Technically it’s only three options because I was already going for my nice holiday no matter what (the bonus was just gonna be an offset), and I ended up going for PT. Toilet, ehhh I think it can survive another year (together with balcony maybe). Car, very nearly went for that too but a moment of indecisiveness, the great promotion (car show) has passed and with it the fire as well hahah. So PT it is. 

Been wanting to do this, but the only thing holding me back was whether it is something I really needed or not. It’s the natural next step for me ever since I lost weight, so I have been training on my own but haven’t been making much progress despite a couple of years of regular forays to the gym. By regular I meant almost daily (although half of it are maybe cardio coz there was pressure to maintain weight with my kind of diet), but I was sure I had problems with form, and I definitely was plateauing in terms of the weights I can manage for the types of exercises I was doing. There was also probably lack of structure in the way I train too. So with an eye on making my efforts worthwhile (otherwise there doesn’t seem to be a point going to gym), I thought it’s time to get professional help. And if it comes together with a diet plan or it can help to enforce some discipline on that front, that would be ideal. 

Did some research. Literally some only, because to be honest, it got tiring after a while - literally everybody has good reviews. And basically nobody listed their prices online. All I had was some sort of range. But most people offer a trial or a chat of some sort and so I picked a few that regularly shows up on my IG ads (and looked impressive, based on the results of the clients they showcased though of course it was very cherry-picked) to set up some first chats. 

So after a couple of chats, more or less got an idea of what to expect. The first one was a chat followed by an actual training session with the prospective trainer, while the second one was a chat with what appeared to be an admin staff behind the counter (was a bit taken aback when he stepped out to conduct the chat) who asked a million questions, and the third one was a chat with the founder of the gym whose hard sell attitude rubbed me off the wrong way (“I am going to make you a offer, the moment you step out of this door to take some time to consider then the deal is off”). 

All things considered I think the second one is more well rounded. The first one was earnest but is more strength focused rather than say, obsessing on stats like body fat percentage. Let’s not talk about the third one hahah. But one thing for sure - diet is still up to your own discipline - “you can text your trainer on where you are at and show him the options, and he can give some advice and how best to make do with what you have like chicken rice without skin on the chicken and no sauces” like huh I think I can do that myself. So there’s no value add to the higher price charged by the second one, and they do say first impression counts so I settled for the first one (because I felt my entire body ache after the first free training session which I take it to be a good sign). 

So it’s a 12 session beginner package for $120 each. Each session was an hour (which was something I forgot to ask prior, felt it was shorter than what I wanted it to be but I guess it was more tiring than my own training sessions each time). My thinking was to squeeze as much knowledge as I could out of these 12 sessions so that I can go on and train on my own subsequently, but as it turns out actually the equipment in my gym really aren’t super optimal (probably explains why I haven’t made much progress), and I feel like having a trainer (or actually maybe just a training partner which, let’s face it, I’m not having one anytime soon) really helps. 

I think trainer was also trying to gauge my level in the first few sessions so there were some exercises that I tried and never got to do again (weighted pull ups, yikes, I made some but boy it wasn’t pretty) and we sort of settled into a routine which makes it easier for me to track my progress I guess. It does make me happy to see progress which I am told is solid. So by the time the 12 sessions ended and I was asked if I would like to continue - without the beginners promo which made the price a lot steeper - I still said yes fml. *money flies emoji* 

And so as it stands, we are one third past the 30+3 session package (yes, 30) which I signed up for. Body shape wise I think I see some changes to my back? And maybe chest? But what I didn’t do from the beginning was to take a before photo so I couldn’t quite compare. And diet front, hmm let’s just say discipline is still sort of lacking so the belly is still there oops. On that topic, I did look up and signed up for a meal plan but I think the price is a bit steep so I don’t feel like I will be doing it very often, even if it was yummier than I thought it would be but I realized the menu repeats every month so it’s getting boring. And I do like my lunch interactions with colleagues despite my I personality. 

So I have about 20 sessions or 10 weeks to consider again if this is gonna continue further. I guess we do have to see what progress we are at by then. Honestly it would have been an easy way out considering that I really don’t think I wanna do this alone in a public gym and my 社恐 tendencies (which, if I may add, I am still not at comfortable casual terms with my trainer and basically my rest times are mostly in silence or we are discussing technical stuff). But the price is a huge consideration if I were to do this in long term, unless I sign up for a gym membership to bring down cost and bring him along (because he doesn’t exclusively work for this gym). 

But maybe let’s worry about it when time comes.