Hi, Fit Clubbers! I'm so glad to be a part of this group...you all are so inspiring.
This has been an interesting week for me, exercise wise. I decided
that I needed to do something drastic if I'm going to meet my goal of
losing this extra weight before my husband comes home on R&R in
October. Being the planning geek that I am, I was making a little
chart of my options and their pros and cons. My ideas included
continuing to do what I'm doing now but being more dedicated, joining a
gym, joining a gym and getting some sessions with one of their personal
trainers, or doing one of those intensive one trainer - one client
places. As you can see, I've listed them in order from least cost to
highest cost, which unfortunately is exactly the opposite order of how
likely they are to be successful. I was struggling with the balance
between cost and results. On one hand, why should I pay money for
something I should be able to do by myself? On the other hand, doing
it myself hasn't exactly been working, and you can't really put a price
on my health. I'm sure many of you struggle with this question as well.
On Wednesday, I had a free introductory workout at a Fitness Together
about 1/2 mile from my house. My brother runs a Fitness Together
studio (in Alexandria, tell him I sent you :) and while he admits that
it is expensive, he says that it is the best program he's ever worked
with and it will definitely work for me. (Being my brother, he also
mentioned that I might want to lay off the wine and McDonalds, but that
is another story.) The studio was very nice and I liked having the
individual attention of a trainer who could get all my weights right
and make sure I was using good form. On the other hand, I'm still a
little confused about how you can get results with such a small amount
of work. I guess it is all about quality over quantity. They
advertise the advantage of being alone in the workout space. That
isn't really an issue for me (as you know if you've ever seen me
babbling on at a SpouseBUZZ Live) but I can see how that is really
valuable for some people. Of course, this type of personalized
attention comes with a hefty price tag. I decided I would have to
think about it and explore my other options.
I was chatting with a friend yesterday about my dilemma, and how I
probably needed to go check out the three gyms in my smallish town and
that I needed to not procrastinate. She mentioned that the local Naval
Station had a gym (duh!) and she thought that they had personal
trainers there. It is about 15 minutes from my house, versus 5 minutes
for the Fitness Together, but I'm down that way pretty regularly going
to the commissary, the bank, and all those other chores that just need
to be done on base. On my way to the commissary, I stopped in and
checked it out. The facilities are free (bonus!) and while the spaces
aren't fancy or even really appealing, they have all the equipment I
need to get some strength training. Plus, they have a small collection
of classes and they have a personal trainer who is less than 1/3 the
price of Fitness Together. I feel that the expense of a personal
trainer is worth it to me right now because what I've been doing alone
hasn't been working.
I'm going to give the Naval Station gym a shot. You can't beat the
price, and I might actually keep food in the house if I'm driving by
the commissary three times a week. They don't have child care, so I'm
not sure what I'll do once summer comes, but I figure I'll give it a
shot for the next 7 weeks until school gets out. That should be a
decent amount of time to see if this plan works for me. If it doesn't,
I'll have to reconsider the more expensive options. I hope that this
balance of price, convenience and effectiveness is a winner!
As part of my new plan, I also decided to start a food and exercise
journal. I'm going to track what I eat, whatever cardio and strength
training I do each day, plus whether I'm taking my vitamins and
medications. Oh, and my weight too. I hate to see that on paper each
day but it is a valuable tool for me. I found a pretty old journal I'd
never used and I put it right on my dresser. PLUS, I asked a friend if
she wanted to keep a journal with me and we could occassionally check
out each others books and maybe make some friendly, constructive
suggestions. I think she said yes (it was sort of hard to tell between
all the smart-aleck comments we were making about the appropriateness
of Chick-Fil-A for dinner) and I know that I'm a lot more likely to
reach for the yogurt instead of the ice cream if I know that she's
going to read it.
I wasn't all talk and no action, either. Yesterday, I did my Hula
video and my perfect pushup workout, and I'm already dressed for the
class I'm taking in 2 hours. And I've scheduled a date to walk with my
friend after the class. Yeah, me!
As you can see, I've got a lot of enthusiasm going right now. I'm
counting on you all to hold me accountable, and we'll all gladly hold
you accountable if you want us to.
