Accountabilty

I’ve often thought about why I like going to the gym so much. While it’s true that I feel fantastic when I work out, it’s also true that I love being around people making positive changes in their lives. It doesn’t matter what shape we are in, or what our workout is – we are all doing SOMETHING. It is so easy to just whine and say “it’s not fair” or “I wish it were different”, but everyone is empowering themselves and working to change or enhance their lives.

The story I tell on myself is years ago when I bought the “Sweating to the Oldies” video and was watching it to see if it was too hard. While sitting in my lazy boy. With a pint of Chunky Monkey (kind of appropriate, wasn’t it?). Somehow I don’t think Richard would have approved. :) Surprisingly I didn’t see any results. As you can see, I kind of need the accountability factor.

I feed off of the energy of those around me. Whether it’s secretly seeing if I can beat the speed of the person next to me on the bike, or if I can just last 5 minutes on the Elliptical Machine without collapsing, it’s easier when people are around. The same is true of my training sessions. A lady mentioned last night that she remembers me in my first session last April. Apparently my face was beet red and I looked like I was going to pass out. But I kept at it. And she said it encouraged her so now she signed up for training. It will be nice to kind of work out with her. Other people who train at the same time with other trainers and I have a good natured ribbing and competitiveness going – it will be good to add another person to the “Club”.

Oh, and I gave the Lazy Boy away and haven’t had ice cream since last March. ALTHOUGH when I tell people I went to an all-natural diet to keep in mind that both Ben and Jerry’s AND Hagen Daaz are BOTH all natural. Hmmmmmmmmm………..