Joining a Gym…
I joined a gym back in August. I was getting pudgy. No, there’s no way around it, I was getting FAT and my family has a history on both parents side of health issues: Diabetes, Heart Disease, High Blood pressure, etc. So I was turning thirty, and really didn’t want to be a big fat fatty in my thirties.
I had it lucky, a gentleman I work with, who has become a best friend and mentor to me and is 20 years my senior is a/was a body builder. He made the comment that “We should take you down to the gym and get you yoked the f-ck up!” We were making conversation, but that seed stuck.
I had just had to go up 2 inches in my pants and my doctor’s scale had weighed me in at 250lbs. Seriously? 250? 11 years out of highschool and I was 30lbs heavier than I had been my senior year, and I was “fluffy” then.
So he brought it up again, and I said, “Sure man,” and this sort of staggered him. He’s big on weight training and over the years had talked to a lot of people who had sought him out who wanted to lose weight and “get yoked,” and he would write out basic work outs for these people and I was one of maybe 2 people who ever followed through. He wrote me out a basic workout, a very gentle workout, to get my ligaments and tendons and muscles ready for the abuse that would come and I’d been doing that for the past few months and making great gains in both muscle mass and weight reduction. Of course this was paired with a lowered calorie intake and a more nutritious food intake. Basically, I cut out the “shit,” in my diet. It’s not hard, basically if it comes from a window and is in a bag, it’s shit and doesn’t belong in your body. Now to be fair, I still get food in bags from drive thru windows, but no where near as often as I used to. We celebrate little milestones, reward the kids for particularly good behavior, but never just because I am hungry.
So anyway, I joined one of those 24 hour gyms, it’s $30 a month and is full of cable equipment, free weights and all sorts of other scary off putting looking devices of torture.
When picking out a gym you need to be comfortable there. All those wild machines aren’t going to look comfortable. Find a gym that provides their own trainers, or one with an owner who will show you the ropes. Hell ask when you go in to look around if they have someone who’ll show you the ropes.
Get a simple program started, figure out what YOU want to do, and do it. I go four days a week. With one day to rest in between. Here’s my workout sheet. It’s pretty simple and broken down by “workouts” rather than days. The second sheet is the same workout reversed. You can google the exercises, or ask a gym employee.
As to diet? I used caloriecount.com and I am going to try sparkpeople.com, and see how their service is (it’s free, the both of em) to track my calorie consumption. You can put in your current weight on caloriecount.com, your goal, and answer some questions to see how many calories your burn in a day.
There’s even some recipes (I like the blackbean chili one on there, with the corn) with a caloric break down, and some forums to socialize in with other people pushing for looser pants.
Keep in mind that when you see ads for “The 300 diet” or “I got RIPPED IN THREE WEEKS” Those are scams. There’s no magic pill, or supplement that will magically make you slimmer. You need to cut calories and raise activity. Simple as that.
As far as supplements go, I’ve been taking protien whey (after workout and before bed to keep my metabolism constantly running and to effect muscle mass ((it tastes okay, but not good)) ), creatine (just started this one, it’s supposed to give you workout energy aiding in calorie burn and help your muscle retain water making you bigger, so far I guess it’s worked, and I take a multivitamin because when I was cutting calories I wasn’t paying too much attention to vitamin intake. Women of course, should look into calcium supplements, I guess.
Anway, no magic pill, lots of denying yourself stupid calories intakes and when you scout a gym, ask to be shown the basics of how to use the machines. Also, if your gym has “that guy,” who won’t shut the fuck up about fox news this, fox news that, I like big game hunting in Africa, I’m god’s gift to everyone, buy an mp3 player. Even if you don’t have it on and pretend not to hear him/her. Our gym has one, and if not for my mp3 player, I’m sure he’d have driven me nuts. Plus sometimes gym music sucks. It’s always teeny bopper hippity hoppity stuff. Your mileage may, of course, vary.
For some reason I have been dropping pounds and not changing at all. The only thing that is different is that I am at work 2x as much and I am drinking only water and gave up soda again (unless I go out I sometimes drink one).
Either its helping or I am dieing (would explain the constant thirst)
Soda is so full of High Fructose Corn Syrup and empty calories that just cutting that out would make the difference…
Of course there’s something to be said about work related stress too.
Hey, I have the same family issues! Think we’re related?
Good for you, joining a gym and getting your butt kicked… good luck.
Great article. You make so many great points. You might try a different protein powder. I’m a huge fan of alltheywhey’s blend. It mixes well, and tastes awesome. You can get it direct from allthewhey.com or at bodybuilding.com.
Sounds like you’re making some great progress. Congrats on that.
↑ Grab this Headline Animator
I’m really very proud of you for the work you’ve been doing. That and you look hot
We’ll see how long I go to the gym with you. <3
[...] My husband joined a gym & lost 15-25 pounds [...]