Sometimes I don't feel like going to the gym. Even though I'm loving the changes in my body and my health it is a big change from being inactive to working my tail off and so I force myself to go. It might be that I go so early in the morning that I don't realise what I'm doing or by booking a class (I have to pay if I don't attend) so that I have to go at a certain time or even by arranging everything else in my life around what time I want to go to the gym.
Then when I can't go I get annoyed. And a little bit restless, but mostly annoyed.
Today, Bank Holiday Monday, I agreed with Flyfour that I wanted to go to the gym twice. Once in the morning when it opened at 9am and again in the evening at about 5:30pm. Unfortunately for me Flyfour got up a bit late for me to go at 9am, but I didn't mind. I was being a Wife and Mother and did things with my family. We had a great day, we played, we watched TV together, we shopped, we laughed. It was one of the best Bank Holiday Mondays I remember. Flyfour went out for his bike ride, timing it so that he would be back in time for me to go out and when he did get back I forced myself to go to the gym for my evening work out.
I got dressed in my gym gear (seriously I'm over weight you think I enjoy wearing leggings and tank tops? You think I enjoy putting on a sports bra that squishes my breasts into one lump so I don't knock myself out when jogging?), I arranged my life around this moment, I'd driven to the gym (I'll start cycling or walking when BB starts school in a couple of weeks) and then I get told;
"We're closing in ten minutes, so you can't come in"
No problem if I've made a mistake, it's my fault I should have checked.
But I had checked.
I purposely asked the receptionist what time the gym was opening and closing because it was a bank holiday. I was told that the gym was open between 9am and 7:30pm and as there is a last admission thirty minutes before the close of the gym I knew that meant I could only go between 9am and 7pm.
So when I turned up at 5:45 and I am told the Gym is closing in ten minutes I'm not surprisingly pissed off. So telling the staff member on reception that evening that I'm annoyed that I'd been misinformed by an employee I expect to be taken more seriously that I was. For my complaint to be heard.
I don't know why I expected better.
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I'm Going To A Spin Class
After my Aquafit lesson this week I stopped to talk to the Instructor. I had noticed that this weeks lesson had seemed harder and I wanted to say so and say Thanks for the class too. I enjoy the class when it's harder and when I don't stop. I know that I call it Synchronised Drowning in my Thursday evening tweets but that's because I get a face full of water every week and I swear I must drink half the pool in the 45 minute session! Anyway, one of the first things she asked was how my weight loss was going. I had explained to her a couple of weeks back that I was losing a lot of weight and that it was her "fault", she said that it was the one kind of blame she was glad to take responsibility for!
Whilst we were talking I asked if she could let me know about her Spin Class, how many miles or KM were roughly cycled in a session and just how hard it is. The instructor asked why I was asking, was it that I wanted to start going to a Spin Class? I explained that I did, that I wanted to do a Spin Class because I thought that it was going to be the best exercise for me at to continue on my journey with. She laughed that I was so worried about going to this class, because despite what I seemed to think about the class it was as hard as I wanted to make it. Just like the Aquafit lesson.
I got a few tips from her too.
I should wear hard soled shoes as the soft soled shoes flex too much and will make my feet hurt. There are special Spin Shoes that you can buy and they can cost from around £30 but it's best to wait a few lessons before buying them as I might decide that I hate Spin!
I should take plenty of water because it can be hard, especially when the teacher tells you to knock it up a level and you want to keep hydrated because you are going to be sweating a lot. Talking of which I should take spin on an empty stomach, my body needs fuel in order to do the exercise I'm asking it to do.
I should take a sweat towel because for the same reason I need the water I'll need something to mop yourself and the bike with! Even people who say that don't normally sweat much when exercising should take a towel because they will sweat. As part of this I should make sure the clothes that I'm wearing are going to keep me comfortable.
Get help setting up the bike. Make sure that it is the right saddle height for me, that the tightness of the pedal straps is right and that I'm comfortable. 45 minutes can feel a lot longer if there are problems with the bike.
Whilst I'm having the bike set up for me, make sure that I understand any short hand or lingo that the teacher might shout out, or make sure they know to explain themselves in long hand so that I can follow along without having to look around at what everyone else is doing.
Don't use the handle bars to prop me up. Sure they are there for balance but I should really be engaging my core to make sure that I'm holding myself up not using the bike to do it for me. I also need to make sure that I don't hunch my shoulders because this will again cause me not to engage my core.
If my knees start bouncing I need to increase the level I'm riding at, it will force me to slow down. The same goes for when my knees bow out to the side when I'm tired. It's better to go slower and have the proper technique than risk damaging myself.
Listen to the Instructor. It's important because they have a plan worked out that will push everyone to the right point for where they need to be. Of course this doesn't mean that I can't sit down if I'm tired or go at a slower pace than the rest of the class because what is important is that I try my hardest.
Only two people know what I'm doing in the class me and the Instructor, so I don't have to worry about looking weak or slow compared to everyone else because they won't know. It's important though that I don't try and do what everyone else is doing until I'm ready. This is my class not a competition.
After the first session I won't want to go back, I'll feel sore and possibly the next day I won't be able to move rather like when I first started going to the gym. I have to keep at it though as I'll loosen up and more importantly if I go again the next week I'll find that I recover quicker as my muscles adapt and my body gets use to the changes.
And the last thing I should do is I should buy a padded seat cover. My butt will thank me, so I guess it is self explanatory!
I can't wait to start my Spin Class, I'm going to one which has been recommended as being slightly easier and more suitable for beginners on a Monday evening before I start going to more classes once I've got into the spin of things (see what I did there?!).
Depending on how I go I should burn around 600 calories per 45 minute lesson, so I'm really looking forward to it and hoping that along with some strength exercises I will see some more physical changes.
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Whilst we were talking I asked if she could let me know about her Spin Class, how many miles or KM were roughly cycled in a session and just how hard it is. The instructor asked why I was asking, was it that I wanted to start going to a Spin Class? I explained that I did, that I wanted to do a Spin Class because I thought that it was going to be the best exercise for me at to continue on my journey with. She laughed that I was so worried about going to this class, because despite what I seemed to think about the class it was as hard as I wanted to make it. Just like the Aquafit lesson.
I got a few tips from her too.
I should wear hard soled shoes as the soft soled shoes flex too much and will make my feet hurt. There are special Spin Shoes that you can buy and they can cost from around £30 but it's best to wait a few lessons before buying them as I might decide that I hate Spin!
I should take plenty of water because it can be hard, especially when the teacher tells you to knock it up a level and you want to keep hydrated because you are going to be sweating a lot. Talking of which I should take spin on an empty stomach, my body needs fuel in order to do the exercise I'm asking it to do.
I should take a sweat towel because for the same reason I need the water I'll need something to mop yourself and the bike with! Even people who say that don't normally sweat much when exercising should take a towel because they will sweat. As part of this I should make sure the clothes that I'm wearing are going to keep me comfortable.
Get help setting up the bike. Make sure that it is the right saddle height for me, that the tightness of the pedal straps is right and that I'm comfortable. 45 minutes can feel a lot longer if there are problems with the bike.
Whilst I'm having the bike set up for me, make sure that I understand any short hand or lingo that the teacher might shout out, or make sure they know to explain themselves in long hand so that I can follow along without having to look around at what everyone else is doing.
Don't use the handle bars to prop me up. Sure they are there for balance but I should really be engaging my core to make sure that I'm holding myself up not using the bike to do it for me. I also need to make sure that I don't hunch my shoulders because this will again cause me not to engage my core.
If my knees start bouncing I need to increase the level I'm riding at, it will force me to slow down. The same goes for when my knees bow out to the side when I'm tired. It's better to go slower and have the proper technique than risk damaging myself.
Listen to the Instructor. It's important because they have a plan worked out that will push everyone to the right point for where they need to be. Of course this doesn't mean that I can't sit down if I'm tired or go at a slower pace than the rest of the class because what is important is that I try my hardest.
Only two people know what I'm doing in the class me and the Instructor, so I don't have to worry about looking weak or slow compared to everyone else because they won't know. It's important though that I don't try and do what everyone else is doing until I'm ready. This is my class not a competition.
After the first session I won't want to go back, I'll feel sore and possibly the next day I won't be able to move rather like when I first started going to the gym. I have to keep at it though as I'll loosen up and more importantly if I go again the next week I'll find that I recover quicker as my muscles adapt and my body gets use to the changes.
And the last thing I should do is I should buy a padded seat cover. My butt will thank me, so I guess it is self explanatory!
I can't wait to start my Spin Class, I'm going to one which has been recommended as being slightly easier and more suitable for beginners on a Monday evening before I start going to more classes once I've got into the spin of things (see what I did there?!).
Depending on how I go I should burn around 600 calories per 45 minute lesson, so I'm really looking forward to it and hoping that along with some strength exercises I will see some more physical changes.
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Diet Chef - A One Day Review
As everyone knows I'm trying to become a healthy weight, along with my daily exercise at the gym I am also trying to improve my diet. For the most part I believe that we eat quite healthily and the only real problem that I have is portion control. It's a challenge to get used to eating smaller portions because when I'm carefully measuring them and putting them on my plates they look too small to be filling! I'm trying to reverse years of mistakenly believing that what I was serving myself was a normal potion size.
One of the programmes that I love to watch is "Obese: A Year To Save My Life", and it was in this that I was first introduced to Diet Chef. Some of the people who were on the show also had the same problem as me, they didn't know what a normal portion size was and they were harming themselves by continuing to over eat. The one thing that I noticed about these people on the show was they were complaining about the food being slop and it put me off finding out more about the meal replacement system.
A couple of days later and an email arrived in my inbox asking if I would like to try the meals out for a day. Of course this isn't going to improve my weight, but trying the food out for myself and finding out if it was slop or if this had been over exaggerated was something I was interested in. So I made a few selections and a couple of days later they arrived in the post.
I was a little confused to start with, did I eat the Pink Apple & Cinnamon Granola with milk and if so how much or as it appears on the website with yoghurt and fresh fruit? I decided to go with milk and eat some fruit after I had finished the granola and it was lovely, although I don't think there was as much in my bowl as the images on the website!
.jpg "Pink Apple & Cinnamon Granola")
Lunchtime was Ham & Sweetcorn Chowder, oh my that was delicious. I could eat that everyday and not get bored of it. I felt that the soup was really filling and thought that I might end up leaving some, but because I'm also trying to teach myself to eat slowly it all got eaten. I also ate an apple with the soup.
Dinner was Chicken Korma, which I served with a side of grated peppers (I don't know why I just fancied grated peppers!). The Korma was tasty, it wasn't too hot and spicy and again it was filling. I had a Blackcurrant & Raspberry Bar snack bar as a pudding and again this was a lot tastier than I had expected it to be (and a lot sweeter too!)
During the day I had made sure to drink a lot of water, but at night I realised as I had only had 125ml of milk with breakfast I had a 125ml glass of milk after I had got back from the gym.
All in all the meals were actually really lovely. The ones I had chosen were tasty, smelt nice and looked nice too (my photos don't do them justice) and if money wasn't a factor I would quite happily opt for four or five months on the meal replacement system to help me lose the additional weight I'm carrying.
The system costs from £39 per week depending on which hamper you choose (based on calories) and whilst this may sound expensive compared to a shop at the local supermarket you are paying here for nutritionally balanced, perfectly sized portions of prepared meals and for people like me who need to be re-educated in what a portion size is this is an invaluable source of help.
I was sent one days worth of meals from Diet Chef to review.
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One of the programmes that I love to watch is "Obese: A Year To Save My Life", and it was in this that I was first introduced to Diet Chef. Some of the people who were on the show also had the same problem as me, they didn't know what a normal portion size was and they were harming themselves by continuing to over eat. The one thing that I noticed about these people on the show was they were complaining about the food being slop and it put me off finding out more about the meal replacement system.
A couple of days later and an email arrived in my inbox asking if I would like to try the meals out for a day. Of course this isn't going to improve my weight, but trying the food out for myself and finding out if it was slop or if this had been over exaggerated was something I was interested in. So I made a few selections and a couple of days later they arrived in the post.
I was a little confused to start with, did I eat the Pink Apple & Cinnamon Granola with milk and if so how much or as it appears on the website with yoghurt and fresh fruit? I decided to go with milk and eat some fruit after I had finished the granola and it was lovely, although I don't think there was as much in my bowl as the images on the website!
.jpg "Pink Apple & Cinnamon Granola")
Lunchtime was Ham & Sweetcorn Chowder, oh my that was delicious. I could eat that everyday and not get bored of it. I felt that the soup was really filling and thought that I might end up leaving some, but because I'm also trying to teach myself to eat slowly it all got eaten. I also ate an apple with the soup.
Dinner was Chicken Korma, which I served with a side of grated peppers (I don't know why I just fancied grated peppers!). The Korma was tasty, it wasn't too hot and spicy and again it was filling. I had a Blackcurrant & Raspberry Bar snack bar as a pudding and again this was a lot tastier than I had expected it to be (and a lot sweeter too!)
During the day I had made sure to drink a lot of water, but at night I realised as I had only had 125ml of milk with breakfast I had a 125ml glass of milk after I had got back from the gym.
All in all the meals were actually really lovely. The ones I had chosen were tasty, smelt nice and looked nice too (my photos don't do them justice) and if money wasn't a factor I would quite happily opt for four or five months on the meal replacement system to help me lose the additional weight I'm carrying.
The system costs from £39 per week depending on which hamper you choose (based on calories) and whilst this may sound expensive compared to a shop at the local supermarket you are paying here for nutritionally balanced, perfectly sized portions of prepared meals and for people like me who need to be re-educated in what a portion size is this is an invaluable source of help.
I was sent one days worth of meals from Diet Chef to review.
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Rutland iphone Holder Review
When I started going to the Gym every night, Flyfour thought that he should start getting some exercise too. So with the vouchers I won at The MAD Blog Awards last year for A Mothers Ramblings we brought him a bike from Evans and he has been out cycling every evening. After his first session on his bike (cycling home from the Cycle Shop) he decided that what he really needed was an app that would keep track of his route, would let him know what direction he had to go and would generally keep records for him.
I suggested an app that he discovered that he loved, but the problem was he had nowhere to store his phone whilst he was out that felt safe and so he started looking at different phone holders that he could mount on the bike handle bars. There were a couple that he liked and we were looking at buying as an early Anniversary gift for him, when Rutland Cycling asked if we'd like to try out the I Phone/Smart Phone Holder that they sell.
When it arrived, Daddy put it on his bike straight away and set off on his first Cycle ride with it. When he got home he said that he wasn't sure about the holder because at times he felt that it was a bit loose and that his phone might work its way free. He agreed though that he would use it a few more times to see if it was just his own nervousness that made it feel like it wasn't secure enough or if it was something he didn't like about the holder.
Flyfour has used the holder every few rides and has found that it is secure enough to hold the phone (even when he is cycling rather fast downhill) even though it does seem a little wobbly at times. Flyfour does have a few issues with the holder. His iphone has a screen protector on and also has a case. It only just fits into the phone holder and sometimes the plastic part of the holder sticks to the Screen protector and it seems to pull the protector off the screen. The other issue is that Flyfour hasn't been able to find a bluetooth headset suitable for listening to what his app shouts at him whilst he's out cycling and this holder isn't suitable for use with headphones (well one ear bud!) as the flap is in the way of the headphone socket.
Overall though it's a good holder, it keeps the phone in a visible place so that you can follow maps, or check your timings or even make sure that you aren't missing an important phone call. Flyfour has suggested that I use it when I go out on my bike this weekend, so I'll report back after I've been out.
We were sent the Rutland iphone/smart phone holder to review.
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I suggested an app that he discovered that he loved, but the problem was he had nowhere to store his phone whilst he was out that felt safe and so he started looking at different phone holders that he could mount on the bike handle bars. There were a couple that he liked and we were looking at buying as an early Anniversary gift for him, when Rutland Cycling asked if we'd like to try out the I Phone/Smart Phone Holder that they sell.
When it arrived, Daddy put it on his bike straight away and set off on his first Cycle ride with it. When he got home he said that he wasn't sure about the holder because at times he felt that it was a bit loose and that his phone might work its way free. He agreed though that he would use it a few more times to see if it was just his own nervousness that made it feel like it wasn't secure enough or if it was something he didn't like about the holder.
Flyfour has used the holder every few rides and has found that it is secure enough to hold the phone (even when he is cycling rather fast downhill) even though it does seem a little wobbly at times. Flyfour does have a few issues with the holder. His iphone has a screen protector on and also has a case. It only just fits into the phone holder and sometimes the plastic part of the holder sticks to the Screen protector and it seems to pull the protector off the screen. The other issue is that Flyfour hasn't been able to find a bluetooth headset suitable for listening to what his app shouts at him whilst he's out cycling and this holder isn't suitable for use with headphones (well one ear bud!) as the flap is in the way of the headphone socket.
Overall though it's a good holder, it keeps the phone in a visible place so that you can follow maps, or check your timings or even make sure that you aren't missing an important phone call. Flyfour has suggested that I use it when I go out on my bike this weekend, so I'll report back after I've been out.
We were sent the Rutland iphone/smart phone holder to review.
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Pippa The Runner
Over the last few weeks I've been trying hard at the gym. I knew that I wasn't going to lose all my weight or get fit over night and I knew that it was going to be hard, as going from relatively inactive to super gym user wasn't an overnight thing. I found my stride though, I know that compared to some Gym users it was a slow stride, but it was right for me.
I've lost weight and I've lost inches but I didn't think that my fitness had really improved, I'm still out of breath when walking up stairs (although Flyfour admitted that he felt the same when we walked up the stairs at the Train Station together the other week) and despite seeing myself go for longer and on "harder" settings on the machines I still feel that I'm the unfit overweight person I was two months ago.
Until today.
This morning I went to the gym as normal, it's a no weight day and so I decided to start on the treadmill. I've started doing a thirty minute session on the treadmill as I've found that I can easily do this and on a couple of the programmes it increases the incline and speed for me so I don't have to worry about the settings and can just watch TV. Watching TV makes the time go really fast and so it feels like I'm not actually exercising. I also love looking at how many calories the machine thinks I've burnt, how far I've walked and most of the TV programmes that I watch are about half an hour so it's a win win!
Anyway, over the last week I've been trying to increase my speed so that I can walk further and burn more calories and it's working. I like competition and so racing myself like this is a great boost for my confidence and of course as I work harder and burn more calories I get even more excited about my weight loss which makes me want to work harder still.
Today though I didn't think that I was going to burn more calories (according to the on screen count) than I had last night so I thought, I'll just up the speed for a bit. There was only two minutes left on the clock, so I brought up the speed and started jogging and then running but stopped before I was flat out sprinting as I've not done that for a few years.
And I loved it.
I've not run for years, not properly anyway. A quick run after a toddler or a jog after a wayward ball doesn't count to me, but this was proper running and yes it was only for two minutes but it felt good and it was a huge mental milestone for me.
I've been thinking that it's not until I'm a lot lighter that I can go running, as when I think of me running I think of myself panting, bright red and collapsing in a heap after a few meters, but I realised today that I could do interval running on the treadmill and I would probably love it.
So that's the new plan. I've looked up the different interval sets I've pinned on the Pippa World Fitness Pinterest board and on various other fitness websites I love to read and I'm ready to try one of them for the rest of the week.
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I've lost weight and I've lost inches but I didn't think that my fitness had really improved, I'm still out of breath when walking up stairs (although Flyfour admitted that he felt the same when we walked up the stairs at the Train Station together the other week) and despite seeing myself go for longer and on "harder" settings on the machines I still feel that I'm the unfit overweight person I was two months ago.
Until today.
This morning I went to the gym as normal, it's a no weight day and so I decided to start on the treadmill. I've started doing a thirty minute session on the treadmill as I've found that I can easily do this and on a couple of the programmes it increases the incline and speed for me so I don't have to worry about the settings and can just watch TV. Watching TV makes the time go really fast and so it feels like I'm not actually exercising. I also love looking at how many calories the machine thinks I've burnt, how far I've walked and most of the TV programmes that I watch are about half an hour so it's a win win!
Anyway, over the last week I've been trying to increase my speed so that I can walk further and burn more calories and it's working. I like competition and so racing myself like this is a great boost for my confidence and of course as I work harder and burn more calories I get even more excited about my weight loss which makes me want to work harder still.
Today though I didn't think that I was going to burn more calories (according to the on screen count) than I had last night so I thought, I'll just up the speed for a bit. There was only two minutes left on the clock, so I brought up the speed and started jogging and then running but stopped before I was flat out sprinting as I've not done that for a few years.
And I loved it.
I've not run for years, not properly anyway. A quick run after a toddler or a jog after a wayward ball doesn't count to me, but this was proper running and yes it was only for two minutes but it felt good and it was a huge mental milestone for me.
I've been thinking that it's not until I'm a lot lighter that I can go running, as when I think of me running I think of myself panting, bright red and collapsing in a heap after a few meters, but I realised today that I could do interval running on the treadmill and I would probably love it.
So that's the new plan. I've looked up the different interval sets I've pinned on the Pippa World Fitness Pinterest board and on various other fitness websites I love to read and I'm ready to try one of them for the rest of the week.
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Why I chose my Gym
So I think by now everyone knows where I go to the gym. It was made pretty clear when there was the big hoo-hah last week of my account being cancelled (Part One, Part Two, Part Three) and everyone blaming everyone else as to why but just in case you don't follow me on Foursquare or Twitter and saw this saga then, I go to the Bletchley branch of Beaumonts Health Club, handily at the local leisure centre. I chose this gym over another gym in the area (that I had belonged to before) for a lot of reasons and not just because it was impressive. These are those reasons.
The Beaumonts Health Club is in a great location for me. It's about a five minute drive from my house, which means at 5:50am I can leave my house and make it to the gym in time for opening at 6am and be back home at 7:30am ready for my family to get up. Of course in a few weeks time when BB starts School and my fitness levels have improved, the gym is also located continently enough for me to walk or cycle to it.
There are classes upon classes. I go to Aquafit and I'm about to start going to a Spin class and I've been told about the Zumba class, and a range of others that I could go to but I'm too self conscious for (I shouldn't be, the instructors are great and have said I should go). Still at least I know as I continue on my fitness journey I'll have a wide range of classes to keep me interested.
The hours the gym are open are great. Well, apart from at the weekend, but during the week they are great. I can go before the children get up in the morning and I can go after the children go to bed at night. It fits around what I need to do in the day, which means I'm more likely to go.
The Gym has a lot of equipment, even on the busiest day I've been there were plenty of empty machines and enough space to get around without invading anyone's personal space. I can also whilst at the gym watch the TV on these pieces of equipment. It's a good way to catch up with the news in the morning and as the TV doesn't have to take up the whole screen I can still keep an eye on how well I'm performing.
Talking of which, the other members are great. It turns out one of my neighbours is a member (and goes at the same times too), and so are a few of the School Mums that I see in the playground. There are a few people who I can use for inspiration and a few others who like me are overweight and trying to do something about it and a lot of "normal" people too. I'm self conscious about my weight, but at the gym I don't care.
The staff are friendly, and I don't just mean the reception staff. All of them make eye contact, smile, say Hello and give advice as and when I need it. I've been lucky and managed to get one of the nicest staff members (Hello Danny) to first of all give me my induction and then to give my routine an update a month later. When he goes back to University next month I'm going to be quite sad!
There was a large pool I can use, along with a Sauna and Steam Room. Okay, so I haven't yet used the Sauna and Steam Room, but only because I'm not really sure what benefit sitting in them has for me. Okay, so the showers are sometimes cold instead of being a nice temperature but they are clean and well maintained as is the rest of the place. The gym gets washed down regularly (I've seen the staff do it) and there are plenty of towels to wipe down the machines you get on or off.
There is a computer system which keeps records of how much weight I've lifted or how many cardio minutes I've logged and if I want to I can link it up to my ipod to record all the data over on the Nike+ website. I'm a geek I like computers, it's a selling point okay.
The fee is a little higher than I would like (I'm yet to find a free gym with air conditioning, something the outdoor gym sadly lacks) but it's reasonable and something that with a few cuts in my budget we can afford. Plus you can't really put a price on good health and that is what I'm aiming for.
All of these reasons helped convince me that this was the gym for me and despite the cancelled membership issue, I think that with my new found love of exercise and my ever increasing weight loss that I made the right choice.
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The Beaumonts Health Club is in a great location for me. It's about a five minute drive from my house, which means at 5:50am I can leave my house and make it to the gym in time for opening at 6am and be back home at 7:30am ready for my family to get up. Of course in a few weeks time when BB starts School and my fitness levels have improved, the gym is also located continently enough for me to walk or cycle to it.
There are classes upon classes. I go to Aquafit and I'm about to start going to a Spin class and I've been told about the Zumba class, and a range of others that I could go to but I'm too self conscious for (I shouldn't be, the instructors are great and have said I should go). Still at least I know as I continue on my fitness journey I'll have a wide range of classes to keep me interested.
The hours the gym are open are great. Well, apart from at the weekend, but during the week they are great. I can go before the children get up in the morning and I can go after the children go to bed at night. It fits around what I need to do in the day, which means I'm more likely to go.
The Gym has a lot of equipment, even on the busiest day I've been there were plenty of empty machines and enough space to get around without invading anyone's personal space. I can also whilst at the gym watch the TV on these pieces of equipment. It's a good way to catch up with the news in the morning and as the TV doesn't have to take up the whole screen I can still keep an eye on how well I'm performing.
Talking of which, the other members are great. It turns out one of my neighbours is a member (and goes at the same times too), and so are a few of the School Mums that I see in the playground. There are a few people who I can use for inspiration and a few others who like me are overweight and trying to do something about it and a lot of "normal" people too. I'm self conscious about my weight, but at the gym I don't care.
The staff are friendly, and I don't just mean the reception staff. All of them make eye contact, smile, say Hello and give advice as and when I need it. I've been lucky and managed to get one of the nicest staff members (Hello Danny) to first of all give me my induction and then to give my routine an update a month later. When he goes back to University next month I'm going to be quite sad!
There was a large pool I can use, along with a Sauna and Steam Room. Okay, so I haven't yet used the Sauna and Steam Room, but only because I'm not really sure what benefit sitting in them has for me. Okay, so the showers are sometimes cold instead of being a nice temperature but they are clean and well maintained as is the rest of the place. The gym gets washed down regularly (I've seen the staff do it) and there are plenty of towels to wipe down the machines you get on or off.
There is a computer system which keeps records of how much weight I've lifted or how many cardio minutes I've logged and if I want to I can link it up to my ipod to record all the data over on the Nike+ website. I'm a geek I like computers, it's a selling point okay.
The fee is a little higher than I would like (I'm yet to find a free gym with air conditioning, something the outdoor gym sadly lacks) but it's reasonable and something that with a few cuts in my budget we can afford. Plus you can't really put a price on good health and that is what I'm aiming for.
All of these reasons helped convince me that this was the gym for me and despite the cancelled membership issue, I think that with my new found love of exercise and my ever increasing weight loss that I made the right choice.
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My Gym Account Has Been Cancelled! (Part Three)
Just after 9am this morning I called the Harlands Group on the number that my Gym had given me yesterday. As I expected I was already in a queue of people holding to speak to an advisor and it took a few minutes before a rather happy chap answered the phone to me.
I'd like to think that I explained my problem eloquently and concisely, but this is me we are talking about so it was probably a bit more rambling and convoluted but the happy chap understood what I was going on about and quickly accessed my account. I was of course ready to lambaste this happy chap if he gave me an answer I didn't like, as I could see that they had continued to take payments from my account despite having told the gym that my account had been cancelled.
Apparently that wasn't the case though.
The happy chap who answered the phone could find no record of my account having been placed on hold, cancelled or any note on the system to indicate that they had spoken to the gym about cancelling my account for any reason. The happy chap could see that my payments had been made and that there had been no issue in collecting the money as far as he and his company were concerned everything on their end was fine.
The happy chap said that he would send an email to the Gym to confirm that I was fully paid up and that I should be allowed access to the gym, after all according to what I had told him the Gym were claiming that it was the company that handled my direct debits that had cancelled my account. The happy chap even agreed that he would include me in on the email he was sending to the gym, because I want to keep my records up to date and of course the email is about me.
I called the gym back and spoke to another person in the membership department. I explained my problem again, I explained that according to Harlands there wasn't a problem with my payments and the staff member (Let's call her Staff 2) looked on my account. According to her systems (there are apparently two) I've been cancelled on one and I'm active on the other... from the sounds of it the staff member the day before should have been able to see this too. A few more details were taken and a promise of a call back as soon as the member of staff I had spoken to the day before was in as they needed to check a few details and check with head office over the email that the other member of staff had sent the day before.
At this point I was really confused, but there was promise of it being resolved if I could hang on in there for a couple more hours.
So I waited.
And I waited.
Just before I was about to call them and say, enough is enough I got a call back from staff member 2.
Somehow Head Office cancelled a part of my account, but after the email staff member 1 sent yesterday they had resolved it and if I had gone to the gym this morning I wouldn't have had an issue. The point was though I had had an issue. They had wrongly cancelled my account and caused me to lose work out time, to have to spend time chasing them, given me misinformation over why my account had been cancelled and as an apology they were going to reduce my next gym membership payment.
As it turns out I'm not really sure why my account was cancelled, and from the sounds of it I don't think my branch of the gym knows why either. The good news though is my membership has been reinstated and I can get back to my daily work outs and rambling nonsense!
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I'd like to think that I explained my problem eloquently and concisely, but this is me we are talking about so it was probably a bit more rambling and convoluted but the happy chap understood what I was going on about and quickly accessed my account. I was of course ready to lambaste this happy chap if he gave me an answer I didn't like, as I could see that they had continued to take payments from my account despite having told the gym that my account had been cancelled.
Apparently that wasn't the case though.
The happy chap who answered the phone could find no record of my account having been placed on hold, cancelled or any note on the system to indicate that they had spoken to the gym about cancelling my account for any reason. The happy chap could see that my payments had been made and that there had been no issue in collecting the money as far as he and his company were concerned everything on their end was fine.
The happy chap said that he would send an email to the Gym to confirm that I was fully paid up and that I should be allowed access to the gym, after all according to what I had told him the Gym were claiming that it was the company that handled my direct debits that had cancelled my account. The happy chap even agreed that he would include me in on the email he was sending to the gym, because I want to keep my records up to date and of course the email is about me.
I called the gym back and spoke to another person in the membership department. I explained my problem again, I explained that according to Harlands there wasn't a problem with my payments and the staff member (Let's call her Staff 2) looked on my account. According to her systems (there are apparently two) I've been cancelled on one and I'm active on the other... from the sounds of it the staff member the day before should have been able to see this too. A few more details were taken and a promise of a call back as soon as the member of staff I had spoken to the day before was in as they needed to check a few details and check with head office over the email that the other member of staff had sent the day before.
At this point I was really confused, but there was promise of it being resolved if I could hang on in there for a couple more hours.
So I waited.
And I waited.
Just before I was about to call them and say, enough is enough I got a call back from staff member 2.
Somehow Head Office cancelled a part of my account, but after the email staff member 1 sent yesterday they had resolved it and if I had gone to the gym this morning I wouldn't have had an issue. The point was though I had had an issue. They had wrongly cancelled my account and caused me to lose work out time, to have to spend time chasing them, given me misinformation over why my account had been cancelled and as an apology they were going to reduce my next gym membership payment.
As it turns out I'm not really sure why my account was cancelled, and from the sounds of it I don't think my branch of the gym knows why either. The good news though is my membership has been reinstated and I can get back to my daily work outs and rambling nonsense!
Have you added Pippa World to your RSS Reader yet? Don't delay do it now and get all my posts delivered straight to you!
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
My Gym Account Has Been Cancelled! (Part Two)
So last night I didn't get a chance to speak with the gym about how my membership has been cancelled, seeing as how on top of being a gym-a-holic I'm also a daughter, sister, wife and mother. Instead of going to the gym, I sat in bed and watched a film and I talked to my family and did all the things that people who haven't got to lose half of their body weight do.
I couldn't face going down to the gym this morning to speak to the staff face to face, I'm so angry and upset that I didn't think that I would be able to hold back the tears if something other than an admin error had been made, so I phoned them.
I explained who I was and what had happened and it turns out that my account was cancelled on the 17th July. That is a month after I joined the gym. The reason it was cancelled? Well, the computer system at the Gym can't tell me that. It can tell me that I paid on the 18th June for the whole of July and the end of June but it can't tell me why the company that takes the payments decided to cancel my account. According to the Sales team member I spoke to because of Data protection they don't have access to that data.
I can't argue with that, because I don't understand all the in's and out's of data protection but what I do know is that when an account is cancelled there is normally a code put on which translates into a reason. Non payment, Member cancelled, Member died you know the sort of thing. It seems strange that there isn't a code or a note or anything as to why it was cancelled.
The Sales team member gave me a number for the company that deals with the payments, they however are only open Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm with an hour closed over lunch. So I have to wait until Monday morning to find out why they decided to cancel my account, but still deemed it right to take money from my account on the 1st August.
Pissed off? Why, yes I am. However I'm using this time to make sure I know what I want from them.
1) Why was my account cancelled?
2) Why was money taken from my account if it was cancelled?
3) I want a refund for 6 days (as of tomorrow) of my cancelled account (Only £6 but still) which will go up each day my account is unusable.
So that is where I'm up to. I'm going to go out to the garage and hit the punch bag for a while, maybe that will calm me down.
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
I couldn't face going down to the gym this morning to speak to the staff face to face, I'm so angry and upset that I didn't think that I would be able to hold back the tears if something other than an admin error had been made, so I phoned them.
I explained who I was and what had happened and it turns out that my account was cancelled on the 17th July. That is a month after I joined the gym. The reason it was cancelled? Well, the computer system at the Gym can't tell me that. It can tell me that I paid on the 18th June for the whole of July and the end of June but it can't tell me why the company that takes the payments decided to cancel my account. According to the Sales team member I spoke to because of Data protection they don't have access to that data.
I can't argue with that, because I don't understand all the in's and out's of data protection but what I do know is that when an account is cancelled there is normally a code put on which translates into a reason. Non payment, Member cancelled, Member died you know the sort of thing. It seems strange that there isn't a code or a note or anything as to why it was cancelled.
The Sales team member gave me a number for the company that deals with the payments, they however are only open Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm with an hour closed over lunch. So I have to wait until Monday morning to find out why they decided to cancel my account, but still deemed it right to take money from my account on the 1st August.
Pissed off? Why, yes I am. However I'm using this time to make sure I know what I want from them.
1) Why was my account cancelled?
2) Why was money taken from my account if it was cancelled?
3) I want a refund for 6 days (as of tomorrow) of my cancelled account (Only £6 but still) which will go up each day my account is unusable.
So that is where I'm up to. I'm going to go out to the garage and hit the punch bag for a while, maybe that will calm me down.
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
My Gym Account Has Been Cancelled! (Part One)
Coming back from Paris, I was tired. I walked a lot, I carried the children when they were tired a lot, I didn't eat all that much and because we had a big secret that we were keeping from the children I didn't particularly sleep a lot. I knew I would be tired so I had forced myself to book my Aquafit before I went (I love Aquafit) so that I knew on Thursday night I would have to go to the Gym. It was a great session and I loved having a gym membership as it meant I got to have this class as part of my package. I was still tired on Friday morning when the alarm went off at 5:30, so I rolled back over and didn't wake up until 7:30am when Gaz from Mix 96 rang the house phone to remind me I was going to be live on air in the next five minutes. I was still tired Friday night and so told Flyfour that I wouldn't be going to the gym, but would be going to bed early instead.
On Saturday morning, when I woke up I got dressed and went to the gym. I swiped my card in the self service machine and was surprised to see it was being rejected. Maybe I didn't leave it in the machine long enough I thought, So I tried again. Predictably the card was rejected again, so I made my way to reception. The reception staff at the leisure centre are a pleasure to deal with, after you've been going a few times they get to recognise you and will give you a wave hello or goodbye as you go in or out if they haven't served you. There was one member of staff on this morning and she was talking with another patron of the Leisure Centre but she gave me a grin and asked if she could help.
I explained that my card wasn't being accepted in the self service machine, and so she swiped it in her machine. After all we are all aware of how some computers like to throw little tantrums now and then, and it's best to double check. My card was rejected on her system too, so she looked into the account and saw that on the 3rd August the account was cancelled. I'm knew I didn't cancel it and I told the Receptionist so. She suggested that I go up to the gym, have my work out and by the time I was finished one of the Sales Team should be in and I could speak to them.
I knew that I hadn't cancelled my card, I knew my card had worked just two days before so I called Flyfour straight away and asked him to check our bank account. Even with our trip to Paris there should have been plenty of cash in our account and the Direct Debit wouldn't have bounced but I wanted to make sure. Thanks to the magic on online banking we were able to check within seconds and as I thought our bank account was perfectly fine, the payment had been taken out on the 1st August two days before my account was cancelled.
Now I was angry at my account being cancelled but I was also worried about logging into my account in the gym, what if it wouldn't let me because my account had been cancelled? What if all my records of what I had achieved had gone? What if I had to start a new contract with the gym, pay a joining fee and have a higher monthly rate as there wasn't a special offer on now? What if my account had been cancelled because I had been talking with the staff outside of the gym? (Hi Danny!) What if it was because I gave a small gift to one of the evening receptionists on Thursday? Luckily my log in to the gym still worked, all my details of past work outs were still there so I did my work out and felt a lot better, but I was still fuming. If I had paid then why had they cancelled my account?
I went back to reception, now sweaty and smelly to find out why my account had been cancelled. I was in a bad mood about it, I had been embarrassed, I had spent the best part of an hour stewing on it and for what? Most likely a clerical error. I was going to be polite but firm, I was going to get to the bottom of this and I was going to encourage them not only to rectify the situation but find a suitable way to apologise to me for the hassle. The problem was that the sales team still weren't in. Apparently today they are only working in the late afternoon and the evening. So now I have to stew on it until I go back in this evening.
This isn't a case of "Don't you know who I am?", I'm not that stupid that I think everything should be given to me on a silver platter but I've not made a mistake. I've paid for the gym, I've talked about how great the staff are on Facebook and Twitter, I've suggested other people join the same gym as me because the service up until now has been great and what have I got in return? I've been embarrassed, I've had my time wasted and it's made me angry.
When I get back from the gym this evening I'll let you know why my account was cancelled, but until then Hertsmere Leisure had better be ready for me.
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
On Saturday morning, when I woke up I got dressed and went to the gym. I swiped my card in the self service machine and was surprised to see it was being rejected. Maybe I didn't leave it in the machine long enough I thought, So I tried again. Predictably the card was rejected again, so I made my way to reception. The reception staff at the leisure centre are a pleasure to deal with, after you've been going a few times they get to recognise you and will give you a wave hello or goodbye as you go in or out if they haven't served you. There was one member of staff on this morning and she was talking with another patron of the Leisure Centre but she gave me a grin and asked if she could help.
I explained that my card wasn't being accepted in the self service machine, and so she swiped it in her machine. After all we are all aware of how some computers like to throw little tantrums now and then, and it's best to double check. My card was rejected on her system too, so she looked into the account and saw that on the 3rd August the account was cancelled. I'm knew I didn't cancel it and I told the Receptionist so. She suggested that I go up to the gym, have my work out and by the time I was finished one of the Sales Team should be in and I could speak to them.
I knew that I hadn't cancelled my card, I knew my card had worked just two days before so I called Flyfour straight away and asked him to check our bank account. Even with our trip to Paris there should have been plenty of cash in our account and the Direct Debit wouldn't have bounced but I wanted to make sure. Thanks to the magic on online banking we were able to check within seconds and as I thought our bank account was perfectly fine, the payment had been taken out on the 1st August two days before my account was cancelled.
Now I was angry at my account being cancelled but I was also worried about logging into my account in the gym, what if it wouldn't let me because my account had been cancelled? What if all my records of what I had achieved had gone? What if I had to start a new contract with the gym, pay a joining fee and have a higher monthly rate as there wasn't a special offer on now? What if my account had been cancelled because I had been talking with the staff outside of the gym? (Hi Danny!) What if it was because I gave a small gift to one of the evening receptionists on Thursday? Luckily my log in to the gym still worked, all my details of past work outs were still there so I did my work out and felt a lot better, but I was still fuming. If I had paid then why had they cancelled my account?
I went back to reception, now sweaty and smelly to find out why my account had been cancelled. I was in a bad mood about it, I had been embarrassed, I had spent the best part of an hour stewing on it and for what? Most likely a clerical error. I was going to be polite but firm, I was going to get to the bottom of this and I was going to encourage them not only to rectify the situation but find a suitable way to apologise to me for the hassle. The problem was that the sales team still weren't in. Apparently today they are only working in the late afternoon and the evening. So now I have to stew on it until I go back in this evening.
This isn't a case of "Don't you know who I am?", I'm not that stupid that I think everything should be given to me on a silver platter but I've not made a mistake. I've paid for the gym, I've talked about how great the staff are on Facebook and Twitter, I've suggested other people join the same gym as me because the service up until now has been great and what have I got in return? I've been embarrassed, I've had my time wasted and it's made me angry.
When I get back from the gym this evening I'll let you know why my account was cancelled, but until then Hertsmere Leisure had better be ready for me.
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
22 on 22 and 20 on 20
When I was first starting this journey of weight loss I got a lot of help from Vic. She knows me really well, (because we've been friends for what seems like forever) and understands that I really want to have some dramatic weight loss before I show everyone how the exercise and weight loss is changing my body.
The one thing that Vic tried to drum into me was that it's okay to have the big goal of wanting to lose ten stone, but that I needed to break it down into smaller manageable goals so that I had something to aim for and something that I could achieve.
The problem for me was that I had no idea what a manageable goal was.
Vic helped me though and I decided on the goal of being a size 22 by the 22nd August. It was a date that was far enough away that it gave me the time to lose enough weight, but it was also close enough that I wasn't going to lose momentum.
I'm pleased to announce though that I managed to hit my goal a whole 22 days early (well actually it was 25 days early but who's counting?!) and I'm comfortably wearing size 22 clothes.
Now I just have to work out what my next goal should be.
I'm thinking maybe a size 20 by the 20th September and 18 stone by The MADs. It's going to be hard, I'm going to have to really push myself to my limits to get the weight loss and to tone my body up so that the weight loss is more noticeable!
Now I have to go to bed, so I can get up in the morning to go to the gym. I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
The one thing that Vic tried to drum into me was that it's okay to have the big goal of wanting to lose ten stone, but that I needed to break it down into smaller manageable goals so that I had something to aim for and something that I could achieve.
The problem for me was that I had no idea what a manageable goal was.
Vic helped me though and I decided on the goal of being a size 22 by the 22nd August. It was a date that was far enough away that it gave me the time to lose enough weight, but it was also close enough that I wasn't going to lose momentum.
I'm pleased to announce though that I managed to hit my goal a whole 22 days early (well actually it was 25 days early but who's counting?!) and I'm comfortably wearing size 22 clothes.
Now I just have to work out what my next goal should be.
I'm thinking maybe a size 20 by the 20th September and 18 stone by The MADs. It's going to be hard, I'm going to have to really push myself to my limits to get the weight loss and to tone my body up so that the weight loss is more noticeable!
Now I have to go to bed, so I can get up in the morning to go to the gym. I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
I Lost Weight On Holiday!
We got back from our mini-break to Paris about Midnight last night. We had a great time whilst we were away but I couldn't wait to get home as I wanted to check my weight. I was really hoping that I was going to lose a couple of pounds whilst I was away, as it would let me get just below 20 stone and I feel that getting under 20 stone would be a marker, it would give me more impetus to get to my next goal.
I thought that I would lose weight because I knew that we were going to be walking around a lot. Boy did we walk; We walked a lot around Paris and around Disneyland and up a countless number of stairs in the Metro stations and around the different Tourist attractions that we visited and then Flyfour and I also did a fair bit of weight lifting as we end up carrying Big Boy and Top Ender around a bit when they were too tired to walk any more.
This morning when Big Boy woke me up, I came downstairs and in my bleary eyed state I remembered that what I wanted to do was weigh myself. So I stood on the scales and was very surprised to see that instead of the 2lb loss that I expected and hoped for I had lost 5lbs. I was ecstatic, I mean who wouldn't want to lose 5lb in three days?!
It's really given me that push that I needed and I'm ready for more changes as I lose weight and continue to tone up. It's a long journey, but I feel that I'm well on the way.
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
I thought that I would lose weight because I knew that we were going to be walking around a lot. Boy did we walk; We walked a lot around Paris and around Disneyland and up a countless number of stairs in the Metro stations and around the different Tourist attractions that we visited and then Flyfour and I also did a fair bit of weight lifting as we end up carrying Big Boy and Top Ender around a bit when they were too tired to walk any more.
This morning when Big Boy woke me up, I came downstairs and in my bleary eyed state I remembered that what I wanted to do was weigh myself. So I stood on the scales and was very surprised to see that instead of the 2lb loss that I expected and hoped for I had lost 5lbs. I was ecstatic, I mean who wouldn't want to lose 5lb in three days?!
It's really given me that push that I needed and I'm ready for more changes as I lose weight and continue to tone up. It's a long journey, but I feel that I'm well on the way.
Don't forget to check out what I'm doing over at A Mothers Ramblings too!
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