Sometimes it can be hard to track progress yourself. Especially if you aren't into writing everything down every day. I am of course talking about the gym.
I've been going to the gym for years now, but really slacked off for the past year and a half. I went from being unemployed and having way too much free time on my hands, which equated to hitting the gym 4-5 times a week, to the polar opposite of that now. At that time, I was probably in the best shape physically of my life. I had put on a solid 50-60 lbs. of muscle and felt pretty good. I had peaked out and hit some of my basic goals at the time as well, so I felt like I had really achieved something. For the first time in my life, I wasn't a string-bean, and could bench more than my Dad, which was a major accomplishment for me.....ha ha.
Previously, the most I had ever weighed was around 170 lbs, which was my pre-marriage weight when I was about 21 or so. I dropped back down to between 140-150 lbs for the majority of my married life, but kept on going to the gym when I could find the time. About 2 1/2 years ago, I decided to push myself a little harder at the gym since I had so much free time, and then see what I could do. In about 6-8 months, I had finally hit my goal of weighing 200 lbs, and could bench about 310 lbs. I was pretty proud of myself! Problem was, it wasn't a realistic goal to maintain. I started going to school at night, found a job, and then went through a messy divorce. I was lucky if I made it to the gym once a week or even once every other week at that point.
I imagined that I would get skinny again, and lose a bunch of weight like before, but that was not the case this time around. Imagine that?! I maintained roughly the same weight, but got much softer. At the time, I didn't care too much, because I was miserable and had more important things to worry about.
Things have changed now. I'm done with school for the time being. Divorce is final and things have mellowed out a lot between the Ex and I. I've been at the same job for nearly 2 years now, and absolutely love it! Life is much better and I am genuinely happier now than I've been in a long time. One thing has been lacking though, and that has been my level of fitness. I work with my head now, and sitting at a desk in front of a computer can be a bit of an adjustment.
Right here I will have to interject, because I am not under the misconception that I am fat or anything silly like that. You should just understand that for my entire life until now, I have been very underweight and skinny. I would much prefer to look the way I look now as opposed to how I looked 4 or five years ago. Hands down. I do have to admit though, that it is kinda weird when I see pictures of myself now and then pictures from before, I almost don't even recognize myself. It looks like 2 completely different people. So I suppose it has just been a bit of an adjustment for me to get comfortable in my new skin, so to speak.
Recently, I decided to make a serious effort at getting back into shape. This time around though, my goal isn't to see how much I can bench or how big I can get. Just a general improvement to my overall level of fitness. I wanted to start doing more cardio, and by more cardio, I mean ANY at all. I also wanted to work on getting my core in better shape, and more toned. When you are going to the gym regularly, you tend to just feel healthier and better in general. You have more energy, sleep better, and simply just FEEL better. At least I do anyways.
So far, it has been slow progress. I have only been running for about 15 minutes at a time with each workout, but considering that I never did any cardio before, this is a big improvement. My goal has been to go to the gym about 3 times a week, because I have a life and other things to do outside of the gym. :) So far for the past month and a half, I have made it. When I first started running on the treadmill, I barely lasted 15 minutes before I felt like I couldn't breathe and was going to pass out. Now I can hit my 15 minutes without hardly breaking a sweat, and feel great. It's kinda nice being able to take a deep breathe, and really feeling like your filling your lungs.
Today, I went to the gym, and ran for the usual 15 minutes, and then went on to working my chest and arms. Kinda fun. I typically do about the same weight with all of my exercises, and tend to stick to a normal routine or sorts. Again, my goal has just been to improve my fitness level and feel healthier. I noticed a significant difference today though, as I was feeling the need to add weight and reps to all of my exercises, and still felt great at the end of each set. Sounds a little silly, but it was significant enough that I noticed and recognized the change.
Point of story: Get active and get healthy. You'll feel better. One way or another...
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