wrapping my brain around the numbers on the scale — they seemed so much higher than what I expected a “fit” woman should weigh. I never felt skinny because of that damn number.
I had lost a bit of weight in my 20s, and when people would guess my weight (I have no idea why they did this, I never encouraged it), they would throw out numbers like 130, 135. I would have to amputate a limb or two to get to 130! But weirdly, I feel like that is the magic standard that ALL women (regardless of their height/build) are expected to meet.
Thank you for being such a great role model, and for stepping up to let people know that healthy girls come in more than just one shape and size!
Alison,
Thank you so much for your warm and honest comments. I know that it can be tough to read about other people but remember that they are built entirely differently. We are each individuals! I am glad this post helped you and I want everyone to know that healthy girls come in ALL shapes and sizes! Feel free to link or RT the post if you want others to see too! 🙂
Will do! I always love spreading a good positive message!
man I actually do the run club here and they don’t hand out shirts unless you show up to like 10 runs! geez.
I agree that focusing on composition becomes far more important than weight as you are already fit
Sounds like your trainer started you off with in almost the same way my trainer started my sessions off. Getting those baseline measurements is super helpful!
I’m reading a book right now (Racing Weight) which talks about how body composition is so much more important than overall body weight (although that plays a role too). It’s a great book and I’m learning a ton.
I can’t wait to read more about what you’re learning at your training sessions!
Thank you for sharing!!
How did she measure your body composition? I would be interested in getting that done but I don’t belong to a gym.
They used those little calipers
Great post Ashley! I too appreciate your honesty – I just posted before and after photos recently and I know the process you went through and how scary it is! But you are obviously touching a cord with many different people. Good luck with your training sessions, I can’t wait to follow you and see how they go!
I’m so impressed with your honesty about your weight! That just shows how far you’ve come.
Also, good luck on your race this weekend and I love the t-shirt. I plan on checking out some of the speed training sessions at Paragon. I’ve done a Central Park run and it was great, but would really like to try some speed training.
Hi Ashley,
I stumbled onto your blog and I love it! Thanks for sharing your weight with us. I know that it is quite personal for most women. I will continue to read your blog to see what has been happening recently.
Again thanks for sharing.
Diane: Thanks and welcome to my blog! I hope you’ll stay! If you want to learn more about my personal training experiences just search Personal Training in the search bar to get my recaps!