Pain is Fun!

Jo Ann, my personal fitness trainer, wants me to keep blogging about my recent self-improvement effort.  She says it holds me accountable for the progress I make towards my stated goals, and I agree with her. Besides, Jo Ann is very nice, and a very good trainer. She also possesses a refined power and focused energy that I personally wouldn’t want to mess with. So, I do everything she tells me to, and the blog will go on.

Last week, my first ever with a trainer, was kick-ass! On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we worked on separate muscle groups. I worked on cardio on my own, sprinting and jogging alternate 0ne-minute intervals on a treadmill for 25 minutes. On Thursday, the workout consisted of transporting a sleeper-sofa and kitchen table to my son’s place in St. Paul. I’m not sure what I got out of that physically, but now I have a place to crash in the Twin Cities. The gyro wrap I ate for lunch at Shish Cafe that day was one of the best I’d ever had, and half of it came back with me in a box to be eaten the next day. A couple of months ago, I would have sucked the entire juicy delight down my gullet in one sitting, unconcerned with its effect on my increasingly corpulent mass. Now, I’m keeping track of everything I eat on a spreadsheet. I’m following a plan that tilts heavily towards reasonable portions of protein, low carb intake and requires me to eat six times a day. Three of those meals are basically snacks, but they’re important to maintaining proper nutrition.

There’s no room for alcohol in this program, either. Now, I love full-bodied, malty beer. Unfortunately, though, five pints of Guinness equates to 1050 calories I don’t need.  Does this mean I’ve quit drinking? No, but it means I don’t have a problem giving it up in order to drastically improve my health and fitness. Saturday afternoon, I kicked back, popped open a bottle of pale ale and sipped on it slowly, not wasting a drop. The relaxing effect of the alcohol, the carb-kick and eye-opening hoppiness tasted quite healthy to me. It was enough, though; a guilty pleasure I could do without. For the most part, I intend to stick with water - lots of it. Caffeine is also discouraged, but I still like my tea in the morning. Green tea, of course, is good for you, and I’m drinking a cup of jasmine as I write. Not bad at all.

So, I’m living what might be referred to as a healthy lifestyle. I wouldn’t call it difficult. In one way, it’s easy, but in another, it can also be a person’s biggest obstacle. If that isn’t enough of a challenge, though, there’s always pain — the pain of trying to suck in enough oxygen, of breaking down muscle tissue and pushing the limits of your strength. There’s also the pain that comes in the evening and the next day, that only time and anti-inflammatory medication will remedy. It’s a good pain that tells you you’re getting your money’s worth. At this stage of my fitness program, if I don’t ache a little bit, I feel I’m doing something wrong. If I don’t have to agonize to lift that last rep, I might as well be taking a stroll in the park. I enjoy the challenge and the work that it takes to achieve my goals. I like trying to focus my mind on the objective of the moment, and of the future. It’s really quite invigorating, this pain, and it’s real.

Pain is fun! Some people apparently think weightlifting is boring, but there’s nothing boring about pain. Fortunately, it’s well below the body’s threshold, gathering most of its effect through repetition and accumulated fatigue. There’s a limit to how much fun a person can have. With Jo Ann’s help, though, there seems to be no end to it. The party has just started!