personal trainer!
I had my first meeting with her today. Her name is Anita. She seems to be in her mid fifties, and as is typical for the breed, is whip-thin and wiry.
When I'd emailed the Y, I said I had a lot of special considerations because of my weight and condition, and that I needed someone who was fat-positive as weight loss would not be my primary goal. Anita was assigned to me, and man, does she fit the bill.
We talked mostly about how long I'd felt like this ("deconditioned" is how she very tactfully put it), what I wanted to get out of the training, and how much I felt like I could work. I told her about my back pain and that my knees couldn't take a lot of pressure, and she was VERY concerned about not doing anything, and I mean anything, that put any strain at all on my back or knees. (She asked if I'd seen a doctor about my knee/shin pain, and I kind of shrugged and said not really, I needed to prioritize. Plus, I know what they'd say: lose weight.)
She told me that the key to gaining strength and condition is to start very slow and gentle, and not get hurt. To this end we developed a routine that is, in fact, very slow and gentle. It has a lot to do with a medicine ball and moving it around. This is a lot harder than it seems.
I kept shifting my legs so my knees were a tiny bit bent, and she praised this, saying not to lock my knees. I said I knew that from my years in karate, we were always focused on not locking knees. (I automatically do this in life, all the time. Knees: never locked!) She seemed interested and asked if I'd like to get back into karate. I said lady are you kidding, of course, I'd love it. My training in karate also lets me think about a body part and move it in a specific way, as she was having me do. Tuck in the shoulder blades, lower the shoulders, etc. She seemed intrigued that I was able to follow such directions without trouble.
When she asked about the weight training class I had before and what I liked to do, I said I had trouble with most/all of the leg machines for various reasons (shins hurt too bad/too heavy to lean on the rest/knees feel like broken glass), but I liked to do the rows and pulldowns because of my archery. She was really interested in that, so we did rows and pulls.
A little while later, sort of out of the blue she asked me, as I was getting into a chest press machine, if I'd done anything else besides karate and archery. I told her something I have been thinking about, but haven't articulated to anyone.
"I used to be really athletic," I said. "I used to do kayaking, scuba diving, swimming, hiking, camping. Ultimately my goal with this is to be able to do these things again, but I know it's a long way off." Earlier I'd told her my goals included being able to do the shopping by myself.
This sparked a brief discussion (held in whispers because the room was starting to fill up with people doing their afternoon workouts) about why I had gotten so bad. I'd told her that I had great difficulty recovering from gall bladder surgery, as relatively simple and low-profile a surgery as it was, and she asked if I thought it was that. I said, no, no, I've been like this for longer than that, and I didn't exactly know why, but my sleep disorders and hypothyroidism seemed to combine to create a huge burden on me.
She asked if I'd been given a medical reason why the surgery was so hard for me to recover from. I said no, it wasn't something that had been addressed, and--I sort of shrugged, I did a lot of that--I talked to a lot of doctors about the problems I had, and none of them could really do much for me, and most of them seemed to think most of my problems were about my weight.
She said, "Well, it sounds like you got sick and then put weight on, not that you put weight on and it made you sick."
Soak in that for a minute.
Done? Okay.
I said, "Yeah, I think so too, but--" more shrugging, "doctors." I said this in a tone meant to imply that doctors had opinions on things.
Was I on thyroid medication? Yes. Did I think it helped? Well, I think it holds things in place, but it doesn't make them better; the doctors say as long as I have the replacement hormone it should be like I don't even have a thyroid problem at all, but I don't feel like that.
She seemed thoughtful.
I'd had some only slightly paranoid fantasies that she would want to weigh me to track some kind of progress, or want to talk about "caloric excess" or something, and I'd have to refuse. But there was none of that. She did ask me how I'm eating, and I talked about my appetite problems, and she was concerned that I was eating enough to fuel exercising. (My reaction to that was telling: I frowned, and said, "I think so. I think so.") She asked about energy bars, I said I can't really do them because they give me reflux, but I can make granola, and she practically cheered and said to do that and bring some in a bag so I could eat it immediately after we were done.
I think that's everything, or most of it. I felt very worked-out after we were done, and of course I didn't get fed fast enough, not being prepared, and wound up feeling kind of oogy and shaky, but once I'd snacked and had a nap I felt pretty good. I feel quite decent right now and this pleases me.
I feel really good about this. I think it is exactly what I need. I have some concerns about the cost (although really it is not so expensive, I just get twitchy) but the benefits so vastly outstrip the cost that I can't bring myself to fret too much about it.
On Thursday or Friday I'll go by myself (well, with Dave) and do the routine, and then on Monday we'll meet again, and I am happy about it.
When I'd emailed the Y, I said I had a lot of special considerations because of my weight and condition, and that I needed someone who was fat-positive as weight loss would not be my primary goal. Anita was assigned to me, and man, does she fit the bill.
We talked mostly about how long I'd felt like this ("deconditioned" is how she very tactfully put it), what I wanted to get out of the training, and how much I felt like I could work. I told her about my back pain and that my knees couldn't take a lot of pressure, and she was VERY concerned about not doing anything, and I mean anything, that put any strain at all on my back or knees. (She asked if I'd seen a doctor about my knee/shin pain, and I kind of shrugged and said not really, I needed to prioritize. Plus, I know what they'd say: lose weight.)
She told me that the key to gaining strength and condition is to start very slow and gentle, and not get hurt. To this end we developed a routine that is, in fact, very slow and gentle. It has a lot to do with a medicine ball and moving it around. This is a lot harder than it seems.
I kept shifting my legs so my knees were a tiny bit bent, and she praised this, saying not to lock my knees. I said I knew that from my years in karate, we were always focused on not locking knees. (I automatically do this in life, all the time. Knees: never locked!) She seemed interested and asked if I'd like to get back into karate. I said lady are you kidding, of course, I'd love it. My training in karate also lets me think about a body part and move it in a specific way, as she was having me do. Tuck in the shoulder blades, lower the shoulders, etc. She seemed intrigued that I was able to follow such directions without trouble.
When she asked about the weight training class I had before and what I liked to do, I said I had trouble with most/all of the leg machines for various reasons (shins hurt too bad/too heavy to lean on the rest/knees feel like broken glass), but I liked to do the rows and pulldowns because of my archery. She was really interested in that, so we did rows and pulls.
A little while later, sort of out of the blue she asked me, as I was getting into a chest press machine, if I'd done anything else besides karate and archery. I told her something I have been thinking about, but haven't articulated to anyone.
"I used to be really athletic," I said. "I used to do kayaking, scuba diving, swimming, hiking, camping. Ultimately my goal with this is to be able to do these things again, but I know it's a long way off." Earlier I'd told her my goals included being able to do the shopping by myself.
This sparked a brief discussion (held in whispers because the room was starting to fill up with people doing their afternoon workouts) about why I had gotten so bad. I'd told her that I had great difficulty recovering from gall bladder surgery, as relatively simple and low-profile a surgery as it was, and she asked if I thought it was that. I said, no, no, I've been like this for longer than that, and I didn't exactly know why, but my sleep disorders and hypothyroidism seemed to combine to create a huge burden on me.
She asked if I'd been given a medical reason why the surgery was so hard for me to recover from. I said no, it wasn't something that had been addressed, and--I sort of shrugged, I did a lot of that--I talked to a lot of doctors about the problems I had, and none of them could really do much for me, and most of them seemed to think most of my problems were about my weight.
She said, "Well, it sounds like you got sick and then put weight on, not that you put weight on and it made you sick."
Soak in that for a minute.
Done? Okay.
I said, "Yeah, I think so too, but--" more shrugging, "doctors." I said this in a tone meant to imply that doctors had opinions on things.
Was I on thyroid medication? Yes. Did I think it helped? Well, I think it holds things in place, but it doesn't make them better; the doctors say as long as I have the replacement hormone it should be like I don't even have a thyroid problem at all, but I don't feel like that.
She seemed thoughtful.
I'd had some only slightly paranoid fantasies that she would want to weigh me to track some kind of progress, or want to talk about "caloric excess" or something, and I'd have to refuse. But there was none of that. She did ask me how I'm eating, and I talked about my appetite problems, and she was concerned that I was eating enough to fuel exercising. (My reaction to that was telling: I frowned, and said, "I think so. I think so.") She asked about energy bars, I said I can't really do them because they give me reflux, but I can make granola, and she practically cheered and said to do that and bring some in a bag so I could eat it immediately after we were done.
I think that's everything, or most of it. I felt very worked-out after we were done, and of course I didn't get fed fast enough, not being prepared, and wound up feeling kind of oogy and shaky, but once I'd snacked and had a nap I felt pretty good. I feel quite decent right now and this pleases me.
I feel really good about this. I think it is exactly what I need. I have some concerns about the cost (although really it is not so expensive, I just get twitchy) but the benefits so vastly outstrip the cost that I can't bring myself to fret too much about it.
On Thursday or Friday I'll go by myself (well, with Dave) and do the routine, and then on Monday we'll meet again, and I am happy about it.