Boot Camp - Day 1

7 weeks ago I took over my health and fitness and committed to a Total Fitness program at the gym. I decided I was no longer willing to keep gaining weight and I wanted to take control once and for all. Plus, I wanted to look hot for my Honey by R&R).

I workout for an hour 4-days a week and have made dramatic dietary changes. So far I have dropped 14 pounds and I'm not sure how many inches. Each workout I push myself a little more and have gotten to enjoy (and look forward to going) my workouts - so much that I no longer mind getting up at 0430 to get there by 0500.

Then today came...a day I had been dreading for a week! I signed up for a 6-week Boot Camp class - it started at 0500 this morning.
Let me just say that it was harder than I imagined! The instructor has been doing the boot camp class for 8 years and her call to show mercy had long been silenced! It was 60 minutes – nonstop – and brutal! We started out seeing how many push ups we could do in 1 minute….I did 25. The over-achiever next to me did something like 45. (I'm no puss...I'm 44...whatever)! By the end of the class I had to do 30 - five more than what I started with.  (Yeah the over-achiever had to do 50...she was not so over-achieving by this point - I tried to smirk, but it hurt too much).

Then somewhere along the way we alternated from sit-up/crunches to jumping jacks. Each exercise was 1 minute with less than 15 seconds in between….all going so fast that my head was spinning (literally, I couldn't think)! Usually the 15 second "break" was spent trying to get down to or up from the floor. Somewhere along the way I vaguely remember doing squats (uggg) – double and single. I say “vaguely” because I think I blacked out somewhere between the burpees and the squats.

Oh, it gets better…we ran around the inside of the gym (it was raining out), followed by a bazillion and one “surrenders” – only she wouldn’t let us surrender (or else she would, but the ringing in my ears and my sucking for air due to lack of oxygen, drowned her out). It gets even better… the Turkish sit-up…or pull-up…whatever! I couldn’t do it…really. And not because I was lazy, I just couldn’t do the one legged sit-up followed by standing up with one arm raised above my head. Yeah, the skinny, kid-chick in front of me could do them like no bodies business. The bitch! You know the type, 18 to 20, never birthed a kid, been worn down by teenagers, arrived at middle age or hit menopause – I hate skinny kid-chicks! Anyway, I was proud that I at least got the sit-up  part (as I have a hard time doing a sit-up without (1) having my feet secured and (2) doing a crunch instead..and I did it with one arm raised above my head.

Get this…there was a plank thing – attached to it was a ‘hermes’…not quite sure I have that right – remember the ringing in my ears and the blacking out (yeah, that happened again)?! We got to plank then had to put one arm down on the ground, then the other, then each one back up. There were leg lifts (of course there were) followed by holding our feet 1 inch from the ground. WTF? I swear on my old cat's (Harley) grave out beside the house in Athens, that we did those for MORE than 60 seconds - she was totally going over her count. Isn't there a rule about that?!?!

This was all within the first 30 minutes….we had to do all of this again for another 30 minutes!
ALL. OF. IT!

I think there were a couple of other exercised thrown in there, but my brain is trying to protect me in some way; I can't rememebr what they were.

No mercy! None. Zip.

When I got home and in the shower I could barely lift my legs to shave them. I even considered throwing on tights and wearing boots instead of shaving…but if you know me personally..you KNOW that I couldn't have made it out of the house before stripping off and getting those legs shaved.

Right now…the pain is starting to settle in, but I can’t pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from. I’m afraid to cry because I just know that it will hurt to raise my arm and wipe the tears!

Oh. My. Goodness!

Peace, Love & What the Hell Was I Thinking?

SHARING.... My Honey's email response to my bootcamp experience (don't hate because he's so awesome):

From: Richardson, {Rich}

Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 10:15 AM
To: Richardson, Renee
Subject: RE: So...boot camp (UNCLASSIFIED)

Honey,
I’m so proud of you for taking the first beating, punishment, step! The hardest part is yet to come. Yes, more pain! But now it’s self inflicted at least until next week when you return to boot camp. Meaning, you need to keep going to the gym and stick with your own plan all in preparation for next week’s punishment.

No matter what, you are my skinny kid-chick always have been and always will be!
Oh yeah! Take about 800mg of Ibuprofen and that will help.

I love you my dear!
Rich