Bunny and the Gym

Bunny’s first-week efforts are starting to pay off! She excitedly reported that shrinking has occurred in the area below her boobs. This is where it begins.

Bunny stood in front of a mirror and drew a sketch of her general shape, from the front and from the side. She didn’t like any of it, but what bothers her the most is the fact that in silhouette, her stomach sticks farther out than her boobs. Changing this has become one of her early goals.

Bunny has found that she does well with weight loss if she sets small goals and establishes progress points. A small goal may be to lose 10 lbs. or 5 lbs. or to reach a certain weight. A progress point might be to fit into a certain pair of pants or blouse that has been hanging in her closet unworn because she likes it but no longer fits into it. In this case, a progress point will be to change her silhouette so that her boobs stick out farther than her stomach.

Inspired by her reduction in inches, Bunny did the unthinkable and went to the gym on the way home from work. She weighed herself, hopped onto a stationary bike, burned 100 calories, weighed herself again (just in case that effort made a dramatic difference), and left.

So now we have a number we can use to quantify Bunny’s weight loss. Unfortunately, she won’t tell us what it is.

This doesn’t surprise us. This is a woman who went to Weight Watchers for months and never let them tell her how much she weighed. She only wants to know how much she is losing, fearing that if she knows her actual weight, she will be so depressed by the daunting task before her that it will quash her motiviation.

Once Bunny is well down her weight-loss path and feels better about herself, we feel certain that she’ll give up the number, but for the moment, we’ll humor her and simply report how much she is losing.

For Bunny, going to the gym is kind of a big deal. It’s not as easy as it used to be, and she didn’t like it then. She’s in her 50’s and out of shape, and so it’s easy for her to get injured. (She’s also a klutz, and that doesn’t help.) She tore (well, frayed) a rotator cuff doing a strength workout a few years ago. She used to do yoga, and liked it a lot, but she has had back problems and was told not to hyperextend her back. Bye-bye yoga. She injured her medial meniscus and was told not to go within 40 miles of a treadmill.

So, Bunny is honestly a little fearful of injuring herself at the gym, and it has been easy for her to use that as an excuse not to go. Add to that the fact that she doesn’t know how to use some of the machines, she’s not comfortable asking the trainers, she’s not at ease with all those skinny people running 4000 miles an hour on the treadmill next to her, and she generally feels out of place. She also doesn’t like the parking lot, and she keeps forgetting her gym bag. And she’s worried that she’ll forget what locker she’s using. Oops, the bikes are all in use, I’d better go home and try again next year. This is what we’re dealing with.

But she knows that even working out for 30 minutes three times a week will make a positive difference in her health, and will speed up her weight loss. She thinks she can do it. She has set a goal to work out for 30 minutes, three times a week.

Bunny’s making progress.