Heart Rates, what??!

Today is Tuesday February 12th. I have not weighed myself since my last post. Mostly because, I know I have been eating horribly and am afraid to see what the scale has to say about it! I have pretty much been eating whatever I want. I have been eating alot more fruits and veggies at work, because I've been craving them actually. For many weeks I cut wayy down on my caffeine, and though it has tons of sugar, I drink 8oz of soda when I need a caffeine kick rather than coffee. For awhile there I was drinking a good 36 oz of coffee a day. It made me SO unbelievably irritable. Since I've cut down, I noticed a drastic change in my attitude, and I've been sleeping much much better. However things have been pretty busy lately, and my sister had been visiting so needless to say I fell back into my rut of not getting much sleep. Thus, drinking a bit more caffeine.
Though I had Joe bring the eliptical up to the living room a good 2-3 weeks ago, I finally used it for the first time just now. I only did a half an hour, while watching the morning news. I pushed myself during the commercials, and kept a swift steady pace during the news. I had almost forgotten that the elliptical has a pulse monitor on it. So I put my hands in what I'm pretty sure were the correct spots. My 'pushing myself' pulse was 175-192, and my steady pulse rate was 140-155ish.
I know nothing about heart rates, and exercising. Quite clearly. So I came online right afterwards to check what all of it means. Apparently, having checked it a half hour after exercising, my 'resting' heart rate is 96. I just used the stop watch feature on my phone and placed my finger to the left of my throat where I can feel my pulse... counted how many beats there are in a 10 second period of time, then you multiply that number by 6 to get your pulse.
Your 'Maximum heart rate', is supposed to be your 220 - your age. So mine would be 196. I just about hit that number while exercising, and know I easily could have but I held myself back from going as hard as I normally would. My 'target heart rate' is supposed to be 117-166. I just learned that a 'target heart rate' is the rate you're supposed to keep your pulse at, for maximum exercise benefits and to avoid risk factors such as a heart attack.
Seeing as I have never been a regular exerciser, and am currently WAY above a healthy weight, and WAY above any weight I've ever been for that matter- I'm glad I checked this all out! Very good stuff to know, and to pass to my children so that they actually know what they are doing when they exercise. I have worked out for far, far too long in the past, using the simple theory that I am supposed to be pushing myself as hard as I can, sweating, red-faced, and sore, for maximum results. I am honestly astonished, and feel a bit bugged that I never was made aware of any of this information.
Regardless. It is great information to know now. Better late than never!
Today is the start of a bad time of month for me to weigh in. So, I'm going to wait until Friday as usual. I don't expect things to be any better by then but I just want to be consistent in weighing in on Friday mornings. Easy to remember.
In all honesty, now that I know that I'm not supposed to literally almost kill myself when I work out, I feel a LOT better about the idea!! I've always hated getting all sweaty & sore.. it's always made me feel like it's just not worth it. But knowing that I have been wayyy over doing it, and can get great results while almost leasurely strolling on the elliptical, makes me feel very VERY hopeful!
I've always had alot of muscle mass... when in the best shape of my life, and the worst, I've always had really big muscles, even if they are now buried under fat, they're there. Maybe that's why it takes me pushing myself extra hard to even feel like I'm accomplishing anything. Well, I'm going to schedule an appointment with a trainer or nutritionist asap too, just to confirm that everything I'm finding here is in fact correct, just in case I'm wrong. But I found the same information on various websites, including my favorite Livestrong.com. That website has so much useful information!