More than one and a half years since I started my fitness journey, where am I now?
My fitness journey from May to Nov 2009 was very full on. It followed the same pattern as I’ve described before, when I was doing back-to-back Les Mills classes twice a week. Even if I was doing 4 classes a week then, I didn’t see drastic changes with my body. The repetitions in Body Pump did help tone my muscles, Body Balance helped elongate my muscles, and improve my core strength and flexibility, while Body Attack helped with my aerobic fitness. But even with all that work, it was still a long and arduous journey. I thought I’d be able to get into the proper rhythm in these classes after about a month or so but no, it was very much a struggle in November as it was in May, especially with my heart. My body wasn’t what I thought it was anymore. Tsk, tsk. I guess I learned my lesson after ignoring my fitness for almost 8 years.
I hit a lull period after that and didn’t start again until Feb 2010. This time I went to a different fitness center but a more convenient one (since it’s at the same place where my daughters started their dancing lessons). From then until about Nov 2010, I only went to about two 1-hour classes a week which always consisted of Group Power and Zumba, and sometimes I tried one of the other classes available. It was only since Nov 2010 that I seem to have put in a lot more commitment to my fitness with trying to come at least 3 times a week and trying out the varied workouts (knowing I was paying for a weekly membership helped with pushing myself to come!).
I only realized during the second half of my journey how my fitness and strength has improved. More than that, it doesn’t seem to slide back anymore during the times I’m not able to consistently come to class (i.e., when I’m sick or there’s a work thing). I’m not sure why but in addition to the usual choreographed classes that I’ve been doing, I’ve also started coming to X-Trainer and Legs, Tums & Bums classes. They are varied workouts given by the instructor that’s almost like having a personal trainer but there’s more than one of you training (like being on The Biggest Loser!). Because the instructor pushes us, I guess I push myself as well… thereby, gaining strides more.
Joyce (my instructor) took my body, weight and strength measurements in Dec 2010 and then I just had my latest one done today. I was on the Fit category for Body Fat % then and I’m still on it now (slight lower by .1%). There hasn’t been much difference with the figures then and now (which I’m totally okay with since I don’t think I can lose that much anymore, anyway; and since I’m not doing Group Power lately, I ain’t building too much muscle, too). If anything, the big improvement would only be around my strength. I struggled with 10 push-ups (knees down) then but I was able to get to 20 today (knees down, still) with not much struggle. High five! (I think I’m going to try to go for the Body Fat % level for Athletes from today…)
All in all, I’m pretty content with where my body is at now though I know I still have a long way to go. But at least I feel like my heart muscle has caught up and I experience a lot less dizzy spells after training hard. That way, I know and I can be confident in saying I can do more now than I could before (like not being half-a-second late anymore in Zumba!).
All these work is helping alleviate a few of my ongoing health issues, giving me a lot more energy day-to-day, giving me the work-life balance I’ve been craving for so long, and best of all, I’m loving the body I got! Now, why won’t you want to try that? No pain, no gain baby! But I can tell you this, it is so so worth it!
