Free Fitness Training

Finally I’m caught up to the present day on this blog! :) On Saturday (March 1st) I met with a guy named Jarod Virden, a personal trainer here in Norman. This isn’t something I’d normally do, but I had a gift certificate for a free hour of training with him. (It was a free gift that Bobby received after he bought me a gift card for a massage at my favorite salon/spa – this was one of my Christmas presents!)

Jarod came over around 2pm and we got to work. He asked me how old I was, what my fitness goals were, did I have any injuries, and what were my eating habits like. Surprisingly, he never asked me how much I weighed, which I appreciated. He taught me lots of different exercises I could do right at home – core work, exercises to strengthen my back, tone my thighs, etc. Some of them I had done before or had seen other people doing at the gym, but some were new to me. I learned…..the stationary lunge, the side step, the inner thigh squeeze with the stability ball, the leg curl with the stability ball (which was really, really hard because I have no coordination!), the reverse crunch, the bird-dog on the stability ball, the ‘cobra on the ball’, the side crunch, and the glute raise on the stability ball. Over the course of the hour I did 2 sets of 15-20 reps of each of those…I was a little tired afterwards. :)

He also gave me some specifics on how often I should do these exercises and how much cardio I should be doing in order to lose weight. Thankfully, he wrote all this information down for me as he talked and I exercised. Ultimately, my goal is to get my weight down to 150 lbs. According to a few different online ‘fitness calculators’, the ideal weight for my age/height/frame is between 137-155 lbs. I will let you all know once I start seeing consistent losses.

Around 3pm, I thanked Jarod and said goodbye. He said to call him and let him know when I complete my first marathon. :)

I’ve got to say that I am enjoying this new lifestyle I’m trying to establish. I’ll tell you one thing, if I were still a Meteorology major there’s no way I’d have the time for this. So I really feel like this all started at the perfect time in my life – I had just switched to an English major when Andria completed her first marathon and inspired a lot of the rest of the family to complete our own marathons. It was meant to be, in a way, and so I’m optimistic about accomplishing these goals. :)

Time to go to sleep now. After Bobby gets home from work tomorrow we’re going to go for a run together – my first run with the new shoes and the Garmin!! I’m really excited! Talk to you all soon.