The Things One Does

On St Patrick's Day...and I'm really not sure of the relevance, but...on St Patrick's Day I made a decision, carried it out and...hopefully...changed my life.

Get this...I enrolled at the local gym! Yep, I did and I had my assessment today, which is probably why I feel as if I have been used as someone's punch bag. First of all, Jane, Jacqui and I did our usual 30 minute walk. As Jacqui is young, slim, energetic and is only 32...and on top of all that, she's very attractive...she sets the pace, which is not just a stroll. Jacqui strides out and Jane and I are huffing and puffing alongside her, although occasionally one or the other of us drops back for a bit. However, mainly we keep up with her and we must be improving, because in between huffs and puffs, we can actually have a conversation, which means we should be going faster, as some smartass (I think it was Fred...biff!) commented upon hearing that.

Anyway, Jane and I had been making noises since before Christmas about joining a gym. Jane did some research and come up with the finding that our local gym would be the best because it had a pool as well. So, we gave away the trendy Curves and Fernwood and decided on Logan's Heroes. As well as the pool, they were cheaper, which made them the winner as far as I was concerned. So we talked some more and made noises to go up and enrol, but...as these things go, we were all talk and never actually got around to doing something about it.

Now, I'm not sure what tweaked me to do something about it on Saturday, but do something I did. I went in, paid my join up fee and was rapt to realise I had inadvertently enrolled when they had a special on. $19 per fortnight...but the catch is, I have to attend for 11 months. Ok, fair enough, just the thought of knowing that I'm paying that whether I go or not is incentive enough. But, the joining fee was only $35 and that included the first fortnight!

Today, I had my assessment. First of all, Monica (who did the assessment and actually took my joining fee) asked about my personal history...you know, illnesses, family history, etc. Then...and I closed my eyes for this...asked me to get on the scales. Oooooh, scary! However, I did peek and to my pleased surprise, wasn't as heavy as I thought I would be. Heavy enough, though. Then came the measurements...boobs, upper arms, waist, hips, thighs and calves.

After all that, Monica informed me that I was going to have to get on the exercise bike. She fiddled around with buttons, attached a clip to my ear to measure my pulse and told me to pedal...I had to keep between 60 and 65 (rpm/kph? I didn't ask), for 10 minutes. I think this was to measure my aerobic fitness. It wasn't too bad and on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the ideal figure to reach, I scored a 3 which, Monica informed me, is better than a lot of young ones who sign up. As you can imagine...I was chuffed! The walking had obviously paid off.

Now came the exciting part...the circuit of equipment that would determine my exercise for the next six weeks...until my next assessment. Exciting? By the time I had finished, I was exhausted. Cross trainer, rowing machine, squats, abdominal muscle strengthening, another exercise bike, the Swedish ball and I was starting to totter. On top of that, because it was 1.30 pm when I finished and I hadn't had lunch, my blood sugar level was rapidly dropping.

Monica gave me my training chart (including warm ups and warm downs), I shot off home, had a glass of orange juice to keep me going while I made myself a sandwich. Then I had a sleep. On waking, I felt as if I had been pummelled and punched to the limit. Never mind...I'm going back on Thursday to do the circuit. Because I'm working in the city for the next two days, it's only going to be laps of the pool...not fat burning, but cardiovascular, which is good anyway.

So that's what I've been up to in the last couple of days and I have a goal. My eldest daughter marries again in September and I want to look really fabulous for that!