One Month Results (don't judge what's in the mirror)

Well, one month of a gym membership and look at the results! Isn't this how most New Year's Resolutions go? This is a perfect example of don't believe everything you see, there's no way I'd be caught napping during the day! Clearly, this is a clever Photoshop, because we all know how busy I've been at the gym lately. Me nap, never!

It's almost been a full month active in the gym. For somebody who likes to document things, I haven't paid attention to how many gym visits I've made this past month (though, it's been four this week!). I already screwed up this whole quest to get in better shape by not taking measurements or at the very least before and after photos. That makes tracking progress that much more difficult. Looking in the mirror, I can't see any differences. That alone puts any exercise program in danger of failing, but I'm tracking my progress a different way, and last night I witnessed something that has me "pumped".

One of the deciding factors for choosing this gym was it also had classes. My favorite is called Body Pump. It's a total body workout primarily using weights. The other class I've been taking is called Body Flow. It's more of a yoga, pilates, meditation mix of what I can only describe is trying not to fall over for fifty five minutes. The past couple of weeks, I've been doing more of the classes using less of the weight machines. Last night, Becca wanted to try the Body Jam class, which is more danced based. Hell would have to freeze over before I would willingly take a dance class! She was on her own for that class, so I went back to visit the weight machines.

The first chest machine that I visited was one that had me sore for days after using it the first time. I had started at forty pounds and struggled to do three sets of eight reps (I may have even cheated and did six on the last set). Last night, sixty pounds for three sets of twelve reps! (That's a 50% increase, thought I say it just because I like numbers) It continued like that on every machine I used last night. Every machine, I added a minimum of ten pounds of weight and increased my reps, heck on a couple I even did four sets instead of three. I am shocked at my increases because it really hasn't felt like I've done much. I'm actually sitting here excited about going back to the gym, which I'd NEVER thought would happen.

Okay, so that picture is real. Even though I have been visiting the gym often, I do still like to catch an occasional cat nap once in a while! Just like a picture never tells the full story, neither does the mirror. I'm the same person on the outside, but I'm much stronger on the inside. Can't wait to "see" what next month brings.