Tag Archives: gym

Kicking My Butt to Sunday

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I don’t remember the last time I went to the gym.  Or went for a run.  I haven’t been to boot camp in a while either (I missed the sign-up deadline for May… now I have to wait until June).

I do, however, remember the last time I ate icing straight out of a cup, and what I had for breakfast.  It was covered in sugar & cinnamon, and dipped in chocolate dipping sauce.  And I ate it in a fluffy pink dressing gown that adds another 5kg.  Oh yeah, I’d totally tap me in the mornings.

Tomorrow, however, is a completely different story.  I will get to the gym in the morning, and go out for a walk in the afternoon.

Please members of this tight-knit community – do not be alarmed!  This is not delusion.  This is motivation. 

It was hard to spot at first.
But I’m 98% confident I’ve got it right, now.

It’s Not You…

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Dear Gym

I like you.  A lot.

Sometimes I feel we should take it to the next level, but I don’t think you’re cut out for that.

Our little break over the last month or two actually went surprisingly quickly.  You were always at the back of my mind – some might say that I missed you, but the space gave me a little more perspective.

This relationship of ours… it’s a little too… comfortable.  Where is the passion?  The sweat?  The burning desire to see you from the time I wake to the moment my head hits the pillow at the end of the day?

I’m sorry, there’s no easy way to say this:  I think I’ve found something else.

It’s my reason for getting out of bed in the morning, more than an hour before you used to sneak into my conscious.  It gets my heart pumping straight away.  If I’m being honest, it’s very physical.  I’ve been moving in ways I didn’t know I could.

I’m sorry, really I am.  I thought what we had was good – but my eyes have been opened to this whole new world.  I wish you could join me in this part of my life, but I think we’ve just grown too far apart.

Don’t cry.  Please, understand that it’s not you, it’s me.

I’ve moved on, and we’re just not as compatible any more.  You’re a fantastic gym.  Really, you are.  I have every confidence that you’ll make another girl very happy.

Can we still be friends?  I’d like to hang every now and then – we can have some quality time when it’s raining.  Winter’s coming up – we’ll probably see each other every now and then.

Thank you for understanding.

Love,
Amy

Thirteen New Experiences for 2013

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ID-10094542Is it too early to be setting my goals for 2013?  They’re effectively new year’s resolutions – but we’re only half way through December.

Too bad if it is – I’m flying out out the country in a week and I don’t think I’ll be paying much attention to my fitness goals in the week leading up to 1 Jan.  So, ladies and gentlemen, I present you with my thirteen new (endorphin-seeking) experiences for 2013:

  1. Run my first race
  2. Try a mixed martial arts class
  3. Try a pole fitness class
  4. Try a spin class
  5. Go skydiving
  6. Try a beginners/intro crossfit course
  7. Try a yoga class
  8. Try a pilates class
  9. Go bungy jumping
  10. Try indoor rock climbing
  11. Buy a bike
  12. Sign up for boot-camp style group training
  13. Try an aqua/pool-based fitness class

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As you can see, it’s a bit of a taster plate of things to try.  A sampler of fitness activities, if you will.

It highlights just how limited my fitness experiences have been to date – I feel like the only woman in the city who hasn’t at least taken a pilates class!

ID-10035243(3)How can I really decide what I like, and what drives me if I haven’t tried much?

Don’t get me wrong, I like running – but how do I know I won’t love something more without trying more?

What are your plans or goals?  Are there any new experiences on your 2013 to-do list?

Things They Never Told Me About Losing Weight

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Okay, so I’m still a away off being at my goal weight, but I’ve lost a fair bit this year. Enough that people have noticed. Enough that its helped change the way I see myself.

It’s a good thing. I’m thankful that my cravings for endorphins had positive side effects beyond helping to manage stress (the biggest “win” of all).

But there are things I never knew about losing weight that would’ve been nice to be told about at the start of this journey. They’re not bad things, and all are obvious once you turn your mind to them.

I’m going to share mine, and ask that you chip in with any things from your own experiences – we might be able to give someone else a gentle heads up about what they should expect…

    1. The weight doesn’t come off evenly.

    I’m most definitely a pear shape. Like every woman on my father’s side of the family, I have child-bearing hips and thighs with more dimples than a golf ball. Sure, I have belly fat, too, but it’s my lower half where I need to lose it.

    Guess where most of my weight loss has been – yup, top half.

    I love that I have a waist. It’s just frustrating to see my thighs, while smaller, not proportionally so.

    2. Oh, the bruises!

    Okay, I bruised like a peach before losing any weight, and I bruise the same now. I’m a total klutz and lack some pretty simple coordination skills. That has nothing to do with losing weight.

    But having less padding – things hurt so much more! Especially whacking my hip on my desk – something I do regularly.

    3. Clothes shopping

    It’s actually really, really fun. You will four the first time you walk into a changing room with a smaller size and it fits. Perfectly. And, damn girl, you look good.

    But it’s also really, really expensive.

    Think about how much you’ve spent on the (work) clothes you’re currently wearing. Extend that to your entire wardrobe. Now, consider that you’ll have to replace all that. If you’ve got a lot to lose, expect to do so more than once (granted, you hopefully won’t go crazy with the credit card for your ‘in progress’ gear).

    I’ve been particularly cheap and am still wearing most of my ‘before‘ clothes, and they look ridiculous.

    4. Genuine compliments can sting

    Family, friends, colleagues will notice your weight loss – and compliment you on your progress. Because they are happy for you. Proud of you. Some may even be motivated by your successes. Their compliments are genuine. You do look good!

    I met up with a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen for a couple of months for my birthday. One of the first things she did when we found each other at the park was hug me, stand back and announce that I had lost “a sh!t load of weight!”

    She was right, at that stage I was a good 8-9kg lighter than I had been the last time she’d seen me. Unfortunately, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘but I’m still fat, how fat did she think I was before?!’ Totally my issue, not hers, but the mind is a weird thing. If it happens to you, know that you’re not the first to think those thoughts, and you won’t be the last.

    Remember, they’re genuine – because you’re doing so damn well.

    5. Boosted self-confidence, respect and pride

    We all know that being healthier makes us feel better inside and out – but there’s no descriptor out there that can explain the force of “oomph” that grows inside as you progress with any justice. There are no words.

    Or maybe it’s just an endorphin high. Either way, this alone is worth all the effort!

So, tell me – what’s something YOU wish you knew earlier?
(Or, something someone’s to,d you at has proved to be a valuable heads-up?)

Ummm… Random Question…

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I’m a hopeless romantic at heart, like most girls. We’re raised on stories of meeting Prince Charming and feeling sparks that make the hair on your arms stand on end. I call bullshit.

The only sparks I’m getting are from the treadmill.

Static electricity that makes any hair not secured in a hair-tie stand on end. And it hurts. There are red spots on my knuckles evidencing where my skin has grazed the heart-rate monitor plates.

And it’s not just one treadmill, either – it’s happened on 3 in the last week.

So, runners out there, I ask you this (seemingly) random question: does this ever happen to you?

If it does, do you know why? How do you prevent it?
Is it my running style/technique? My clothes?

Is it a greater power telling me that I’ve found true love in a piece of exercise equipment?
Haha, Universe, way to call a girl fat (I kid).

Sidenote - my November running goal is progressing as expected, even with these, errr, hiccups.

Go To The Gym: Crafty Motivator

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I dropped in to the Craft 2.0 show yesterday at the St James theatre in Wellington. Everything in the stalls was gorgeous and just begging to be taken home. Sadly, my wallet’s been whimpering a lot lately and I didn’t have the stomach for a full-blown fiscal tantrum.

I was, however, inspired to get a little crafty. I had seen blogger Reese Kistel’s statement pillows a couple of weeks ago and decided I wanted to do something similar, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to go about it. After seeing the needlework on display yesterday, I figured an embroidered pillow case was the way to go. Practical. Feminine. And in this case, bossy.

Perfect.

If you’re interested in a step-by-step of how I did it, just keep reading behind the cut. Continue reading →

An Evening of Truths

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It’s the last night of October which not only means there’s a tempting bowl of Freddos and toffee lollies sitting by my front door, but I have to tally up my running total for the month.  Because at the beginning of the month I set myself a goal.  100km.  By 31 October.

Honestly… I can’t have done more than 50km in the whole month.  6 of those were yesterday. 

I know why, too.  I’ve been distracted and haven’t been getting on the treadmill or outside nearly enough.  100km was very ambitious.  I knew that when I set the goal, but I didn’t think I would be that far off.

But I’m not giving up!  For November, I will set another goal.  But I won’t be so hard on myself (some call it being more realistic).

SO:  During November I’m challenging myself to clock up 70km.
If I accomplish that, I’ll bump it up for December.

After all, it’s about progress – isn’t it?

Five Reasons Why My Gym Is Awesome

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I’ve been a member of a couple of gyms over the last 3-4 years. Both had their good and bad points. Neither were over utilised by yours truly, but I knew that the memberships were there and wore like a cool-kid-with-money-to-spare badge of honour.

I mean, that’s why we join gyms, right? We’re literally paying someone to be our friend and let us join our club. Using an odd variant of that logic, I could build a fort in my living room and charge friends a membership fee of a beer per visit. Okay, weird tangent. But with a long weekend starting Saturday, it mightn’t be a terrible idea…

Right, where was I?
Ah, yes, gym memberships.

I use mine more now these days than I used to. Because I like going. It’s become one of my happy places. It’s right up there playing with the dogs, and baking with cheesy pop music blaring through the house.
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It’s not the flashest gym. It’s not trendy, and the trainers haven’t won lots of awards (at least, I don’t think they have). But it’s exactly what I was looking for when I joined, and it remains a good fit for me now.

Cue: 5 reasons why my gym is awesome.

1. They have branches all over the place. My ‘home’ gym is based 2 minutes from the office, with another a 3 minute walk from my house. They’re all over the city, but I really only use those two. I mean, proximity isn’t going to be an excuse for not going (well, not a good one anyway).

2. The staff aren’t tanks. They’re fit and toned, without being built like machines. Sure, they’d be able to kick the door down if I passed out in a toilet cubicle (touch wood that’s never needed) but they still come across very much like one of us. Approachable, and a realistic example of something we can be working towards at any age, or for any lifestyle.

3. Other members are ‘my kind of people‘. I don’t know how to explain what I mean without someone feeling insulted (if that is you, I truly sorry – it’s not my intention!). Basically, it’s a women’s only gym and it appears that because of that, the posers and (arguably) much hotter gym-goers of the world are fewer and further between than my last gym.

4. The equipment I want to use is available 99% of the time. Like I said before, it’s not the most popular chain of gyms in the city, and it caters to more than just the corporate-workers market, so people come and go through out the day and by the time I rock up at 5-6pm, people are heading off. Win.

5. Free stuff. There are often free samples at the counter. Again, it might have something to do with the women’s-gym status and the marketing stereotypes that go with it. But I don’t care, I love free stuff. Last week it was the new type of Head and Shoulders shampoo. This week, vouchers for Habitual Fix, a lunch bar down the road.

What about you -
… Do you belong to a gym?
… Do you actually go?
… What do(n’t) you love about it?