Committed to a year of pampering

My gym, Total Woman ("TW"), offers a sauna, steam room, and whirlpool as part of the regular membership package.  When I joined TW in August 2014, I chose the basic month-to-month membership which would allow me to cancel at any time without having to pay a cancellation fee.  

I figured it was the cheapest way to go because I knew I'd only go to the gym for a couple of months and then I could cancel without having to pay a fee or, worse, get stuck with a year's contract I'd be forced to keep paying even though I stopped physically going to the gym long before the yearly contract expired.  After all, that had been my pattern for over 30 years:  I'd start out with a dedicated vengeance and I'd go to the gym religiously until I lost all interest and momentum a few weeks/months later.  Then I'd just stop going altogether, never to return.  Why would this time be any different?

BUT it would be different.  Incredibly different.  It turned out that this time around, I started visiting the gym pretty much every day, if only to use the treadmill, and this would continue to be true more than a year later.  Who would've guessed it!  During this year, in fact, my work out increased and improved.  I started training with Flaminia ("Fla"), the young woman who would change my entire life around, once a week and soon enough I was training with her three times a week.  I also started attending spin classes offered at TW once a week and increased it to at least three times a week with time.  I also started using the weight machines once a week for a circuit program Fla put together for me.  

Even after Fla quit TW around April 2015 and we started training at a smaller gym where trainers take their clients, I continued to go to TW to use the treadmill, weight machines, and attend spin classes.  I also followed Fla all over town to attend the spin classes she taught at a hoity-toity gym when she could get me in as her guest.  Since Fla moved to New York in early 2016, I've been attending a spin studio at least four times a week and I'm training with a new trainer, Tunde, three times a week at the small gym where trainers take their clients.  Additionally, I continue to visit TW regularly, too.  Recently the weather has been wonderful so I've opted to walk outside rather than on a treadmill inside a gym, but soon it'll be too hot to be outside as summer approaches so I'll be going to TW more regularly than I have been lately.

For that first year at TW, I never used the sauna, steam room, or whirlpool nor tried the spa that offers massages, facials, and other services for an additional fee.  During that first year, I just went, worked out, and left.  In fact, I forgot these services were available.  I've never been one to enjoy pampering, particularly when it requires being touched by a stranger, such as with a facial or massage, so I didn't feel I was missing out on anything.  My main concern that first year was to work on my weight by worrying about the food/calories I was consuming as well as increasing my work outs.

In October 2015, for my 55th birthday, I decided it was time that I started pampering myself to celebrate the new me.  I had come a long way after having lost 119 lbs. by that point.  It had taken a lot of hard work and I deserved to be pampered, I told myself.  For my birthday week (one day of celebration wasn't enough so I extended it to the whole week!), I used the steam room and sauna for the first time since joining TW and thoroughly enjoyed both.  I couldn't use the whirlpool yet because I didn't have a bathing suit at that time.  In fact, I hadn't owned a bathing suit in over 25 years.  I also treated myself during that birthday week to a massage and a facial and loved both.   

Unlike my pattern in the past, since joining TW in August 2014, it never occurred to me to cancel my membership - not once.  In fact, I started thinking I wanted to add the spa to my membership even though it cost more than my current month-to-month membership and it would require me to contract for at least a year.  Gasp!  Commitment freaks me out and normally I'd shy away from paying for a full year's membership, but I had already proven to myself that I would, in fact, keep going to TW on a regular basis so it wouldn't be wasted money.  Instead, I saw it as adding something to my membership that I personally deserved to have as a reward for my accomplishments.   

And so, effective January 2016, my new membership affords me a free facial and a free massage every single month for a year.  I've been enjoying both every month since and the young woman who gives me my facials has me on a skin-care program that actually has me using products to wash, exfoliate, and moisturize my face.  I figured what the heck, I'll give it a try.  In the past, the most "beauty regiment" I engaged in was to wash my face while showering, but now it's become a morning and nightly ritual of washing/moisturizing and then exfoliating twice a week, too.  The new me wants to take care of herself.  The new me likes being pampered.

Additionally, since my birthday, I bought a bathing suit and have been using the steam room, sauna, and whirlpool, too, about once a week.  It's my "pamper myself" day when I do.  I even have a special gym bag with all my goodies (rubber shoes for the showers, robe, shower caddy with my favorite products, etc.) always ready to go.

It's interesting to me how we let ourselves go completely as we start gaining more and more weight.  What's the point, I guess we think to ourselves, we already look awful.  Why even try.  Conversely, as we get rid of what is weighing us down - not only physically but spiritually, we start taking care of ourselves because we want  to feel and look better.   

As I've said several times throughout my blog, I love the new me and it's been fun to reinvent myself as I succeed on my weight-loss journey.  I'm not done yet, but I'm getting there.  More importantly, the journey itself so far has been marvelous!