As some of you may know, in my quest for a healthier lifestyle, I have decided to take matters in hand, and embark on losing weight and getting fit. I wrote about my experience last week when I went for the induction at the gym and how I didn’t even get to go on any of the equipment here.

Well, I got myself geared up and down the gym for 9 am bright and early and raring to go. I had the bag packed with most of the stuff I needed from last week still, and just added the extras that I thought I might need.

I saw the same lovely lady as I saw last week. She and I seemed to get on well and share the same warped sense of humour.

First things first, she showed me the changing rooms which were quite large and roomy and decked out with plenty of lockers. She eyed my huge bag and pointed out the bigger lockers for my convenience. I was then to put my stuff away, and she would meet me in the gym.

Already dressed in my workout gear, it was just a case of putting my stuff in the locker, and I was ready to get active! Well, I started sooner than expected trying to ram my bag into the locker. Despite it being a large locker, the bag kindly donated by Mr Grump was one of those that you can use to carry luggage in. It has wheels on the bottom and pull out handle so it can be trundled if heavy. There was no way I was going to wheel my bag into the gym, as I would like a right plum.

Anyway, as the bottom of the bag was so rigid, I spend a fair few minutes trying to shove it into the locker and slam the door. It was not working, and I was getting hot and bothered already! Finally, I put it on its side and shut the bloody thing away.

The exercise bike was our first stop, and I hopped up eagerly, keen to get started. Well after two minutes I could barely talk and thought my heart was going to explode right there and then. My instructor turned the resistance down (right down), and told me to ease up a bit as I was working too hard! (I think that was her polite way of saying that I was unfit)!

After the longest ten minutes, I then wobbled over to the treadmill for a bit more punishment. Now, I do not have the best record with treadmills having fallen off one many years ago which you can read about here, but I put all of that behind me and started walking.

Luckily, I redeemed myself a bit here as she turned up the speed several times as well as the gradients as I was ‘too comfortable! ‘ Not so on the barbaric rowing machine though. To my utter shame and humiliation, I could only manage five minutes on it.

The rest of the workout involved the toning up and strengthening equipment which wasn’t too bad. Then that was it; my hour was up. My face was tomato coloured, my skin slick with sweat and I scuttled off quickly to the changing rooms after thanking my torturer for the workout!

After wrestling with the locker several times, putting stuff in, taking stuff out, trying to close the locker, then forgetting something else, I was getting very wound up. When I realised that I had left my lovely blue water bottle out, I decided that I would leave it by the locker while I had a shower.

Now, this was something I was looking forward to. We don’t have a shower at home, just a bath which is lovely, but is not as quick or convenient, especially for washing hair! As you can imagine, my hair was rather sweaty.

I was bitterly disappointed, The shower was one of those that go off every twenty seconds or so, There was no temperature control, and it was rather hot (now I love a hot bath, but this was nigh on scalding)! Added to that there was a powerful stream in the middle which I thought might cave my head in such was the pressure (not that I could stay under it for long anyway, and on the outside, a few wisps and fine spray was the best I was going to get. It took a while.

I get myself changed and luckily am the only one in the changes rooms, and brush my wet hair, glad of the coolness and wetness of it as I was still boiling. I thought I had better dry it though as it was cold out. Another lady walked in just as I picked up the hair dryer which didn’t work. I nonchalantly picked up my bag of stuff and headed off for the reception to pay for my new membership.

The reception was quiet, and I asked if anyone had handed in my water bottle as I realised I didn’t have it before I left. They hadn’t. Just as I was paying, and halfway through the transaction, the whole computer system went down, and the receptionist had to call someone out to help her.

By now, of course, several other people had arrived, all skinny. A lot of eye-rolling was going on as they looked at each other than at me, and I wanted to get out of there. After a while, I was handed my receipt as apparently that part had gone through but as she would have to re-enter the whole lot again for her records or something, she hurriedly gave me my membership card and told me I would have to get it activated next time I came.

When I got home, I yanked everything out of the bag, deciding that next time I will forget the shower and bag and wait till I got home. After I had sorted everything out, I realised that I had also lost my new hairbrush I had taken with me God knows where that went!

To top it off, in the evening I looked through all the classes that were available and decided I would love to have a go at the Power Hooping, as I have previously dallied with a hula hoop. I went on the website to book up, but of course, I was unable to and had to phone up.

The classes were this Saturday morning at the stadium which is very close to where I love so I thought that would be perfect. Well, of course, it wasn’t as the membership I have does not cover me for both the sites even though they come under the umbrella of the Leisure Trust for my town.

At least the lady I spoke to was lovely and gave me a PIN number for my membership card which I had been told nothing about (Because I had a GP referral, I was not sure how it worked but thought I had paid membership for all classes)! I phoned up the original sports centre where I joined, and it seems the phones are all down as I could not get to speak to anyone no matter how many times I tried calling.

I am trying to be positive although I do not think I am cut out for the gym. I will stick with it though as I do hope that with this and the healthier food choices, I will lose some weight rather than some of my possessions!