The weekend!

What a GREAT weekend we had!

Saturday morning I was up and going to prepare for English Circle, and we headed out the door to our friend's house. Well, just Hana and I, Daddy is neck deep in CD production right now, so we left him at home to all his mixing and mastering!!!

English Circle started out as "English preschool" sometime last year when my friend Yukie and I decided we wanted to do some preschool with our kids together. Yukie invited friends, and we had a small group of about 6-8 kids twice a month for some fun time in English. It went well, but the beginning of "real" preschool for some this Spring meant that weekdays were out of the question. So we switched to Saturdays, re-organized our purpose and thoughts, re-named it and started again. Twice a month on Saturdays we get together. There have been few in attendance lately because Saturday isn't the best time for everyone. But this week! WOW! We had 6 "students" and 3 "mini-students" (younger siblings of students). It was a BLAST! I could see the kids have all learned things. They enjoy the activities and it feels so good to be their little "teacher"! We had a great Saturday.

Today was Sunday and it was another great day. Rocky filled the pulpit (it was a BIG pulpit to fill too, literally, that thing was so huge Rocky refused to stand behind it, and I couldn't blame him) for another church in town this morning. Then after the service we headed across town to a church member's house (our own church) for a cook-out. We spent the afternoon feeding our faces and talking non-stop with church friends. I LOVE the people in our church. It was soooooo much fun today!

Now another new week begins. I'm sure there are a lot of things I need to do, but I will sit down and organize my thoughts tomorrow!

NOW for my own fitness journal-ing (this part is probably boring for all of you so you can stop reading if you want!) I just journal this stuff for my own sort of record keeping, self-motivation, accountability kinda reasons. (There are a few people who keep me accountable by mentioning that they read my blog! and that helps keep me in line! *wink wink* you know how you are!)

I've given up on weekends. It is just impossible to find a way to get to the gym in the middle of the day. So I am resigned to waiting until I can buy a decent pair of running shoes and can go for a jog, before I can work out on the weekends. I'm having major shoe issues in Japan right now, but that is another blog!

BUT last week I made it to the gym 3 times, and all three times did my 50 minutes on the elliptical. I did close to 750 calories each time!!!!!!! AND I lifted weights each time. Then on Wednesday the gym was having a special. You can do this body scan thing and it usually cost 1,000 yen but on Wed. it was 100 yen. So I decided to do it! My scores were EXCELLENT! I was so excited. I'd give anything to have these stats from before I started my fitness program last year. My BMI and so forth is right on target. This machine also calculates your body fat percentage, which was right near the bottom of the normal range. I can't read my chart very well cause it is all in Japanese, so I am not sure what all the numbers are. All I know is that the star for that reading falls in a good place! But the most exciting part is the muscle mass. On the little level scale, my star was on the 8 for 1 out of 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My arms alone scored an 8 and legs scored a high 6!!!! I was so excited about this. I've been doing simple weights, 3 sets of 10 and some other toning exercises, for over a year now, and it really really shows on this scan.

This machine also scans your internal body fat percentage which is very important. All my reading about weight loss and fitness lately says that they are finding diet without exercise is NOT very effective at removing internal body fat. With diet alone, people can slim down but will retain most of the internal body fat, around your vital organs. So without exercise, you really aren't improving your health adequately. This internal body fat is what leads to disease and is what needs more attention. My internal levels were again on the low end of the "normal" range.

I would give ANYTHING to have these numbers from before I started working out.

All I know is I am feeling GREAT and loving my workouts. I finally found a way to address my feet issues and so am taking care of some toe and ankle pain too. If I had the right shoes, I would be in HEAVEN! I can not find my size in women's shoes in Japan and I refuse to order a pair of shoes online. I want to try them on first! So unless I can get my feet to shrink about 1 cm, I am stuck with my cheapy men's shoes that are too wide, for now.

Well, I think I'm going to go hit the hay!