Our guest writer Simone is reaching the end of the challenge that's had its ups and downs and has had Beaut.ie readers in raptures. As she nears the end of her challenge, is she dying to hang up that gym gear for good or could this actually be the beginning of a new, fit chapter?
Two weeks. That’s all that that’s left to go in this challenge. I’m loathe to use the word ‘finish’ at all, because it won’t be the end for me. Yes the 16 week challenge will be complete, but I will still have additional weight to lose and to be honest I’m not planning on ever stopping working out. I mean obviously I’m not being literal here. I’m not planning on emulating Forrest Gump and running up and down the country until I eventually keel over! But you catch my drift.
I don’t even need to finish these 16 weeks to know that one challenge has already been met. I’ve learned to love exercise. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say! But it’s true. On Monday evening I caught myself smiling while bopping away to music on the cross-trainer, and all the while my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. But that’s the sicko I’ve become, I like the pain. My trainer, Owen Mulrane of Go Gym, warned me of this side effect at the very beginning. He said that I’d come to like the pain, and I laughed in his face. Puh-lease! Me? Love pain?! No way, no how. And yet here I am, getting restless because I haven’t been to the gym in 48 hours and dying to ‘feel the burn’. Who am I??
Rest assured I haven’t turned into a ‘gym bunny’. Rightly or wrongly, I get a very specific mental image when I hear that phrase. And while I’m all for live and let live, I am not, and nor do I ever want to be, one of the gym perfects. They come in, size zero, face full of makeup, hair beautifully coiffed, stay texting away on their mobiles throughout and never raise a sweat (good on them for being a size zero, more power to them, but it’s the not actually working out bit that I object to!). On the other hand, I arrive in, trusty Penny’s gym gear on (good runners though - protect and support the feet ladies!), hair thrown up in the permanent messy bun, no makeup on (well maybe a touch of mascara and some Benefit brow kit, but I mean, I’m not a savage!) and then proceed to sweat buckets. And it feels bloody great.
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For the record, I hate cardio. It’s boring and I don’t like being out of breath. But it’s a short 20mins of pain at the start of the workout to get my heart rate pumping so that I can really get the maximum benefit from the weights machines. That’s where I’m in my element. Lifting weights is fun. You aren’t dying to breathe. You have time to think about general things going on in your life (or forget about them), and most of all you feel powerful. I may only be lifting a fraction of what some of the men around me are lifting, but in my head I’m up there with the best of them. It makes me feel strong. And I like that feeling. I get such a kick out of my new mini biceps. And when I say mini, I mean mini. You probably wouldn’t notice them, but I do, and I’m proud of them.
I’m also proud that I’ve turned my body around in such a short space of time. I’m proud that I’ve come off 2 more arthritis medications that I was taking. I’m proud that I’m setting my daughter a good example. And I KNOW that I will continue to do this until I’ve reached my target weight and then on beyond that for health reasons.
But now comes the fear. I wrote this column under a pseudonym because I was embarrassed. I was ashamed of the weight I had gained and thought that people who knew me, not my friends, but those who pretend to be your friend and then slag you off behind your back (you know the type), would revel in how far I had ‘fallen’.
In 2 weeks I will share my final challenge results with you. I’m scared that you won’t see in photos what I can see on the scales and in my clothes. I worry if the reaction will be ‘What?! She doesn’t look that different to me!’, I’m worried because I don’t want anything to knock me off this positive path. So while I make one final push on this challenge, I am left with the dilemma, do I come clean with my real name and real photos? Do I play it safe and just give you the stats? I truly don’t know what the best thing to do is.
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One thing is for certain though, the support that I have received from all of you Beauties has been fantastic. I’ve been inspired to see some of you start your own journeys to health and your words of encouragement have been fantastic when I was feeling low.
See you in 2 weeks ladies; I hope I can make you proud.
