I have been exercising at EXL Fitness for the past few months.  It is a “bootcamp” where you basically go to die.  I have enjoy every minute…well almost every minute.  There have been a few occasions where I felt like I was going to loose my lunch.  Maybe the reason I was safe is because I hadn’t eaten lunch yet!  Not much is on my stomach at 5:30 a.m.

Mat “The Trainer” measured and weighed me when I started and gave me a nutrition plan to follow.  It was during the summer and I was vacationing and being pretty lax on my food choices.  I actually started eating more just out of spite of someone trying to tell me what I could and couldn’t eat.  I don’t like to feel controlled and I don’t know many people that do.  Of course, Mat wasn’t controlling me but trying to follow up on MY nutritional and exercise goals.  I can see how the people on “The Biggest Looser” end up getting mad at Jillian.  It is so hard to have someone make you accountable for hard things.  

After a while I started noticing my clothes getting tighter….WHAT TIGHTER?!  I didn’t like that much and started eating more because I was depressed.  How could I be working so hard and be gaining weight?  It didn’t make sense.  

Well, yesterday Mat started a “Skinny Jeans” contest for the people that work out at his gym.  It is a contest where you put on THE JEANS.  The jeans that everyone has that are their benchmark.  The ones that show if you have had too much Ben and Jerry’s or not.  I have a pair that I’ve had for about 10 years!  There is absolutely not stretch in them so I can’t cheat.  They are the olden day ones that are just jean NO stretchy that hides pounds.  He took my measurements again and weighed me.  Sure enough, I have gained weight but when he worked out his calculations from the machines, I have gained

SIX POUNDS OF MUSCLE!  

This is what 6 pounds of burger looks like….Yuck!

WHAT? 

 I asked him if this was going to keep going up and he said that it was at the point it would even off and then the fat would start going down.  Let’s just hope he knows what he is talking about.  I am sure that he does, but that is a hard one for a girl to swallow.  We are naturally affected by the number on the scale.  Mat said very sweetly, “Shmo, it’s just a number.”  It made me feel a little better but still frustrating.  

So, I entered the contest.  My business “Diamonds by Donna” is throwing in a diamond pendant necklace to the winner and don’t think that I am not competing for my own diamond!! I’m not giving up.  I want to be fit and eat healthy.  I always feel better when I do!