Gotta give props

I’ve had better weeks.

Now, I made a promise with myself that when I started blogging, I wouldn’t be one of those angst-ridden, angry-with-the-world, wanting-to-detail-every-problem-with-my-life kind of writer.  I already know that I’m not that important.  Or interesting.

For now, I’ll simply gloss over the more unsavory events of this past week…

I ran into one of my high school best friends at Dollar General.  He was balding and grown into his height.  He was also engaged and it was awkward.  Shit.

I skipped my long run on Saturday.  I did not make it up on Sunday.

I did not skip any meals.  I added a whole month’s worth of desserts.

AND, I skipped the St. Patty’s Day Fun Run tonight at Fleet Feet.

Glossing over concluded, I’ll share the positive things that happened.

I finished Season 6 of “How I Met Your Mother.”

I did not get cupcake frosting on my sheets.

I picked up an extra shift of work.  Between the money earned, and the money spent on cupcakes, I broke even.

I saw Sean Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

So for the past 4.5 months, I’ve been seeing a guy named Sean.  I feel so lucky to have met him; he’s slightly older, smart, funny, and in amazing shape.  And the best part is that we get to see each other often.  Of course, our relationship really wouldn’t work out otherwise.  You see, Sean’s my personal trainer. 

I never thought I’d be the kind of person who would feel the need to hire a personal trainer.  Shoot, I ran a marathon!  Alas, I found out the hard way that once you stop running, you stop burning calories.  And, once you keep eating, you stop being thin.  Truth is, I was in a slump and needed a change, besides an increase in pant size.

I stumbled upon Sean late one night after I got off of work.  I did a Yellow Pages search for “gyms” in the Annapolis area and saw a listing for Fitness Together.  An inquiry into this told me that Fitness Together is a private personal training establishment.  For me, this meant that I would pay someone to kick my ass, without anyone else there to watch, and without me having to exert any effort to think up a workout and force myself to do it.  Sold.

As it turns out, working out with Sean has been the best thing I think I’ve ever done.  I meet with him every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.  It’s his job to constantly find ways for me to say, “That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”  And I’ve taken it to be my job to constantly impress him with the amount of sweat that pours off of me (literally, puddles).  Last time I weighed in, I was down 13.1 pounds and finally out of the 160s.  Doesn’t mean it’s been easy, though.  In fact, earlier tonight I was sobbing to him over the phone about how I’ve been eating horribly and skipping my runs (good thing I pay him to listen).

But tonight, a tummy full of sugar has made me ready to “start over.”  Now that I’m a little over halfway to my weight loss goal, I’m ready to ditch the excuses, ditch the laziness, and ditch those goddamn cupcakes.  As Sean says to me before every torture-inducing workout session, I’m ready to, “do this thing.”

So, speaking of doing things, during my last fitness assessment, I was looking at all the client testimonials hanging up on the office wall.  There was a big empty spot and I told Sean I was going to put mine there.  And I still have every intention of doing that, once I reach my “official” weight loss goal  But in the spirit of starting over, I thought it’d be fun to write a testimonial to Sean and to all that I’ve accomplished up to this point.

Testimonial Question 1:

What do you like most about training at Fitness Together?

Fitness Together gave me exactly what I asked for.  The very first day I went in, I told those nice, sweet, adorable, polite guys that I wanted the hardest workouts possible unleashed upon me.  I wanted to be made to do things that I could never be coerced to inflict upon myself.  And, despite my glares of hatred and occasional threats to his physical well-being, Sean has never given me anything less.  In fact, that’s what I love about training at Fitness Together.

Testimonial Question 2:

Please provide us with a brief description of the results of your personal training program.

The short answer to this can be summed up in two words: Clapping push-ups.

But to elaborate, I actually started working out with Sean while I was rehabbing an injury I got while running.  The workouts Sean gave me were so ungodly intense and unbearable that before I knew it, six weeks had gone by and I was running again…and it was easy.  Sean made running feel easy.  Who is this guy??

It was only a matter of time before I was jumping rope like a (semi) pro and doing box jumps with four freaking boxes.  After every workout I would be so giddy with excitement that I’d go into work and demonstrate what I did on top of the counters and behind the yogurt machines.  I never did manage broad jumps down the sidewalk.

I’ve gone from doing 20-minute walks on my days “off,” to running 5 miles before work, and longer on the weekends.  I have more energy, more happiness, and a slightly smaller ass.  My results.  Have been.  Awesome.

Can we include a picture along with your testimonial?

Eat your freaking heart out.  

Before

After