Day 20 - Personal Trainer Day!

Oh wow! I had my first session with my personal trainer today and what a work out! She really worked me and I am surprised that I made it through the whole hour. I can tell already that I am going to be hurting tomorrow. She even warned me that she will have done her job if I woke up hating her in the morning...

My session started off with getting "pinched"--using a caliper to determine by percentage of body fat. I am currently at 36%, which appalled me. Then came the measurements (ick) and then the weigh in. The weigh in was probably the most devastating since the scale at the gym has me weighing in at 202 lbs. My trainer told me it is probably less (I had shoes on, etc), but I am betting that it still puts me at around 200 lbs. Still.

A little background about my trainer: In her office is a picture frame which contains two pictures. The first is a picture of when she was very over-weight. Yes, my trainer used to be fat. She told me her body fat used to be 69%. I can't remember how much she weighed--somewhere between 250-300 lbs. The second picture is a lovely photo of her in a beautiful blue bikini, looking cut, toned and fit. Motivational? You bet!

Anyway, after suffering through that humiliation, we talked about diet and I was so glad we did! She gave me a food journal and told me to write down everything I eat. We talked about my Starbucks addiction and we formulated a plan so that I could keep having my daily vice but gradually reduce the sugar and other no-no items so that it will become a very small part of my daily calorie consumption. She also gave me a food list of what is acceptable to eat (and what isn't) and a couple of web-sites to go to find out how many calories I am consuming:

http://www.calorieking.com/

http://www.thedailyplate.com/

The first one appears to be a "membership only" site that you have to pay for. The second one is a branch of http://www.livestrong.com/. After looking at "Livestrong" and "The Daily Plate" I feel even more inspired to face this challenge head on. I have not had the opportunity to look at the site more closely, but I plan to at some point tonight. I encourage others to click the links I have provided and check them out!

So after the small talk, it was down to business. Oh my! My trainer worked me non-stop for that hour and it was hard but I made it. I was so stoked to find that I could not only do the exercises but also meet the "goals" she had for some of them. For example, she has one move she calls "The Plank" and the goal is keep yourself in a push-up position (the "up" part) for a minute. It sounds easy, but when you already have spent an hour doing weights and other work-outs, it hurts! But I was able to do it, so I was very happy. I finished my hour tired and sore, but happy.

My trainer wrote out everything we did today and I am supposed to do those exercises plus 20-30 minutes of cardio 3-5 days per week. My next appointment is May 4 (two weeks) to resume more torture and analyze current results. The goal is to eventually get my percentage of body fat reduced by 10% and to get through these work-outs without feeling like I might die.

One thing is for sure--after a good, hard work-out like that, you definitely don't feel compelled to eat anything but healthy food! I think there is a sub-conscious feeling that you just put yourself through an hour of torture, why would you ruin it by eating a double cheeseburger? And nothing encourages water consumption quite the same way, either...

Ok, so that's it for today. I ate healthy, drank lots of water and had a great work-out. Maybe I should see my trainer every day to keep this going...

I am off to review those web-sites and make my grocery list for tomorrow. My husband and I plan to go back to the gym tomorrow for a little cardio work. That is if I can get myself out of bed after today. I will let you know just how sore I am tomorrow!

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't -- you are right."