On Exercise

So back in January, I won a lovely little gift certificate from our church's auction for 2 months worth of a gym membership and 8 personal training sessions. They threw in a water bottle also, for good measure. Fast forward a few weeks and life took a pretty dramatic twist in the baby direction. I held onto the gift certificate for weeks and weeks and weeks and finally cashed it in a week ago from Saturday.

Yay for gym time!

Now, for those personal training sessions. Can you say I was feeling a little apprehensive? That might be an understatement. Visions of 5:30am sessions on my day off. Seriously, who can function that early in the morning? Some Most mornings I find myself in a drowsy stupor while attempting to shower & get dressed for work. In my head, I saw frightening images of doing burpees until I barfed. Working out tired muscles with a foam roller until I shed tears. Then, enter Fred, my trainer. Those of you Rockportians may know of Fred (don't spoil the ending). The guy wears steel-toe boots. Enter more apprehension.

Last Thursday, I nervously found my way to Rockport Health & Fitness for my first training session. Fred was there in his steel-toe boots waiting to punish my body to the point of breaking. Or so I thought.

Turns out, my training session was awesome. We worked out my wimpy upper body and he walked me through each weight machine, pointing out how to maneuver each machine to correctly fit my body, and the proper mechanics to engage the appropriate muscles. We worked in a methodical, deliberate order and I left feeling refreshed. The next day I may or may not have been able to wash my hair. But that's neither here nor there.

Since the first session, I've been back for a upper body revisit and a lower body workout. I certainly don't shake in my Asics now at the sight of Fred, but appreciate his willingness to answer questions, always pointing me in the right direction. Last night, I may have even seen him crack a smile or two during our session.

I'm sure this topic will segue into all sorts of unsolicited advice regarding the topic of exercise and pregnancy. Believe me, I've already gotten a considerable amount of unsolicited advice so far, and I'm sure it's just the tip of the unsolicited-motherhood-advice-iceberg. I ran 3+ miles worth of hills in the icy rain the day I found out I was pregnant. I like to exercise (especially since I'm no longer in the business of losing weight and therefore have welcomed dairy, carbs, and sugar back into my diet wholeheartedly). My doctor knows I run. My doctor knows I see a personal trainer. Exercise is probably the absolute least of my pregnancy worries, and was great at relieving my first trimester nausea. So here's to hoping for 6 more awesome training sessions, logging more miles on my sneakers, and having a healthy baby.