Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Weigh in Wednesday and measuring up

Well according to my scale, I am down to 328! Past the 50 lbs mark baby! whoohoo!

Today was the appointment with the gym to be all measured up and documented. And answer a lot of questions for insurance purposes, just in case I suddenly die in the midst of a zumba class or something.

First off I did have to fill out a questionnaire about my goals, my setbacks, previous attempts, my height and weight, my nutritional knowledge, fitness knowledge etc. Most of this whole questionnaire was designed so they could better sell me on their weight loss program on which I have no desire to purchase and won't be talked into. I am sure the gentleman who was doing my "assessment" has a quota to fill, and he did his best at trying to make it appear financial feasible after I informed him I'm pretty broke and just joining the gym is a stretch on the wallet. He was a little surprised that I appeared to know more about nutrition and exercise than expected.

Part two and this was really weird for me, not only did I say how much weight I wanted to lose, but I stepped on a scale, and verbally said my weight in front of a total stranger (who also happened to be a man, definitely not my comfort zone. Then out came the measuring tape. Another awkward moment between strangers. I then had my body fat percentage read using some electrodes on my hand and foot, basically I am mostly fat. This is not news to me. 67%.
My BP was a bit high, but the gym guy said that wasn't abnormal most people are stressed out. However he said my resting heart rate was unusually low, but for me that is normal.

Basically since I wasn't going to sign up for their weight loss program or hire on a personal trainer his only exercise related advice was to do "cardio, cardio, cardio" but stay off the treadmill cause this wasn't low impact and to maybe try aqua fit. And that because I wasn't going to join one of their programs I would probably be prone to injury. I do have another session with him next week, where he shows me how to work out and use some of the machines.

I did feel mildly insulted over the exercise advice, because I am sure he doesn't realize how physical my job is, and how I have been swimming 3 x a week for the last 7 months and doing 2 hour hikes. So I am not just starting out, I have been at this for awhile. I just kept thinking to myself, I have already lost 49 lbs (51 now!) on my own, so really I totally rock.

After all this, which took about 45 mins, I headed to the gym section ( the women's only part) and did a small work out, 20 mins on the elliptical machine, and 20 on the treadmill, as these are really the only machines I'm not afraid of.

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