Making Some Changes.

It’s hard to believe, but my membership to Chicago Fitness Center expired a few days ago. CFC will always hold a special place in my heart. I lost a lot of weight in that gym. It contains my blood, sweat and tears… literally. It’s where I worked on myself and my fitness for the past 12 months.

Even though there are good things about CFC, the bad far outweighs the good. It’s dirty. Half the machines don’t work. There are no amenities and the group class schedule is laughable. I joined CFC because Rob trained me there and I was able to take advantage of a special membership fee of $18.50/month so at the time, the right decision was to go with CFC. However now that Rob has left for another gym and I don’t have a contract holding me at CFC, I too am jumping ship and heading for greener pastures.

Enter ID Gym.

Rob now works at ID Gym, which is just down the street from CFC. He does both personal training and teaches group kettlebell classes at ID. I was lucky to score a You Swoop coupon to ID, so I’ve been working out there this week and I’ve been loving it. The gym is clean, uncrowded and the group class schedule is stacked with cool things like spin, yoga, fly yoga, crossfit, and aerobic-type stuff on top of Rob’s kettlebell classes.

I was running some numbers this afternoon and decided to make a very tough decision. While I have loved my one-on-one time with Rob this past year, it makes more financial sense to join ID and take advantage of Rob’s group classes a few times per week than continue to pay him a personal training fee. I’m able to get my workouts with Rob in AND combine the cost with my gym membership. Win for me. The tough thing, though, was telling Rob about my new plan. I explained the situation and he was so cool about it. He told me that I’ve been one of his most loyal clients and he’s so proud of our hard work together. And he understands that I have to do what makes the most sense for me. Plus, I’m not ditching him. I’ll still see him two times a week.

So I have a new home at ID and a new workout plan. I’m looking forward to it!

Lame.

I now know that I absolutely, positively cannot take a week off from working out and two weeks away from Rob. Its amazing how quickly I lose my stamina, strength and coordination.

Backtrack.

Last week was bananas. I had to cancel my weekly Wednesday session with Rob due to a conflict known as Illinois Life and Health licensing classes and I wasn't able to reschedule it because the next day was my birthday and then Rob was out of town... It just wasn't going to happen for me last week. So for the first time in a year I had a full two week break from working out with Rob.

I strolled into the session today feeling pretty good. My eating has been on point, so I'm still slimming down, but my hectic schedule has kept me out of the gym for a longer stretch than I'd like. I anticipated a challenging session, but I had no idea I would be so weakened and pathetic. I needed far more rest between sets than normal and I battled through my Turkish Getups. My form was horrible on my snatches and I could barely stay up on my side planks. Sad. Embarassing. LAME!

It was a serious wakeup call that I can't rely on diet alone and that excersise is critical. It aslo made me remember what it felt like to be out of shape. I don't like it! I know I'm not actually out of shape. One week out of the gym isn't going to ruin me, but I'm not at my peak. I'm looking at a some serious gym time every day this week so I can back on my A game.