Results Not Typical

So I had my final evaluation last Thursday with Mike the trainer. I'm a little late posting. Other crap weighed heavily on my mind. So.

After two and a months of training twice a week (usually when I didn’t cancel) I got measured and weighed and did some stamina exercises to measure heart rate and strength.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Let me first start off by saying if you know me, and love me, you probably won’t see a difference in my body shape. And you won’t say so, either. And I thank you for that. When I joined the gym I was looking not only to lose weight but also to start a healthy habit of exercise. I’m over 40! I don’t want to look like my mom did! I don’t want Bingo wings! I want to look like I did at 20! (um. Right.) I knew I needed to get off my ass and start an exercise program not only to get back my 20-year-old body (which I know is improbable and impossible) but to boost my metabolism and cardio so I could live a longer, more productive life.

And to fit into those jeans in my bottom drawer.

I looked at pictures of myself at our last camping trip and I was disgusted and depressed with myself. When I got home that was when I made up my mind to get my butt to the gym. I knew I would need help with some of the machines and I knew a personal trainer was the way to go.

Enter Mike. And the torture that followed.

Never at the gym. I sweat, panted and strained but it never felt like torture. Most of the time I laughed when it got too hard because it was a good feeling getting my muscles moving again. The torture came the days after a workout- those days where I couldn’t lift my legs to walk up the steps to the subway. Or get out of my chair at work. Or sit on the toilet. Those times were torture.

But it was worth it.

My numbers weren’t stellar, but for the resistance training that I did (twice a week) and for all the walking around the neighborhood, they were okay. I lost 1/2’ to 3/4” everywhere except my boobs. That was probably due to the padded bra. (I couldn’t find the sports bra…) I gained 2% lean mass and lost 2% fat mass. I gained 1 pound, but that reflects the lean mass gain (muscle weighs more than fat.) I went from doing 8 pushups to 18. I went from 31 situps to 44. My strength is definitely better than when I started.

Mike agreed that my numbers were encouraging. He said for me to imagine if I DIDN’T do all that training. I probably wouldn’t even be maintaining my weight and body index- it would be creeping up. My next step is to bump up the cardio (HELLO ELLIPTICAL MACHINE!) and maintain the two days a week resistance/strength training.

So how do I feel about all this? I can see an improvement in my body shape. My clothes fit better; they feel better. They’re not as suffocatingly tight. I know, I know- wear bigger clothes. Buying new clothes, though, is not an option. Fitting into the clothes I have is the solution.

I am well on my way to fitting into those jeans. I can get them on over my hips but zippering them is another story.

Update! I had my first "non-Mike" session at the gym yesterday! I did 8 minutes on the elliptical, 12 minutes on the treadmill and 10 minutes on the recumbent bike, for a total of 30 minutes. Go me.

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