I get a lot of positive reaction for the work I do at the gym. I take it for granted now, but I’m also always afraid that one day I might just quit. So far I’ve been doing OK :)
Anyway, I wanted to tell you why and how I started working out:
While working for Motorola, I tried to maintain a diet that would keep me more or less in the same weight. The problem was that it didn’t work. Even when I tried eating healthier – I quit eating sweets, candy or any kind of snacks years ago, so by healthier I mean less fat and less carbs – it didn’t help. I turned from being a little chubby to being fat. My colleagues at work commented on it and that made me feel more uncomfortable.
Obviously, I knew about the option of going to the gym, but my opinion was that I don’t want to try anything I wouldn’t continue doing after a while. I just wasn’t ready for another disappointment – I was thin before and turned fat and then thin again (thanks to a diet) and then fat again. So for me, going to the gym would mean a long-term obligation which I wasn’t ready for.
Eventually, though, I decided to go. A colleague offered that I try the gym that was inside Motorola. It was free for employees, and while it wasn’t so glamorous, it had all the basics you would expect from a gym. I didn’t want to tell too many people about it, and I didn’t, because I thought that it will be shameful if I stopped going after a while.
Luckily, on the day I went to the gym for the first time, the gym instructor was the best one Motorola had at the time. After asking me what my expectations were (losing weight, more or less) he drew up for me a workout schedule. It included mostly aerobics – I was to walk at 5.5-6.0 km/h for 45 minutes or more. I did that the first day and it was pretty easy. I mean, I was sweating at the end and my legs weren’t used to it, but it wasn’t hard.
“If that’s called going to the gym, I can do this every day”, I remember thinking. And that’s what I did. I went every day, 6 days a week, for almost a year and a half. The results were great. On the Internet you can find many websites that will tell you the benefits of working out, but here’s what I felt:
- Everyday activities are easier, and I don’t mean things like the fact that it’s easier to walk around, or being less lazy in general. Even stuff like that feeling you have after lunch, that you want to go to sleep, is almost completely gone.
- I definitely look better. After just 2 months I looked considerably better. Consequently, my confidence level is higher.
- I sleep deeper at night.
- Sex is better. Much better.
- My immune system functions much better than before. Previously, whenever the seasons changed, I used to get the flu or a cold. This year, for example, I was around sick people for days at work and didn’t need to take even one sick day myself. There were days when I felt a little sick, but the feeling passed as quickly as it came.
And these are just off the top of my head. Anyway, the workouts became more and more intense – first I increased the slope on the treadmill and later on I increased the speed, until I had to start running. And when I did start running, something I was somewhat afraid of, I found out that it wasn’t so bad. Then I started using the elliptical, which I now prefer a little over running, and… well, readers of this blog know the story from there… I work out 4 days a week now, every workout is 2 hours long (including the shower), I look better, I feel great and I hope to keep it up.