If there's one thing I learned from watching the Biggest Loser

It's not to complain to your trainer about how hard things are, how much you hurt, etc.

Case in point: I met Tina at 9AM yesterday morning for our first one on one session. She made me warm up on the elliptical for 10 minutes, and then put me through 4 minute circuits of various cardio (butt kicks, high knees, wall jumps) and strength (turtles, pelvic tilts, planks) moves. It went like this: 20 seconds on, 10 second rest for four minutes, and at the end of the four minutes, we moved from a cardio move to a strength move. The first, oh, ten minutes of this wasn't bad. Then she told me to do burpees. How do I put this?

Oh, HELL no. Tuesday's boot camp had me doing so many burpees, that I just couldn't do them. And while Tina agreed that burpees were the creation of the devil himself, she made me do a modified version of them anyhow.

While doing various moves, we chatted, she sipped water and watched while I sweated. She told me that I had good form, and I told her that I thought she was a liar (jokingly... maybe). Later on in the workout, she told me that she's glad that I wasn't a complainer, and that other people would flat out refuse to do things other than ask for an alternative, and by not complaining, she knew that I was here to work.

Uh, no. I've watched Biggest Loser for long enough to know that if you complain to your trainer about how you hurt, THEY WILL HURT YOU MORE. Out of love, of course :)

Towards the end of the workout, I was dying. I honestly never sweat so much before. The last 4 minutes was me alternating wall jumps for 20 seconds, rest for 10, plank for 20, rest for 10, back to wall jumps. That's when she totally caught me slacking and said "three, two, one does not mean STOP! If you do not hold this plank for the next 20 seconds, you'll have to do two more minutes." Needless to say, I held onto that plank in perfect form for dear life, past her count of "3, 2, 1" until she said, okay you're done.

That Tina is a beast. I have a huge bruise on my right knee (I'm guessing from those damned burpees), my whole body is sore (but mostly my glutes and hamstrings), and... I'm going back for more. Another boot camp class tonight, although Tina, not Frog Man will be leading it.

Pray that I can walk tomorrow :)

Trouty Mouth

Oh froggy lips... Yes, I love Glee. This season hasn't been as great as the first one, but Santana's ode to her then boyfriend's lips are what was on my mind last night at boot camp... because our instructor was, I swear, part frog. I've never seen someone jump so high!

From what I understand, the Fit Camp program is being run by two trainers: a female trainer (Tina) and a male trainer (Nick). Needless to say, I was expecting Tina when I walked into class last night, and instead, Nick was leading class. And he was indeed a maniac. After a quick warm up (jogging around the room, walking lunges, etc) he lead us through a few cardio/calisthenic circuits. Burpees, mountain climbers, 180 degree jumps... yeah, about half way through this section, I thought I was going to throw up, Biggest Loser style. No joke. We did some arms/weights (stuff I actually enjoy), and then he made us line up on the side of the room. We did some side shuffles, jumping squats (did I mention he liked jumping?), and the dreaded spider crawl.

I did the best I could, even though I couldn't make it through all the circuits, I went as far as I could. Nick didn't do what Tina promised, which was give some modifications for people who couldn't do the moves (hello spider crawl), and I actually heard some of the regular boot campers say that they didn't like what he was doing, and that Tina ran the class a little differently. Tina will be leading Thursday's class, so hopefully it won't be so bad.

Somehow, I was able to walk to my car, walk up the stairs to my apartment, and collapse on my couch for an hour before I was able to get up and shower. My legs felt like Jello, and I felt a little sore this morning, but I know that that just means that it's working.

Now off to personal training. Hopefully, I'll be able to walk after this morning :)

The first day of bootcamp!!!!

And I slept through my workout.

Yes, I am that awesome. Granted, today wasn't a normal morning. Mr. Kiki set the alarm clock for 5AM, as he had to drive two hours to a meeting this morning. So, I sent the alarm on my Iphone for 6:45. No problem, right? As always, I woke up when Mr. Kiki kissed me goodbye, and promptly fell back asleep. I had another hour to sleep, and my alarm was set.

That's when I had this weird dream about having to go to this work meeting, except, I was walking, I didn't know what time it was or what building it was in, and I kept calling and texting two of my work friends asking where it was, that I was going to be late, could they let the boss know...

And when I woke up, it was 7:15. The workout started at 7:30 and there was no way that I would be able to get dressed and over to the gym without being late. When I looked at my Iphone, I saw that I had set the alarm for 6:45PM, not AM. Ugh.

I decided that I'm going to head to the gym later, and put in 45 minutes on the elliptical and come home to do either the Biggest Loser Boot Camp video or (and I cringe as I suggest this) Level 1 of the 30 Day Shred. I may have missed my scheduled group workout, but that doesn't mean the day is a waste :)

Under Pressure

I'm pretty sure that my primary care physician thinks I'm a big cry baby. I actually found him when my real doctor was out on maternity leave, but I hadn't been getting many good vibes from her (she just didn't seem to listen, which to me, is important in a doctor). What I liked about him right off the bat was that he really listened to what I had to say, including a meltdown where I cried in front of him about tenure, getting journal rejection after journal rejection, and how I just felt stuck at this job... and especially how I felt guilty about taking time to work out when I should be working.

I came across this interesting study yesterday on another blog built by people in my profession. It claims that assistant professors who are seeking tenure are more likely to cut their exercise time. This quote really hit home: "For assistant professors, the problems are more acute because they are 'aiming to be tenured [and] have reported higher levels of stress, negative physical health symptoms, and work-life imbalance compared to other professional workers as a result of their early career expectations.'"

Uh... yeah. This describes me to a T. As I near my critical year (which is just about 18 months away), I am a nervous wreck. High levels of stress? Ha. A daily occurrence. Negative physical health symptoms? Other than regaining half of the weight I had lost, let's talk about my hypertension as well. Work-life imbalance? Please feel free to ask my fiance about this... which of course, I feel horribly guilty about as well. I keep saying that I'll be up for tenure soon enough, but damn... this is a horrid time in my life.

My doctor advised me to stop waiting until my life "returned to normal". Sure, I'm under a lot of stress right now, and while that stress might leave my life soon, there will be other stresses and demands on my time in the future. I just need to change now. I guess I'm just glad to read this article and realize there are others out there like me.

Sizing Up

Monday afternoon, I had an appointment to meet my personal trainer who will be in charge of helping me out during my boot camp. Her name is Tina, and honestly, she couldn't be more than 22 years old. Sure, I go to the student rec center to work out, and of course, the rec is staffed by students who are athletic training majors, so this shouldn't be any surprise, but when she asked me to take off my shoes and socks to step on the scale/body fat machine, which was then followed by a "how old and how tall are you?" I was a little sheepish to admit that I was indeed 31 (it's been two months... is this the first time I've actually said that outloud?)

After having a "WHOA/Aha" moment on the body fat machine, she took me back to an office to fill out a few forms and to put me through a physical fitness test. It involved how many pushups I could do on my own (13, knees down... pathetic), how many situps I could do in 60 seconds (48, pretty good if I do say so myself), and how fast I could walk a mile (15:15, not too shabby, considering my short legs--- even Tina admitted that one!) Tina also took my measurements (ugh), and then I asked her some questions about the boot camp itself.

Boot campers have to commit to going to at least two group workouts a week (there are four scheduled per week) as well as having an hour long workout session with a trainer each week. I'm going to commit to making three of the four workouts, mainly because the Wednesday session is at 6:15AM... and there is no way that's happening. So, right now, I'm working out with the group on Monday mornings, and then Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and working with Tina on Wednesday. I am super nervous about the whole thing, which starts on Monday. Will I be able to make it through a workout? Are they going to want me to run? Will this all be worth it in the end?

Tina already told me that what I put into it is what I'm going to get out of it, so I just need to keep it all in perspective.

Looking back, looking forward

Over the past few weeks, I've realized that I've been living a lie. In my head, I was telling myself that over the past eighteen months, I regained 30 of the 70 pounds I had lost. I finally redid the math and realized that it was forty pounds. How does that happen? How does someone go from losing to gaining again?

Here's a little bit of background: in August 2007, I had a life changing event occur, and I realized that it was my time to do something about the weight that I had gained in graduate school. I couldn't even tell you how much I weighed at my highest. I didn't step on a scale, and I just didn't care. I started slowly, but by spring 2008, I was exercising regularly, eating well, and challenging myself: I started the Couch to 5K program, learned how to ride a bike (finally!), went rock climbing for the first time, and just pushed myself throughout summer 2009. Fall 2009 start out rockily: due to a family emergency, I spent close to two weeks driving between my hometown and my job (five hours each way) so I could be near my family. After that, the schedule I set up just fell apart. And since that time, I just didn't get my motivation back. I quit the gym, quit worrying about what went in my mouth, and just "enjoyed life".

How ironic, huh?

I'm at that point where I'm seeing a number on the scale that I never imagined would be staring back at me. I'm dealing with some health problems that I thought were behind me. I'm having to shop in the "women's" section of a clothing store rather than the "misses'" section (grrr... I promised myself that I would never set foot in a Lane Bryant again, and I haven't yet, but it's getting hard not to). Most of my clothes don't fit, and it's not a joy to go shopping because you *have* to get a larger size.

So, what am I doing about this? I decided to take this summer to regain what I lost. And maybe along the way, I can figure out what it was that I lost, because I cannot point to one thing to say "This is why my behavior changed." I've signed up for a "Fit Camp" at my university's gym. It's a little daunting, mainly because I'm guessing that most of the people who will be in this camp are a good ten years younger than me. I'm going for my assessment today, and starting next week, I'm obligated to go to two group boot camp classes and one personal trainer session each week. I'm hoping that this is what I need... a little structure, a little push, to get me back to where I was.