Well, first of all, I had my first (and probably last) personal training session with Eric the Kinesiologist at Premier Fitness on Thursday, which was kind of a follow-up to the fitness assessment we did last time. I was pretty pumped for this, and I went into it with a definite plan: pay incredibly close attention to what Eric tells me to do... ask as many fitness-info questions as possible without driving him nuts.... and then copy the workout circuit he takes me through and heed his advice to the letter of the law, until I achieve my fitness goals. Proudly scamming the system. Mua-ha-ha. And they said I'd need a full-time personal trainer...
So I arrive, and Eric gets right down to business. "First I just want to get a sense of how strong you are right now", he says. He takes me into the fitness assessment area, where there are a few pieces of ambiguous equipment. "How weak I am would be a better way of putting it", I think to myself, as I feebly attempt to follow his directions and do as many situps, pushups and chinups as I possibly can on these machines, according to his specifications. He nonjudgmentally jots down my results, and then takes me into the actual workout room. 45 minutes later, I can barely move. We do bench presses. We use medicine balls, barbells and dumbbells. We do every kind of squat you could possibly imagine. He shows me how to use some of the best equipment for my fitness goals. It's an intense session. I leave feeling exhausted, but also like I've just gotten an absolutely awesome kick-ass crash course in how to get strong, fast. What's the first thing I do when I leave? Sit myself down on a bench just outside the gym, whip out my blackberry, and write down every single exercise we did in as much detail as possible, and every other piece of value information I managed to squeeze out of Eric. Awesome.
Now... the next day is where it gets difficult. First of all, I wake up on Friday morning feeling like I've just been hit by a bus. "What the..." I think to myself. Then I remember. Oh right. I just got my butt kicked by a personal training session yesterday. These are the residual effects. Sigh. I cringe as I pull myself out of bed. Well...I guess this is how progress feels.
Second of all..."Niagara falls" and "healthy eating". These four words do not belong in the same language together. Yet I find myself facing the perfect storm of healthy eating fail: about to leave on a quick and dirty one-night business trip with my best pal in tow, right smack dab in the middle of the city of amusement park nutrition where you can't find a salad for less than $25. Now, I anticipated well in advance that this was not going to be easy. However, feeling grateful that this was a fourth-week road bump and I'd had some time to already learn a trick or two, I told myself I'd manage this just fine. No matter where you go, there has to be SOMETHING healthy to eat, right? Just in case, I had packed myself a package of whole-wheat tortillas and some raspberry jam (not many spread options since everything has to be refrigerated) as a back-up plan. "Hey", I figured, "if I have to eat this all weekend, so be it! Ha...ha...ha..."
Um....well as it turns out, I pretty well DID eat that all weekend, save a couple of measly attempts at healthy meals that didn't really pan out so well. First of all, we arrive and look for somewhere to eat. Fast food is definitely out, so we land at one of the millions of "mid-priced" Kelsey-style chains there. Appleby's wins since it has the most reasonable prices, although that's not saying much (Niagara falls = the Vegas of Canada). After perusing the menu, Canan suggests we go with this combined meal deal offer: an appetizer and 2 entrees for $25. "It's an awesome deal compared to everything else", she points out. Hmmm. I look over at the salads page, and prices at over $20 a pop are staring back at me. Well, me and my starving wallet can't really argue with that. So I agree. Then I look at the choices involved. Oh boy. This is definitely going to be a lesser-of-the-evils situation. The appetizers are all fried. The entrees are mostly the same. Ahhhhh! I convince her to go with the spinach and artichoke dip for appetizer (which unfortunately comes with nachos), and I order Cajun pasta for the entree. Not great as far as healthy eating goes... but it could be worse, right? However, due to a total lack of insight that Cajun pasta is called that for a reason, I can barely eat my meal because it's so damn hot. Oh well. I wasn't that hungry anyway, I suppose...
Now, determined to make the absolute most of our 24-hour power trip, we mission it to the LCBO next, in preparation for our night out on the town (which is also an attempt to save money, rather than buying it at some superexpensive casino or bar price). All right. I know alcohol is not healthy. But I rationalize this by choosing a bottle of wine, and reminding myself that the jury is always out on whether a glass of wine a day is good for your health. This longstanding debate in the dietary world hasn't been resolved yet...which means, it still might be. So this isn't NECESSARILY a cheat, right? I drink half the bottle. Okay, that was a bit more than a glass. Maybe 2. But...it could be worse, right? Hmmm. This thought is starting to sound familiar...
Fast forward a few hours, and I'm friggin' starving, having gone without much of a dinner. We're now in the lobby of the Fallsview casino. As you can imagine, there aren't exactly a plethora of healthy choices. We walk the entire length of the place, and as we reach the end, a guy at a sushi booth is standing there yelling "Half priced sushi! About to close!" Perfect! Sushi has become my fallback healthy choice at any odd location (eg. malls, downtown streets) where its hard to find anything wholesome, and it comes through for me again this time. Well, at least SOMETHING's worked out...
The next day, we go to our research conference. All of the food is free. However, free and healthy are often not synonymous, so this turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing for me. Free danishes. Free muffins. Free cake. Free cookies. Free cheesecake on a stick. This is quite possibly the most tempting situation I could possibly find myself in. It would be so easy to just......NO! I bravely choose fruit for breakfast. I go for salad (thank god its there) and a tuna wrap for lunch. I resist the yummy desserts. It ain't easy, but I feel quite triumphant as we leave the conference hall 8 hours later, as though I'm the sole survivor of a great battle. As we drive home, I munch on the tortillas and jam that got me through the weekend. I evaluate my choices. "Well", I conclude..."It could have been worse."
So the plan from here? Start getting on Eric's workout session (after the pain subsides, which 3 days later, is incredibly STILL lingering). Spend 3 days a week at the gym from now on. Start trying out some new recipes, since I'm slowly noticing myself eating the same few (healthy) choices over and over again...gotta keep this learning momentum going! And, oh yeah....
...try to stay away from Niagara Falls.
xo Janine
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