Weekly Compliments

A client of Scotty's, Kathleen, remarked to him about my weight loss. He mentioned to her that I just hit a milestone goal and that she should say something to me. Her compliment? "You are just melting away!" She and I chatted maybe eight months ago when we were both leaving the gym; she's lost over 100lbs herself. (Congrats girl!)

A trainer (I'm really bad with names) from the gym: "You look great."

Two people told me I was an inspiration to them. One is a hot athletic trainer at the gym (Stephanie) when she was training for her competition. The other was just a member at the gym. She was on a mission to catch up with me on the track, and I was walking pretty slow today (yeah...the three-ish inch heels did it to me).

A co-workers girlfriend mentioned to him that it looked like I lost weight. Yeah...acquaintances are noticing. :)

I'm sure I'm missing a couple, but those are the ones standing out right now. :) It's kind of getting overwhelming...

The Gym

Saturday is a HUGE gym day for me, I'm usually there 2.5-3.5 hours, and that does not even include showering! I lift for about 1.5 hours, which is intermingled with some cardio on the track, and then I do at least 1.5 hours of cardio after lifting.

I was using the short block (stool) while using a leg resistance band, one end tied to my ankle and the other end tied to the block. I would use the leg that wasn't "tied" to step up on the block, lift my other knee up (the one tied) then kick my leg back, step down, and repeat ten times. I switch legs for a total of 30 reps on each leg. While doing these, an older woman comes up to me inbetween sets to inquire what areas on the body that exercise was working. It takes a lot of balance (which I'm slowly getting) and works the core, legs, and gluts. It also gets my heart rate up. She inquired about the color coding of the bands. Now here's the really cute part, she goes and gets her husband to show him what I was working on; he comes and watches a set. Three trainers (Scotty, Mike(?), and another) were training in the same area, so they probably got a kick out of this.

The exercise mentioned above is something my trainer had me do once, and well...I just couldn't do them during that session with him. A few weeks later, I tried them on my own and have put them into my training rotation. I am extremely happy that Matt's going to look over my training schedule that I'm going to plan for Christmas. As we keep talking about, this is a learning process for me and this is a big step for me.

Mike (I think that's his name) gave me a great compliment today, he said, "You're doing great." I know, I know, he's a trainer at the gym and he sees me float in and out all the time, but we don't chat like I do some of the other trainers, so I'll take this one! :)

A mesh of things...

I'm not quite sure where this post is going to go, so we'll see when we get there.

About two weeks ago, some maintenance guys accidently tripped the fire alarm at work and we had an unplanned drill. Today, we actually had a fire in our office building - a shredder caught on fire on the first floor. It was nice because it was beautiful outside, but after the "drill" the other week, it has come apparent that it takes a really really long time to get down six flights of stairs with everybody bumper-to-bumper in the stair wells. Not very safe, if you ask me.

I had a great day when it came to going out to eat for lunch. I had a char-grilled chicken breast, steamed broccoli, corn, and a biscuit. Everything was cut in half to save tomorrow, with the exception of the biscuit. I think I scored big time this time while eating out! And it was a Southern Food restaurant: Threadgill's.

Last week, over Thanksgiving, I lost four pounds! Five more to go to my goal! I'm aiming for it this week!!!!!! If I did four last week, I sure can do five this week!

Three compliments in three days (one on Tuesday, two today), and I'm still not sure how to really take them. (I've blogged about this before.) It's harder for me to accept the compliments from strangers than from friends/acquaintances. I am starting to see and feel the changes, so my thank you's have been a bit more sincere. Can't wait to hit my first milestone goal!!!!

Trainers trainers everywhere...

A few interesting this occurred this past week.

On Friday, although I took the day off from work due to my cold, I was going stir crazy in my apartment and I could not deal with watching another Jerry Springer show. I jumped in my car and went to the gym. Ironically, I ran into a girl that I see all the time at the gym after work and we started talking. To find out, she's been sick too. I did an hour of light cardio, and headed to the functional training room to stretch. I get intercepted by Paul, another trainer. We start chatting about workouts and what-have-you, and he gives me the best compliment ever. "You really look great."

I stood in on Saturday, slept way too much. By this time, I had been on a soup diet for three days. On Sunday, though, I got up, went to church, and hit the grocery store because I felt I could possibly eat real food again. Since I've been sick, I tend to rely heavily on prepared foods and had some...how do you put it...garbage in shopping cart. Lo-and-behold, who do I run into at the grocery store? No...not my trainer, he lives up north...but another trainer, Scotty, who was one of the first ones to comment and compliment me on my dedication. I quickly put my hands over my cart, and exclaimed, "Don't look!" He chuckled and said, "Michelle, I don't care, don't worry about it." Of course I told Matt this story today and confessed my wrong-doings, and Matt said, "Scotty didn't rat you out, so you know he can be trusted." Matt wasn't too upset with some of the items in my cart...

Encouraged...

I got a couple of compliments on the shirt I wore today. I couldn't find the one I wanted to, so I grabbed the first thing that would match the rest of the outfit. It ended up being a shirt I have not worn in forever. After the second compliment, I decided to check the size of the shirt for the hell of it. Well lookie, lookie...it was one of my smaller sizes. Let's just say I had a great workout today because of it.

As much as I need to be encouraged, I try to encourage a few people at the gym I see also. Well...I think one of them now thinks I've been flirting with him; the last thing I'd be doing is flirting with anybody at the gym. I'm usually sweaty, smelly, and exhausted after my workout. Besides, the sooner I get my workout done, the sooner I can do the multitude of other things I need to get done, and the more sleep I can get. Ahhhhh...sleep.

Compliments

I have never been able to take compliments very well. After hearing one, it always seems like my "Thank you" is forced and fake. I believe my thank you's sound fake because I don't believe what the person is telling me to be true. I have always had the perception that if I'm not perfect, then nothing about me is perfect. And if I'm not perfect, I don't deserve compliments. Make sense? I'm sure it doesn't...I'm messed up in the head and sometimes I just need to write things out to have them make sense again.

The reason why I bring this subject up is because I have received numerous compliments from complete strangers these days. Today I was on the elliptical listening to my iPod and watching little league baseball, and a lady comes over to talk to me. I assumed she wanted to change the channel on the TV, so I took off one of my ear phones, and we had the following brief interaction:

"Have you been coming here for awhile?" She inquired.
"Yes, for quite some time." I answer in between my heavy breathing. (I have gotten this question from people who had just joined the gym and they need help for one thing or another or they're curious about if I like it.)
"I just wanted to let you know that it looks like you've lost weight."
"Thank you so much. It hasn't been that much, but I have been losing more inches than weight."
"Well I just wanted to let you know. Keep up the good work."

Three weeks ago the front desk clerk at the gym inquired about the same thing and I had to answer "Well, we'll find out on Wednesday when Matt and I do measurements!"

Two people at work have talked to me about it as well...

It's great that people are noticing, BUT I STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO. I think that's why I like chatting with the trainers more because they understand this and most of the ones I know are extremely encouraging. Also, most of the employees at the gym know me either by name or face and if they don't see me for awhile, they keep me accountable. I ran into Rob this week (another front desk guy), he just finished working out and was going to go back to work, we hugged and he then backed up and said "Where have you been? I haven't seen you in awhile."

As for the compliments...I guess Matt is doing something right with me...I just wish the scale would move already.