In high school I loved badminton and volleyball. In fact, if I’d been allowed to participate in extracurricular activities, I would have been a pretty happy kid to have been on the girls volleyball team.
So no wonder, in my entire life the only photo that shows me doing a fairly athletic activity was a yearbook photo of me serving a volleyball in gym class. I felt good. I felt like an athlete.
That was the end of my athletic era.
A couple of decades later a therapist told me that the key to getting in touch with my entire, fully engaged self was to challenge myself physically.
I knew he was right about that whole physical-challenge suggestion, but I didn’t do anything about it in a serious way. Until now.
On Dec. 7 I started my journey with Matthew Lister at Align Private Training in Redding. Today’s Jan. 7. What a massive contrast between between how I felt on Dec. 7 and the way I feel today, both emotionally and physically.
On Dec. 7 I felt a combination of nervous, scared and excited, so much so that I was searching for the right word to describe it, which I never found. (Feel free to offer suggestions if you know such a word.) In fact, I was so anxious that when I got to my first appointment and found the door locked, I frantically messaged Matthew.
I’m here. We have an appointment, right?
Right. In an hour.
He was right. How embarrassing.
That was just the beginning of my embarrassment. That first day I also felt embarrassed to review with horror the videos that Matthew had taken of me walking back and forth across the room (checking alignment and posture)
Oh. My. God. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen how your rear end looks in stretchy black pants, while walking.
I felt embarrassed to be weighed and measured, and see numbers I didn’t want to face, let alone have a then-stranger record them in my file.
But I wasn’t Matthew’s first embarrassed, humiliated, discouraged, anxious client who walked through the front doors of his program as their last resort on the road to physical health. Like his other clients, I knew I wanted to change. The thing is, although, as my son pointed out, I had the will and determination to make that change, the truth was I didn’t know how to get there.
“We’ve got this, girl,” Matthew said.
For the record, I don’t mind when he calls me girl.
Go, girl. Keep at it, girl. You’re doing it, girl.
I’ve tried to analyze what it is about Matthew and this Align program that works for me, especially considering that at my core, I’m pretty rebellious, hate to be bossed around, and prefer carrots over sticks. I have friends who belong to work-out boot camps and they tell about having to do things like drop and do push ups if they say “I can’t”. I’d last two minutes in a program like that.
I’ve decided Matthew is a hybrid. He’s part trainer, part cheerleader, part teacher, part therapist, part joker, part friend, part coach, part motivator and yes, just a little bit of a kindly drill sergeant, but without the yelling or belittling.
I’ve noticed that he can smile while telling clients to do something he knows they really don’t want to do, and people – myself included – obey. Wonder of wonders. He’s right. Every single time I find – to my surprise – that I can push myself to do that very thing I was convinced was impossible.
Of course, I didn’t know all this at my first Dec. 7 meeting. Honestly, that first session was kind of a blur, but it’s also when Matthew set my one-month goals:
- 5-8 lbs of weight loss
- 3-5 total inches change
- 20% strength improvement in core movement competencies
- Progress through two levels of range of motion improvement in core movement competencies
I was more fixated on losing weight and inches than the strength and movement goals. But with each day of working out, I noticed how much stronger I was becoming. Gradually, I could lift heavier weights and had more endurance.
In my last column I shared that Matthew had confiscated my scale because I was becoming obsessed with weighing myself, sometimes multiple times a day, wringing my hands when the scale didn’t behave to my liking.
Matthew also told me he’d disclose my weights and measures report in February. I made peace with that and forgot about the scale. I knuckled down and concentrated on the diet and workouts.
I looked away when Matthew weighed and measured me. I was OK not knowing. I’d let it go. Or thought I had, until Tuesday, when Matthew asked if I’d like to know my numbers, earlier than February.
Yes!
He told me I’d lost 7 pounds in one month, which he said was perfect, because it’s between the overall optimum desired 5-to 9-pound per-month range. Matthew said he’d email the combined results to me later, which is exactly what he did.
Doni’s Month 1 Results
- 7 lbs. of weight loss
- 8.75 total inches
- 50% strength improvement – pulling motions, pressing motions, lateral pelvic stability, core stability all improved by a minimum of 50%. Pulling and lateral pelvic stability were a 100% strength improvement
- Progressed through three levels of range of motion in each of these joints: shoulders, mid back (see ya later grannie slump), hamstrings and hips.
So, there you go. One month down. Who knows how many more to go. That’s fine. I’m in this for the duration, however long it takes.
I’m pretty excited to have exceeded all of my first month’s goals, but I’m even more excited to see what happens in month two.
By then, I may have even taken up volleyball again.
