Firstly, I’d like to note that these “Fitness Journey” blog posts are really more of a cathartic exercise for capturing my feelings each step of the process. If anyone else wants to read them, which I doubt, I’m ok with that too. I don’t plan to stick these to the front page or really promote them at all. 

 

I’ve started a fitness and diet program through Intrafitt in Midland. I didn’t pick this place out, Nancee did, but apparently they have a pretty scientific approach. Since last Wednesday I’ve been on the diet and doing 45 -60 minutes of low impart cardio most every day. It’s been long overdue that I start putting a focus on my fitness. Movies and music have taken me away from any thought of trying to live healthier. With Birthday #43 coming up there is no time like the present to correct that.

The diet takes a lot of prep and has a ton of food. The focus is on controlling your blood sugar and the program is not calorie restrictive at all. On the contrary I’ve found it difficult to eat all the food I’m supposed to at each meal. I want to really make an effort to be as compliant as I can to the plan.

I was kind of won over by Mr. Will Smith (a.k.a Thunder from the original airing of American Gladiators) after talking with him on my consult. He seemed to really know his body science and I assumed incorrectly that I’d be working with him. When I got to my first training session last night it was a little more apparent how it all works. He has others go through the training with you and that’s just a half hour, twice a week. The same person monitors your compliance with the diet and takes your data. The trainer I drew is maybe 2 years older than my daughter and a tiny person. I’ve always found that a bit strange, being trained by a female with nothing in the way of body type in common with me. Not they she doesn’t know her physiology. She’s about to graduate college in a related field and super passionate. A little to upbeat for my tastes starting out, but the training was good so that doesn’t really matter.

Of course I can only contrasts this with my one other personal trainer, (Boyd Fields) who was closer in size to me and really seemed to get my issues and keep me motivated and moving in the right direction. Boyd is a bodybuilder and trainer and I’d be working with him right now if he were training out of my gym or even in my town these days. His approach was more like becoming a friend (while you’re working with him) and talking to you on more of a personal level. I’ll never forget that my first day working with him, I actually threw up. After that it was just more of the same but my body rose to the occasion. His sessions were 50 – 60 minutes long and pushed me every time. His diets were very generic and more like what a body builder might use to cut weight. I realize that that particular approach is not sustainable or healthy per say, but my goodness, I lost weight fast with him. On one stretched I lost 16 lbs in 11 days or something. Of course a lot of that is water weight but when you are measuring your success in lbs lost it’s impressive.

Contrasted to the W. Smith style there is no, “let’s get to know each other” vibe at all. At the orientation he asked me what my goals were and cut me off midsentence, eager to espouse the values of the Intrafitt approach. Everything I’ve tried to reference from my previous training or diet experience has been wrong. He’s very confident, if a bit curt in the effectiveness of his techniques.  He’s won more than twenty-eight bodybuilding championships and one look at him tells you that training is his whole life. It doesn’t matter if I get to know the guy or not. I don’t even need to enjoy the training there. I just want to get the knowledge. That is my attitude right now.

The gym is another thing. I don’t like their brand of cardio equipment and there just isn’t enough treadmills. I’m spoiled with a bigger gym that has 15 or so treadmills of the highest quality. So waiting to get on a cheaper piece of equipment, not as optimally designed is a little off-putting. For 6 weeks I can handle that. I just want to drop as much weight as I can to be me back into shape to do it on my own once more.

I decided to keep my membership at Gold’s active during my 2 months working out here and there at Intrafitt and I’m glad that I did. Still I think that the monitoring and accountability over the 6 weeks will ultimately wind up being worth the money and time. Only time itself will tell.