Personally Trained

So today I had my free fitness consultation at L.A. Fitness. I got up early enough to shower (I needed to shave - I know showering before working out is stupid) and eat some breakfast. I grabbed a towel and water bottle and then headed to the gym where I met with Brandon. 

We started out the session setting some basic goals. I said I wanted to lose weight, increase my energy, and feel more confident. We went more in depth of previous work out experiences I've had and talked about what made me successful and what barriers I had to overcome. Then we set some number goals and established our starting point. I already did all my weights and measurements this week, so we just did the body fat percentage thingy that looks like this:

If you've never used one of these, it's not rocket science. You input your age, weight, and height and then hold this thing straight out from your body. I couldn't tell you the exact science of it without googling and regurgitating, but when I saw my body fat percentage, i was bummed: 40.8%. I knew it wasn't great, but I was hoping I had a bit more muscle tucked in that fat. 

We headed to do a work out after the numbers game and let me tell you - I remember why I like personal trainers so much. Back in the day, I had a personal trainer (Mark for readers of old), and it was great! I had some accountability, was able to learn how to exercise properly, and I had someone rooting for me in my corner. Plus, it's nice to just go and do something instead of having to figure things out for yourself.

Anywho, the workout was great, though it was only about 20 minutes. We kinda did a few things to see where I was at. We started with push ups. Yikes. I could do 20 girl push ups, but I plopped down at the end of every push up, so I wouldn't really count that. Then we did planks and I was able to hold it for about 30 seconds. Next up was the wall squat. I could've held that longer, but he told me that obviously my legs were strong and I was pretty well set in that area. Then we did a few exercises just for funsies: medicine ball throws, sit ups, things where I hopped on and off a step, a bunch of arm and back exercises, and some other goodies I'm probably forgetting. By the end, I'd sweat quite a bit, but I was glad. Brandon was super encouraging.

Then we went back to this desk where he tried to sell me some personal training packages. I signed up for the 3x/month package. I would've loved to sign up for more, but it was pretty expensive. They promised that even if you only saw your trainer once a week or so that they would write up personalized work outs for you throughout the week if you wanted them. So, let's say I met with the trainer Monday and I said to him, "Give me 3 strength training workouts until I see you again." Between sets and reps, the trainer would write up something for me and then I'd just follow that on my own. Additionally, the trainer I'll be working with is a registered dietician, so hopefully he'll be able to help me on that part too.

I signed up for a year of training and hope to really make some positive changes. I can't wait to get going, feel stronger, and feel more confident!

Have any of you ever had a personal trainer? What are your thoughts?

Travel day (again)

Let me just say this about the Atlanta airport: it is like a fucking scavenger hunt. 

First, refill your gas tank and then drop off your car at the rental car center. Next, go up one escalator level and try to find the bathrooms secretly settled behind a corner with the world's most discrete sign while worrying (legitimately) that your bladder may burst. After emptying your bladder for over 1 straight minute, find the escalator to take you to the train that takes you to the airport. Once you've gotten off the train at the right stop, navigate your way towards the airport. Once at the airport, determine which terminal you need (north or south) and then find your airline check-in to print off a boarding pass, because with everyone on the Wifi, there is no way in hell the mobile boarding pass is going to cut it with loading times >1 minute. With paper boarding pass in hand, determine which security checkpoint you should enter (main, north, or assistance-required). Once through security, go down a majorly long and steep escalator and get on the plane train. Exit train at your terminal. Then find your gate. Once at your gate, wonder who the fuck thought this was a well-organized system. Then, given that you have 25 minutes and have used major phone battery navigating this world of fuckery, go buy a small hot chocolate (without whip cream magical calories) and use their outlets given that your gate (and the surrounding gates) have charging areas. 

Now, let me also say this: thank God I left early this morning. Yikes.

Alright. Now that I've given a thorough review on the Atlanta airport, I can announce that I'm in San Antonio. Tomorrow's interview starts rather late, which should be nice. It's also done at a reasonable time (around 4:30), so I can go check out the Alamo. It's only open until 5:30, so it might be a time crunch, but if worst comes to worst (I had to double check if that was the correct idiom), I can at least take a look at it from the outside. The River Walk is also supposed to be nice so my workout for tomorrow will be some walking, I think, which is good as this place lacks a fitness center (but does have free hot breakfast!).

Also, I ate pretty decently today. I ended up hitting up Subway before I left town and got a footlong because the breakfast menu was limited and none of the three options appealed to me. So, I ate half my turkey sub for lunch and half for breakfast. There's a subway just down the road from my hotel, so I'll likely do the same thing on Thursday when I head out to South Carolina - saves me some money if I don't buy it at the airport (and saves me from the temptation of anything too high calorie). I need to restock my South Beach diet bars though because I've gone through all five already (I left Sunday...) and they're great when I'm hungry and don't want to pay exorbitant airport prices for food. Like my small hot chocolate today was like $3.30. RIDICULOUS.

I did take some photos of my hotel room and my car windshield this morning (it had frosted over and I was at a loss as to what to do besides run the defroster given that I didn't have my snow brush/ice remover thing), but I'm being lazy and will post them tomorrow. Bed time for me!

Apply to all the residencies

Today was spent mostly working on applications, cleaning up my apartment, grocery shopping, and sleeping. I didn't get out of bed until 10ish and then set to work on my application right away. Bailey sat on the arm of my chair to support me. I finally finished my program list. I'm applying 74 places because OH MY GOD I NEED TO GET IN SOMEWHERE and the more places I apply, the more likely I am to get an interview. Also, apparently I hate money or something because this is going to be hella expensive. Like over $1500 expensive. Yikes.

I hit the gym as a break in application work and did weight training. I opted to do my pre-ankle sprain workout and it didn't really bother my ankle too much. What did bother my ankle was me shoving my foot back into my shoe after taking it off to try on shoes at meijer. I hobbled around the store after that. I probably should have taken the time to sit down, unlace it, put it on, and tie it back up. But who does that? Not me. Guess that was a poor choice. 

Hmm, what else have I done lately? Well, I've bugged Lisa a lot today to make sure she's doing her best with day two of our one week challenge. You can check out her progress on her blog. I've done pretty well. It's hard to track all the things I eat, especially when sometimes I mindlessly eat whatever, but I've been doing it. It's going to be harder tomorrow now that I'm going to have to pack food. Packing lunches is my least favorite past time. I just don't like having to think about what I'm going to want the next day. And then when I'm opening the lunch I've packed, I realize that I never want what I think I'm going to want. It's no good. But I have to do it because if I don't do it, then who is going to? No one. And then I'd have to buy something and that's against the rules of this one week challenge. So, after blogging I'm going to suck it up and pack something.

And now, photos for today so I can look over my application one last time. It goes live tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. which means I have to submit it 74 times and pay a buttload of money. Lovely.

Breakfast of champions/me

Pre-gym snack

Post-gym protein

YUM

Post-grocery shopping snack since I was too hungry to wait for dinner

Dinner

Evening snack

Today's positive: Not freaking out about my application and just taking it in stride.