I Learned to Cook at the Gym

Last Monday I met with a trainer at my gym, signed up and have actually been going to the gym daily. I'm in the process of doing a complete overhaul on my eating habits, and trying to figure out how I got to this point. I want to say that this time feels different, but lord knows I've been here (a million times) before. I figure this is a good way for my friends and family to help keep me accountable, plus I like writing and stopped doing it a long time ago for some reason. Enjoy! Or not. Whatevs.

Yesterday was a little bit of a struggle. I felt like I ate too much at lunch time, and I was nervous for my first day of training with Andy. I actually don't think I did eat too much - but once I get something in my head I'm very strict with myself. Allison and I talk all the time about how we have an all or nothing attitude with weight loss. It's not good. I did manage to avoid snacking on any of the office goodies. Small victory.

At 5:00 I rushed to get to the gym for my 5:30 training. We're supposed to warm up a few minutes with some cardio before training, so I found an open treadmill and walked at an incline for about 5 minutes. I head over to the training desk and find Andy only to learn that either my name had been erased from the book, or maybe I had written it down on the wrong day/person. (Side note: I wrote my name where Andy told me to write my name.) I was really annoyed. I'd say about 90% of me wanted to just call it a day and go home. As I was walking away from the desk, I started coming up with reasons to just leave the gym:

I forgot my headphones in the car (which was a billion miles away in the parking garage).

I needed to go grocery shopping.

I've been doing really well, so what's wrong with skipping tonight?

I'll just take my dog on a long walk.

I've been very aware of my excuse making skills lately. This time I made a conscious effort to talk myself out of talking myself out of working out.

I forgot my headphones in the car - I could go into the women only part of the gym where they have a tv with sound on (more on that later).

I needed to go grocery shopping. - I didn't need to go that badly. I had food for dinner and my lunch the next day.

I've been doing really well, so what's wrong with skipping tonight? - 8 days of eating well and working out does not mean I can afford to skip a day.

I'll just take my dog on a long walk. ­- It was 10 degrees last night. Never happening.

So, through a series of inner monologues, I convinced myself to stay and workout. I went into the ladies only room and suffered through it. They don't have my favorite machine in there, and someone thinks it's a good idea to put cooking shows on tv while women are exercising, but it ended up being a really good workout. I've been pushing myself more and more each workout. It's such a good feeling.

I went home, and made a delicious Pittsburgh-style "chicken" salad. It had leafy green lettuce, red peppers, cucumbers, chick peas, fat-free cheddar cheese, steak fries (a serving of steak fries is only 110 calories, surprisingly) and the Quorn soy free chicken breasts. I don't love that brand of fake chicken, but Giant Eagle stopped selling the Morningstar Chik'n Strips. I haven't looked much into it, maybe Morningstar stopped making them. Who knows. Also, Wishbone makes a decent light ranch dressing with only 40 calories per serving. Jon and I had this for dinner on Saturday night. So good.

Around 8:00 Jess stopped by for a visit. It was so nice to see her. Her baby bump is pretty freaking adorable.

A day that started out as a struggle ended up being an alright day. As of this morning (according to my scale at home) I'm down about 6 pounds.

xoxo