the shape of things to come

A couple of months ago I won two months gym membership in a Facebook competition.  It included a session with a personal trainer, and although it took me a few weeks to actually get in there, once I'd had the assessment (surprisingly good), and got my workout plan, I found I was quite excited about the idea.

I'm no couch potato (I walk or use my bike to get about every day and dance at least once a week) but I also knew that my body could use a bit of work - I treat it well most of the time, but like most women in their mid-40s, I probably spend more time on the peripherals of exercise, and more money on my face/skin/hair than I do on maintaining good fitness and tone.

So, fast forward 8 sessions or so and I'm starting, ever so slowly, to see some changes.  I can do more whilst I'm on my circuit (eg up to 20 flights of stairs on the stepper, having started at 15, rowing for 7 minutes rather than 4), and although there's certainly no dramatic changes to my shape I do feel just a little bit straighter and fitter - and yes maybe even a little firmer in some spots.

Its been a bit frustrating that ''the weight isn't falling off''.  Like most people I'm always thinking I could do with shedding a few kilos and I (somewhat unrealistically) thought this gym thing would make that an easy task.  Here's the downside - I'm so hungry all the time!  I guess its all that exercise but I'm sure I am eating more now than I was a month ago.  I get hungry at random times too - late in the evening, early in the morning, neither of which have been typical eating times for me.  So, when I lamented about this to the trainer (also a good friend) she suggested I keep a food diary for a few days and she could analyse it for me.

Well, if there was ever a motivation to change what went into my mouth, that was it!  NOT the goal of losing weight, oh no.  The thought that I would have to write down that a bag of chips fell into my mouth was just too horrifying and so I now find myself thinking ''hmmmm, maybe I could have an apple''.  It's the darnedest thing!  I don't want my friend thinking I eat rubbish (actually I don't ...really.....) and I don't want to see a list in black and white of what went into my stomach either!

And so whilst I have still had a couple of major pig outs (today an example when I attended an event with catered deliciousness), I am certainly more aware of everything I'm consuming, and I'm hoping that this will be the difference between getting fit, and getting into shape.