12/12/2017
This is going to be a long post but this is just a starter and I don't intend to natter this much all the time! Let us start then at the beginning. Let me share the story of how I came to be training as a gym instructor and PT so you can see how you can tweak what you do at the moment and find yourself where you want to be as I am doing. I never dreamed that from that starting point I'd be here now but it crept up on me slowly.
In the summer of 2014 I was working in retail and at a stage where I wanted to tart up my house but after coming home from a long day at work, and on my days off, I found I had a complete lack of energy. I enjoyed unpacking the deliveries at work, challenging myself to lug great big boxes of stock about and get stock unpacked in record time but I didn't have the same bounce in my step to get DIY done at home.
So I decided a change of diet was needed. Working in a shopping centre gives you great access to all manner of food shops but working in a shopping centre also gives you access to all manner of bad food stuffs! I'd noticed that as I got older sugar was a much bigger influence on my energy levels. So I stopped eating as much of it as I could. Refined sugar that is. So cut back on fizzy drinks, chocolate bars in the lunchtime sandwich meal deals, the odd reduced price cake from Marks & Sparks of a evening when I was on a late shift and not getting dinner 'til late. I swapped sugar laden snacks for Nakd bars, dried mango and fruit. Sure it meant I was still having sugar but of a better quality. And it improved! I found my energy levels more consistent and it meant I could start planning DIY and more importantly, getting it done.
Then just after I started this venture, a new gym opened in Derby, right outside the shopping centre where I worked. I'd never set foot in a gym before and I certainly didn't enjoy PE at school. I knew I liked swimming and cycling and I loved throwing myself into the challenge of getting a shop delivery turned around in record time but how would that translate into using the gym? Nervously I started attending, found myself a personal trainer to work out with and got familar with the equipment. And I started attending classes still very aware that I was one of the biggest, both height and width wise, attendees there as well as being an uncoordinated mess at times. It was fun and I learned a lot about myself. I realised just how far I could push myself and how much improvement I could make in my fitness in a short period of time. Even today I was wistfully remembering the level I started at on the treadmill and knowing how I can smash that and more today.
I managed about 6 months of solid attendance before I started to slide back. My eating remained reasonably good but the motivation to exercise slipped. I wasn't accountable to anyone but myself and excuses not to exercise are all too easy when it's just yourself you have to convince.
I started again June 2016 and this time I found new people to hang out with in the gym and train with. If I were to offer one singular piece of advice that would keep you going to the gym it would be make some gym friends to train with. Whether you see them out of the gym or not, the very fact that you are seeing someone else make progress and they are watching your progress too makes for a very strong motivation to keep you going. On those days when it's too rainy/windy/snowy/hot and you've got a pile of excuses from of being too tired or sneezing and convincing yourself you're getting a cold when you know it's just dust or it's that time of the month, it does actually make it easier if you exercise believe it or not, knowing you've got to explain why you're backing out of a workout you've already arranged with someone will get you to the gym a awful lot more than not cos let's face it, most of us are British and saying no when you've already said yes is just plain uncomfortable!
Fully embrace the social aspect of the gym. Do natter and trade recipes and boost your ego by comparing muscle tone and baggy gym clothes that were once tight. Get excited about the fact that the weights you are pushing are going up while your clothes size is going down. You can get to the top of the stairs and have a conversation while doing it instead of having to stop and rest half way. Shout about your achievements. Don't turn into a boring braggard obviously but keep yourself positive by noticing the small changes you're making towards the big one of extending your life.
And that's what I've done. I've had a stream of gym mates around to keep me on track. Don't get me wrong I've wobbled a lot along the way. I've fallen off the metaphorical spin bike more times than I care to mention but the difference is having other people there to say "You alright mate? Get back on it and get moving then." rather than telling myself I can slope off home and sit and stew every time. And yes I've done that too. But then I miss the post workout glow, eating something after a workout, usually eggs, and feeling like I've earned it because my metabolism is belting through that food after my workout, putting my hands on my hips and wondering where the wobbly bits that were there last week have gone, and the sleep! There's nothing like a heavy gym session for making you sleep well once you get the soreness bit sorted.
It's not easy but it is rewarding. I understand the intimidation and the fear factor of going to the gym for the first time, or even just going back to the gym. Educating yourself about the gym will go a lot way to alleviate that. I'll be pointing people to some Youtube videos and might do some bits myself about using machines and the general equipment in a gym because knowing what you can use a Bosu ball other for than wobbling about on it and how weird TRX will feel the first time you try it goes a long way to building your confidence before you even step in the door and for those of you who are familar with it, maybe it'll give you more ideas of what you can be doing.
