On June 30th after seeing a couple of before & after pictures from other people, I walked into a gym I knew nothing about, handed a woman I had just met my hard earned cash and promised to dedicate the next six weeks of my life to a fitness and nutrition challenge. In return, she gave me a macro-nutrient (protein/carbs/fat) based nutrition plan, a workout schedule and her promise to help me through the next six weeks.
Today, I completed my first week.
It was not easy. I wanted to quit after the first day of weight training. I thought the weight training would be much easier than the cardio and I was proven very wrong. I left my first session feeling nauseous, weak and completely defeated.
Thankfully, I am doing this challenge with three of my co-workers and when I got to work the next morning, barely able to walk, we convinced each other to keep going. After work we had our first cardio class, appropriately called Cardio Heat. It was a mixture of kickboxing, dancing and more weight training. The "heat" in the name of the class comes from the amount of body heat generated in the room we were in. I was drenched with sweat (gross, I know).
The trainers at this gym are big on weight lifting. The more muscle mass you have the higher your metabolism and the more calories you burn. If it lets me eat more, I'll give it a chance!
I somehow managed to make it back for another session of Cardio Heat and two more weight training sessions.
My final weight training session was this morning and it was the hardest thing I have ever done. There was a circuit of about 14 different exercises, working arms, legs and total body. Some done on weight machines, some done with free weights. A timer was set to go off every 30 seconds. You had 30 seconds of continuous exercise and then 30 seconds to get to the next station. The circuit was repeated three times. I made it around about two and a half times before I started to lose energy and actually started to feel sick. I knew I was done when I was in the middle of chest presses using
only the bar and I had absolutely no energy to push the bar back up. My arms would literally not move. It was fairly embarrassing to need help but the great thing about this gym is everyone started where I am. Everyone is very motivating and helpful. There's no judgement. It's a great group of women.
My original plan was to stay and try the spinning class but I could barely walk to my car after the final timer went off. I couldn't get home fast enough. I was drenched in sweat (again, gross, I'm sorry) and feeling really nauseous. I have a feeling my nausea is correlated to my eating schedule. I used to eating three meals a day with a few snacks here and there. I have to change my thinking into smaller meals throughout the day focused mainly on my pre-workout and post-workout meals. The direction was to eat a specific amount of carbs and protein before working out and this morning I tried to make a protein waffle but was pretty turned off by the taste and only ate half of it. Therefore, only eating half of what I should have before my workout. My poor excuse for a pre-workout meal, combined with the intensity of today's workout left my kneeling on my bathroom floor. I won't be making that mistake again!
I learned a lot this week. Some of it the hard way.
Tomorrow is a new week and I am definitely using this week's lessons to have a better experience.
It's going to be a challenging few weeks, most of my social activities are planned around food and drink and I've got a pretty strict nutrition plan that
doesn't include alcohol. Over the next few weeks I am determined to stay on track and enjoy my monthly dinner club, two birthday parties and our annual county fair. I'm willing to put in the work so I'm excited to see my results. I'm not focused as much on weight-loss, but more on muscle gain and overall improvement of my fitness level. I'm hoping this class will be the jump start I needed to achieve a fitness goal I've had on my mind for a few years.
One week down, five to go!
