The Diet Diary

I first realized that my weight was getting out of hand my freshman year of college. I came here weighing in at 180 pounds. Sure it was a little overweight according to BMI standards, but I didn't look big at all.

Well college life eventually set in and along with it came all-you-can-eat places such as Todd and extreme laziness. I guess I really did not notice a big difference until my clothes started to get tighter. I was in denial at the time, blaming the shrinking clothes on the washer and dryer. Then it happened, I stepped on a scale and it read 205 pounds. I was shocked to say the least.

I began to go to the Student Recreation Center to lose some of the weight that I gained, but eventually my laziness kicked in and I found myself staying at home in front of the TV. Throughout the rest of the year and the next I always made the attempt to go back to the SRC but I just could never stay motivated more than three weeks. Unfortunately, my weight continued to increase and I began to feel worse physically.

Now it's the middle of my junior year and I am just fed up with the weight. After spending time at the SRC one day I saw an advertisement for a personal trainer. I figured I had nothing to lose so I went ahead and signed up for the program.

Personal training at the SRC ranges from one to 16 sessions and are priced $25 to $260 depending on the number of sessions. The prices at first glance seem pretty steep, but other gym's prices for a personal trainer are almost doubled. A session is equal to one hour with the personal trainer.

On my first day of the program I didn't know what to expect. I waited at a table in front of the juice bar until my personal trainer approached me. Her name was Leslie Warren. Warren is a graduate student who has been a personal trainer with the SRC for six months.

My first impression of Warren was she had great enthusiasm toward personal training.

"I love personal training," said Warren.

"What I like about it is that I can work with people to meet their goals because I know how good it made me feel to lose weight and I would love for other people to experience that."

Warren took me upstairs to the fitness room and my first session began. My first day was going to be more of an initial assessment. My weight, height, blood pressure and endurance among other things were to be tested and recorded. Toward the end of the program the same kind of assessment would be given to show any form of improvement.

The first thing I did was have my blood pressure recorded. Not to my surprise it was kind of high. I figured that it would be since my weight had increased dramatically over the last couple of years.

Then came the part I was curious about, the weight and height assessment. I stepped on the scale hoping it would be generous. Then it hit me, a whopping 271 pounds and only a 5-foot, 7-inch frame. I had no idea what to think when I first saw these assessments, except I have almost increased my weight by 100 pounds since I first came to college.

I did a few endurance tests along with a pushup and curl-up test to round out the assessment. I feel that I did a pretty good job with that part of the assessment with an astounding 25 pushups and 70 curl-ups.

Warren was very helpful throughout the entire assessment. She explained thoroughly every activity I was going to do and gave words of encouragement the entire time.

When time was up I was kind of disappointed the assessment took up the entire hour. I was kind of anxious to get into the actual personal training, but I figured that I had to wait until the next week.

The next day I woke up feeling the effects of the assessment. I had sore arms, sore abs, and a sore chest. I knew right there that I was truly out of shape when a few pushups and curl-ups could make me hurt as much as they did.

I hobbled to class wondering what was in store for me in my next few sessions of personal training. Warren told me to come up with some goals that I wanted to accomplish through the program. I was able to come up with three - I want to lose weight, I want to tone my muscles and I want to increase my endurance. Hopefully, I will be able to accomplish these goals with the personal training program.

I hope that I will be able to stay motivated throughout the program. I don't think that I will lack the motivation like I have previously. I realize it is crunch time for me before my health starts to deteriorate. I mean after all I always felt that the hardest part of exercising is getting started, and I am past that.

This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.