January 18, 2016 – I remember it like it was yesterday. It was Day One of a Gold’s Gym 12-week challenge. On Day One, you need to get a starting weight, starting measurements, and a starting picture. Some people wear a bathing suit for the picture. I wasn’t about to do that. I had decided on shorts – but I had no shorts that fit. Over the weekend I ventured into Kohl’s and ended up in the men’s department looking for the biggest pair of shorts I could find. That morning, January 18, I put those shorts on and then covered them up with exercise pants.
How was today or “this time” going to be any different than the previous four trainers that had “helped” me? How was this going to be any different than the 7 times I tried Weight Watchers? How about when I did Body for Life, the Scarsdale Diet, Protein Power, Juicing Diet, Vegetarian diet, Curves, Jenny Craig, the Metabolic Center, or the countless other “diets” I had tried the past 14 years?
I was there that morning, January 18, about to get that starting weight because of a relentless friend. We had been working out together for a few months. Despite my working out for a few months, I had not lost a single pound of weight. However, this friend told me that Ryan wanted to help me win the 12-week challenge. I honestly think I laughed the first time she told me. Laughed because I felt it was comical that anyone really thought that they could help me.
Just about every day, my friend would say, “Ryan wants to help you.” “You should talk to Ryan.” I wasn’t there to meet yet another trainer. Four had come and gone and yet here I was heavier than ever. I was there at Gold’s Gym because my son had a serious scoliosis surgery and 6 months after the surgery, he asked to start going back to the gym. So I went with him. I was excited about the affordable program they had going on for training and I was “all in,” but like I said, not a single pound had come off of my body.
I also was not a fan of the 12-week challenge. One of those previous 4 trainers had actually told me not to sign up because she did not think I would do well at all. But here we are – signed up, about to get that weight. My friend’s persistence had paid off. I had finally “talked” to Ryan. He very enthusiastically told me he was SURE he could help me. I may have laughed at him too. In my mind I was saying, “We will see. Nobody can help me.”
One week previous, January 11, 2016, I had met with Ryan and discussed a game plan going forward for the 12-week challenge. He said he would help me with nutrition and he would give me guidelines for working out. True to his word, I received an e-mail before January 18 with this information. I saw the nutrition guideline and it was similar to what I had seen before. It talked about proteins/carbs/fat. BUT that made no sense to me. So I told him so. I said, “Look, this means nothing to me. AT ALL. I need you to tell me what are good protein choices, good carb choices, and good fat choices. I need A LOT of help. So to start, he asked me to log my food and send him an e-mail at the end of every week with that food log. We had a plan.
Now all I needed to do was show up – January 18 and get on that scale.
