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30-Day Get Fit Challenge | Week 3

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Staffer Gretchen Parker, 35, is working out with ExerciseTV celebrity trainer Kathy Kaehler (past clients include Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston) for Us' 30-Day Get Fit Challenge! She's blogging a few times a week. Here, Gretchen details her third workout session with Kathy:

Like a fitness expert who practices soothsaying on the side, so many things Kathy told me from the beginning have come true.

She said I would feel less sluggish and have more energy once I started moving again. I do.

She said I would be more productive throughout the day if I make working out a priority. I am.

She also said that even if there are days when I dread working out (and there are!), I would find myself looking forward to the alone time. That I would relish my time exercising and the hour I can unplug and focus on nothing other than breathing and moving and pushing myself. 

I really do look forward to that time.

Of course, the first five minutes of it are often terrible. It always seems like a really bad idea. But if I push through and get into a groove, it’s nearly always satisfying.

See photos from Gretchen's first training session with Kathy.

Granted, I’m not entirely unplugged. My iPod is usually blaring Bruce Springsteen and Wolfmother and Kanye West. And the TVs in the gym are on. Judge Judy can suck me in like nobody’s business.

But I’m not answering email. I’m not on the phone. I’m not texting. It’s rare and precious time to myself. So precious that it’s become my main motivator for getting into the gym.

It may seem contradictory to think that working out can center you — when you’re adding one more thing to a day that already includes an impossibly long to-do list.

But the more days I do it, the more I look forward to it. Just like Kathy said.

Have a question for Kathy? Us Weekly is giving you the chance to ask her your health and fitness questions. We’ll post the answers right here on the Get Fit Challenge blog! Just send your questions — or comments! — to askgretchen@gmail.com. 

Read Gretchen's previous blog entries:

30-Day Get Fit Challenge: Meet Us' Gretchen Parker!
30 Day Get Fit Challenge | Week 1
30-Day Get Fit Challenge | Week 1, Workout 2
30-Day Get Fit Challenge | Week 2

 

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