Commit to Fit - Meeting 1

Good evening!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday.  It feels great to be over half way through the week already.

Tonight I had my first appointment for the Commit to Fit program I am participating in through my YMCA.  I wanted to share with you all what the Commit to Fit program is and what I did tonight.

The following came from the first sheet of the packet I had to complete prior to this meeting.

The Commit to Fit program is designed to help you become a regular exerciser.  It will help you develop the skills and motivation necessary to become the exerciser you want to be.  You probably have some outcome goals that you would like to achieve, like weight loss, but in order to achieve those goals you need to focus on the process of changing your exercise behavior.  In these 12 weeks, we will focus on the process and experience of exercise vs. the outcome of exercise.  If you learn to enjoy exercise, you will become more successful at reaching your outcome goals.  We are here to help you work through this process, but ultimately you are responsible for the changes in your exercise behavior.

It is a 12 week program where I meet one-on-one with my fitness coach 4 times, approximately 1 time each month.

Tonight was my first one-on-one meeting with Al.  Al is my age and I've actually seen her before when I was playing softball as she is good friends with one of the girls I played in high school with.  Because I have been working out at the YMCA for a couple of weeks already using the cardio equipment we chose to skip going over all of that stuff.  Instead we just focused on going through all of the Nautilus equipment.

Al demonstrated how to use each piece and then I jumped on to find out what the proper seat settings were and what weight I should use to start out.  I found this really awesome because I was able to see it done, then properly set myself up on the machine with the assistance of Al, and then try it out myself and ask questions about what I was doing.

Once we were finished going through everything we chatted a bit about things like my eating habits because obviously diet is going to be a key part in losing weight.  Which, by the way, I've set a goal of losing 55 total pounds.  I have a great event to focus on losing the weight for, Chelsea's wedding in September.  I have a short-term goal of losing some weight by the end of March as I need to be sized for my bridesmaid dress so it can be ordered.

I ended my time at the gym tonight by hopping on the elliptical for 15 minutes as Chelsea was in the middle of her workout when I was done with Al.  It gave me time to chat with Chelsea and to get a little something of a workout in for the day.  Al gave me the option of doing a workout as we went through everything but I decided not to.  I did try each machine out with a few reps to determine the weight I would use but nothing serious.

My next appointment with Al will be March 7th.  Until then I will be working out 5 days a week, M-W-F weights and T-Th-F 30 minutes of cardio.  Friday is the only day I'm concerned about, not that I won't be able to do both weights and cardio, but because I don't work or have class that day so I will need to make myself come into town on my day off.  It will be more of a mental struggle than physical.

Tomorrow morning will be cardio with Chelsea so I'm off to bed so I can be rested up for my 7am wake up call.  I need to step on the scale to see where I'm at for the beginning of the 12 weeks, and it's been two weeks since I was last on the scale so I need to give myself a reality check on where I'm at.

Good night!

Making A Come Back - Take Two

Since my last post I've been working out pretty consistently 3 times a week for 30 minutes at the YMCA I joined in January.  So my fitness come back has stuck!

My blogging come back not so much as you can tell.  I still enjoy blogging and think it will be beneficial to continue doing it but it seems that when I put pressure on myself to blog on a regular basis I avoid it like the plague.  Not really sure what's up with that.

So, my new "plan" is to not put that pressure on myself.  I'm just going to blog when I feel like it and have the time - which is hopefully at least a couple times a week.

But again, no pressure!

To catch you all up on what's been going on I'll give you the bulleted list for high lights.

• Fitness - 30 minutes 3 times per week all cardio.  This Wednesday (15th) I will be starting the Commit to Fit program at my Y.  I'll give you more information on that soon I hope.
• Nutrition - I've been eating and drinking whatever I want pretty much.  I've been employing the everything in moderation idea without the moderation part.  Definitely need to start focusing more on my nutrition to go along with my new fitness routine.
• Weight loss - The last time I stepped on the scale I lost 0.4 of a pound.  Not even a pound but it was better than gaining and it was a tiny step in the right direction.  Obviously adding 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week is not enough to see weight loss so I really need to start focusing on my nutrition.
• Sleep - I was doing really well at sleeping for at least 8 hours every night and then I had one crazy weekend where I went out 3 nights in a row and since then my sleeping has just been all messed up.  I've been staying up to watch shows I've recorded on the DVR and/or reading books on my Kindle.  I definitely need to get back to sleeping at least 8 hours every night so I can get back into a good routine in the morning of waking up when my alarm goes off instead of hitting the snooze button repeatedly.
• School - I'm also going to class 4 days a week (1 class per day) plus an online class.  Nothing really exciting worth reporting there.  I do need to start focusing on school a bit more during the week.  I really enjoy coming home and not having to do anything but I know that's not ideal for my grades and stress level so I'll be working on that too.

Not that I'm putting any pressure on myself (you got that self?) but I hope to provide you with more information about the Commit to Fit program I am starting Wednesday, ways that I'm changing my nutrition to help aid in the weight loss, and how I'm doing on changing my study and sleep habits (once again).

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Making A Come Back!

Well I finally did it!  I joined the YMCA this past Friday and I am so proud of myself for finally taking a step in the right direction with renewing my weight loss journey.

Sure I've thought and written about my plan to get back on track with losing weight before but I haven't actually followed through with the plan.  This time there wasn't a lot of thinking, writing, or planning involved - I just did it!

My good friend Chelsea was proposed to on Christmas Eve by her Marine boyfriend Dan who was home on leave.  I was informed soon after that I would be standing up in her wedding as a bridesmaid.  My initial thought was something along the lines of OK, you really need to lose weight now so you'll look good in a dress in front of her family and friends.

Then last week the plans were made to look at bridesmaid dresses and almost complete panic set in.

I was not looking forward to trying dresses on with the other two girls who are what I call skinny.  I expressed my concerns to Chelsea about needing to lose weight for her wedding and so we made plans to go to the YMCA (where Chelsea works) to give me a quick tour and to sign me up.

Thanks to my employer I only have to pay $24/month because they take care of the joiners fee and I get a $5 discount on top of my student rate.

Chelsea and I are now workout buddies which is great.

Tonight was our first workout.  Between chatting with Chelsea and reading Charlie St. Cloud (for the second time) 30 minutes flew by and I had put in 6.17 miles on the bike.

I was thinking of waiting to workout again with Chelsea on Thursday after work but since I've been home I've been tossing around the idea of working out tomorrow right after work on my own.  There is only one fear in my mind and that is that I'll burn myself out with working out by trying to do too much too soon.  But I'm also in this awesome mood where I'm motivated and want to workout.  I haven't felt like this in a while so I'm thinking I should just go with it?

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

I'll be watching for your comments and I'll keep you posted on what I decide.  I'm making a come back to both blogging and to my weight loss journey!