Well, tonight I met with my “official” trainer. Her name is Heather. She seems pretty nice but isn’t as outgoing as I might like but it was only the first visit. Tonight we worked out the arms. We did arm pulls, free weights and then the torso. The torso machine was pretty cool. You know in “the old days” how the workout people used to tell you to twist your upper body left to right while keeping your lower body still? Well this machine was sort of like that but you twisted against resistance, for me, 50 lbs. SO after a while I could really feel it. I do have to say that this whole loosing weight thing feels pretty good right now. I mean, I’m not happy about my weight but I am happy that each and every time I go I feel new muscles that I didn’t really think were there. It feels great to know that I’m working them and that eventually my body will be much toner and I’ll be much more fit than I am now. What makes this so much easier than all the other times is that Eric and I are in this together. It feels really good to be helping each other succeed at something we both want for each other. It’s actually fun to go to the gym together. We’ve done a 3 month gym membership before but didn’t go but a few times because neither of us liked the place that much. What’s nice about the place we’re going now, we both like it, we both want to go, it’s close and of course… they have basketball

Eric and I started our “Improved Health” program just this week. Monday we both saw a physical trainer and went through about a 30-45 minute session. Well, it’s two days later and we’re still sore. Eric, poor guy was so sore last night/this morning that he could fall asleep because he couldn’t get comfortable. SO early this morning he went down to the couch and sleep because he could get comfortable. Poor guy. Me, I’m having a wonderful time (detect sarcasm here) going up and down the stairs and this morning I noticed that I do have upper abs. This was noticed when I raised my arms above my head. I felt that wonderful pain of working muscles I didn’t know I had. Today I got to my trainer again. We’ll see what happens… Eric sees his tomorrow or Friday.

Well, I did it. I got myself to the gym again. Eric and I signed up for personal trainers to help us in our quest to loose weight and be accountable for our success. I told both the my trainer, Heather, and Eric’s trainer, Jake, what our wager was on who lost their weight and what we got. Well, that spurred a competition between the trainers so now each is determined to beat the other, in a nice way. Oh and we got a sweet deal on the training session HOWEVER, I had to agree to let them take before and an after picture and I’d provide a testimonial if all went well. Great, now my fat will be out there for all to see, however at this point whatever gets me motivated is worth it. I’ve given a half hearted attempt several times to loose weight but not a serious commitment… well now, we’re serious! Wish me luck!

Well, today both Eric and I went to the gym for the first time. The first time you come to the gym you meet with a personal trainer just to get some info on eating better, exercises for you specifically and things like that. Eric was there at 10am this morning and I came in at 11am. We both got a butt kicking! I worked out with my personal trainer and was so embarrassed by my lack of physical fitness. I kept apologizing to my personal trainer. I didn’t work but a bit and my muscles felt it. Man, I’m out of shape. One of the things they talked about was personal trainer sessions. It’s not a bad deal basically it breaks down to $25 a session for each of us. Eric and I are seriously thinking about it for next month. We could spend $200 a month on personal trainers and meet that trainer onces a week. That seems like a lot but we’re both committed and by meeting the trainer once a week we can taper down to less and less until we’ve developed the habit. Wish us luck…

Oh, I did find out something interesting too. I knew I was overweight. I didn’t know that I’m classified as obese based on my percent body fat. Let’s just say, I need to loose 22% body fat to fall in the fitness category. Man, I’m going to have a long way to go. I’m going to have to be disciplined and get in a routine. I hope I can do this. I know I can, it’s just a matter of DOING IT!!!

Eric and I went out to PF Chang’s last night, our favorite place. We had a great waiter and a wonderful time. It was nice to just make and evening for us. We talked a lot about a lot of things The big thing we talked about a lot was fitness, namely ours and the lack there of. I’ve wanted to loose something like 30 lbs… for the last couple of years but haven’t really given it 100% because “it’s too hard”. What I’m really saying to myself is that I don’t think I can do it and I don’t think I’m worth the effort. Stupid, huh…. SO the weight issue along with the weather change and my snappy, short temper lately have made me realize, I REALLY need to do something. I mean really do it. After talking for a while Eric and I agreed to both be committed as we both would like to be about 30 pound lighter. SO we came up with a challenge, I think it’s pretty good.

Weightloss Challenge:
1) Jona can’t buy,or be gifted, a video ipod until she reaches her goal weight!
2) Eric can’t buy, or be gifted, an XBox 360 until he reaches his goal weight!

This morning we got up and weighed ourselves as our baseline. We’ll weigh each other every Sunday and chart it with the hope it goes down each week. Next step, join a gym.

I’ve been calling around and seeing what type of deals we can get with my Intel employment. I’m also going to go to the grocery store and get healthy things to snack on so there’s no temptation to eat poorly. I know we can both do it. We just need to be disciplined.

Here’s hoping we do it.