Tag Archives: personal trainer

Gym Woes

Posted on by Renée
8

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of great news to report since my last post.

In fact there’s kind of some bad news. My gym, my NEW gym, at least the branch in Arnhem, where I live, has been taken over by another company. That means I can no longer go there. This also means that I am not seeing the personal trainer anymore, nor have I actually been to the gym for a couple of weeks.

Funnily enough, remember back when I went to the gym with a friend of mine, in another town (I thought I’d mentioned it anyway but I can’t find the post)? Well we both belonged to HealthCity and then her branch was bought out by Basic-Fit. They took away a lot of the classes, no more trainers and you had to pay extra for things like showers and lockers. At HealthCity they also had things like free beverages (non-alcoholic) and child care services (not that I needed it, but still), but that’s all been dropped as well.

What pissed me off the most is that they just assumed I would switch over to the new membership and they deducted the money from my account, whilst my company also deducted the membership fees from my salary. I got the money back, thankfully.

But now what? I can go in Amsterdam, but that means being home pretty late, so I’d need to really re-think my food schedule (not only eating something before gym, but AFTER the gym, since it’s 2 hours to get home, but ALSO that food is already prepped for the next day, since I won’t have time the rest of the evening to prepare). I could go in Nijmegen (a city close to me) but I can’t take public transport at all. I’d have to go home first, eat, get the car, drive a half an hour…. You get the picture. Again, I’d have to re-do my food schedule as well. I could go in Utrecht, which is halfway between work and home, but again I have the same challenge really.

This is quite annoying.

I quit my other gym to go to HealthCity and now I really don’t think this is going to work out. I signed up for a year! I feel like I’ve been tricked! Surely they knew they were going to sell. You don’t just make this decision from one day to the next. I started in Feb, they officially changed 1st of May.

My biggest fear is that my company also are not going to get me out of this contract and I will be paying eventually for two memberships, since I really do NEED to go to a gym to work out. I want to do strength training and I don’t have the space or the equipment at home.

In the meantime this means that any and all weight loss is stalled yet again because basically I’m only doing the bare minimum.

I realize this really is a luxury problem, but it still could end up costing me quite a bit if I end up not going to any HealthCity. No one likes to just piss money away, whether it’s a luxury or not!

What am I going to do…?

Hmmm. This May Be Working.

Posted on by Renée
8

After more than 2 long years of nothing happening in the weight loss department, it seems I have had some success for more than a few weeks in a row. I haven’t noted all results here on the blog, but I have been tracking on My Fitness Pal:

Interesting enough is that I started this “silly” Paleo thing in February and my first weigh-in (on home scale) was on the 23rd of Feb (the few weigh-ins prior to that were after I’d started at the new gym). As you know, in the beginning I was struggling to find my way, struggling with the concept of not eating grains – rice, bread, pasta – but after several attempts, and several chats with my PT there is a clear path of moving downwards. Check this out:

Translation:

lengte – height
gewicht – weight
BMI
BMR
Vet% – Fat Percentage
Vet Mass – Fat Mass
Vetvrije Massa – Fat Free Mass
Lichaamsvocht – Body Moisture
Ieasle Waarden – Ideal Values

I think all the numbers look quite interesting, especially the vat percentage change and the amount of kilos (fat mass). Then if you look at the Ideal Values, I’m actually close as far as Fat Mass goes, with being “normal”.

This is more convincing to me than just losing weight – of course we all know how much i would love to be under 80KG and dareIsayit I do think it may just be possible, but I’m most interested in being fit and reaching other goals than just the one on the scale. I want to be LEAN and FIT so not necessarily fitting into the “perfect weight” box with the actual amount of kilos in total.

For you food porn lovers, a few things I’ve eaten recently:

Chicken sausage. Goat’s cheese, mushrooms, red onion tomato, courgette
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Turkey, bimi, light feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, bit of olive oil

Little omelet the hubs made for me

Cottage Cheese with cherry tomatoes, celery, spring onion, teaspoon olive oil

Cottage cheese with courgette, cherry tomatoes, avocado

Leftover meat (spaghetti) sauce with steamed broccoli and fresh parmagiana cheese

My famous tuna salad with romaine lettuce (I have this often, changing the veg or “salad” type, but always use a small tin or Rio Mare Italian tuna in oil)

A little snack: chicken, chorizo, celery sticks and mustard

I found this recipe and then changed it a wee bit by using Salmon instead of tuna and sun dried tomatoes instead of mango chutney. My vegetables used were string beans and broccoli with 2 teaspoons sesame seeds. So really I just used the recipe for an idea and it turned out really well yummy

And finally – recently I participated in Ali’s photo contest for Running With Spatulas – here’s me, well, “running” with spatulas (I didn’t win, boo, but I still love you Ali!!)

As far as exercise goes, finally a good workout yesterday at the gym but OMG do the kettlebells KILL!! Last week I ran once and cycled 35ish KM. Trying to just stay active but not overtain. Milan is not this weekend but next (!!!!), week after that I have a 10 K, one in May, 2 in June, and one in September! I’m excited to have a few races lined up!!

Oh happy day!

Posted on by Renée
3

What a month it’s been! In my quest to find balance one thing that’s fallen by the wayside is the trusty blog. It wasn’t my intention to not update but one has to have priorities, right?

As you know I have been seeing a personal trainer and been on a different duet than “normal” and honestly it’s going all right but sometimes I wish I had never made the decision to do so. I can do the diet and have adapted mostly to it but I don’t find it sustainable or practical for the rest of my life.  Suddenly I am the difficult one at home and in social situations and I’m just not a fan of that.

I have lost a bit of weight but am still not celebrating yet. Call me cautious but it honestly could be the exercise and not the food. Don’t worry though if for some reason I break through the  80kg mark you’ll be the first to know :-)

My PT has also cancelled on me several times, all for good reason I guess but I haven’t got that rhythm with him that I would have expected by now.

Anyway we shall see how the next 2 months work out!

I got a new phone and can now blog from the phone! So for your viewing pleasure,  here’s what a bit of paleo looks like:

Breakfast, after having tea and a hard boiled egg at the house; cottage cheese, cherry tomatoes, celery and a bit of olive oil

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Lunch; spinach tomatoes onions courgette and shrimps

image

Spinach mushrooms leeks chicken and goat’s cheese

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Snack of cucumber and red and yellow peppers

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So nothing hugely different than before just no grains.

I’m going to talk a bit more about paleo and what I’m learning in the next post. It’s pretty interesting stuff!

It’s true, it’s a story

Posted on by Renée
6

So, Hey, how are you?

Sorry I haven’t really updated lately. Even the 11×11 post was not meant to be published yet. Bloody hell I am not so great with this stuff am I?

So a little update on the last couple of weeks:

Gym: I’m going to the gym! I realize now I may not have gone to my previous gym as much for more reasons than just the hours. Of course, that was my story – they had crap hours so I didn’t manage to go. Funnily enough though, I’m going to the new gym in the evenings, at 7:30 or 8:00 and even just doing a 45-60min workout and then going home. I think *maybe* I didn’t actually like my old gym very much. Maybe it wasn’t only the hours. Since joining my new gym, and even with the couple of hiccups the first few appointments I had, I’ve been going at least a couple of times a week.

Last week I went on Monday, then I went on Wednesday with my friend (which I will tell you about later) and then I went on Friday and met with a personal trainer.

This week I went on Monday, I went last night and I’m going to meet the personal trainer again tonight.

So that means, pretty much, I’ve decided to go for personal training.

Honestly, I know what to expect in a way. I know I will be pushed and challenged and I know it will cost me an incredible amount of money which I have but I don’t have if you know what I mean? I went to the “proefles” knowing full well that he was probably going to ask me to sign up with him – even at EUR 200 less a month than the original quote it’s still expensive. So I suppose I will definitely not putz around with the training and the food advice he’s going to be providing me. At the same time I’m feeling a little apprehensive about it, mostly the food stuff, because I made it clear I do not want to focus on weight loss, as strange as that may seem; frankly it depresses me and I know myself well enough that I can be quite obsessive about it, which, when loss doesn’t happen it then spins into the depression – frustration cycle. He mentioned that I will have to track my food (no biggie, I do that about 85% of the time anyway, including weighing and measuring and logging in on MFP) and he mentioned a “way of eating” that I am pretty sure is paleo. In general this is also fairly ok, but to be honest I don’t understand cutting out “good” grains and I appreciate them when I’m bulking up my salads for my lunch (for example). I don’t eat a lot of bread as it is and I focus a lot on getting more protein than carbs (though I do love my oatmeal breakfasts when I have them). Anyway, I feel this is going to be quite challenging to make these changes if I can have NO grains whatsoever; my husband cooks most of the time and already alters recipes to bulk up with vegetables, uses less oil, less meat than a recipe calls for and that sort of thing. I know part of my problem is eating too much for dinner, that’s a fact and I have slowly been making changes to the amount I consume (in rice or pasta for example), but now to ask him to change AGAIN or try to cook for us based on what I need, well, I’m not sure how that will work. 1) I don’t know think it’s fair to him – this is MY problem, not his and 2) If I have to cook in the evening there will not be gym time plain and simple. I don’t even get home most nights until 7pm and this is the very reason he does groceries and cooks!

I’m kind of judging all of this and jumping to conclusions before I even try it – I know. And I am reminded (by my own head) that “If you always do, what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got”.

So I see him again tonight and I’m supposed to see him after that twice a week. I also believe I will understand the food stuff more tonight and get some sort of intake booklet because he wants to see what I eat. Updates surely to follow.

So, what else?

Food: I looked into the paleo thing a bit this week and as I mentioned I think I already eat pretty natural and caveman like :) I love my veggies and protein, I eat nuts regularly, peanut butter, and I like meat so that’s not an issue. What I’ve read is somewhat confusing though – some plans say no caffeine (uh, this is going to really be hard – I WORK AT A COFFEE COMPANY!!!), some say paleo people are pro-caffiene. And no pulses? Really? I think beans, chickpeas, lentils, etc are all a great source of protein! Oh and seems like no quark either – I’ve been eating quark rather than yoghurt because it has more protein… no beer (!!!!!!) but wine is fine according to the trainer (???). So, yeah, but better to know what he wants me to do first rather than judge, right? So this week I actually ate no carbs (well, besides in veg and fruit) until dinner up to Thursday. And, to be honest, today I just lost it. I cut out my coffee when I arrive at the office (apparently it spikes cortisol production) and, well I really missed it. NOT physically. Mentally. I also had leftovers for lunch which were carbs (whole wheat pasta) and then it was all over, there was some stress and I ended up shoving some ridiculous piece of sugar bomb into my face. *sigh*

Sometimes I really think I’m a hopeless case!!

Social: Nothing social this week. Too tired. We’ve also had ridiculous disruptions with the trains because of the weather and it’s taken ages to get to and from work. This weekend I also have nothing planned and I haven’t made a new date to do the Sh’bam class with my friend again (I promise you will get the story on that). Last week was busy, then Saturday I was up early to go to the hairdresser, then we had a housewarming / birthday party to go to. This weekend is my stepdaughters birthday party, so up early tomorrow to get a couple of pressies for her and then I might just get to go on a date with my husband!!! We’ve had so little time together, just the two of us, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Running: Nothing happening there either.  On Sunday it will be two full weeks so actually my plan is to do just that. I have been riding my bike to the gym, even though we’ve had snow and ice and extremely cold temps (well, I’m sure it’s all relative). Last Sunday I walked a 5K round and took photos, mostly on the dyke where I run often. It was sunny and snowy and beautiful so I had to at least get out and walk, you know?

Work: crazy as usual. Stress stuff and nice stuff together. At least they balance each other. I have a couple of (fun) things to put together for the next two weeks and then the last week of Feb I’m going to be involved in an absolutely huge event, which I also have to prepare for on the “real job” front. Not that my “real job” isn’t fun, but, well, come on, fun is always better than the practicalities of work!!

That’s it. Did you make it this far? How was your week(s)? Have you been running? What are you eating these days? Have you ever been to a personal trainer?