Thoughts on a year of personal training

Last year for a combined anniversary and Christmas gift I bought (and wrapped up and put Bill's name as giver) 10 sessions of personal training at our local Y.  I moved our very expensive membership as an all inclusive gym after figuring that the at most one time a month I was going was one very expensive visit.

I figured the one thing I needed more was the motivation to try to fit exercise back into my week.  The idea was buy 10 sessions of perosnal training, spread them out over the year and by the end of 2013 I would have gone to the gym 2-3 times a week, reintroducing the habit of weekly exercise.

So, how did I do?

On the try to loose the 20 lbs I've put on in the last two years since my surgeries, not well.  While I didn't put on more weight, I also didn't loose the weight.  I could lament how ticked I am at myself for a major backslide.  Is it all related to less exercise? No, an erratic schedule of meals, not eating due to the lack of time, and nighttime snacking are also to blame.  A major goal in the year before I turn 40 is to loose the weight.

On the try to add exercise back into my week?  So-so.  I was able most weeks to make it once a week, but often it has been on the weekend.  The week itself has just gotten busier.  It is a trade off to leave before 5pm that I will have an additional hour on top of the standard 2 hours I have each night grading, planning, contacting parents.

Without lamenting the number of hours worked in a given week, but it averages 60-70 hours when you include actually being at school, work at home after the kids are in bed, and most weekends including trips to school on Sunday morning when the building is open.  Frankly, I am slap exhausted and when I try to figure out short cuts or combining tasks, I'm already maximizing every minute I have during the day.  You just cannot have classes of 35-40 students each, many of them with IEPs, learning issues, and repeating the class without these pulling these kind of hours.  Having my AP Gov't class is great, but the grading is a continual game of never catching up, just degrees of being buried.  

On the positive most of the summer, if I was home and not traveling then I went 4-5 times each week.  I restarted a Couch to 5k and made it to week 6 before the school year started.

One of my major goals for 2014 is to figure out anywhere I can find time to try to exercise. Yesterday at my final session I had my trainer go through all 9 of the 30 minute workouts she planned for me, again.

I would like to say that after I met with her I diligently did each workout just as she instructed.  I didn't. What I did do was use new equipment like the TRX bands, different ideas for cardio like Tabata interval training.  I printed off all 9 workouts, laminated  them and keep them on a D ring with pictures of the TRX band set up.

This is progress from someone who a year ago had gone almost 6 months since setting foot into a gym.  My goal for 2014 is to find 1 additional hour 2-3 times a week to trade work for exercise.  I will feel better physically and emotionally.  It seems like I have set myself up for sucess.  I hope I will not sabotize my 39th year in 2014.