As some of you may know, a couple of weeks ago I decided to get a personal trainer. I'd been thinking about it for several months but I think what finally pushed me over was turning 30. Yes, I know, to those of you turned 30 quite some time ago, this is not a big deal. But to me it was. It gave me a huge sense of "it's all downhill from here" with regard to my body (when, in reality, my metabolism has almost certainly been going downhill for years before I turned 30). I just wanted to have a better "starting point" from which to roll down.
I'd also started to feel like my body was really unbalanced from doing all that running and nothing else. Like I was only strong in one way but weak everywhere else. In medical school, I did a lot of yoga in addition to running. But that, along with a lot of things, fell to the wayside during residency. It was then that I started to get injuries from running and hiking. Most were small little aches and pains that I ran through and which self-resolved. But then I strained my medial gastroc ("gastrocnemius", your calf muscle) about a year and a half ago. I couldn't run for a month and took six months to run without requiring a heel wedge in my shoe. I went to a physical therapist who specialized in runners and she filmed me. As we evaluated my form and looked for the ways that I could improve, I realized that it all boiled down to being weak in a lot of areas where I used to be strong.
I started to get chronic neck pain due to tension in my neck and shoulders. I knew it was because I had lost the open pectorals and strong lats that kept my chest open during yoga class. Massages helped, but only for a few days. Without fail, by the end of my work week, I was knotted up and again having neck pain that progressed into terrible tension headaches.
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So, the trainer. I wanted a female, but all the females that seemed like a good match for me worked only early in the day, which doesn't work with my work schedule. So then I picked a guy, we'll call him "G" (which seems like a good nickname for a personal trainer). The gym manager told me she'd seen him work with all sorts of clients and that he did something different with every one of them (meaning he tried to fit the routine to that particular person). She also told me that he had trained his girlfriend and gotten her in shape, which seemed like a nice thing to me.
I met with him for a consultation and thought we'd be a good fit. One of the first things I told him, however, was that I wasn't willing to count calories and eat things that taste bad and be miserable. I told him I was aware this might limit my results, but that I just wasn't willing to diet right now. He was cool with it, so we focused on my other goals: get stronger so I don't get hurt, get a toned booty and thighs.
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I'd purchased an intro pack at my gym and went through those initial 3 sessions. I'd been learning to do free weights, including barbells, which I love because they make me feel like a badass. I also liked working with a trainer because it pushed me to a level of exertion that I don't usually push myself to during my workouts and it felt really good. So I bought more sessions. Yes, I felt terribly guilty about it because personal training is SO. EXPENSIVE. All I've been able to think of his how that money could have gone toward saving for a new car or paying off my student loans. But then I think, "thirty," and tell myself I'll buy fewer clothes.
As we were scheduling my sessions for the next few weeks, he mentioned that we would take measurements again next week (weight, body fat - which we'd done on my initial visit). He mentioned that we might not see the weight number change much but that I could expect to see a change in body fat. That's when I let slip that I actually was trying to lose a little weight. As in, those same 13 pounds I've been "trying to lose" for years now despite having no real plan.
Well, he got really excited about this goal. He did say that it would mean making some changes to my diet, which I knew. There have been a number of medical studies that have shown that people don't lose weight with just exercise - it requires dietary changes as well. So I agreed, somewhat cautiously, to keep a food journal. Like most women of my generation, I have a complicated relationship with food. Just the idea of calorie counting or doing any sort of diet conjures up feelings of being hungry, miserable, and socially isolated.
But I did the journal and man was it a surprise. I probably eat 3000 calories a day on most days. I've just somehow managed to keep my weight stable by running a lot and by intermittently skipping meals. I guess the reassuring thing about it was that, seeing how badly I eat, I feel optimistic that there is a lot of room for improvement without having to delve into the "hungry, miserable, and socially isolated" territory. Hopefully.
So we first decided to start with breakfast. As in, not either eating just a granola bar or going to Starbucks and getting a breakfast pastry. The principal idea with every meal is to have a protein, a complex carbohydrate, and a vegetable. I'm not really going to do vegetables at breakfast but agreed that I could do oatmeal. He said put brown sugar, nuts, fruit, whatever you want in it. But try to eat a 1 cup (uncooked) of whole, rolled oats in the morning.
That is actually a lot of oatmeal. I couldn't even finish it for the first two mornings. But now I can and it is actually very satisfying and, in general, I'm not hungry again two hours later. I put brown sugar and walnuts in it and it's good. I make it with less water than the package says, though, so it won't be slimy.
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So there's that. Is it possible to actually adhere to a healthy diet and not be hungry, miserable, and socially isolated, then eventually fail? I don't know. I'll let you know if I figure it out, though.
