MINOR SETBACK

One of my favorite comedians, John Leguizamo, said a joke once about how people start off telling you a story... how non-Latino people start off a story happily like "Once upon a time..." and how Latino history is so jacked up that they start off stories with "You m*****f******s won't believe this s*** right here!" *LOL*

Well... I'm not Latino... but uh... check this out...

So I went to the gym on Tuesday for my one personal training session (free with my new gym membership). The trainer assigned to me, Larry, converses with me and takes me through a digital assessment... weight, height, health history, body measurements, BMI and body fat measurements, etc. No problems... then he says he's going to take me through some "cardio resistance" training, while we're waiting for the results of the assessment to generate and print. I'm thinking resistance training = low-weight, high reps, fast cardio pace... I feel up for it. He tells me that for my goals, I want to build my chest and legs, and he walks me over to the Smith machine, puts 105 lbs. on the bar, and tells me we're going to use this weight to do 100 squats (in 4 sets) and 100 chest presses (in 4 sets). First of all... I'm like [WTF!!] in the back of my mind... but I'm up for the challenge.

We start with a set of 30 squats. He's got me doing them at a rather fast pace, but he tells me I can pace myself if I need to. I get through that set OK. My heartrate felt OK at that point, so I felt I could go on. I get into position on the bench and barely make it through a set of 25 chest presses. We go back to the squats, and I do 25 more of those. I am feeling whipped at this point, not seeing an end in sight to this torture. *LOL* We go back to the chest presses, and I can barely push out 11 before I have to stop because I can't breathe and the weight is just too much at this point. I stop, sit and recover. I was almost in tears at having to stop - that's how bad I felt. Takes me a while to recover (breathing-wise), but eventually I'm OK. He prints out my assessment and while I'm waiting, I become EXTREMELY nauseous. I come VERY close to vomiting, but somehow I make it home. I can't even get my sweaty clothes off. I end up napping in the sweaty clothes. I just felt exhausted and extremely discouraged.

Here I am 3 days later, still sore and not walking normally. I've been stretching and trying to push myself through the pain in my quadriceps, but I haven't been back to the gym since. I'm going to try to go tomorrow, since I'm feeling a little better.

I did have a good lunch today - a few slices of pineapple & canteloupe, an Asian salad from McDonald's (no meat) with Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing, and a little black bean dip and a few chips. Total calories: 537. :-)

And this Diets To Go thing is GREAT! I've bought a week of lunches for myself and my fiancee... vegetarian meals... and they're great! I'm not a mushroom fan but their mushroom ravioli was awesome.

So... after a few days of discouragement, my weight has not changed... but I'm back on track now... :-)