Well lets get this party started!

Hello people! How is your new year going so far? So far so good for me. I have had lunch with some friends and dinner with some more friends....AND I started exercising. CRAZY! I know it is.

I went to the Adult Center and signed up to use their facility it is a reasonable fee if you are not a senior citizen only $78.00 for a year but I got mine gratis because my mom is a VIP! Well I assume she is a VIP the county proclaimed January 5, 2010 and every year after her day! So I guess it is who you know that makes the difference.

ANYWAY...when you use this facility you have to meet with a trainer first, which I did yesterday, and she has to sign off that she has met you and shown you the proper use of the equipment. I should have known something was not right when I came in and she was massaging the feet of one of the people who was working out. I am really not a feet person so my initial response was EEEEWWWW! But I digress. SO she asked what I would like to accomplish, if I have ever worked out before etc. I have worked out before I use to kickbox which I actually enjoyed doing you have no idea how much better you feel after you beat and kick the crap out of a heavy bag! AND sometimes we got to beat and kick the crap out of somebody when we sparred! aaaahhhh those were the days! Now I have to work out by myself and it has been awhile so it is harder than I thought it would be. As the lady showed me around the facility I got a chance to get on the different machines and work on them so that she could make sure I understood how to use them. She told me that since I use to kickbox that ALL this stuff would be easy for me and my shape would come back faster than other people's because it is basically there just underneath some extra weight. Yeah right if you say so. After we went over what she considered to be the best possible routine for me (cardio every day and weight training twice a week) I got to use whatever machine I wanted on my own. I decided I would use the elliptical, it seemed harmless enough...NOT! Now the elliptical is situated so that in front of it are 4 treadmills... on these treadmills were two guys and two ladies. One younger lady and one older lady. The ladies were both reading as they calmly and smoothly with the greatest of ease at a steady fast pace walked on these treadmills. WOW is right! Or at least I thought it was a wow moment, I couldn't do it. SO I start on the elliptical and it is pretty easy until I remembered oh yeah I have to push start....and that is when the "fun" started. I had the controls, I THOUGHT, on an easy setting....now remember in front of me is an old lady and a young lady and they are not even breaking a sweat! I on the other hand am sweating like a pig and with each 30, yes that is THIRTY second interval I have to stop cause I can't breathe! I forgot (don't ask me how) that this was a MOVING machine SO just because YOU stop moving doesn't necessarily mean the machine is going to stop moving. Make note of that and remember it! I didn't. I managed to get 2 count them two minutes in on the elliptical machine in thirty second intervals. SAD! I almost threw myself off the machine once because I stopped moving and the machine didn't...

Today I went back to the "gym" and worked out for an hour and ten minutes! YAY! Not really now I can hardly move AND I tried the elliptical again, I am a bit hardheaded and obviously like to learn things the hard way. I almost threw myself off the elliptical machine twice today, (once if it had not been for the computer board in front of me I would have flown across the room. Fortunately I hit the board and only made a slightly audible sound from the wind being knocked out of me). The only thought that came to my mind was 'how embarrassing if I throw myself off this machine or hurt myself or pass out in here and they have to call an ambulance... the ambulance would come not doubt prepared to help an elderly person only to find me, the youngest person, in the room at this time on the floor writhing and gasping for air, while two elderly people lean over me trying to stop the convulsing or breathe life back into me!" I got this mental picture of a friend of mine who said that she ripped her knees up on the treadmill as she was attempting to put the safety key in the machine. The safety key is the key that you put in the machine so that if you do fall or something it will stop the machine. In her case she was in the process, basically reaching to put the key in, and fell on the machine which was set up close to the wall which meant she was wedge in on her knees with this machine running. Can you say serious strawberries! Of course her husband was no help because as she said his only contribution to the situation was to say, "What are you doing to yourself". Didn't stop the machine or help her up...he just wanted to know what she was "doing" to herself. They are getting a divorce now. I know its wrong BUT I have to admit when she told that story I had to laugh cause I could just picture the whole thing...and as karma would have it I just about did the same thing to myself with the elliptical machine. Of course instead of hurting my knees mine would have been my head being knocked, clunk...CLUNK... by the pedals of the machine as it slowed to a stop! OY! I am not discouraged though tomorrow I am going back on that machine and I am going to keep going to the gym everyday and using all the equipment she showed me until I am down to the size I want to be or they kick me out for being accident prone, whichever comes first!

See ya when I see ya!

Peace! Mattie