Gym Time

So that didn't really go as expected.

I headed into the gym on Monday morning, SmartWater in hand, phone holding a couple of mixes from Rock My Run, ready to hop up on an elliptical and pound away for a while.  I was convinced that since I had belonged to this particular gym last year, I wouldn't have to sit through the whole spiel on training sessions, or get beat up by a trainer.  When I'd initially joined this gym, my free personal assessment [basically the "Please buy training packages" session] was given to me by this young guy who seemed nice, then made me do more than my body was capable of doing, and then he tried to shame me into buying a monthly set of training sessions for $500.  Yeah. That was happening.

But, as soon as I got there, I was hustled off to a guy named Joey.  I told him immediately that I was not going to get training sessions and he said that was fine.  And then we talked. And talked. And he led me through a workout that left me energized rather than ashamed.

Yep. I walked out of the gym having signed up for a year of training sessions.

Guess I really will buy anything from anyone who tells me I look like I'm 25.

Okay, not really.  But Joey and another trainer DID tell me I looked like I was in my 20s. Yay for good genes!

So, I have one training session a week with whatever trainer I sign up with. I guess Joey doesn't do sessions there enough or something.  He signed me up for a session yesterday with a guy named Seth since I made him laugh by saying if I had a female trainer, I'd probably tell her where to get off if she tried to make me do something I didn't want to do.  Let's face it, I work better with men. But I think having a trainer is a good thing for someone like me.  I obviously cannot do this on my own anymore.  I've lost control of the situation.  I need someone to help me so that 1, I keep going, and 2, so I don't hurt myself.

I was sore yesterday when I went for my first "real" training session.  Seth made me more sore.  Luckily for me, he had a very large weight problem at one point [I'm beginning to wonder if that's a requirement for these trainers since Joey said he had a problem too being that he is a chef.] and that REALLY put me at ease. It's easier to work with someone who understands that someone who is my size cannot do the same things as some girl who only has 20 pounds to lose.

When I woke up this morning, my entire body ached. I mean, my thighs were absolutely angry and my arms have seen better days. My whole body seemed to be telling me, "Hey, remember the good old days?  Like, you know, last week? When we'd lay in bed and then get up and sit? Can we do that again?"

I'll admit it, I didn't want to go to the gym today.  I started talking myself out of it.  I'm tired, I'm sore, I need a recovery day, I don't wannaaaaa....  But then I started thinking about my family, about how my parents are paying for this, about how much I'm sick of this body.  I told myself to get off my fat ass and go.

Okay, so then while I was getting ready, I was cranky towards my boyfriend and he didn't seem to like it, but if I have to exercise, I want him to do it, too!  He's not going to, because he is kind of lazy, but I keep thinking if maybe I nag enough, eventually I'll get him to come in with me at least once.

So I went.  I moaned to myself all the way up the stairs. Every step was felt deep in my thighs.  I managed 10 minutes on the treadmill, and then 20 minutes on the elliptical.  I used to be able to do so much more, but I did what I could.  Seth had told me to put the resistance up higher on the elliptical rather than just doing longer at a lower resistance, which makes sense to me.  The trip back down the stairs was a ton harder than going up the stairs, which made me think, "What? Is this opposite day?"  Every step made my legs shake.  I held on to the railing and went slow, which was kind of embarrassing, but it would have been more embarrassing if I'd tried to go faster and fell ass over heels down the steps.

As I was leaving, this older gentleman walked out with me. He wanted to chat with me a bit just to offer some support.  He told me that "try" and "hope" need to be out of my vocabulary.  I need to just put my heart into it and do it.  He also said that, not to offend me or anything, but I'm really pretty and if I just lost weight, I'd be even more amazing looking. From his lips to God's ears, you know??

Oh, and he thought I was 27.

Kinda love the men at the gym these days!

I have cardio again tomorrow, then Friday is a rest day but only because I'm stuck going to jury duty. I'm hoping I can get that over with quickly and maybe get in a short workout, but we'll see.  Rest is just as necessary as working out, and I definitely don't want to burn out too quickly.  I have too many people behind me this time.

The start

It started in April.

Well, it started long before that, but we'll say it started in April.

My boyfriend started on some blood pressure medicine, and I noticed that my knee was really starting to hurt. Oh, I knew we were overweight. I'm not blind.  I knew that we'd both blown past being simply "chubby" a while ago and now we're firmly into the "fat" category.  In fact, I am probably in what my favorite "fluffy" comedian Gabriel Iglesias calls the "DAAAMN!" category.

I decided that it was time to do something about this.  Only, what to do?

Diet, of course, would be the major part.  But what diet? We'd both done Atkins before, with some moderate success, but even though I felt amazing by cutting white sugar and bread out of my life, I did not enjoy plowing face first into a birthday cake (Okay, I kinda did enjoy it) and then not being able to really get myself back on track.  I'd attempted South Beach, but it only lasted about a week.  Slim-Fast didn't do squat for me because I like to chew.  Weight Watchers was pretty decent, but I quit because I was taking a medication that caused weight gain and I felt like an ass going to meetings every week and gaining.

But it couldn't be THAT hard to just do what I knew to be good. More vegetables, less red meat, smaller portions.  Couldn't be simpler, am I right?

Nope. Wrong!

I didn't take a couple of things into account.  One, I'm not THAT great of a cook when it comes to healthy stuff.  Being both Texan and Latina is a handicap because I like very rich, heavy food.  I'm great at making comfort food!  And then, two?  My boyfriend really doesn't like vegetables!!

As much as I love recipe sites and blogs, none of them have really told me what to do with a picky eater.  Plus, a lot of them act like dinner time is an episode of Chopped with all kinds of weird ingredients I wouldn't know on sight, much less know what to do with.  I feel, a lot of the time, that I'm flying blind in the world of healthy eating.

So what is this blog about?  Food.  Being fat.  Being picky. Being hungry. There will be cursing. There will be bitching.  There will be pictures and recipes that usually won't have more than 5 or 6 fairly simple ingredients.

But more importantly, there will be hope and progress. And in the end?  There will be health.