What type of Gym do you choose?

For my recent readers, a brief recap on the title of this blog.

I lost 20kg in 2005 and in July that year I joined a gym for the first time. I had been working out at home with basically one set of 4kg dumbells which got me well and truly started on my fitness obsession.

My husband said "you are the only person I know who waited until you were thin enough to go to the gym".

That first gym was Fernw00d Gym at Broadway. I had a year's membership with a weekly workout with a trainer. It is a small gym with only one set of dumbells per weight, and no cable machines. Of course, the cardio section was packed with treadmills, ellipticals and recumbant bikes.

I always felt out of place. The weights room was always empty. I was the only one who had sweat stains on their clothes. The gym opened late and closed early and always closed on a public holiday.

After a year and little progress, I quit the gym and started working out at home.

At the beginning of last year, I looked around for a new gym. I had a tour of Br0adway Gym but it seemed sweaty, hardcore and full of heavily muscled men. I felt intimidated, out of place and signed up instead at a "Health Club" in Pyrmont. This gym had a few more machines than Fernw00d. Another trainer and another program but after day one no member of staff even looked at me again. It wasn't motivating or inspiring me so I opted out after three months.

My new trainer Liz has instructed me to join a gym so she can thrash me properly. So yesterday I went back to Br0adway Gym. A year later it was still sweaty and run down without proper air conditioning. But this time I wanted to be a part of this gym - it didn't intimidate me anymore.

The staff were wonderful and welcomed my intention to sculpt my body into a figure competitor. The people I saw working out were lifting heavy dumbells, loaded barbells or engaged with some medieval torture rack. They were sweaty and muscled.

Instead of being intimidated, I was challenged. I realised that a) I didn't care anymore what anyone thought and b) they had the solarium equipment (and operating hours) that I needed.

After three years, I am finally ready for a hardcore gym - bring it on!!

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I am flying out to NZ very early tomorrow morning so I may or may not be able to blog for the next seven days.

You know you are serious about getting in shape when in your suitcase
~ your workout clothes outnumber your street clothes
~ there is an ipod/nike+, heart rate monitor, weightlifting gloves, stretch band, and skipping rope
~ you have one of those weekly pill containers filled with Fish Oil tablets and multivitamins
~ you take two pairs of underpants per day because you know you will sweat through at least one pair a day
~ you have a special 1 litre water flask to take on the plane
~ you have the Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl book ready to read on the plane (except I couldn't wait and already started it)

I am hoping that my parents have
~ food scales
~ body scales
~ heavy things in the garage (bricks, paint cans etc) I can lift if I can't find a gym
~ a dog that is up for long runs and sprints
~ tolerance of my eating requirements

I haven't seen my parents since the beginning of 2003 so it will be interesting to see their reaction to my size. I hope they are supportive and don't start with the "too thin" stuff.

::

In other random news, this is the first day of eating according to Liz's nutrition plan. All I can say is my breakfast and lunch were so huge that I haven't been able to fit in any snacks. It is surprising how filling clean food can be especially when you have to jam in ingest 3 cups of veges a day. I have also been drinking my plain water (which I have neglected for a while now) so I am bursting at the seams. Today I would win the best pot belly competition :)