Back in the Gym

I will admit that I'm not the most dedicated when it come to working out on a long-term basis. Generally, I work out for a month or two (sometimes less), lose some weight, then get lazy and not want to work out anymore. After I had Brady and we moved to Michigan, we had a gym at our complex, but my excuse was that there was no one to watch Brady for me. When we moved to South Carolina, the excuse became that we had a house and no longer had a gym. I did pull out the Wii Fit in late March and I stuck with that for about a month and half, losing 5.8lb. The problem with the Wii Fit was that it would take me an entire hour or more to burn 200 calories. In Mid-May we joined the YMCA and started to work out 2-3 times per week. Between Mid-May and early July, I lost 5.2lb (an average of 0.7lb per week). We then started to travel the entire month of July and part of August and things started to fall apart.

The last time I stepped in the gym was August 8, almost 3 months ago. The day after that work out, I suffered debilitating back pain and after several trips to the chiropractor to fix what was wrong, I was a little apprehensive about getting back in the gym and possibly injuring myself again. I realized later that for a whole month, in which there was lots of travel, Brady's power sliding door was broken and I had to open it manually, which it's not meant to do. The strain of constantly forcing that door open with all my might probably led to my back problem.

In the time that I'd stopped going to the gym, I'd lost 10lbs (an average of 0.67lb per week). I'm not saying that I am not happy with the weight loss, but it was probably helping to keep me out of the gym. My mind was thinking, "well, I'm losing a lot of weight anyway, so what's the point?" Well, weight and inches are two very different things. While working out, I lost 2 inches off my hips (my problem area), and I've only lost 1/2 an inch since I stopped working out. I feel like someone at my weight would be in a smaller pants size than a size 10, so working out might be the way to lose more inches off my hips and get into smaller pants sizes. I've given up on my top size going smaller than a medium because my bust is never going to shrink. It's just a fact of life.

On Monday, I decided that it was time to get back into the gym. Andy had been going with his friend, even when I didn't, and took Brady to the day care. I kind of used that time to relax and be by myself. When I thought about it, I am "by myself" when I work out and it's up to 2 hours of "me time" where I'm doing something good for myself. I felt good while working out and of course, the soreness hit me yesterday, but it feels good to know I'm sore because I worked hard. I'm going back tonight and hopefully will continue until Christmas, when we have to cancel our membership due to the move to Germany.