Melissa's Training with Equinox: The Intro

Welcome to our fitness blog! The publisher (Henrique Kerch) and I have decided to take on a fitness challenge with Equinox Fitness and their personal trainers! We each have snagged our very own trainer from Equinox and will separately train with them once a week and re-cap it right here at this blog. You can take the tips we learn from them and hopefully use them to reach your own fitness goals! Before I get going on my first training experience, I'm going to give you a little background about me, my life and my fitness goals.

My name is Melissa Maynard, and I am the editor-in-chief of Factio Magazine, an oversized glossy fashion magazine that publishes quarterly in Chicago for fall, winter, spring and summer. Our online version www.factio-magazine.com publishes 24/7, and I also manage editorial for a blog called runwaytoretail.com which also publishes several articles daily. My life is hectic to say the least, not just in my job, but also personally. I'm a wife and a mother, which is on the top on my priority list. So let's just say that in the past couple of years, fitness has been put on the back burner. During my high school years, I was in the best shape of my life. I was on the pom squad, so we worked out for about three hours everyday of the week and sometimes on the weekends. I also ran track and even though I hated running, I managed to do really well at the sport, running the half mile in track meets. In college, I kept working out often, while working all of the time. As I fell into my job as an editor, becoming more sedentary and after becoming a mom, things began to change! For the past several years I have been attending several parties a week, where drinks such as champagne is free flowing and rich appetizers come one after another.

Time for a Change
My first meeting with my trainer was Saturday, February 2nd and it was really just an evaluation of my overall fitness level. The good thing was that she could tell that I have done these types of exercises before. The bad thing was that my fat % was a little higher than we would like. Here are some tips that she gave me that I am starting to follow:

1. Get a heart monitor. She told me that I am going to want to keep my heart rate at 150 mph or higher in order to get into my fat burning zone. If I don't get it to this, I'm basically wasting my time! This was really good to know, since I am limited on time due to a hectic business and family life. I really want to make the most of my workouts!

2. Focus on cardio three days a week and lifting weights two days a week, so when I'm lounging around or having a lazy Sunday, I'm still burning fat!

3. I also discussed with her my going-out-to-events issue. We both agreed that I'm going to have to let the appetizer plate just keep passing me by and limit my alcohol intake. I also told her that I'm really watching my portion control on everything I eat. A general rule is to eat only about a cup of your main dish and don't go for seconds and load up on vegetables.