Week 1 - Starting the Gym

Like a billion other people, I purchased my gym membership during a "New Year's Resolution" promotion. It isn't that I have a resolution to lose weight, in fact, it goes way beyond that. I have resolved myself to transforming my body inside and out. The timing just happened to coincide with the new year.

The real challenge I face right now is time and child care. I'm still on maternity leave. I have 3 kids; 9, 3, and 6 weeks. I'm getting about 5 hours of sleep at night at this point, and my entire day is devoted to taking care of one child or another. Honestly, I'm totally stressed. My time is not my own. The only possible time to exercise at the gym would be from about 10pm to 12am. Not great for my sleep problem, but I've done this several times now and feel good about it. It's nice to get a few hours to myself. Things at my house are totally crazy from 6am to 10pm.

So I bought my gym membership thinking I would start immediately, but it actually took me about a week before I got the guts to go. I was nervous about going somewhere new. I wasn't too sure of the crowd that would be there. I also didn't know where the locker room was and how busy it would be, etc. I was worried about looking like a whale in my workout clothes as well. Here's a brief summary of what I learned my first week at the gym...

1. I am WAY more out of shape that I originally thought.

2. Gym mirrors are very unforgiving. I've learned where in the gym to avoid looking.

3. Despite being 200lbs, I can actually run at 2 minute intervals and my joints feel ok.

4. I burn more calories and have a better workout if I plan ahead.

5. Lastly, eating clean causes gasiness at first, so if you accidentaly, um..you know, while working out, just pretend it didn't happen and keep going....