My Full Body and Mind Makeover...An Experiment

June 17, 2014
I have decided that it's now or never.  Who cares if it's the middle of wedding season, who cares if I have two events this week, who cares?  I will join the gym no matter what.  I pull into the Planet Fitness parking lot and enter this unknown facility in heels.  It will be the last time I wear heels, or even look cute at the gym.  I sign my life away and commit to a year, I figure you have to give anything a year to see real results.  I walk out thinking, that was painless.  This will also be the last time I think that.

June 18, 2014
I sit in my car and stare at the building.  I feel like I'm on a blind date my mom set me up on.  A blind date with someone I know I should like, total marriage material, but someone I know I will hate and just isn't my type.  I drag myself in with my head down.  My trainer, Jesse, is waiting for me.  She has me fill out every embarrassing fact about myself; age, weight, current amount of exercise.  She knows more about me than my mom!  Now there was nothing left to do, it was time to exercise.  Ugh!

My First Workout
My first workout...sucked.  It honestly wasn't anything too difficult, but for someone overweight and extremely out of shape, it was brutal.  I started with 30 minutes on the treadmill as a warm up.  (Can I mention that I would have considered THAT the workout.)  After the treadmill I worked out with Jesse for an hour.  90 minute workout, longer than I had ever worked out in my adult life.  I limped to my car promising Jesse that I would indeed be back the next day.  When I got home, I could hardly walk in the house.  That night it was so uncomfortable to sleep.  Simply laying on my body hurt every single inch of it.  I had a terrible night sleep and dragged my sore, exhausted body back to the gym the next day.

Week Two
My events have slowed down allowing me with enough time to do some workout clothes shopping.  I feel so much better actually having workout clothes and looking like I belong at the gym.  I even had that weird "workout high" leaving the gym.  What is happening to me?

Week Three
I am springing out of bed with new found energy!  Screw that 30 minutes on the treadmill, I'm up to 30 minutes on the elliptical!  I still hate working out, but I've gone 6 days a week since I joined.  If anything, I am committed!  I bounce into the gym with my head held high ready to take on whatever evil Jesse throws my way!  A major difference in just three weeks.

Week Four
I am starting to get discouraged.  Yes, I am seeing major strength results, but I don't feel like I am losing weight.  I am starting to feel like I will be fat forever.  Jesse bans me from the scale.

July 18, 2014 - One Month Gym-iversary
I get to weigh myself and I'm down 6 lbs.  I'm not too excited, but Jesse reminds me that I am doing this correctly, not with some fad diet or exercise.  I do some math and figure out that if I can keep that weight loss rate up, that will be 72 lbs in a year, that's totally legit! (Jesse also reminded me that it took me this long to get this fat, it's going to take time to get rid of it.  She is brutally honest, and just the kick in the ass I need.)

Lessons Learned Month One
(Many of you may know these, but I had to learn them all.)

*A body in motion stays in motion.  Now that I have gone to the gym every day for a month, I can't imagine missing a day.  Even the one day off a week that I take to rest I'm thinking about the gym.

*Food is fuel.  Nothing else.  When you work your body out enough, ANYTHING will sound delicious.  A bowl of lettuce and chicken with lemon squeezed on it, YUM!!  I've been off of fast food for the past month and when I cheated and ate an In N Out Protein Style Dbl Dbl, my body revolted and I became extremely sick.  My body isn't used to that crap any more.

*Skinny is not fit.  I have learned that those skinny girls, are just skinny, weak girls.  I used to just want to lose weight, now I want to be fit, to be strong!

*People at the gym are not mean.  I used to be one of those fat people totally afraid of the gym and the fit people there.  Guess what, they don't care about what you're doing.  They don't look at you twice and in fact if they do notice you, it might be to give encouragement!  The only mean person I've met is my trainer, and I've asked her to be mean to me.  ;-)

*People lie to fat people.  You know how many of my friends have told me I'm not fat?  They're trying to be nice and I think they mean that I "look" fabulous.  We all know I can work it!  But the reality is that I'm dying in this body.  Slowly.  I don't "feel" fabulous.  As I get older it will just be harder to lose the weight.  The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me, is to tell me I'm fat, weak, and that I don't have to be!  So thank you Jesse, for being that one person and that one person I can trust to get me to the other side.  I'll see you there.