It

So I'm a scardey cat, that has been established.  95% of the stuff I'm scared of is irrational.  Case in point: I get totally freaked out whenever anyone is chasing me, even if I know that it is a game and no harm will come to me.

Today Jeff trained Millie, Laks, Flo, and I and after doing a tough circuit of arm band exercises, he moved on to making us run 40 yard sprints with and without weights, and had us do sets of squats while holding a 25 pound weight over our heads.

Next up though was the real fun.   He filed us up in a single file line with me at the front and said that I was going to run the lap first and then he'd tell the others when they could go.  Okay, no problem, I thought and took off when he yelled "go".

Ah but the twist.  I had no sooner reached the half way point when he yelled for Millie to go. "Tag Minter! Get her!" I looked back as I ran, and sure enough, there was Millie (who is just as competitive as I am but a heck of a lot faster) gaining on me and grinning as she did it.  Then Jeff was telling the others to go and giving them the same instructions.   I suddenly found myself as "it" in an old school game of tag.

Panic! Terror! Old irrational fears stabbed at me as I ran and in my mind I felt like the last human survivor of the apocalypse with not my friends chasing me, but instead a troupe of hungry zombies ready to suck out my brains. I must have made some crazy face with the way Jeff was laughing. Somehow I made it past the safe zone without Millie tagging me and I staggered off to hold my side and catch my breathe. 

Not long though and we were running, in the same order with me as bait again, only this time Jeff sent the girls after me sooner and this round Millie caught me.  A short pause to catch our breathe and Jeff sent me out first again.   As I rounded the corner and started back I jumped into Millie's path and yelled "Counter-attack!" She started laughing and it was enough to throw her off a little bit and get me, untagged, across the line. 

One more time we lined up and one more time I was "It."  This time though I was winded and Millie easily gained on me, so in order to avoid being tagged, I made a quick right in between two weight machines and she flew on past me. Cheating yes, but hey, my agility is better!

The Beginnings of 5K

I always used to hear people say that life can turn around for the better in an instant.  You hear something like that, it goes through several synapses in your mind, and then (if you were like me a year ago) you quickly discard this phrase in the good-for-them-but-that-would-never-happen-for-me pile and go on painfully plodding down your current path.  At this point in your life, you really want to make a change but you don't know how you would ever drag yourself out of your current circumstances, whatever they might be.  You feel defeated before you start.  So you just don't ever start and the situation grows worse. That was me this time last year.  And I am here to tell you that I know for a fact that life can turn around for the better before you even know what has happened.  Sometimes that change is instantaneous, like those random lucky convenient store customers who find themselves instant millionaires due to the purchase of the right lottery ticket.  For me, turning my life around has taken literal blood, sweat, and tears, but even after nearly 365 days of this journey, I am surprised every day by new little victories.

Last September I weighed almost 100 pounds more than I do now.  I was sedentary.  I ate all the wrong things.  I avoided the gym like the plague.  My left knee always hurt and it was sad how short of a walk would make me out of breathe.  I knew that my Transformation program was about to start but I really had no hope at all of being successful.  Jeff and Marisa met with us and told us that starting out they wanted us to work out twice a week.  I sat there and nodded my head, but inside the logistics of even two workouts a week was staggering to me.   I didn't have any gym clothes, no gym bag, I had no clue where my tennis shoes were... I thought, How am I going to fit this into my lunch hour?  My knee is never going to let me do this. I can't do this. How am I going to do this?  The answer to all of those questions was simply to put on my shoes and start. Now I workout five to six days a week and I've worn out three pairs of shoes so far.

By no means has it been easy.  At my first workout with Jeff, as I stood up and sat down over and over again (aka, one of the only things I could do) I told him that one of my goals was to be able to run.  As I said these words, I thought to myself that I might as well have been wishing to win the lottery because that's how good the odds were.   But like I said, life can change before you even know what's happened and today, almost a year later, I started training for our work's annual 5K in December.  My calves sure are hurting from running but I cut my time for a mile in half from when we did the President's Physical Fitness challenge in June.

Crazy things can happen even when you think there is no way possible for them to... Marisa says next year I'll be running a marathon with her.  I laughed when she said that, but stranger things have certainly happened.  If I can be successful at this, anybody can. Just put on your shoes and start.

Deep Thoughts in Plank Position

I was walking to the break room today to fix my salad for lunch when one of my friends stopped me in the hallway.  She was breathing heavy and had a red face and damp hair.

"Are you okay?" I asked, wondering whether or not to call the emergency response team

"Jeff. Taught. Boot camp. Today." she said, finally catching her breathe.  "Watch out."

Uh oh, I thought to myself as I was putting together my salad,  I am about to get it. A nervous foreboding crept over me and I added some extra chicken to the salad, figuring I'd need all the protein I could get. Feisty trainer = hard workout.

Down in gym a short while later, I lined up with my team mates in front of not only Jeff but Marisa too.  Oh Lordy, I thought, here it comes.   It was without a doubt one of the hardest workouts yet.  We did twenty some exercises that ended with burpees as the grand finale.   On that last burpee, the muscles in my legs and core were literally cramping in on me and I was drenched in sweat.  Masochist that I am, I loved it.  There is nothing like getting through a tough workout to give you a sense of accomplishment. 

I'm really concentrating hard on the mental aspect of exercise.  As the workouts get tougher and you push yourself harder, it's a must.  Some of the random things I'm thinking while holding a plank position until my arms feel like they're about to break:

• This floor is an interesting blend of black with blue specks.
• Dang this is hard.
• Think about the floor, yes the floor. Germs on the floor! I bet there are a lot of germs on this floor. Okay don't think about the floor.
• Dang my arms are getting tired...they are starting to shake. Okay, don't think about your arms.
• The meaning of life. Concentrate on the meaning of life. Nope too complicated, all my energy is going to holding myself up...deep thought must come later.
• Oh, my abs hurt.  I don't know how much longer I can do this.
• Okay, you got this.  Just look over at someone else.  Look at Lakshmi over there. 
• Bad idea! Looking at her struggling reminds me I'm struggling.
• Okay...think of a happy place.  Think of shopping. Yes, there you go.  Mentally cruise through your favorite stores, you have a wad of cash in your hand, think of all of those new clothes hanging on the rack, waiting to be bought.
• It's getting to be time to buy new stuff...everything is getting too big.
• Oh my arms!
• Dang, how much longer are we going to be doing this.
• Shopping...retail therapy.
• My hands on the floor are a weird combo of white and hot pink.
• My arms are shaking.  Seriously when are they gonna call time?
• I don't think I can make it.
• I am going to give up.
• I can't give up!
• My arms are numb.
• Yay!  Time's up!  Now I can....

...collapse on the floor.  

Better Than a Spa Treatment

An added bonus of losing weight...looking and feeling younger! That's something any girl in her 30's can appreciate!

Before

Current

It's a better than any spa treatment or anything out of a jar!

Fear

I have always been a scaredy cat...this is no newsflash to anyone who knows me well.   As a kid, my mom had to string garlic up in my window after I accidentally saw a vampire movie.  Our poor family dog (who hated me by the way) was commissioned every night to sit by the foot of my bed (her mortal enemy) to keep away the boogie man who I was convinced had taken up residency in my closet.  Once my poor mother had to actually drag me into the doctor's office because I knew a shot was coming...and one thing I feared most was pain.

Fast forward to present day and a year ago I found myself to be a full-on germaphobe who always had not only hand sanitizer but a purse-sized can of Lysol spray on her person at all times.  I'm always finding new, wonderful changes that have occurred in this year of my journey, and the fact that I've been released from the fear of germs and the fear of pain (well, everyday, run of the mill pain) is something I'm just now realizing.

First up, the germs.  If you're going to spend any significant amount of time in a gym and a locker room, you quickly have to get over a fear of germs.  They're everywhere from various and assorted sweaty body parts, and while you have to be practical about washing your hands, you can't be spraying Lysol around every 30 seconds.   I knew I was getting over my fear on the day that Marisa and I had taken a long, hot walk outside and literally collapsed onto mats in the gym upon our return.  I didn't care who or what had previously occupied that mat, I was just grateful to lay down in the a.c.  Since then, my hand sanitizer consumption is much less and you know what? I've had a lot less colds and viruses.

Next, the pain.  If you put your body through what I do every day, something is going to hurt.   In fact, if I'm not sore by the end of the week, I feel disappointed.  Sore muscles have become my badge of honor, and if I don't have them I feel I haven't done anything.  Something, whether it's my muscles or the place on my foot that screams every time I run, is always hurting...you just have to push past the pain and conquer it.  Waiting around for perfect conditions is futile.

I'm still a weenie about a lot of things, but becoming stronger in fortitude was something I didn't expect from this venture. 

A Challenging Friday

I was faced today with the usual two challenges, exercise and diet, but in much stronger degrees.  Challenge one came when I went out to lunch with my family at a wonderful restaurant situated along the Cape Fear river.  All week I've been eating clean, but I'd been to this restaurant many times before and had already worked out my battle plan of what I was going to order.  No problems then right?

Wrong.  My grilled tuna and side salad came out just delightful, but also along for the ride was an old tempting enemy:

There they were, french fries, in all their crispy, salty deliciousness.  Let me say this: I love french fries. Back in the bad old days, they were a normal staple in my diet, and today they called to me.  Since I've changed my ways, I've been in this situation before and how I avoided temptation was to simply sweep them off of my plate onto another plate and move that other plate as far across the table as I could get it.  Today I felt I was strong enough to avoid them.  I resolved to go through the whole meal eating only my tuna and salad, with one of my biggest temptations there in front of me, and not eat a single one.   I guess I was testing myself, and here's how it turned out:

 

Tuna gone. Salad gone.  Every fry still intact.  Jenn: 1. Fries: 0.

The day's challenges were not over yet.  Because of the holiday weekend, work was letting out at 3pm.  Because I went out to lunch, I was faced with working out after work, alone with my music as everyone else was beating quick tracks out of there.   Motivation was waning.  Enter Lakshmi.  My wonderful friend agreed to join me in the gym and said I was motivating her to go as well.

However, at 3 when I went to her office to gather her up for our workout, I could tell her desire to exercise was fading.  So was mine.  I was ready to get out of there and let the weekend begin.  Sinking down into a chair in her office, I said, "Laks, I don't want to do this."  She grimaced and said, "I don't either." We looked at each other like two kids contemplating skipping school.

Then I said, "We need to go.  Come on let's get it done."  She agreed and said, "We are in training.  We can't skip."  Together, we went to the gym and got things done. Because that's whatcha gotta do to get results.

Variety

The key to getting into working out is to keep things fresh and fun.  I do something different every day, most of the time with my group.   It's almost like I have a split personality when it comes to exercise because when I'm with my friends and/or my trainers, I'm into it and push myself harder.  Alone, it becomes a chore and I don't want to do it and I tend to slack.  In every attempt before this one, I'd start out on a mission to workout and lose weight, and I went at it alone...just me and my music or a book, doing the same old thing on the treadmill.  It got old fast and sooner rather than later, I would quit.  Sylvia used to call herself "the old grouch" in the gym back before our group got together, when she'd suffer through a workout on the elliptical with just her book for company.  That she's found joy in exercising is directly linked to the formation of our Transformation team. 

We've learned a lot of different exercise options and we keep it fresh everyday so we don't get bored.  There's another added benefit to this: muscle confusion.  After a while, if you eat the same things and do the same workouts, your body gets used to it and you quit seeing results.

Today it seemed like Jeff was inspired by the start of football season as he had us running sprints and doing this thing that I think was called a T-drill.  All of us were feeling good from eating clean and we worked up a good sweat and had fun at the same time.  The old saying goes, "variety is the spice of life."  You don't want to eat the exact same thing everyday, or wear the exact same outfit.  Same goes for a workout.