Keepin' it Trim.. or tryin' to.

I have officially decided to quit being a slave to the scale.  It's making me crazy.  I make good choices with my food, I make it to the gym at least 4 times a week and the scale..isn't...budging.  I have lost about 4 of the pounds I gained over my little hiatus but I have been bouncing the same 3 pounds around for about a month now and it is really frustrating.  I know I am getting healthier and stronger, but something must be off.  

The gym I go to has a staff of personal trainers that try and recruit people to sign up for private personal training sessions. Every new member gets a complimentary fitness evaluation but honestly I came away from mine with zero new information.  I didn't feel like dropping a ton of money on a personal trainer so I kindly asked if I could have someone go over the equipment with me some more. One of the trainers agreed to meet with me and go over some weight training so I can shake things up a bit and hopefully work some of the weight off.

Now when it comes to cardio, I can run all day like a hamster in a wheel because really that's what we are doing.  Just tuning out life around us and running on a conveyor belt or pedaling away to nowhere.  The weight machines though, those are a different story.  I had no idea how to use any of them and was very intimidated by them.
 

Meeting with the trainer was the best hour I have spent at that, or any, gym in my life.  The amount of direction and information I received is really going to help me in this journey.  I was asked to push myself to limits I would have normally stopped short of and now I know that I am stronger than I thought I was.  I am more and more convinced that weight loss and most other challenges in life are about 95% mental, and 5% physical.  You have to have the right mindset in order for the results to be seen.

I think once I let my head stop getting in the way, the results will start to come.  I have been competing with my husband since we started this together just short of a year ago and even though some competition is fun, this sort is counter-productive to what I am trying to acheive.  I will say I am very proud of my husband and how far he has come.  We have both made some tremendous changes and they are starting to pay off.  Now my goal is to steer clear of the numbers on the scale, dedicate myself to doing the work that needs to be done, and to quit being my own enemy. Because like a quote I recently read states, "Its not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think your not" (author unknown).

Weigh-in Wednesday

I know it isn't Wednesday anymore but I was so unbelievably tired today that I just didn't get to it in time.  Why so tired?  Well today I had a complimentary fitness evaluation with a personal trainer at my new gym this morning at the crack of dawn.  I had no idea what to expect so I went into it with an open mind.

This young kid was there to show me the ropes of the place.  I spent a lot of time at the YMCA last year but I realized that I was only cozy with the elliptical and the treadmill.  I hadn't rendevouz'ed  with the resistance machines much at all.  They are so intimidating to me.  I really have no idea how to use most of the machines and the fear of looking like a moron who doesn't know what they are doing isn't so glamrous to me.  I was happy that he was going to take some time and show me how some of them work.

After a few reps on a handful of machines and also some workouts I can do sans machines, it was time to get down and dirty.  I had to face the hard cold facts of the dreaded BMI and mass distribution.  In other words, how much of this body is fit and how much is flab?  I'm not stupid, I know I am extremely out of shape and I have a lot of weight to lose still, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The trainer confirmed that my personal goal was realistic and that with diet and exercise, I shouldn't have a hard time reaching that goal.  He also informed me that even though my BMI was too high, I have a lot of lean mass under this layer of flab.  This is really good news and I am pretty happy about it.

As for my weigh-in, I have lost 3 of the 7 pounds I had gained back.  Only 4 to go and I will be back where I was before I lost focus.  I feel my motivation is back finally.  I have been able to run very short periods of time on the treadmill with very little foot pain.  Next week I am going to get fitted for some REAL running shoes with the proper support my feet need.  I am so excited to finally get real running shoes because I know I need proper footwear in order to take care of my feet.

I can't wait for spring.  I have already started looking at races that I can do and am leaning towards the Dirty Dash in August!  How fun will it be to run a 5 mile race in goopy mud??  I also intend on running (not walking) a 5K by the end of the year.  I just want to get moving again.  It feels so good even when I am exhausted.  I need to finish what I started a little less than a year ago.