On the bench press sweat dripping down my face a whole five minutes into my first training session – thinking to myself “what the hell was I thinking??”
I stretched my arms cracked my knuckles and prepared myself mentally – did a few deep Lamaze like breathing techniques – revved up like all the best body builders do. I let out a manly grunt and pushed the barbell off the safety latches down to my chest and back up again. I managed to do this 8 times – not bad for my first try huh?…. Gasping for air and quickly losing color in my face I went to write down the weight and reps I had done.
Hey Dan, how much weight was that? …
……..uhhh… I didn’t put any weights on the bar yet…
I was a little embarrassed but Dan was real cool about it – we all got to start somewhere, right? He was less worried about how much weight I had on the barbell and more focused on teaching me some fundamentals:
Breathing: Breathe out when you exert (push or pull) and inhale when you are relaxing (bringing the weight back in). Counting: 2 seconds when you exert (push or pull) – 4 seconds when you are relaxing (bringing the weight back in). Form: Doing exercises in proper form will ensure maximum results and avoid injury.
On the bus ride home in between trying to remember when to breathe and tending to my sore limbs - I remembered being on a stationary bike [doing about 0.2km] at a community center in Japan watching in amazement as this tiny girl [90-100lbs tops] raised a loaded barbell over her head [Olympic weightlifting style] like it was a [insert something ridiculously light here].
One day I hope to be as strong as that a girl.
for the record the weight of the bar is about 35-45lbs
After a 5 minute warm up on the tread mill – I met with my new personal trainer Dan Go – We went into an office were I was weighed and provided my BMI.
Dan entered my height, weight, age and measurements into a computer program. A figure appeared on his screen of what my body looked like under my clothes – not pleasant. He also showed me an image of what my body would look like at a healthy weight. He printed this out for me along with a sample meal plan and a few cardboard cards that I would use to track my progress.
203LBS!!
I underestimated how much weight I needed to lose - to be honest I didn’t think I weighed that much – it was a bit of a shock. Dan gave me the low down on what is ideal for my age and height.
203-135 = 68lbs.
Losing 68lbs was daunting – an impossible feat?.
Discussed this with my gf and she gave me some solid advice. Instead of having one big goal like “lose 68lbs” why not break it down into mini goals.
Goal 1: 185
Goal 2: 165
Goal 3: 145
Goal 4: 135
As trivial as it sounds – you would be surprised what it can do for your self confidence. Mini goals allowed me to feel a sense of accomplishment a lot sooner and four mini 20lb goals were not nearly as scary as one huge 68lb goal. – The best part though – each time I reached a mini goal I felt even more motivated to get to the next one. Losing weight is just as much mental as it is physical. Sometimes we need small tricks to help break down the roadblocks.
How many times have you heard “Getting in the gym is the hard part“. What tricks would you use to get over this hurdle? – I will tell you all about the steps I took to get over this hurdle……. eventually.
Write down your goals/reason for joining the gym Lose weight. Not feel and look like sloth.
The questionnaire was a bit longer than that but the questions were all focused around those areas – I believe they also asked about being a Smoker and/or a Drinker – of which I was both. Needless to say… I didn’t score very well.
Had a seat with the fitness consultant – we reviewed my questionnaire and he asked some follow up questions. The main one being how much weight I wanted to lose? – I estimated approx 30-40lbs would be reasonable. (to be honest I wasn’t sure how much I weighed at the time). Finally he asked me to set a goal [time frame] to loose this weight. I gave myself 6 months at first but then he had me work out the math and we agreed 1 year would be a far more realistic goal.
40/12 = 3.3lbs a month versus 40/5 = 6.6lbs a month.
He brought over a 1 year contract and explained the pricing would be approx 28$ paid bi-weekly – I asked if there was a corporate discount – there was – he asked what company I was with but did not ask for any proof. Regardless he knocked the price down to 23$ bi-weekly . I was ready to sign up – thought of it as a commitment and an investment – if I am paying I will surely go!. The consultant sales guy mentioned they had a special promotion where I could try 6 – 30 minute 1-on-1 sessions with a professional personal trainer for the “low low” price of 120$ (regularly 220$) – Yeah.. I am sucker and bought it. – to be honest though I really would benefit from fitness instruction. – besides what have I got to lose? money, weight?.
Scheduled my first 1-on-1 session for the following day. Nando went through the same process but scheduled his first 1-on-1 later that week.
ON THE RIGHT TRACK
See you tomorow goodlifenew life.
Maybe it was the beat down look on his face, the bags under his eyes or the smell of ash emanating from his clothing – whatever it was – it was enough to make me think we might be on the same page. – You ever feel like your body is falling apart and if you don’t change something soon…….
ALL THE TIME MAN ALL THE TIME!
Throughout the rest of day we continued our conversation mostly a back and forth of self doubt and horribly misquoted motivational cliches.
WHERE DO WE START? AT THE BEGINNING. HOW DO WE CHANGE SO MANY THINGS AT ONCE? ONE AT A TIME. IT’S TOO HARD! THAT’S WHAT YOUR GF SAID LAST NIGHT!
After much deliberation we decided that the most appropriate entrance point to our new lives would be to join a gym and start repairing some of the damage we had done to our bodies over the years. Nando suggested The GoodLife Fitness down the street.
Must’ve been a nice day out..I thought to myself as I watched the sunset from my balcony. I’d been out partying since Friday afternoon and finally gotten to bed that morning around 5AM. I sat on this old wooden table my roommate had brought from his old place and lit my cigarette. I took one haul and started hacking uncontrollably, inadvertently waking up the rest of my body and boy was it ever upset!.
I turned to my roommate who had just walked out on to the balcony and asked him if he wanted the rest of my smoke because I wasn’t feeling so hot. Truth is I felt like death and not that mid 20′s hangover “death” either – it was like I was falling apart from the inside out and my body was ready to give out at any second. I was genuinely worried that I would not make it through my second smoke let alone the night.
I went back to bed with the realization that something was not right in the world in my world and at 25 I should not be feeling like this.
For the longest time this has been my stance on contests and their so called “winners”… ‘Why,’ you ask?, As a young boy I never won a bicycle from the bottom of a Popsicle stick or a Nintendo from a the back of a magazine not even a chance to meet tony the tiger from the bottom of my Frosted Flakes cereal box.
I am sorry to report that as the years went by it did not get any better. OLG(C) has not clued in that the winning numbers should be a combination of my birthday and the last 4 digits of my phone number. What about my fellow Canadian Tim Horton and his Roll up the Rim to Win??- Yup, you guessed it not even a free cup of coffee. Ellen DeGeneres? – I can do the cabbage patch into the running man and finish with my back bone sliding as my needle drops to the floor but will she give me 1000 in cash? HA! not a chance.
Yet day in and day out the local newspapers are littered across the world with elderly suburban couples and their suspiciously auspicious smiles holding on to their oversize Million Dollar cardboard cheques. who are these people?. The TV brings me no more relief, instead it provides more misleading news in form of young “stay at home moms” who are obviously not really staying at home (??) - screaming OH MY GOD as they jump from their camera-perfect positioned seats all the way to contestant’s row!
THE TRUTH UNCOVERED
A while back a co-worker of mine introduced me to a Canadian Bargain Hunting Community Forum that has been life changing for me and my s/o, I could go on and on about how great this site is but for purpose of keeping this article somewhat focused around contests I will concentrate on the “contest” forum as it is here that I found my answer to my earlier question….
wait for it……………..
PEOPLE WHO WIN CONTESTS ARE PEOPLE WHO ENTER THEM!
WHAT?.. Well I guess I should have mentioned earlier that I have never been on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, I don’t buy coffee from Tim Horton’s and I only buy 1 lottery ticket a year.
I wasn’t completely in the wrong though – there is a “secret society” of sorts, I have given them the appropriate title of “professional contest enterers” (my creative mind at its best). Who are these PCE’s? these are the people who seek out and enter contests daily and when the contest permits enter the same contest multiple times. In some extreme cases like Pepsi’s yearly 1 winner every hour contests, they put in 24 hour shifts – setting their alarms 5 min before the hour entering once then waiting 6 minutes to enter again at the beginning of the new hour – thus maximizing their rest periods.
SINCE JOINING THE SECRET SOCIETY
My s/o has won 1 Grand Prize of two passes to the EDGE Ultimate Frat Party which she so kindly donated to me and my friend for a guys night out. Value: A Party with Maxim Girls? Priceless?
I won 2 Preseason NHL Tickets Platinum Section from the Coke Zero Fan First Game Prize Contest – (My first NHL game, I am a horrible Canadian I know) Value: Approx: 350$ I am also happy to report that after 60 entries I won a MinoHD Camcorder a couple of days ago from the Pepsi Flip Us Your Smile contest.Value: 229.99$
PepsiCo will be giving away a Flip MinoHD camcorder from May 19 9:00:00 AM Central Time (CT) to July 11 at 8:59:59 AM CT . Previous years saw iPods Xbox 360s, TVs, as prizes. A total of 1272 prizes will be given away in the contest.
SEE YOU ON THE COVER OF THE TORONTO SUN!
The PCE’s work for their wins so remember if you don’t enter you can’t win and like any contest if you really want to win you need to be prepared to work for it. – Average Genius.
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I am also happy to report that after 60 entries I won a 