NSV -Spinning for the first time

Hi all,

I just wanted to share with you a non scale victory is recently had.

My whole life I grew up playing sports. Soccer, basketball, softball, ice skating, etc. However, I was always the biggest girl on the team. I've been overweight my entire life, with the exception of a few periods of time when I was dieting and playing volleyball year round. In high school and college I was constantly training and playing volleyball. I was still pretty heavy for my height but I was solid for the most part!

Well after college I started my first 9-5 job and volleyball was no longer part of my life. Over time solid turned to mushy!

I joined a gym and got into group exercise classes. (Tae bo, kick boxing, Zumba, Step classes, etc...) I'd try anything! Even if I had no idea what I was doing I always had fun and enjoyed being active.

However, there was one group exercise class I avoided like the plague- THE SPIN ROOM! Music was blasting and instructors could be heard a mile a way screaming out various commands. For some reason I was so intimidated by spinning. I always thought there was no way I could keep up with a class like that - even in my best shape. The women coming out of the class looked so toned and fit and tiny! That couldn't be for me! I'm way to big for those bikes (probably at the time 200lbs)

I would ask friends who took the class what it was like and they'd say things like "intense", "sweaty", "hard" "can't sit for a week after your first time" None of that stuff sounded too horrible, but still I kept saying to myself that spinning wasn't for me.

Fast forward to today - I've steadily put on 40 lbs since graduating from college 7 years ago. I had been traveling about 75% of the month since 2007. So fitting in exercise was always a challenge and sometimes just not even a priority.

Now I work in an office and no longer travel. I decided to enroll in a new gym that specializes in 3 different classes - Bootcamp, Zumba, and Spin. Spin class we meet again! For the first 2 months I just did Zumba. Then one night one of the instructors I became friendly with asked me to try out one of her spin classes. I had to fight the urge to vom and said...ughhh yea ok. "See you on Monday !" she said. (Internal freak out ensued - this Monday? Holy crap---wait I need to drop more lbs before I try spinning, I can't do this, oh God why did I say yes??!?!?)

Then all of a sudden my mind quieted and I thought why the heck not, just do it. Stop hiding from those darn bikes and give it a shot.

So two weeks ago I strolled into that class, sat on one of the bikes in the front, fumbled around with the settings and got to spinning!

HOLY CRAP! It was hard, intense, sweaty, and OH YES my butt hurt for a week - but I LOVED IT! I gave it 110% and it kicked my butt. I went back again last night and I can say I'm now addicted. I have no idea why I was so intimidated by it. Yes, the other people biked way faster then I did, and probably cranked up their resistance a lot higher than I did but so what!

I'm sharing this with you all because we shouldn't be afraid to try anything in life! The worst thing that could happen is that you don't like it! Don't talk yourself out of life's experiences because you think you're too heavy. I've been doing that for too long and it can definitely take toll on you! No more! Tackling my fear of spinning was so mentally liberating!

Good luck everyone....I hope this inspires you to take on that class you've been avoiding!


When I first started going I would take a Zumba class