I have given a very brief overview of my gym visit on my other blog Lilybobombs but here I need to be more open about everything, my reasons and the results, as there are so many women who are in my situation and will only be able to go forward with IVF if they reach the weight the doctors deem suitable.
Yesterday I had my first induction session at the gym and it was good, I am feeling it today, but as my fitness levels have slipped so much in the last couple of years I knew it wouldn't be an easy journey.
The gym I am attending is Everyone Active it is our local community gym they have centres in a large number of districts covering the south of england if you would like to see if there is one near you you can check HERE.
I have set 2013 to be a year of challenging myself and pushing some personal boundaries, I am challenging myself in fitness, home, DIY projects, learning, and of course my fashion choices.
You will find most of the fitness challenges will be spoken about on here and the fashion and lifestyle will be mostly over at lilybobombs, so if you want to keep up with the craziness I plan then feel free to follow me on both.
My first session at the gym was a chance to discuss with one of the personal trainers what my goals are, I worked with the lovely Charlie who was fantastic at asking the right questions and making me feel at ease. not once did he make me feel uncomfortable.
Something many plus size women, myself included fear is the atomatic assumption that we must want to lose weight, now I really want to stress that this is not the case, I am a plus size woman, who apart from being currently less fit than I would like, I am very health, with perfect blood pressure, cholesterol, all my bloods are within normal ranges, I am happy with myself 99% of the time I am not going to say 100% as we all have bad days.
Being overweight does not have to mean unhealthy, of course it can have health risks but so can lots of physical states, I am a pretty healthy person, my knees and asthma have been with me since I was a size 8 so my weight has not caused them, and I have been trying to get pregnant since I was a size 10 with no joy and the doctors have told me my weight is not a factor.
My trainer Charlie was fabulous instead of making an automatic assumption he asked me what I wanted to achieve at the gym, there are many programs available which include general fitness improvements, weight loss, muscle building, toning and quite a few more too.
This instantly relaxed me as even though my goal is weight loss for the IVF it would necessarily be my main reason for attending the gym at any other time.
After we had settled all the planning parts I was taken through a short 30 minute routine, including a 5 minute warm up on the exercise bike 5 minutes on the cross trainer, chest press 2 reps of 12 the manual rower 2 reps of 12 and the leg press 2 reps of 12 all finished up 5 minutes on the treadmill as a fast walk to wind me down and then some stretches to finish off.
It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, I did have one scary moment when I felt me knee go on the cross trainer and had to bring it right down and come off a little earlier and then couldn't walk on it for a couple of minute, so now we have adjusted my workout so I only use the cross trainer for a minute or two till my muscles around my knee build up to support it more.
I am taking the weekend off and allowing my muscles above my left knee time to relax as I over compensated a bit and they are sore, but I am aiming for 3 days a week in the gym an exercise class and a swim next week as my main routine.
I will let you know how I get on.
Next week I have a few posts planned for next week showing you what I am wearing to the gym and what challenges I am setting myself.
Mhairi
xxx
