Bally's

Hi everybody! Hope you had a great weekend & a decent Monday, too!

My 18 yr old daughter & I signed up for Discovery Health's National Body Challenge online. She's constantly whining about how fat her butt & thighs are and how she wants to lose weight. The girl is NOT fat!! (5'8" & 130-135 lbs.) She's just untoned. I think I've finally convinced her that she's not overweight, she just needs to shape up. Either way, when I mentioned that DH'sNBC offered a free 8-week pass to Bally's Fitness, she was jumping to sign-up. We both already belong to Curves, but she refuses to go while I go 3x a week minimum. She wants to go to a 'real' gym where there are guys & girls working out. I figured the 8-week pass would give us a good test run & see if she'll actually stick to working out for once.

Yesterday, we had our first work-out with a trainer. He started us for 30 minutes on the treadmill. No sweat.  I already walk nightly. My daugher,  of course, was whining about 10 minutes into the walk -even though she walks with me most nights. Then he put us on several different machines to work out our lower body. UGH!!!! My daughter provided comedic relief for anybody in the vacinity of the gym with her  moaning, groaning, & antics. I really don't care for  much attention while I'm working out, so I was unprettily red-faced the entire time & afraid to look up past the trainer's knees to see who was laughing/grinning. Trust me, whenever I did sneak a peak, somebody was watching her with a big ole smile. I know she's pretty, but I don't think it was her beauty that made them all grin. I did feel a little bad for my daughter. Everytime you clang the weights or do not follow through the move properly, the trainer would restart the count. On every single machine, she'd have to do extra because she was being dramatic! I only had to restart twice & both times I knew it was coming & grimaced when the weights clanked.

I managed to complete all the exercises except for the last 2. They were both abdominal exercises. The one was on a machine that has you laying on your back with  your legs up & bent (chair position if you were vertical instead of horizontal). Apparently the idea is to do a complete sit up while holding on. Hey look! I'm a pretzel! I'm a little short & the machine was uncomfortable for me. We actually did 40 of those, but I'd have never made it without the trainer helping lift us.  The last exercise had us sitting on a hump. The trainer would toss one of those large exercise balls to us, we'd bend over backwards, touch the ground with the ball, return to upright position & toss the ball back. My daughter gave up after 5. I made it through 8 of them before my daughter said something that  cracked me up. I lost my momentum & couldn't get it back. I struggled through the next 2, having to recount one of them before the trainer said we were through.

Now, comes the best/worse part, depending on your point of view. The trainer complimented me several times for getting through the various machines & even told my daughter once that 'she's been served' because after she made so much noise about how hard one of the exercises was, I just did it. It was hard, but not THAT hard. After our workout, we're in his office talking about the next session & of course, how we'd benefit from joining the gym officially. The manager came in to introduce himself & give a little talk about the gym & being committed,etc... He asked for details about our workout, what machines & how we did. The trainer told him how I'd impressed him & outshown my daughter on every single exercise. He also said something like 'Momma really brought it today, she outworked & outshined the daughter, and look at how great the daughter looks." He was being complimentary & was honestly shocked & amazed how this short, overweight momma could do so much more than my daughter who looks fitter, but really isn't. So on one hand, it's a compliment. I did well & impressed the trainer. On the other hand, even after a year of working on losing & getting in better shape, I really still look & feel so very OUT of shape! People  look at my thin daughter & assume she's in great shape but they look at me & assume I can't do squat. I hate that. It does motivate me to keep losing & working on my fitness level.

Anyway, we're off to the gym again today. The manager said he wanted us to come in and do a cardio workout today. He understands we'll be sore (we are!!!) but so many people give up after the first day, that he tries hard to get you back in the door again. I hope we make it the 8 weeks. I'm not leaving Curves behind because I wouldn't be in the shape I am already (improving!) without them. I just want to see what the extra workouts & attention from a trainer can do for me and my daughter. I want her to feel healthy, too.

I'll keep you posted! Have a great Tuesday & I'll be back later with my weekly goals & updates.

Best wishes!