It’s something I’ve wanted to explore for a long time, and with the upcoming slew of pictures to be taken and dress to fit into – not to mention the fact that I’d like my hot ass to actually fit into the hot shorts I bought last summer by the time this summer rolls around – I went and got myself a personal trainer.
I’m still doing the running thing (just finished the first run of Week 5! w00t! and also Barf! (or at least that’s what it feels like) but I’m not seeing any results other than being able to run further and faster (which is good and all, but I’d really like to see some physical changes too!).
Anyhow, trainer. I always thought personal trainers were solely for those who were primarily paid for either winning professional athletic games or simply being really, really, ridiculously goodlooking. Not so! The facility I’m training at is exclusively a personal training studio (meaning everyone working out there is doing it one-on-one with a trainer) and there is a very broad section of clientèle there. People ranged in age from their 20’s to 60’s, of varying fitness levels, and NOBODY in there was good looking enough to be paid for it.
It is, however, exactly as expensive as I thought it would be. Actually – a little more than I thought it would be. I figure, I pay someone $40/week to walk my dog twice weekly, I should value an investment in my own health and fitness at least twice that much. It is most certainly an investment in health and fitness. And certainly more than twice as much as dog walking for my two sessions a week. I had to seriously cut back on some things (shoes, CDs, fancy restaurants, new books) to make it happen. It’s still a lot. It’s a lease on a pretty nice car. But I think it’s worth it.
In any case, I had my first session last night, and even with the “easy” introductory session I worked harder than I ever do without serious prompting. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve sweat like that while exercising. I’m just not good at pushing myself that hard. Few people are (if you are one of them – good for you! Save your pennies, and maybe buy me a CD or something?). Those lunges never would have happened without some serious persuasion.
Also, I’m paying for the knowledge and experience of someone who’s spent a lot of time studying the human body, and exactly how to get it at its peak in the most efficient way possible. There is certainly something to be said for going through an exercise that I’ve done a frillion times before, only to have my posture and method adjusted slightly, upon which said exercise becomes way harder and more effective in the good ways, and way less inclined to hurt me in other ways. It’s an investment in efficient use of time and resources as well.
Anyhow, today I was a bit sore, but felt good. And I go back for more tomorrow. It’ll be an interesting experience, since it’ll be the official “benchmarking” appointment where all the weighing, measuring and otherwise evaluating will happen. I’m not really looking forward to hearing (yet again – since I haven’t exactly recovered from wedding dress shopping where the woman read out the number on her tape measure in disbelief, then measured again and was shocked to get the same result) how very many inches around my ass is – but I am looking forward to seeing how many of those I can lose in the next 9 weeks.
People with tape measures should be seen and not heard!
Happy excersising.
The woman where I ordered my dress from flat-out refused to order me the size 6 after measuring my butt and reading (out loud of course) the number she found there. This was despite the fact I had tried on the sample dress in a size 6 which fit me perfectly. I had to sic Sue on her.
Happy exercising! Perhaps someday I will have the discipline to do such a thing for myself. Right now shoes are more important 😉
If they did that to you while dress shopping they will probably have a coronary after reading my number. Why is it that the salespeople who are helping you find a dress for the most important day of your life have a reputation for being so horrible? I don’t look forward to that part!
Good luck with the personal trainer – it will be worth all the pain in the end.
Yah, for the record the number is pretty surprising when you look at me. The official verdict was 34-25-40. The 40 threw everyone off. It’s pretty much all butt, very little hip involved. Yes, when I say ghetto booty I mean it.
which gym did you end up deciding on?
That’s great! I wish you much success in losing some of that booty! 😉