It takes time!

So in June earlier this year (2018) I decided I was going to quit thinking about it and I was going to join a gym and make working out a priority. As long as I can remember, I’ve sporadically done some type of physical exercise. I’ve actually gone long periods of time where I was working out and walking to then stop and not do anything for another long period of time.

I had been trying to get back into just doing something for awhile but couldn’t seem to stay disciplined. My brothers had joined the Senior Wellness Center in Oklahoma City, and my oldest talked about how he went several times a week. The best part of all of this is that all I had to do was go sign up, it didn’t cost me a thing to join because I’m a Chickasaw Indian and the nation has made arrangements with the Center for their citizens to be able to join at no cost! I really had no excuse! In years past I’ve joined several gyms and paid money – to not go! So maybe if I didn’t pay money, I would go!

I went and took a tour and signed up, got their schedule of events and the first thing I did was go to a Zumba class with my sister-in-law. Attending Zumba and a yoga class was another motivating factor in joining the Center. I have wanted to check out Zumba for years and always had an excuse as to why I wouldn’t go, now I had no excuse. After attending one of the classes I went into the weight room and there were business cards and a place you could sign up to pay a personal trainer for an assessment and possible training. I decided, what the hell. I’m here and maybe if I get with a trainer I’ll not be intimidated by the weights and he can actually teach me to weight train the correct way. So I signed up.

We met up a few days later and he took my percentages for my BMI (Body Mass Index) and BF (Body Fat), waist and arm measurements and weighed me. Then he did a physical assessment to see what I could physically do. Boy that was fun! He had me do push ups, or try to, and squats and get on the rowing machine for it seemed like 30 minutes but I think it was only 3! After the assessment we set up times to meet and he put together exercises for me to do and helped me learn what I needed to do.

We worked out a total of 12 times together and I’m so glad I worked with him. He pushed me to use heavier weights than I would’ve thought I could possibly use and since working with him I’ve been able to maintain a program on my own.

Now here we are in the middle of December and I had my personal trainer come back up and measure and weigh me to see where if I had made any progress since I started doing all of this. When he read off my numbers he didn’t have my starting numbers with him so he had to text them to me – but from my perspective upon hearing the numbers – it didn’t sound like I had done diddly squat! I’ve had several people comment on how I look different and look like I’ve lost weight – but the numbers didn’t seem to reflect that change.

He finally sent me the original numbers and low and behold – there has been a change. I’ve lost weight, my percentages are going down and so is my waist! I decided to start this journey because I want to live the rest of my life as healthy as I can. One thing no one can take for granted is their health, and having gone through a year of cancer, I want to maintain my health as long as possible. Knowing my numbers are going down on top of becoming healthier is definitely a bonus!

Getting results the way I’m doing it is not a fast process and I don’t want it to be, it takes time. I believe that if I keep plugging away at this my body will slowly get to where it needs to be and I will be able to maintain that body a lot better than if I did a crash diet and dropped all of this in lightening speed. People need to remember, it takes time, it’s a process, it can be done but its not going to happen the first time you go work out in a gym or walk a mile outside. Quick fixes won’t happen when your are trying to transform your life and your body, but if you stick with it – amazing things will happen!