My First Time At Curves

by Marie Lauver
(Memphis, TN, USA)

I was about 17 years old when I walked into my first Curves. My hometown only had one other gym and it wasn't the greatest. I was 310 pounds, overweight and sick of it.

I had tried other forms of working out like walking, and dieting wasn't my greatest strength considering that all I ate at the time was carbs and junk food.

I was desperate and figured I didn't know much about Curves so I'd give it a try. All I knew was that old ladies went there and sometimes lost weight.

I figured if they could do it so could I.

My first impression of the club was confusion. I saw all of these dinky training machines and thought that there would never be any way to lose weight because it looked so easy.

The first thing the trainer had me do was stretch, which was difficult being 300lbs and completely unaware of what I needed to do to warm up.

She then had me do some quick jumping jacks to get my heart rate up and then put me on a recovery board between machines. I watched her perform repetitions on one machine and then I would do it myself.

She got in front of my face and made sure every movement was the exact kind you were supposed to make on the machine. Then she forced me off and made me jog knees-to-chest for thirty seconds between machines.

The goal is to go as fast as possible on the actual machines, which she enforced.

I wasn't even halfway through the workout and I needed to carry a sweat towel with me because I was sweating so profusely.

I could feel my breath come in quick and it seemed like I couldn't get enough air so she made me control my breathing, "In the nose, out the mouth."

At the "end" of the workout -- which was me doing two circles around the machines -- I had to do some light exercise moves so my heart rate would gradually come down. The trainer then made me stretch again making sure I held each stretch for thirty seconds each.

It was the workout that made me completely addicted to working out since then, whether it's been a Curves or jogging down the street.

I felt so good afterward I decided to take a walk around the block and do more stretches at home. I feel like it was the best workout I ever did because the trainer, who is the owner, was relentless.

She didn't let me say no and kept ordering me to get my heart rate up and keep at it.

Thanks to her persistence for my first workout, I came back again, and again, and again -- even re-structuring my schedule to fit around working out at Curves.

It was one of the greatest workouts I'd ever had because it led to me losing a hundred or more pounds, and I couldn't have done it without that first workout.

Marie

Note from Dr. Dan

Marie,

You were very fortunate. You found someone that cares enough to make sure you did what you needed to do.

It's can be hard to tell people what they don't want to hear, or to get people to do what they don't want to do.

But if you don't, they stay overweight and unhealthy. And if you do, you can have a great success story like yours.

Dr. Dan