Changes
Since our return from Hawaii, I have slowly taken steps to take better care of myself. One thing I did even before leaving for Hawaii was to start drinking more water, less diet coke. And even though drinking more water, do it without using more plastic bottles. I got that going pretty well. I do love my flavored non-sweetened waters.
The next step was to get more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night. My therapist asked me to take Ambien for 2 weeks every night at 9:30pm. If after the 2 weeks, I could not keep the schedule on my own, then I needed to go to the Sleep Disorders Center. Doing that pretty well now. It's actually quite insane how tired I get at normal hours! I don't even read for more than 20 minutes most nights. It's nuts.
The next step was to start getting more exercise. I'm not generally good about this for long periods of time on my own. My friend Sarah had been telling us about the gym she goes to and her trainer. She's lost quite a bit of weight, so I was definitely interested. She took me to her gym to show me around, and I was in completely and total love. Like, head over heels. First thing I noticed about the gym is that it smells GOOD. Like herbal and fresh good. More on this later. The first thing you see when you go in is a cafe to your right and a friggin' spa on your left. Behind the front desk is a nice lounge area with a pretty nice TV too. We walk towards the locker rooms, and on the way we check out the climbing rock wall, the gyms, racket ball courts and the like. We go into the locker room, and I just have never seen anything so nice. Oh wait, I did once in a ritzy spa in Hawaii. The nice smell I smelled coming in, seems particularly strong here. I find out there is a eucalyptus sauna. That's what the smell is. LOVE IT. The lockers are awesome and there are little changing cubicle thingies at the end of each row of lockers. There are mirrors galore, and blow dryers at the mirrors. There are bath towels on shelves in front of rows of lockers. The showers are all individual and personal with curtains on each one. The other gyms I've been with didn't usually have this. As if I'm going to shower all out in the open. Pshaw. When you exit out the back of the locker area you come to your first set of pools. Yes, first set. First pool is a lap pool with 5 lanes. Next to that are two hot tubs with these awesome looking waterfalls. One hot tub is hotter than the other. Sarah said it's awesome to stand beneath the waterfalls and get a bit of a water massage. The next pool is a recreation pool and it has two monster water slides. This is all indoor, btw. Near the recreation pool is a big dry sauna. Then when you go outside, there are even more lap lanes and a bigger recreation pool with bigger slides. There are tons of lounge chairs, tables & umbrellas, and a cafe/snack bar. Yup, in love. I haven't even seen the more traditional workout stuff. Sheeesh. We finally go upstairs and voila. This is where all that traditional type stuff is. More machines than I've ever seen in one gym, and there are studios up there too for classes and whatnot. I really want to join this gym, but it's way more expensive than anything Mike and I have paid for in the past. I figure Mike is gonna like it, but not like the price tag. About a week later, Mike and I go there together for the official tour. Mike is sold pretty quickly, and we join! HOLLA!
A couple or so weeks prior to all this we went to see Batman for the second time with Sarah, her nephew, and her personal trainer too. This was kinda cool. Trainers kinda scare me. Well, the ones I've seen/met at Gold's Gym. So, it was definitely beneficial to meet her trainer outside of a gym. So, after we sign up for our membership, we go back upstairs to the trainers' desk and Mike and I sign up for metabolism tests, VO2/Zone testing, and a nutritionist. I also sign up for 3 months of personal training with Adam, Sarah's trainer. Sarah and I are gonna share our hour so it's a bit cheaper that way.
Next step is nutrition. I get my metabolism tested and find out I burn 1577 calories at rest. That means, at a minimum, I need to eat that many calories just to keep my body fueled. I average about 800ish calories on any given day. Mainly cuz I don't eat breakfast or lunch. So, I'm definitely in a starvation type mode. Suckage. I also found out that I burn 76% fat, which is good. Mike's skinny ass burns 96% fat just for a bit of a reference. Mike and I signed up for 4 visits with the nutritionist. We want to make sure that we change our habits together, and not have two different meals for everything. They ease you into your changes, and not slam you with a bunch of stuff. So, we start by making sure we don't eat any hydrogenated oils, and high fructose corn syrup. Even bread has that stuff. Thank goodness we don't have to change too much in the house for that.
TO BE CONTINUED...
