Less is More

Back in April I wrote several posts about starting my fitness journey, but I have held back from filling my blog with purely fitness related posts (although fitness has been in the forefront of my mind).  My blog is not solely about fitness so I did not want to concentrate so much on it, but, I figured it was time for a bit of an update. 

I encourage you to go back and read the original April posts about the start of my journey (especially if you have not already), but I will also recap for you here.  In March I joined a gym by my house.  I completed a fitness test, and as a result of the test, I pulled money out of savings and bought sessions with a trainer (not just any trainer, but the most amazing trainer in the world!) and started training in April.  I also started seeing a nutritionist occasionally since the proper nutrition is just as important as the exercising … one really is not effective without the other.

Since April, I have worked extremely hard to lose weight and tone up.  I started with twice a week training sessions (the first of which I spent half the time on the floor because I was so out of shape … embarrassing!) and a half hour of cardio seven days a week.  Slowly the cardio increased to 45 mins and then to an hour.  At first I was doing intervals on the elliptical and I was losing, but it was slow going.  Then my trainer switched me over to the treadmill where I did a 5 incline at a 3.5 speed, and this jump started the weight loss.  Then, in June, we made another switch – instead of going once a day for 1 hour of cardio, I increased to going twice a day (morning and night) for 45 mins.  This again jump started the weight loss.  In July, I switched from the treadmill to the PRECOR machine and I increased my training days from 2 to 3. 

I have always worked toward what I wanted in life (high school, college, law school, friendships, jobs, etc) but I have never really truly focused on myself.  This has changed.  I make time for the gym everyday (except Sunday which is my rest day) and at the moment I make time to go to the gym TWICE a day because that is giving me the results I want.  I have changed my eating habits so that I eat smaller meals more frequently and I eat the right stuff now.  I have made some major changes, but that is exactly what needed to happen.

It has been a quite a journey, and there is a long way to go still, but I am proud to say that in less than 5 months I have lost 51 pounds!! 

Here are some pictures you can compare.  The first on is from a cruise I took at the end of March, just after I joined the gym and before I started really training and doing the nutrition.  The second one if from a bachelorette party I went to at the end of July (I have lost an additional 9 pounds since that picture was taken, but it is the most recent one I have.)

March 2011

 July 2011

 

Sticking with a fitness plan takes gumption!!