my journey to health

So have noticed quite a bit of improvement lately, things I couldn’t do before that suddenly I can now – the first, I went to the gym with friends last week and there is this machine thingy, no idea what it is called but you stand up on it with your arms at right angles, brace yourself with your arms then lift your feet off and pull your knees up, so your arms are holding all your weight. Well my friend ness throws herself around on it and I tried it once, laughed and laughed cause I couldn’t even take my own weight I literally could not take my feet of the bar and hang. So the other day I thought what the hell, I’m up for a laugh, so I tried it again, Well what do you know I took my feet off and I hung there, sweet as!!! Then ness told me to pull my knees up, again we laughed thinking hell no way can I do that – 5 times, 5 fuckin times I pulled my knees up and back down again whilst hanging there, I was so stoked I went back later and did it again just in case the first time was a fluke lol.

So in class he makes us do leg raises, now leg raises hurt, they mainly hurt my back and I hate them, to start with I could do one, barely, then if I did them fast I could rock out 5, the other day we did them and I did 10 in a row, nice and slowly, freakin stoked, and same with sit ups, I could only do a couple with my legs in the air and thank god mike lets me cheat and do them with my feet down, but the other day I managed two sets with my legs up and about 5 sets in managed almost a whole nother set. So I am getting, better, stronger and fitter, it is so good to see progress!!!

Last week I was sick, so blimmin sick, everything hurt, at one stage lying down was agony as my hips and legs were so sore, I was pretty damn pleased mike was away and there was no class, but on monday for some messed up reason I cannot explain, I went to class, I was really sick, my chest was really sore, breathing was not a simple task, but I went, I felt dizzy and everything was aching, I felt like I had smoked 100 cigarettes and couldn’t catch my breath, and I made it about 2/3 of the way through class before he told me to just sit on the bike!!! And I was glad he did, especially the next day when I was sore, to think I could have been even sorer! So this class has become such a habit, such a normal part of life I go regardless. I find myself telling people I can’t do things as I have class, whereas before i would have thought up reasons not to go to class so I could do other things!!

I am part of a group on facebook and I read peoples posts sometimes and it makes me really sad, people getting upset because they haven’t lost this week, people complaining that they only lost 900g, people weighing themselves every single day. I hate this. I hate the emphasis on weight, i just want to scream at them and say weigh yourself once a month, not every day, not every week, there is bound to be disappointment if you weigh yourself that often, hell I used to do that, and when you work hard and diet hard and then lose only 200g or put on 200g it deflates you and you think fuck that, why?? All that effort for that! And you just give up, only to start the same cycle again in a month or two. I am so glad I got out of that phase, I am so glad that weight holds very little importance in my life now, I love that I measure my achievements by the exercise I am now capable of doing or the way my clothes fit and if a few kilos happened to have dropped that is just a bonus.
I hate that some trainers and nutritionists and diet folk, put so much emphasis on the scales. I get there needs to be a measure of success but I wish they would do it by measurements rather than weight. When I joined the gym, I was told he didn’t care how much weight I lost as long as over time, my weight went downwards not upwards, I was stoked, finally someone who didn’t expect you to lose a certain ammount per week.

Now this 6 weeks mike has set us a goal, 1.5 kilos, you know what I am good with that, that is not a big ask, it is not an impossible goal it is a realistic achievable goal – and I think every woman so far has hit it already!!

Today I am grateful that I am able to still straighten my arms after the mean arm workout yesturday – love doing weights, and I am highly amused that poor cousin loren can barely move hers!!