The Shape & Colour I.

"The healthy, the strong individual, is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he has an abscess on his knee or in his soul."
Rona Barrett

"Inhale. Exhale. Breathe in through your nose. Hold it. Count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10...Good."

Like a bad romantic comedy, this has been my constant after-work companion--Mari Windsor. Mari, you see, is on the Windsor Pilates DVD that my cousin Valerie gave me as a gift last year to "shape up and feel good about myself." Last year, I didn't restart my whole exercise routine, in general, too seriously until I came back and realized that the whole semester, because of various reasons, I never shed my Christmas weight. I just took a break from working out, you know, for like more than a year ("I was tired..."). I think the breaking point was when I finally arrived from school (two weeks after my last final!), and I just felt completely out of shape.
So, at first, I did what every other person in my position would do: DENY IT.
Well, denial is great and all, until you have to start working and you don't like the way you look in any of your work clothes. Instead of being defiant over no reason,I decided to take it to the next step ("I wanna get in the zone!" heheh) and work out at a gym. I felt that,while I could have relied on a low-carb diet such as Atkins or the South Beach Beach diet, I knew that the only sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off is to work out. It,however, is also the hardest way espeically if you have not been working out in quite some time. Besides, I didn't want to say goodbye to rice entirely; you try having homecooked Filipino food without rice. That's like driving a car without gasoline.

Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you need an incentive to lose weight, you have to find something that will motivate you to work out, especially when you're exhausted and lazy. Well, this time around, I'm paying my own money to work out--If I neglect my whole workout regime, then I will be out $40 dollars for that month. Plus, seeing that there are like a zillion Gold's Gyms in our area (and a fitness room in my office building), it's pretty hard to tell myself that I can't work out today for one reason or another.

On that first day at Gold's gym, I was with my brother (who wants to bulk up and gain some muscle). Before I could sign up for a membership, I had to talk to a manager about my "exercise goals". The whole situation was awkwardly professional. I slumped back into this wooden chair being asked asked how much weight I want to lose, what exercises I want to do, how serious I was about my commitment to exercise, and of course, how I plan to pay for my membership. After fifteen minutes, I finally received my Gold's Gym card and I was ready to work out. So I hestitantly jumped on the bike, started to pedal, and began to sweat...

...So far, everything has been going great. I've been working out for the last two months or so. My mom, who, like a groundhog signalling the start of spring (?),recently told me that I have lost weight, which in mom-speak, means around ten pounds. I feel good and I feel great, and that's the most important thing. Currently, my basic routine is a combination of cardio and pilates. When I go to Gold's, I'm usually there to use the machines, and then sometimes (depending on my schedule), I'll go straight home and exercise. Okay, I admit it--I'm morphing into a gym addict (scream!). I feel guilty now when I don't work out, even for thirty minutes.

One major plus is that working out is such a stress-reliever, especially after a long day at work. When I get on one of those machines, I release a whole day of stress and just release all of it for one hour. The constant whirr of the machines and the horrible music (think like 1999 dance hits!) serves as the backdrop to my regular, sweaty routine. On the other hand, when I'm at home, trying to follow Mari Windsor in her body-twisting pilates, I writhe in exercise pain (the good kind of pain), trying to manipulate my body into embarrassing and often times interesting positions. Mainly, while I go out, drink, eat, and imbibe in various afterwork events such as happy hours a couple times a week, most of the time, I'm either at Gold's and at home exercising and getting into shape...