Confessions of a Wayward Diet Goddess

I've been working out at the gym for almost a year now. My official "anniversary" will be May 13. In that time, I've lost 22 lbs and gained back 10 of those pounds. My eating hasn't been perfect...or even close to it. And weight loss is 80% diet, so I've failed myself rather than the gym failing me.

Even though the pounds haven't fallen off my body as I had hoped, I never gave up going to the gym. It has become a habit. A GOOD habit to have. And now I can't imagine NOT going. Sure, there are nights that I talk myself out of going, but I can't imagine not having the gym as part of my life from now on. On the nights that I have to talk myself into going, I'm usually happy about 5 minutes after I get there anyway. And when I skip, I feel incredibly guilty. But I know it is something that I do for me and only me.

This morning I worked out with the gym's owner, Andy C. I told him that I wanted a challenge, I wanted to hurt, I wanted him to KILL ME. I didn't want to walk from the gym - I wanted to crawl. I wanted him to bring his most hardcore, Jillian Michaels-like workout. I told him that I didn't want him to baby me or treat me with kid gloves. I wanted him to do his worst. Yes, I even asked him to "bring tha pain."

And he agreed to it all.

And he held up his end of the bargain.

And it was absolutely excellent.

And I can't wait to do it again next week.

My arms and legs are still quivering as I type this and I've been home for over an hour. LOVE IT! The things he had me do weren't difficult to execute, but it was the length of time and amount of exertion that I put into it that increased the difficulty level. If he told me to do 12-15 reps of something, I did 15. If he told me I should be feeling the "burn" in a certain part and I didn't, we worked until I DID feel it there. No sense doing an exercise if the form is incorrect.

Andy brought me out of my little cocoon on some things. This morning, for the first time since junior high - I think - I did BOY push ups! And they were challenging. Girl push ups have been fairly easy for a while and I thought about changing, but it was so much easier to continue to go with the flow. Now I know I am capable of boy push ups. I can't do lot of them, but I'll get there!

A few other exercises that I had been doing, I knew I needed to increase the weight but, again, I liked it in my comfort zone. Today, I stepped out and increased the weight and made those exercises more difficult. It was good. It was also hard, but I liked it. I liked it a lot.

I got to try the Bosu ball and it was fun! We started out with a very simple exercise of just standing and balancing on the ball part. Looks pretty simple, but it's a little more challenging than it appears and it involves using a lot of muscles, especially core muscles. LOVED IT! To increase the challenge, he had me hold a 10 pound medicine ball and then he pushed on the ball from all angles while I had to maintain my balance and hold the ball at the same level. Very fun!

He assigned me homework for the week. I have to do the weight lifting workout twice, so I'll do it on Monday and Wednesday. I'm also supposed to get in at least 45 minutes on the treadmill twice a week, so I'll do that on Tuesday and Thursday. One of those walks has to be outside, preferably in an area with hills....which is hard to find where I live because it's pretty flat, but I do have a couple of places in mind. One is the cemetery and the other is a few miles outside of town at a camping area. Of course, this part of the homework will depend on the weather and it's been pretty rainy here.

Oh, also on my weight nights, I'm supposed to do the "Sprint 8" workout on the elliptical. The elliptical and I have never really become friends. I've tried, believe me, I've tried. But the elliptical doesn't extend the same courtesy to me. He doesn't care how much he makes my legs burn or how much sweat I pour on him. He's just very unfeeling about it all. He's not like my good friend, Treadmill, but that's ok.

After my weight workout this morning, I did 30 minutes on my friend, Treadmill, like I was told. But I also decided to try the Sprint 8, just to see what it was like. It was hard. I'm not even going to lie. It was very hard. But here's the best part -- I did it! I did 20 minutes on the elliptical! I'd only been able to do 5 minutes before, but I pushed myself through the full workout and I managed to make it through. It was great! Elliptical and I may be friends after all!

I'm anxious to see how sore I'm going to be tomorrow. Should be interesting!

Posted by ~Diet Goddess~ at 1:03 PM |  

Labels: exercise, gym, personal trainer