Mashelle Week 10: Aches and Pains

This is me at the beginning of my second month of writing this blog. I am 17 pounds lighter and in a smaller pair of pants.

Each muscle and joint in my body aches. For the first time in just over two years, I went back to working out with a personal trainer. About three years ago I decided that I needed something different in the realm of weight loss, so I joined Total Woman and signed up for a free personal training session. I was then introduced to Brooke. She was just the type of trainer that I needed because she was someone that not only kicked my butt and challenged me, but also kept me in check.

For the year we were together, we worked out about twice per week. I got stronger and lost around 20 pounds, but more importantly I became addicted to the cold hard medal bars. I really enjoyed the weight lifting, swinging of the kettle bells, and throwing of the weighted medicine balls. I began to crave weight lifting and became quite strong in the process. My favorite accomplishment was that I could leg press around 450 pounds.

When I knew that I would not be returning to my teaching position the next year, I had to give up my sessions with Brooke. I missed my sessions, but I tried to keep up with what I could on my own. Then my mom got very sick and I spent the majority of the summer in Seattle taking care of her. While there, I lost track of working out and even caring about what I ate and the weight began to pile back on. Not only did I gain back the 20 pounds, but I also added 30 more to that over the next two years.

This is me three years ago when I was originally working out with Brooke and able to leg press around 450 pounds. There is about 380 pounds of weights in this picture if you include the bar. That was a lot of weight and I really crave being able to do that again.

Now, here I am two years later, 50 pounds heavier, and in desperate need of help. This journey began almost four months ago and I have found myself feeling uninspired. When I gained the pound last month, got injured, got sick, and stopped tracking my food, I started thinking about new ways to help inspire me to get back on track. Last week I started by making a small goal to lose 8 pounds in 8 weeks. I then decided that I needed to bring Brooke back into my life to help with my motivation.

Last night was my first personal training session back with Brooke. I was a little apprehensive and worried about how my body would react to being fully beat up again. We started with a quick warm-up on the treadmill and then proceeded to circuit training. It was like I had never stopped training. There were step ups, pushups, squats, sit ups, and some weight lifting. My muscles ached, my joints popped, and my left knee began to throb. I was definitely in the zone again and very happy to be back. It was like a part of my weight loss and workout routine was missing.

Mini Goal Update:
Weight Lost – 1 pound out of 8 pounds
Tracked Food – No
Activity Points – 22 points / goal – 40 points
Caloried Drinks – 0

It appears that I was really only able to get one thing checked off on my list of mini goals, but at least the weight loss is still there. Tomorrow I will eat and TRACK everything and make sure that I don’t sit down until I have reached at least 6 activity points. If I can do this for another 6 days then I know that that the weight loss for this next week will definitely be over 1 pound. Wish me luck.

I leave you with my parting thought for the week, “it doesn’t matter if you’ve failed, if you’ve been beaten. All that really matters is if you get back up and try again. Because winning is fun, but winning when nobody though you would, is just awesome.” – Unknown