Another aggravation

It's beat myself up day! I went to the gym during lunch yesterday in SF and made it back in Oakland again after work for a 5:30 "Body Pump" class at 24 hour fitness. All I envisioned was Hanz & Franz telling me they were here to "pump me up!". It didn't sit well. Now, I have NEVER taken a group class at any gym, so this scared the crap out of me. It was a weights class too, and I had NO idea what to do or get for my personal area. I got there really early and saw people with steps, weight bars, free weights, you name it. It's like they had the entire gym with them by their mat. Oh, great, I thought. Here's where my legs or arms give out on me or I crush myself with a piddly 5 pound weight bar.

It wasn't that crowded, but I didn't really position myself in a place to see the instructor well enough. She didn't quite move to accommodate any newbies and surely didn't move from the left side of the room. Can we get center stage please? By this point, folks had their positions and I wasn't going to be THAT girl and just wriggle my ass in front of anyone or impose on their space.

It started with a warm up, all bar work. All dead lifts, biceps and shoulders. Not too bad, but I have the upper body strength of a Tyrannosaurus rex. I chose realllly light weights bc I was scared. Too light -- or so I thought.I added more weight when I could to the bar when we worked on legs and immediately regretted it. This class is all about reps, lunges and slow movement. To say I was feeling the burn is putting it mildly. That, and the fact that I was sticking my butt out to the men in the weight room next door (hello (gl)ass wall) made me miserable. I stuck it out though. By the end of class, after 60 min of many reps and light weights, my legs and arms were shaking. It's a challenge to bring a cup of water to mouth right now. I guess that's a good thing. I won't be picking up any Big Macs or pints of Guinness in the near future to my face.

I woke up early today and decided to get in some more cardio. After I weighed myself this morning, I gained a freaking half pound back. I REALLY thought I'd be out of the poundage range I've been stuck in forever by September, but I'm still 2 pounds away. After 2.5 months, things are really progressing slowly and it's getting me more upset each time I see a gain or lack of a loss. The scale keeps me honest and I'm measuring too - no loss in inches this week either. GAH!!

I'm going to work out AGAIN during lunch for a 30 min blast class and I'm thinking of going to a bikram class on Saturday to stretch out my muscles and my mind. I'm drinking water, cutting back on wine (though I still indulge some nights), I'm eating and not starving myself and letting myself have good fats without going overboard. I think it's time to make another appt with the doctor to get my thyroid or some levels checked, bc any normal human being would be losing weight with what I'm doing. My ob/gyn even told me that. I'm really not cheating and marking everything I eat, good or bad. Maybe for a week I need to JUST eat pre-packaged frozen meals so I absolutely know what calorie count or portion size I am eating, and just throw in extra vegetables.

The Spartan and I decided to put a 1 glass of wine maximum at night, if at all, so that should help. I have groupons to use up in September, so I feel like this month is going to be very antisocial on my end, what with no cash to spend and fitness classes to use up. I fear I'll be spending all my time in the gym, the yoga studio and our basement doing laundry. Ce la vie.