Curves

A little over a year ago, I joined Curves. I saw immediate results and had, in a couple of months, lost 14 pounds and 23 inches. I worked out three times a week and got weighed in and measured once a month - at the end of every month.

Curves is a place for women only. There are resistance machines and in between each machine is a "rest pad". You use the resistance machine for 30 seconds and then you go to the pad. You do some sort of cardio move for 30 seconds and then move on to the next machine.

Then summer arrived. I'm very active at church. I attend regularly, every Friday and every Sunday, and during worship I dance. I found that during the first couple months of attending Curves, my dance was more energetic. During the month of July, our church is on sabbatical. We don't have any services at all during July. So, my body was used to two extra workouts a week and with the July sabbatical, I didn't do any extra workouts.

When I got weighed in and measured at the end of July, I found that I didn't lose anything. I was discouraged. But I knew that my energy level probably decreased a bit and also, hubby and I were eating more on Sunday mornings, which made me want to eat more during the week.

But as the months progressed, I found no changes in my weight or measurements. This discouraged me even more and my attendance at Curves was not regular during November and December and I didn't go at all during January. I started back again in February. I didn't weigh in when I started back up because I knew that I had gained and I really didn't want to know where I was at. When I did get weighed in at the end of February, I had found that my weight was higher than when I last weighed in and my measurements had also increased. Well, I had expected it, however, I was discouraged.

I attended Curves in March, three times a week. At the end of March I saw no change. Discouraged again, I stopped going.

Hubby asked me, at the end of April, if I was going and I said no. He encouraged me to start up again.

Starting last Monday (May 12), I started back again. I weighed myself this time and wrote down my weight. I calibrated my home scale with that of Curves. But I was scared that, again, there would be no change even after attending three times a week.

When I went to Curves on Friday, Kris, the manager, was there and told me she had missed seeing me. I admitted that I had been discouraged and stopped coming. She encouraged me to keep going and said that something was changing in Curves and when they had more information, she'd see if I was interested.

When I went into Curves this morning, the place had been decorated and they were advertising a new program called the Curves Smart workout. They will be fitting each machine with a computer of sorts. If you join the Curves Smart workout, you will fill out some paperwork, get weighed and measured and all this information will be put into the computer. You will choose from 4 different workouts - Fit and Trim (sets resistance to 65% of your strength), Muscle Size and Strength (sets resistance to 75%), Cardio (50% of your strength), Endurance. The Curves Smart program will design a program for each individual based on information entered and workout picked. There's more to it, but it's like having a personal trainer with you on every machine to make sure you're getting the most out of the workout.

This, of course, costs extra. But I was excited to learn about it and talked it over with hubby. We agreed to go ahead and sign up for that.

It's going to be a couple of weeks before it starts. The franchise I attend still has to get the machines fitted with the computers, the staff has to be educated on it. After that has taken place, they will start training the customers, one at a time. I'm 6th in line.

But I'm hoping that I will see more results with this new program.

:)

Here's a youtube video of the program that I watched, if you're interested.