Jai and I have been using our Total Gym XLS for 28 days now – check out our results for month 1:

I’m already starting to see some muscle definition in my arms and increases in strength – considering that I’ve been taking it slow this month as I learn my way around the machine and get used to working out again after a long break, I think that’s pretty awesome! Jai is really loving the Total Gym as well, and has been slowly taking up the resistance to make his workouts more challenging. His goal is to build more muscle and my goal is to trim down and tone, so the unit is totally versatile for whatever workout you’re going for!

Having a machine in the comfort of my own home has been even more of a time-saver than I could have imagined. I’m actually spending less time working out but still seeing results – even though I’ve been down for the count the last 2 weeks and my workouts have been more sporadic. In my last update, I talked about how I got a bug that mercifully passed through quickly, and then last Friday I started getting a flare-up of esophageal spasms that lasted through Monday. When I get an attack like this, it causes intense chest and muscle pain, which working out would have exacerbated, so I took a break. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to have set my progress back too much and now I’m feeling much better!

In fact, I hope this would be an encouragement to anyone reading this, because Jai and I aren’t personal trainers or fitness gurus; we’re just real people living real life. We work like crazy, we have tons of commitments and not enough time for them all, and we get sick and have to take days off. And yet, here is a solution that is working for us amidst the chaos. I truly love being able to hop on the gym at the end of the day, when I’m cleaning up the kitchen in my PJs and getting ready to take a shower and head to bed. It makes my life so much easier and makes it actually feasible to do something to take care of myself, because let’s be real, I’m not going to get dressed and go for a run at 1 AM. Our local gym isn’t even open that late! But I can do a quick workout in the privacy of my own home, and I don’t have to wear special clothes or find my car keys. And after the first big storm of the season hit our area early in the year, am I ever glad that I will have a way to exercise in my warm, comfortable house – that will certainly eliminate a big excuse not to workout as we delve into the holiday season!