I’m starting to feel different. I’m so liking the diet plan. I’m finding it easy and satisfying. We haven’t been eating out a lot, which probably helps. That is one of my downfalls. I was actually proud of myself yesterday. I worked. I hate working on Saturdays. Yet, I came home and worked out as tired as I was. I had upped my weights this week to a challenging weight that left me slightly sore the next day. The increase was about 2 1/2 pounds for 4 of my exercises. When I worked out at the gym, I used their weights which unfortunately don’t include those gradual steps. They have 15 and then 20 pounds. I couldn’t do my 17 1/2 pounds, so I did the 15. It was actually an easy workout because of it.

Now if you want to do a killer ab exercise, try this one. The exercise is done on what they call a cable crossover machine. It looks like something from the playground. You know the one: you hang down and reach across to the next bar to swing across to the other side. With this machine, you use slings to put your arms through and hang down. Next, you lift your legs up to your chest. For oblique work, you twist to the right or left and draw your legs up. Sound easy? No way. I guarantee you’ll feel it the next day. Perhaps an at-home version would be to lie on your back, raise your legs up and then slowly lower them. Ouch!

Next week, I’ll keep up with the increased weight. At the gym, I’ll just go ahead and skip to the next weight up. The following week I’ll be adding another set to my circuit.