Amy Aspey is a Life Time Fitness member at the Parker-Aurora club in Colorado who recently committed to vastly improving her physical condition. She had a strong desire to become healthier, fitter, stronger, and to enhance the overall quality of her life. Amy is journaling her 12-week Metabolic Makeover on the Assessments & Testing page every Wednesday. Read about her initial decision to get healthy here, and her first week here.

"Working out with a heart rate monitor is going to take a little getting used to....you must become a slave to your watch.  I found you can't always trust the heart rate value the machines list because they tend to pick up other people's heart rate monitors, too. 

The CardioPoint test printed out a bunch of specific cardio workouts for me.  They are tough because you have to constantly work to move your heart rate within the correct zone, or between zones, depending on the routine.  But the result is a much more challenging workout.  Instead of just going through the motions while I listen to my iPod or read along with one of the TVs , I actually have to work!  I am actively engaged the whole time.

At today's Nutrition meeting we talked about a new way of looking at food.  I'm going to start tracking 'exchanges' of starch, fruit, veggies, protein, milk and fat.  I'll also measure out all my food so I can see what a serving size really looks like.  Then I'll target eating the correct amount from each category and wa-la....that will get me my 1600 calories. This will help 'train' me how to eat.  (Right now, it looks like more work than simply counting calories and fat grams, but obviously just doing that hasn't gotten me very far, so I'm game for anything.)

Well, that's it for now.  I'll keep you posted on my progress - check back next week for more.

If you are interested in documenting your own Metabolic Makeover on the Assessments page, please contact Marissa Kristal.

Disclaimer: The health, wellness or fitness information on this site should not be considered complete, nor intended to represent or replace medical diagnosis, advice or treatment from your healthcare professionals, whom you should consult before beginning or altering any personal exercise, diet or nutritional supplement programs.  The assessment results featured in any testimonial on this site may not be typical.