Yesterday was my assessment day at the gym. It wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. I thought they were going to test my endurance and stuff. Nope. It was just to get my weight, height, BP, and body fat percentage. So, after plugging in all the numbers, the little “smart” machine said I was pre-hypertensive (my bp was 128/78! Mine is NEVER over 117/70-ish unless I’m sick!) and moderately obese 
(thanks to the extra 23 pounds it says I’m carrying!). I wasn’t too happy with that. Especially since my assessment dude was a really buff-lookin’ guy. I really wish that I had gotten a woman to do the assessment. But sometimes embarrassment is the best motivation.
After getting all my figures calculated, the machine got me started on a program. “Lean Program for Beginners” I think is what it was called. I was given a round of cardio and body weights. The cardio was not what I expected. I thought I’d be on the treadmill not being able to keep up. Nope. Instead, when I plugged my key in, It wanted me to walk for 20 minutes at 0.9 miles per hour and 0% incline! That’s SLOW! I really felt bad then! I honestly thought to myself, “How out-of-shape does that machine think I am?” Thank goodness you can change the settings. I bumped it up to my normal 3.0 mi/hr at a 1% incline for 30 minutes.
Then came the body weights. I was doing pretty good until we got to the shoulder stuff. That’s what’s killing me this morning. I could take the stomach curler, bicep curl, and all that stuff, but it’s the shoulder press that really got me! I can do everything else, I especially love the leg pushes (except for the fact that I’m a little short for the meter. It doesn’t think I’m doing full reps, but I am. I can’t help that God made me on the short side!).
All in all, it takes about an hour to do the full workout if you are able to go 
from one machine to the other. It took me a little longer last night because sometimes someone was using the machine I needed. (There’s a few machines that they only have one of.) I am just excited to be able to have a full gym close by that has great equipment and that can set you up on a personal plan instead of one you join and you just pick and choose what to use, not having any idea what you’re doing.
Best thing about it to me though was that I was able to keep a great bg through the workout and ended up with a 97 bg by the end! Whoohooo!!!
They also have classes you can take. There’s one that’s a Latin dance / exercise class that looks REALLY fun. I may try that next week in place of a workout. We’ll see!
Filed under: Diabetes
So glad for you that you got this started Sarah! There are so many elements that make up the shape you are in so I’m sure the machine could have been off a bit. I know if I had the same assessment, I would get results similar to yours. (except for the bp since I’m taking meds already!) Keep up the good work on your fitness!! I think you’re part of the reason I finally got my butt to the gym 2 days ago so thank you. And we can keep tabs on each other .. like a team across the miles
Go for the dancing! We did ballroom dancing lessons for several months in our pre-wedding phase, and it not only helped level off the blood sugar numbers but also got me much more in shape! Really wish we would have kept it up, since the few-times-a-week dog walking isn’t doing much these days for either of the above fronts… Oh well. Good luck at the Smart Gym!