Big News on Exercise

I started a free 7 day trial pass recently at a local health club near me. I fell in love with the place, and last Thursday I officially became a member. For the first time in my adult/married life, I'm a member at a health club.

Whoa.

Yes, it's a very big thing for me. See, I'm no small cookie. My scale at home says I weigh 245. For a 5'2" person, that's ranked as morbidly obese.

Gulp.

I've let it go too far for too long. I'm soooo done with that. Seriously. So done.

Okay, so I'm a member now. What does this mean for me? Well, I'm still learning. I've gone swimming, watched & participated in a little bit of a water aerobics class (I had to leave 10 min into it, not realizing it was when it was), and worked out on the recumbent bike. Last night, I had a complimentary session with a personal trainer (my first ever!) and have another one tomorrow night, plus 12 sessions with a team for free (I caught them during an awesome promotion!!!).

Let me be real here, I was totally freaked about having a session with a personal trainer. Have you ever watched The Biggest Loser on NBC? Yeah, me too. Oh. my. word. Trainers scare me. They can be great ultimately, but they're really scary too. That's all I had in my mind was Bob & Jillian screaming in my face...ohhhhh I so didn't want that.

And that's sooooo not what it was. My trainer, Brian, is seriously terrific and a true God-send. I couldn't imagine or have hand-picked a better trainer for me. Laidback, easygoing, and made me comfortable right from the beginning. When he asked me if I thought I could do my goals and I said, no not really, he said I absolutely can, he believes I can, and we're gonna make it happen. He was so confident I got really excited for a minute there...then we went to work. My session was half consultation (just sitting and talking about my goals, health history, etc) and the second half was called a fit point assessment. I had several different physical tests--nothing difficult--and now I have a profile showing me where I started. This will be really beneficial as I go along...it's a much better way to analyze my results than just weight loss. He was really encouraging and helped push me along, but nothing too far and certainly not to the point where I thought I'd die! Seriously, so much better than I expected. Now I wonder how I ever seriously thought I could do this without a trainer?!?!

Double gulp.

So now I'm a 100% advocate for personal training if you have a long way to go!! I know I can't do it regularly (it's pretty pricey) but I do hope to occasionally so we can analyze my results and I can get pushed a bit more. They have a team you can work out with 3 times a week alongside a personal trainer (once I'm finished with my 12 free sessions), but that's an additional big cost each month for 3 months.

So I'm not sure what all of this means for me exactly. I'm doing the best I can with all of it right now, getting into a bit of a groove, exploring, pushing myself to meet people and have been very happy with how that's gone, and learning a lot. I have a longggg way to go.

And I'm trying not to be overwhelmed.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks for any encouragement & prayers you send my way. Each new day, I get more and more determined to do this. I have to. I want to live a long time. I want to have kids. I want to be healthy and active. I want to glorify God in this temple he has given me. And most definitely, I want to see if I can lessen my Fibro symptoms.