This morning I had a fitness evaluation as part of my training at Fitness Together. I’ve been going twice a week, and more recently, three times a week, for strength training and cardio work with a personal trainer. Since you all helped me make this decision, I thought I owed you an update.
This morning’s assessment brought good news and bad. First, the bad–I haven’t lost much weight, at least not as much as I thought I would in three months. I’m down 20 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I am now struggling to get much lower. I gained 20 the year I nursed Ava, so I guess I should count my blessings that hasn’t happened this time, too. Still, the computer generated report at FT sets my target weight at 114, a number that at this rate, I should see sometime around my 97th birthday.
On the bright side, though, my body-fat percentage has dropped 3.2 percentage points, and I’ve lost a couple of inches from my waist, hips and thighs. My arms, on the other hand, are up a full half inch. Considering my arms were the area I wanted to see results in the most, I’m slightly irritated. I understand that the increase is due to muscle, but I DO NOT CARE. I want SMALLER arms, not larger arms. My trainer assures me this will happen, and it will probably only take another $400,000 in sessions.
Back to the good, though. At my baseline assessment in March, I completed 16 push-ups. This morning, I managed 35, putting me into the “well above average” category. My sub-max bench press test shows that my maximum bench press would be about 100 pounds, up from 60 a few months ago. This puts me in the “well below average” category, despite the progress. I can’t understand why one is so much easier than the other.
Remember the “V-Sit and Reach” test from the Presidential Fitness Assessment? We do that here, too. I started by reaching 12.5 inches past my feet; now I can reach 16 inches, which I guess is freakishly good, or more techically, “well above average.” Pregnancy causes your ligaments to become more pliable, maybe I have that to thank.
I’m so focused on the appearance or strength indicators of this whole effort that I rarely think about how this is helping my overall heath. But, a three-minute step test shows that my heart is working a lot less harder under aerobic conditions. This means, I suppose, that cardio should be easier (and more beneficial) for me. I’m thrilled to note that I can run a mile without stopping, and while that won’t impress those of you that call a one-mile jog a warm-up, it’s meaningful to me.
Also, I no longer dread waking up at 4:45 three mornings a week, and I don’t fall back into bed once I get home anymore, either. I find my energy level has dramatically increased. So, while I often find myself thinking, “I can’t believe I am actually paying for this” during those workouts, overall I couldn’t be happier about the whole situation.
In fact, I’d love to go five days a week. We’d have to sell the house and live out of the Accord, but for smaller arms, it might be worth it.
I know a lot of you are working on your own and with trainers, too. How do you measure success? What keeps you going?
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