3 Hours at the gym?!

Determined to do this.

2019 is going to be the year I get myself in the best possible shape, mentally and physically, possible. 

I'll hold my hands up, I have never really taken good care of myself. I've never regularly eaten vegetables, I stopped doing regular exercise the second I left secondary school where it was mandatory and if I don't have to leave my house I probably won't. This is going to change! At the start of this year I signed up to a gym on the recommendation of my new friend Kelly and a promise that she would train me. She's a qualified personal trainer by the way so she knows what she's doing. The first two weeks I think I went once a week to the gym and that was because I had scheduled gym induction days. 

Awkward story moment... My first session was with a very nice looking instructor, I'll refer to him here as 'fit T' as Kelly and I affectionately call him. It went fine, I was relatively normal, no explosions of awkwardness. That is until I was arranging to book my next session. Fit T was asking when I wanted to come back and told me the days he works. This should have been the moment when a normal, polite person would have said, "Yes please Fit T, sign me up for one of your days". Instead my awkward knee jerk reaction reply was "Im not fussed" and I saw the rejection on his face. This shouldn't be a big deal, to most people they probably wouldn't have thought twice about it, to me the nervous over thinker, it will haunt me every time I see him at the gym. I am also a fixer by nature so a few days later I tried to correct my mistake and bombarded the gym with emails to try and change my appointment. I asked for the day and time I thought he would be in. Instead I was assigned to someone else. As I wrote that it occured to me that he might have seen my name and refused to take me. 🤔 Anyway I then had my session with a very nice man, Nice A, and it all worked out. All written out it seems less grungy but at the time I was kicking myself.

Awkward story out of the way and 3 weeks into the new year, I'm now going to the gym at least 3 times a week. This is with Kelly or on my own and I'm finding that I'm feeling fitter already, I'm meeting new people and it's actually helping my anxiety a lot. I went on my own once and it was fine. I got a confidence boost from doing something completely by myself where I had no social comfort blanket. Go me! 

I have a set plan (ish) of what I'll be doing at the gym but basically I'm going to go and do what I feel like as long as I get in mostly cardio and some weights. I'm currently a UK size 12/14 and for my height 5'3, I should be a size 8. So that's my goal, to drop 2 dress sizes and Kelly days that's definitely achievable. Kelly and I are posting our fitness journey on Instagram if you would like to see it happening,  find us at chonker--plonker. Kelly takes sneaky video and photos during the sessions and posts them on there. I'm just a real person trying to get fit haha so don't judge my sweat and belly rolls.

Current gym plan....

* 10 minutes fast walking on the curved treadmill. As the movement is self generated it apparently burns 40% more calories? I also try to get some running done but it's only in 20 second bursts haha.

* 10 minutes on the bike, resistance level 3.

* The machines Kelly refers to as the 'Slut Machines. The ones where you either squash the pads together between your thighs or push them out with your thighs. You can imagine how they get their name. I do 3 sets of 12 on both of these with 45kg of weight and 30 seconds of rest in between.

*3 sets of 10 with minimal rest of pull downs. 

* 3 sets of 10 with minimal rest on the bicep push. My left arm is a lot weaker so I drop the weights down and finish the set on the left side plus 5 more to build it up.

Then if Kelly is feeling mean we'll do sets of squats with various weights or resistance and maybe some basic sit ups and bits like that. 

We did all this on Friday, we got there at 7:30pm and left at 10pm. We chatted a little as we went but it was mostly exercise and I'm pleased to report that it didn't drag and it definitely didn't feel like nearly 3 you're not gym time!

I then played Roller Derby on Saturday and now I ache all over, but it's a good ache. 

I'm going to post my findings on each session on here, like a fitness diary. I'm also going to post life stuff and once my flat is finished I'm also going to post house and arty things. Basically my life and my whole year of transformation. If no one else reads this then that's ok, it can be an online diary and if someone does then hi! Let's share daily updates so we know we're not the only ones struggling with this becoming an adult thing.

Good luck in your transformations!

L xx

P.s as well as Instagram you can find us on Twitter @Laurenailie. 😊