Three weeks done at Curves Fitness Study

I just completed a three week fitness study at Curves. I haven’t been a member for awhile now, and was thinking about rejoining.

They measured my weight, blood pressure, body fat and resting heart level before I started the program and after. All I had to do was workout three times a week for three weeks, a total of 9 times.

My results? My blood pressure was right around normal before, but it lowered slightly. My weight dropped by 6 and a half pounds. My body fat only dropped less than 1%, same for my BMI. For the good news, my resting heart rate dropped from 81 to 76. That means my heart is getting more efficient at pumping blood through my body. The drop is great!

I decided not to join though, for one reason, because they raised their rates. It’s a no frills gym anyway, and I could really use a place with child care. I ended up joining my husband’s gym as a family member, at a much lower rate, plus they have child care for only $2 an hour.

I’ll also get a few free personal training sessions to learn about their equipment and to set some goals. I’m hitting that gym tomorrow morning for a “Boot Camp” aerobic class. Wish me luck!

Thanks PJ at Curves for taking the photo, and to all the staff for your enthusiasm. I really feel better having started a regular workout routine, and hope I can keep it up throughout the summer and for the rest of year.

Reward programs for exercise

I am not a fan of exercise. I know it’s good for me, but I don’t enjoy it and have little time in my busy schedule for it. Yes, I do feel better after doing it, but that’s not much motivation for me.

Between working full time, grad school part time, and a husband plus a 3 year old, where is my free time? Most free time is sucked up commuting, doing homework, or relaxing with my family. Now you know if I can squeeze exercise in at least three times a week, you probably can!

One of the best things are programs that reward you for exercising. Curves has a program called Curves Cash that you earn “cash” for working out among other things, and you can cash in to spend on t-shirts, water bottles, bags or other things.

My husband’s gym also has a reward program called Fit Rewards in which you earn “points” that you can redeem for electronics, clothing and other gadgets.

My employer just started a reward program with Virgin Life Care called Healthy Steps. Your employer signs up companywide and the program can be supplemented by you, or free depending on your employer. You earn “miles” on my program that can be used to get gift cards to 100’s of retailers (among other things) and you can earn up to $400 in rewards if you meet your goals. They have varying levels of achievement that you must meet to earn the money.

This is awesome for those of us who need motivation to workout and exercise. They give you a pedometer that tracks your steps daily, which comes with a USB cord that uploads them automatically to your account. I’ve only been doing it 3 days already, but I love it! (See photo of my pedometer)

We are also going to have a company wide challenge where teams and individuals can win additional prizes. There is also a machine that weighs you, measures your body fat and takes your blood pressure. You earn miles by doing this once a month too.

What a great idea to motivate people to move more and incorporate exercise into their life. An added bonus for employers is that it can help reduce the cost of health care and insurance.

Does your company or gym offer anything like this? What motivates you to work out?

Create your own Exercise Log Book

I get bored easily with exercise and find it hard to stick too. I’m a very goal oriented person though. One thing that has worked for me is creating an exercise log book. I started it when I bought my treadmill in 2004.

It’s great looking back and seeing all the miles I’ve walked and the workouts I’ve logged. It also makes me realize that when I put in the time to exercise, I was rewarded with weight loss!

Here is my sample log book and I recommend you create one. Any old notebook will do, and mine is a simple college ruled single subject notebook. I originally started with the headings Date, Time, Minutes and Miles when I was just walking, but it has since changed to Date, Activity, Minutes and Miles.

It’s that simple. For activity I write down the type, weather it was a workout video, treadmill walk, outdoor walk or Curves. I keep running track of total miles logged (plus Curves workouts) and here are my grand totals as of today.

Although it may not impress you, it does impress me! Since 2004 I’ve logged 306.25 miles and 95 Curves workouts.  My best year by far was 2005 which I like to look back at, and see that I exercised at least a few times a week or at least 30 minutes (sometimes up to an hour). The year I started grad school, 2006, is by far my worst, but I won’t look back, I’ll only try to do better these days.

Weight Watchers vs. Curves Magazine (diane)

I’ve been on Weight Watchers for awhile now and have been fairly successful. I’m not at goal and am not sure when I’ll finally (or if I) make it.

I also worked at Curves briefly after my daughter turned 1 (so I could get out of the house, work out and loose more weight). Curves is an excellent program although I am younger than their target demographic which is 40+ women.

Comparing their magazines though, WW is a paid subscription delivered six times per year and Diane, the Curves magazine, is free for their customers and is issued quarterly. The thing I like best about Curves magazine is that they feature women who are working the program and have lost weight, even though they may not be at their goal weight or even their “ideal” weight. Their stories are inspiring and inspirational for those of us working on our weight problems and issues. Now WW on the other hand only features people who have reached their goal weight. While I also admire them, it makes me feel like a loser or a failure that I haven’t reached my goal yet and I’ve been doing the program since 2003 (even though I was delayed by a pregnancy and birth).

If WW magazine and indeed all women’s magazines feature women of real sizes and all body shapes and types, I believe a lot more of us would stop (or reduce) the self loathing of our bodies. Perhaps if we changed our media to show real women, then advertisers and marketing would sell less of their diet and weight loss products. Feature more women, who are real, although less than “ideal.” We come in all shapes and sizes, yet all we see is one size fits all. Unfortunately for the majority of women’s magazines, that is not the case.