It's not just excessive food that is bad for you... I've learned (the long and hard way) that exercise should be done in moderation too!

Devin has been telling me for a couple months that he thinks I'm overtraining with cardio. Until this week, I've been running intervals 48 mins x 5 times a week (in addition to bootcamp classes and recently hot yoga was added into my workout schedule too). That was over 8 hours of workouts from Monday to Friday, hence Devin's concern.

Wikipedia explains overtraining as an emotional, behavioral and physical condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual's exercise exceeds their recovery capacity. They cease making progress, and can even begin to lose strength and fitness. Overtraining is a common problem in weight training, but it can also be experienced by runners and other athletes (click here if you want to learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/overtraining).

I've never thought of myself as an athlete, so even though I was familiar with the term of overtraining, I honestly didn't think it applied to me. I have always associated athletes with people who participate in organized sports (which definitely isn't me) and of course people who aren't overweight! How can you exercise too much when you still have fat to burn? I didn't understand this concept until I hit this plateau. For the last couple of months... by Friday night I was completely exhausted. I finally realize and accept that my body has been fighting back and trying to tell me that I'm overdoing it.

This week Devin and Gina helped me to change things up, we've cut down my cardio to 24 mins x 3 times a week, implemented 2 weight training sessions at 1 hour each and I'm continuing with my hot yoga and bootcamp. Yes it's still a lot (6 1/2 hrs) but I have a pretty aggressive goal to meet. I can honestly say that this week (with the slight modifications), that I feel freakin' fabulous and I'm completely energized instead of exhausted! I'm going to continue using Saturday and Sunday as recovery days... (they still remain my 2 favorite days of the week)!

Even though my weight loss hasn't reduced from my overtraining, I am shrinking, I basically have very few clothes that fit (AGAIN)... but this time I'm refusing to buy more clothes until I reach my goal... I've already gone through 3 phases of shopping spreas going from size 26 to 14... I can wait until I'm a size 8-10 to buy new stuff... it won't be long now! *smiles*