I Only Have Two Problems...

That was my response to the head of the personal training department at the new gym I joined when she told me,"You eat way too much sugar."

As part of joining this new gym, I had to have a fitness evaluation. It sounded like a big deal, and there were all these rules I had to follow before meeting with The Head for my evaluation... Like:

• No drinking alcohol 24 hours beforehand.
  
• No drinking caffeine 12 hours beforehand.
  
• Have a small meal a few hours before.
  
• Come in rested.
  
• Write down every single thing you eat for the preceding three days.

At my last gym in Boston, they were serious with their evaluations - which were mandatory. They were free. But you didn't have to do them. In Boston, they would do the following in the session:

• Measure blood pressure and resting heart rate.
  
• Measure your weight.
• Pull out the pinchers and measure your body fat composition.
  
• Measure the girth of all your limbs.
  
• Ask you what your fitness goals were.
  
• Make you run on a treadmill with increasing intensity to see where your heart rate would hit the maximum.
  
• Sit-up measurement.
  
• Flexibility measurement.
  
• Push-up and plank measurements for core.
  
• Balance measurement.

All serious stuff. I figured this would be more of the same thing, only more intense, because there were rules and I had to write down everything I ate.

Well, it was not as intense.

They did the following:

• Measure blood pressure and resting heart rate.
  
• Measure your weight and you body fat ratio with a special scale..
  
• Measure the girth of all your limbs.
  
• Ask you what your fitness goals were.
• Sit-up measurement.
  
• Flexibility measurement.
  
• Squat measurement.
• Push-up and plank measurements for core.
  
• Diet analysis.

It took a total of 35 minutes. And five of those minutes were spent trying to sell you on personal training sessions.

Argh!!! So annoying!

I explained to The Head that I did personal training for two years. I learned a lot. I had a lot of fun. I gained quite a bit of muscle. I didn't lose a single ounce, though that was not my goal with personal training. It was to learn how to make my workouts more creative and use the equipment properly.

I am not doing PT again. I know how to do these things myself. Really, I do.

I had a trainer who taught me how to run and do intervals on the treadmill, despite never having liked to run before that. I know how to do many various exercise with free weights. I stay away from the weight machines, for the most part, because I know free weights are more challenging for me. I know various boxing routines and circuit routines.

Really, a trainer would be bored with me. I pick things up quickly and am able to do them properly. My only problem is consistency.

Well, that, and sugar.