Showing posts with label boot camp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boot camp. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Yesterday was the first day....

that I felt 100% healthy again! Here's hoping that I can stay this way until it's time for me to head back to the flatlands. (FINGERS AND TOES AND WHATNOT CROSSED!)

Because I was feeling sooooo great yesterday, I woke up with everyone else here at Fat Camp (I guess I really should call it Fitness Camp because quite a few of the people that come aren't fat at all...but whatever...the name seems to have stuck)...so I woke up with everyone else and rode to the gym in one of the shuttles instead of being lazy, sleeping late and driving in my own car. I went to boot camp at the butt crack of dawn and stayed at the gym...and stayed...and stayed...and stayed. We take breaks for meals. Sometimes we try to find places to hide and rest for a few minutes, but the trainers always manage to find us and "encourage" us to get back to work. :) All in all, yesterday, like every week day except Friday, we were at the gym for FOURTEEN HOURS!!! Amazing, isn't it??!!! All I know is this: if I can get up at the butt crack of dawn here in Utah (where they seem to have an amazing lack of both oxygen AND humidity in their air) five days a week and work out for quantities of hours heretofore I thought physically impossible...when I get home, it's just not going to be that big of a deal to wake up at the time I NORMALLY get up...get my kids off to school...then go spend an hour and change at the gym before I go to work instead of spending an hour and change sitting on the couch watching the news and eating frozen waffles while I wonder why my ass is so enourmous!

By the way, speaking of my ass...since I've gotten here...it's already 9.2 pounds smaller. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Germ warfare and all! Take that, ass!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Less than a week...

and counting...and I'll be on the road back to fat camp in Utah! Can you believe it? I can't. It seems like I just left there a few minutes ago. My knees are starting to ache at the very idea of living through "intervals!" I'm going to play it smart this time, though. I learned a lesson the hard way on my last trip and I'm not going to try to undo half a decade worth of french fries and chips and pints of ice cream during one morning of boot camp. First of all, IT CAN'T BE DONE!!! Secondly, getting injured sucks and just makes this process take all that much longer. See? I might be a slow learner, but I can be taught!

What do I have left to do before I go?

According to my doctor, I need to REST so I don't get any more sick than I've been.

Remember the mountain of clothes I cleaned out of my closet? I'm ashamed to admit that they're STILL in the dining room...gathering dust and waiting to be inventoried so I can give them to charity. I need to take care of that.

I need to clean house so it's not a TOTAL disaster when I get home...or at least so I feel better about leaving. My husband tends to keep things more neat than I do so I really don't have to worry too much.

I need to do a major grocery shopping expedition so I can have some glimmer of hope that my husband and younger son will eat something besides pizza and sugar cereal while I'm gone. I don't have to worry about my older son any more...all he eat nowadays are plain grilled chicken breasts, protein shakes, baked sweet potatoes, pasta, and some fruit. I'd like to see him add some vegetables to the list but at least he takes vitamins. Beggars can't be choosers. He's come a long way from the days when he was living on Nachos Bell Grande from Taco Bell. It's inspiring.

I need to get my hair cut so I don't go crazy and try to do it myself.

I need to get my younger son a new suit...today. Suffice it to say that he's made a decision to do something very difficult and I'm so very proud of him for making the right choice.

I need to get one of my four dogs to the vet for her shots and determine which of the other three is puking on the floor. I also need to try to sucker one of my boys into bathing and grooming ALL of the dogs because they're starting to smell a little "doggish" and I don't have the time, energy, or patience for this task right now. There's money it for whomever steps up to the plate.

I need to clean and rearrange all the toys in our parrot's cage so she'll be less bored while I'm gone. Don't buy a parrot if you don't have a lot of attention to spare. They're extremely demanding...and LOUD.

My car needs an oil change...and possibly new tires...and definitely new windshield wipers...and a wash.

My sister-in-law needs a ride to the medical center on Tuesday....lots of scary tests...I'll be there for transportation, comic relief, and moral support. It will be a long day for her...and me. Say a prayer for both of us.

And I need to pack!!

If I can live through the rest of this week, "Hell Week" at boot camp should be a breeze!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

So this is why...

I've been amiss in my promised blog posts, faithful readers...(to borrow a wee bit from Mr. King...those of you who read his books will know what I mean)...

To give you an idea of why I haven't been online much, here's an example of what my days have been like at Fat Camp so far:

I get up at 4 a.m.!!! Yes, you read that correctly. FOUR IN THE MORNING!! Thankfully, I'm a morning person so I don't even need an alarm clock to manage this epic feat. Unfortunately, for the rest of the people here, I'm a morning person and I'm trying to learn to be quiet before someone kills me.

As soon as I get up, I pop a Synthroid (can't eat for an hour after I take it...for a place where we're trying to lose weight, it seems like all they're ever doing here is feeding us?!?)...then shower...get dressed...dry hair...double check my backpack for:

**two extra pairs of socks
**extra panties
**an extra sports bra
**deodorant
**a full change of clothes
**flip flops for the shower (even though I always forget to put them on and will probably end up leaving here with a raging case of foot fungus)
**MY IPOD!!!! (I'm not entirely sure how I'd be living through this experience without the five hours of cardio mix I downloaded before I left...one of the smartest things I've ever done...bar none)
**gum
**Advil
**wallet
**sunglasses
**water bottle
**a jacket (it SNOWS in Utah...magic! :) )
**Chapstick
**hand lotion
**some other stuff I'm forgetting now...or have forgotten before
**anything I think I might need for the afternoon activity (more on this later)...assuming, of course, we're told about it in advance...

By 5 a.m., I'm downstairs trying to be quiet and having my first snack (one protein and one carb..i.e. a hard boiled egg and an orange) of the day.

We get picked up at 5:20 a.m.

At 6 a.m. we're at the gym and we get to start BOOT CAMP. Boot Camp is like grade school calisthenics on steroids. We do jumping jacks and pushups and lunges and whatnot until we (I) puke. Fun stuff. Really. Well, everything except the jumping jacks...and the pushups...I hate the f'ing pushups...especially the "special" ones where you clap and other such nonsense. Nothing pisses me off more than NOT being able to do something....pissed me off yesterday to the point of tears. Pathetic. On the other hand, I love a challenge. Bring 'em on!

After boot camp, we have time for about an hour of cardio. I'm learning to LOVE the elliptical machines. I would LIKE to learn to love the treadmills. Eventually, my goal is to run my ass clean off. It's taken a week to find a pair of running shoes in my size. If I'd known that Utah had such a prejudice against New Balance women's running shoes in size 9-D, I'd have picked up an extra pair before I left home. Not knowing this, however, I waited to grab some here and was trying to make do with my old ones. Ouch. I finally got some today. They're beautiful...fit perfectly...if you're all good, I might even share a picture. Can you tell I'm very excited?

After the time for cardio, we hop in big vans and go eat breakfast. No. The egg and the orange wasn't breakfast. I know. Strange. That was a "snack." Now it's time for breakfast.

Breakfast consists of more protein...more carbs....they're big here on balancing a carb with a protein. Over the course of the day, we consume about 1200 calories...so even though it feels like I'm CONSTANTLY shoving food in my mouth, I guess I'm really not. I've previously eaten 1200 calories as a snack on my way home from work to tide me over before I make dinner. Some of the more memorable breakfasts have been some sort of pseudo egg mcmuffin, oatmeal and yogurt, and PANCAKES! If I never see the broccoli quiche surprise thing again, it will be too soon. :/

We're back at the gym within about an hour. Group classes start at 8:30. Any sort of group class that you can think of, this gym offers. They have everything. It's crazy. The "Pilates for Weight Loss" class I took the other day almost killed me. Lots of the women here love Zumba (no, it's not the same as the robot vacuum thing I have...that's a "Roomba"...I checked)...Zumba is some sort of cardio/Latin dance thing. I'd rather stick hot needles in my eyes. If you're not in a cardio or strength class, you're supposed to be working out on piece of cardio equipment at this time.

At 10 a.m....Can you guess? That's right. Another snack.

Then...more classes..cardio...

Then back in the vans for lunch at around noonish.

Then back to the gym by 1 or so. We split into groups at this time. Half of us do cardio (there are about 20ish people here...maybe...I'd have to count)...and the other half of us break into smaller groups and do strength training with personal trainers...then we swap.

At 3? What do you think? Could I possibly be hungry? Not so much...but tough. Another snack. At least they have conveniently located bathrooms and garbage cans for when I puke up all these snacks while I'm trying to work out.

More cardio.

4:45...Vans leave for dinner.

An hour later...back to the gym...

At this point in time, some people have appointments for massages and such. I had one massage this week. Daily would have suited me just fine. Some people bag the gym and stay home. Everyone else goes back to the gym and does....MORE CARDIO! Sense a trend?

All the vans head home for the night between 7 and 7:30...

Home, shower, pack backpack for the next day, take nighttime meds and vitamins and a large handful of Advil, crawl into bed, sleep for what seems like a few minutes, and wake up to do it again the next day.

Saturdays are a half day. Sundays are off. Sometimes during the week (like yesterday when we went snowmobiling) we go do something fun/active in the afternoon somewhere between lunch and dinner instead of some of the other stuff, but that's all a little hazy right now.

What do I know for sure? I've launched an all out war on you, ass! One of the trainers here even gave me an instruction sheet today to prepare myself to run a 5k! Me, a 5k? You betcha!