Category: gym

Why I stopped going to the gym

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, gym, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I stopped going to the Planet Fitness gym more than 2 years ago for various reasons. And… I’ve been paying for it all this time.

One reason is I have an overactive bladder. I would go to the bathroom before I even started exercising just so I wouldn’t have to run to the bathroom. I would get on a machine and in 5 minutes the overwhelming feeling to urinate would hit and I would have to literally run to the bathroom because I had to pee NOW. I’d go back and in 5 minutes it would come again. I would get on the treadmill and literally walking for 5 minutes and I had the urgent feeling to urinate again. It was too much.

I spoke with my doctor and she said it’s probably a urinary tract infection and to drink cranberry juice, which I absolutely hate, but I did it anyway and it didn’t do me any good.

At home I have to go to the bathroom at least 20 times in a day. That’s been going on for more than 2 years and nothing I have done has helped. Until now.

I started drinking water and the feeling to urinate has dramatically gone down. I’ve been drinking Crystal Light for many years instead of drinking soda to help with the weight loss, and I’m not positive it has helped, but I’m almost certain it has contributed to my overactive bladder and I say that because when I stopped drinking it, the problem went away.

Now that I don’t have to constantly urinate, I’m going to try going back to the gym to help me lose the weight I’m supposed to lose to get my surgery.

It’s Been One Of Those Days

On By Michel McDonaldIn Exercise, gymLeave a comment

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Have you ever just had one of those days where nothing goes right? It’s been like that for me today lol. I laugh because what else am I going to do? You can’t help but laugh.

So this is how things happened one after the other.

Planet Fitness membership card: As we were getting ready to leave, I went to look at my keys to make sure I had my Planet Fitness membership card and it wasn’t there. YIKES! How was I supposed to check in? I had to install the app. No big deal, but I would like to know where those cards went.

Planet Fitness gym bag: As you can see from the images at the top, I had a little mishap with my gym bag. I bought this gym bag when I first started going to Planet Fitness I believe in 2015. It has been used a lot, but this shouldn’t have happened at all. I went to reach into the pocket to see if that Planet Fitness membership card was in there, and that’s when it ripped all the way across. I had no idea that the material they use is like paper. It’s like those cheap reusable bags they sell at the grocery store. So now I need a new gym bag.

Master combination lock: My life partner drove me to Planet Fitness today. I checked in and headed straight to the locker room and just then I realized that I hadn’t used my combination lock since last October. It’s been about 10 months since I’ve used this combination lock, and I’ve been using another combination lock for my bicycle in the back yard. I forgot the combination for my locker lock. I closed the lock so I could try to remember how to unlock it, and I actually unlocked it, but then I thought I better try this again just to make absolutely sure it was the right combination, and I couldn’t open it again. I’m lucky I didn’t lock all my stuff in the locker without knowing the combination.

So I called my life partner and he didn’t answer his phone, I called the house, but there was no answer there either because he went to Barnes & Noble and he left his cell phone in the car. UGH! I sat there for about 15 minutes trying to open my lock. I called him again and he eventually answered and I told him that I took an extra combination lock out of my gym bag because I never needed it and so I took it out, and now I actually need it lol. So he was kind enough to go home, get it and bring it to me.

There’s only 1 more thing lol.

Screenshot_2018-07-31-14-02-03-1Logging my exercise: I have a Fitbit, and that usually recognizes what exercise you are doing based on your movement or if you are actually moving. It can usually tell if you are walking a long distance, or if you are walking on a treadmill. It can tell if you are using an elliptical or if you are riding a outdoor bicycle. It logged my treadmill as walking for 13 minutes and riding a outdoor bicycle for 14 minutes. I was walking on the treadmill for 35 minutes, but 14+13=27 so I’m a bit confused at how Fitbit logs exercise. I also used the Noom app to track my progress in real time, but it thought I was walking at 12mph when I was actually walking at only 3.5mph and it thought I had burned 1200 calories when actually the treadmill said it was something like 220 calories.

After all this stuff I was just done lol. I’m sure all this stuff seems trivial to most people, but it was just one thing after the next.

So from now on I will continue to wear my Fitbit, but I’m going to push the button when I start walking and instead relying on Noom for my exercise, I’m going to use Planet Fitness’ app to log the exercise by taking a picture of the display. You can do that and it automatically adds all the information to your account. The Planet Fitness app gets the data from the Fitbit app, but I don’t know if I want to trust the Fitbit app lol.

I’m done complaining lol.

Going back to Planet Fitness

On By Michel McDonaldIn Exercise, gym, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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We had to stop going to the gym last month because both of us got really sick. When I say we or us, I am referring to myself and my partner. I was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 and then upgraded to AIDS in 1994, so when I get sick, I’m not just sick with a 24 to 48 hour bug, when I get sick, I’m down for a month or longer. I literally have no immune system. My viral load has been undetectable for years and my t-cells have been pretty high in the 900’s for awhile now, but I still suffer when I get sick.

The virus from my cold is long gone, but I’m still coughing. I was coughing up and blowing mucus out of my nose even though I had no nasal or chest congestion at all. That first couple of days when we first got sick last month we just so happened to have a doctor’s appointment and the doctor checked my lungs by listening to my back while making me breathe in and out, in and out, in and out… He didn’t hear anything, so he told me I would be fine. I asked him for antibiotics or at least cough syrup, and he refused to give me anything. He didn’t want to give me medicine for something I don’t have. Well, that’s fine and dandy if I was only going to be sick for a couple days, but I was literally sick for a month.

So we could have gone back to the gym a couple of weeks ago, but we wanted to wait until it was fully out of my system. I would hate to give anyone else my germs and then get them sick.

Going back to the gym after being absent for a month is basically like starting over from scratch. Whatever exercises we did today will probably hurt in the morning and for the next couple of days. I mean, I don’t feel anything now, but then again we just came home from the gym about an hour ago, so who knows what may happen later tonight or when I wake up tomorrow. We’ll see.

The surgeon who operated on my broken leg in December told me to do leg exercises at the gym, and of course take my time and not try to force myself to bend my leg on the leg machines and then hurt myself. My leg is in agony, so I will have to be very careful when I do the leg exercises. I haven’t spoken to a trainer, but I already know which machines I want to start using… all of them! LOL No, but seriously, I will have to make an appointment so she can write down our day 3 exercises for leg day. She gave us 2 days for our upper body, and my partner only wants to go 3 days a week, so legs will all have to be done on the last day of the week.

I’m not expecting to lose any weight, I just want to exercise to feel healthy. You see, I have a feeling it’s when you stop trying is when you will actually lose weight. I say that because just about every time I try to lose weight, I end up gaining weight. So I’m using reverse psychology… on myself lol. Hey, whatever works right?

Planet Fitness for Weight Loss

On By Michel McDonaldIn Exercise, gymLeave a comment

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It’s been 5 weeks since we started going to Planet Fitness since I broke my leg in December. I haven’t seen any weight loss on the scale, but then again I am building muscle, and I do see a significant difference in my face. It’s not as fat as it was, and I can even see where the fat is disappearing. I also see that my chest, shoulder and my arms are getting bigger from building muscle.

We go 3 days a week because it’s a bit of a drive, and that costs gas which as you know isn’t free. I’d love to go more often, but my partner doesn’t. He only wants to go Monday, Wednesday and Friday, although that depends on our week. The last couple weeks we’ve gone on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I only have 2 days worth of exercises anyway since they didn’t give me any leg exercises because I can’t really do those because of my leg issues. When the surgeon says I can do leg exercises, I will start doing them.

We do incline chest press, chest press, pectoral fly, shoulder press and tricep press on day 1. Day 2 it’s lat pull down, row, rear deltoid and bicep curls. My partner feels like those aren’t enough, and because he’s not really on the same exercise plan I am on because they didn’t give him a plan since he’s my guest, he doesn’t really have to do what I do, he can do what he wants.

After we do upper body, we walk over to the lower body section. I discovered there are exercises over there that I can do, like they have a machine for abs, it’s like crunches, and another one where you sit on it with your knees and your body twists to do the side abs. It does hurt my right leg to sit on my knees, but it doesn’t hurt for long. I do my usual 15 reps, rest, 15 more, rest, 15 more and done. I actually love that machine, and I can’t wait to see how ripped my stomach will be once the fat disappears from my stomach lol. My partner does the other leg machines. There is also a machine for the lower back and butt, which I need to do because the last time I lost weight, I noticed that my ass was as flat as a board. I need all the help I can get for my butt. I can’t do squats because of my leg, so this will have to do for now.

Last night I was looking at Instagram, and I came across a post from Planet Fitness. I don’t normally read the comments because there seem to be a lot of people who hate Planet Fitness. I never could understand the hatred, but it became clear to me why they hate them so much. They have Pizza nights and bagels mornings. This guy said that Planet Fitness doesn’t give a crap about you losing weight and they just want your money. Well, um… what does that have to do with anything? Of course they want your money, they are a business and that’s what businesses do. They lure you in with a great price like $5 down and $10 a month and they give you perks like 1 night a MONTH you get pizza and one day a MONTH they give you bagels. I’ve never actually gotten those perks, but even if I did, that’s on me, not on them. I’ve eaten pizza at home more than I’ve eaten it at the gym, which is never, so who is trying to sabotage me now? ME! I am in control of what I put in my mouth whether they are feeding it to me or not. Planet Fitness IS a gym because they have free weights, kettle bells, rope on beams, they have tons of machines that target all of your muscle groups, and they have tons of machines that allow you to do your cardio.

Give them a chance because they are a good gym. I have self control. I wouldn’t drink beer in a AA meeting, so I’m not going to eat pizza at the gym. I go there and do my exercises and leave. I’m on disability, and I am going to go to Planet Fitness since it’s the only gym I can afford. It’s too bad my health insurance doesn’t pay for it since the doctor is the one who insisted that I go.