*Mahomet Curves purchases advertising space on the sidebar of the Mahomet Daily. My decision to workout at and talk about my experiences at Mahomet Curves was not influenced by the advertisement on the Mahomet Daily. Instead, I chose to make a decision for my body and to be with my friend, Jan Smith, owner of Mahomet Curves because I trust her. In no way is this content promoted by or scripted by Mahomet Curves or the Curves organization.
Well. I’ve learned a few things this week. Honestly, I was scared to go into my weigh-in/measuring/free coaching session at Curves on Tuesday. My massage therapist (at Simply Well Massage Therapy) to me that my back was getting smaller, but when your home scale stays the same and your pants are still fairly snug, it’s hard to believe.
But, I’m glad I did it. Overall, I’ve lost six inches in the last month. So my back is getting smaller. So are my arms, legs and butt. I thought my boobs would be the first thing to go, but maybe my peck muscle work is preventing that from happening.
When people told me they’d lost 20 inches working out at Curves or on a 21-day fix or at Beachbody, I thought, “Wow!….You must have been really fat!” I pictured people as a cylinder; a three-dimensional object that you could shave circular inches off. So if you have a cylinder with 40-inch circumference, and then take 20-inches off that, you have some real progress. But, no. It’s the total inches lost off of different spots in your body. So. Fair enough.
(Also if those geometry terms and math are wrong, then deal with it. It’s definitely not my strong suit.)
In my free, monthly coaching session (which everyone gets at Curves), I celebrated the fact that I met my goal: to work out four times a week. And I set a new goal: to drink 72-ounces of water a day. Jan asked me if I wanted to set more goals, but I was honest and said no.
Here’s the thing with me…I can handle one change at a time. I used to watch my mother try to make spaghetti. It would take her two hours to make a dish that really should take about a half-hour. I know this because spaghetti is one of the three things I can make. She’d start boiling the water and do the laundry and talk on the phone and make the hamburger and clean the refrigerator and do everything under the sun. Two hours later, spaghetti was served…and sometimes it was burnt.
If I focus on one thing, then I am able to focus. The moment I try to do an overhaul of my whole life, I feel overwhelmed and like a failure because I don’t reach my goals. Once I start to feel like a failure, I quit because no one likes to feel like that. So. I know me. I know I can handle one thing at a time.
Another thing is that if I do a whole overhaul of my life, I am less likely to stick with it. I could see me doing a 21-day program, throwing away my oatmeal for a shake, my Pepsi for water, my freedom for calorie counting, and I think I could stick with it for 21-days, but as soon as I met that goal, I’d be done and I’d have to set another goal.
I listened to this guy talk at a conference yesterday. He used to play for this small high school outside of Detroit. The first year of high school, his team won one game. The second year, they won about half their games. The third year (it was a three-year high school) they got a new coach who said they would play in the Sectional game. Playing in the Sectional was unheard of for their team, who rarely even won their league.
He talked about how they did win league that year. Then they beat one of the premier teams in the state in Regionals. The next day at practice, he said the vibrancy at practice was gone. The team knew they were playing in Sectionals, and because they didn’t have a different goal, mentally they’d given up. They lost by 50 points in the Sectional game because they’d reached their expectation.
Goals are like that for me. So, instead of setting time limits or changing everything drastically, I like the Curves approach of making small changes and seeing small results, but those results are something that you can carry with you for a lifetime. The changes I’ve made so far are ones I can carry with me.
I’m not just making changes for a moment. I’m making changes for a lifetime. So, I want those changes to be something I can live with for a lifetime. I feel like Mahomet Curves is helping me do that.
I’ve also learned that if I do not workout in the morning, it’s not going to happen the rest of the day. Once my kids are awake, once my business is ticking, once the community wakes up for information, I’m basically working for someone other than myself. So. Getting up at 5:30 works best for me. And I really love working out with that group of women. Everyone is a different age, a different shape, everyone has their own story, and we go through our 30-minute circuit talking and sweating together.
I’ve noticed that on days when I work out I eat better. I’ve also noticed that on days when I don’t stay at home I eat better. On Tuesday it was cold and rainy and my internet at the office wasn’t working so I worked on my couch. I ended up eating a lot that day, including oatmeal raisin cookies. I made oatmeal raisin cookies because I could tell myself that I was eating a “healthy” cookie, but that recipe has 2.5 sticks of butter in it. #whoamikidding
Mahomet Curves isn’t open that early on Tuesday and Thursday, so if I have time, I may go there in the evenings just to get my blood moving. My job is so docile as I sit in front of a computer all day. I’d like to do high-intensity workouts four times a week, then do something a little less stressful on my body the other two days. The great thing about Curves is that they have a wide range of programs so sometime during the week, you’re going to find one that feels right for you.
