a personal record...

So about a week ago I told JC that I was hitting personal records on the leg press, and it didn't seem hard. In a  moment of weakness, I told him that in just 2 weeks I would leg press 398lbs. Then he said 4 words that never fail to light a fire under my ass--"good luck with that!" . Maybe he meant it in a nice way, but in a text, I *heard* him say it in a way that made me think that he didn't believe that I could do it.

So for the last week, I have been building up to doing that 398lb press. That means adding (6) 45lb plates, and (2) 5lb plates to the 118lb sleigh. On Friday I did the 45lb plates, and (2) 2.5lb plates, and truly meant to wait until THIS Friday to add the other 5lbs of weight. Yesterday I loaded up the sleigh, and without even thinking about it, I grabbed 5lb fractional plates. My friend Mandy gave me a look when I told her I what weight I was aiming for, so I offered to let her watch me. She snapped a picture of me at the top of one rep. This morning I was re-calculating things and realized that I had actually hit my goal! So now I have a new goal for Friday....403lbs!!

For probably 5 months now I have been struggling with my squats. I KNOW I can squat 150lbs, I've done it before, but it just hasn't been possible lately. The other day I had a lightbulb moment, and realized that my issue is my lack of core strength. So now core work is going to be added to my routine. I've been doing a little core about 2x a week...now I am going to be doing more core, more often. Since working towards my leg press goal was so much fun, my March goal is going to be to do 5 decline crunches.

transitions...and other stuff

Buff has been gone for almost 3 weeks now, and honestly, I'm shocked how smoothly things seem to be going. I don't think Shy has had any private clients so far, but I have been watching him with his "smart start" clients, and he is blossoming! It is like the promotion from attendent to trainer has changed something inside him, and I am just now seeing the real Shy.

I've told Shy that I want to start working with him next month, and asked him to start thinking about 1-2 mornings a week where we could work together at 9am.

For the last few months, there has been an issue at the gym with lifters leaving 45lb plates on the machine when they are done. Last week I personally saw a guy do it, and approached him. The look on his face when I walked up to him and informed him that he needed to strip his weights when he was done...priceless! I told JC about it, and he called me the gym "sheriff". That's fine by me!Yesterday I happened to be wearing my t-shirt from the December challenge, and the guy came in. His eyes got kinda big, and he kept looking at me throughout his workout...but he stripped his weights. Later I realized that he might possibly have mistaken the challenge shirt for a staff shirt. It made me smile. This morning I saw a guy use several machines, leave them loaded, and walk over to the cable machine...so I approached him. Turns out that he was doing a complicated circuit, but he was cool when I explained what had been going on, and why I approached him.

Last week I got an opportunity to assist Shy with his muscle conditioning class, and I really enjoyed it! A staff member's husband was in the class, and she warned Shy that his form "wasn't great"...that was an understatement!! His form was atrocious. I'm not sure I could replicate everything he had wrong with his squat. Since Shy had 6-8 people in class, and couldn't give this guy  personal attention, I stepped in and helped him on many exercises. Later Shy thanked me for stepping in, and I told him that if he ever needed me to help he should just ask.

The CC Situation...

The CC situation was a very uncomfortable one for me, and that doesn't happen often. It made me question ME. The way I interact with people every single day. CC was a co-worker of JC's, so he heard some of our conversations ( he even joined a few), and saw the way JC and I interacted. Not once did I feel uncomfortable around CC, until JC left. After that, the way CC acted towards me changed. Nothing that would cause any red flags. At some point we even became Facebook friends. I really didn't mind that he had become a little more attentive and chatty. He would jump on the elliptical or bike next to me and distract me from what I was doing, which I welcomed. Every once in a while he just gave off a really odd vibe that made me uncomfortable. One day his tone of voice changed, and he gave off a really creepy vibe, although all he said was "hey, how are you today?" That was the day the thought popped in my head that he might think that JC and I had a physically intimate relationship, but it was so ridiculous that I pushed the thought aside (why would JC even think of becoming intimate with a married, obese woman 12 years his senior?).

One day, out of the corner of my eye, I saw that CC had split the seam in his shorts. As I walked by, I said something about having his mom fix them. A few hours later, he popped up on facebook messenger and asked me why I was looking at his crotch!! Although I denied purposely looking at his crotch, the conversation quickly went downhill, with him asking about seeing me in ( and out) of my underwear, and even asking about specific sexual favors. When he was informed that no matter how much I joke and play, Hubby and I have been exclusive for 19 years, and other men only got hugs, he quickly ended the conversation and blocked me.

The whole situation made me question my very personality. Could I have said or done something to invite the behavior? Did he think I was flirting with him? Even if he did, he was fully aware that I was married, AND old enough to be his mother. Because I was so shaken by the incident, and needed to know how I was perceived, I emailed JC. He was able to quickly reassure me that he never got a flirty vibe off me...never felt that I was "leading him on", that I was just a friendly woman who he had great conversations with.

Not long after, CC got a second job, and dropped all but one of his weekday shifts. That was when SHy showed up. It was nice to be able to be ME, and not worry about what CC might think, say or do. A few months later, I found out that CC had been similarly inappropriate with another woman at the gym. The lady is an author in her early 40's, and she had given most of the fitness staff a copy of her latest book. CC facebook messaged her and made comments about wanting to reenact one of the sex scenes in the book with her!! That was when I lost all respect for CC.