In the past my mind set for the holidays was eat, drink [non-alcoholic--J] and be merry! Starting with all the chocolate Halloween goodies and ‘ending’ with New years day—or would it be Valentines—then there’s Easter, St. Patrick’s day, Memorial day, 4th of July, birthdays, anniversaries—when was there never an opportunity or occasion to eat, eat, EAT??? I would kid myself into thinking that it would just be short term. It was more like long term with intermittent SHORT interruptions of conscience and determination to eat right.
BUT, this year was going to be different. When Halloween came along I was still on the last leg of the 'Back to School' weight loss challenge. That took care of any temptations for chocolates. When we completed our weigh-in mid November I was well on my way to eating right, so that for Thanksgiving I could eat the healthy choices! Plus, we were going to have a Transformation Party soon where the winners of the contest would be announced and I needed to be serious about looking good for it!
The bottom line was that I had made a conscious choice to eat healthy and that was not determined only by a contest. I couldn’t be in contests the rest of my life, so I just kept right on eating like I should through all the holidays. The 21st of December I had my yearly Physical Exam at the Drs. The usually unfriendly scales told a whole different story this time. They were my ally weighing me in at 212 pounds---down another 10 pounds since the end of the challenge! WhoHOOO!! I could have kissed those scales that day!!
As the new year started I was well on my way and proving to myself that I could keep on track. I joined the next weight loss challenge that began on the 22nd of January. My weigh-in confirmed that I had kept off all the weight I had lost in December. This time I added a small group boot camp session once a week for the 8 weeks. The challenge of this small group were many for me! For one there were fewer people, so the intensity was kicked up quite a few notches and it was at 7:45 PM! Isn’t it obvious that I’m a morning person—choosing to go to the 5:45 AM boot camp???? That is definitely not by chance that I go at that hour!! Challenges are good for our brain, our body, our attitude, …… I must admit that the first night of small group I almost felt like I was back at my beginning days of boot camp! Warm ups were more intense and the first night included bear crawls. Fortunately for me, Albert, the small group trainer, switched me to the regression of knees to elbows rather than bear crawls. Over the course of the 8 weeks my strength and stamina continued to increase. Albert challenged me to use heavier weights and to do the more difficult progression of the exercises. The big 25 foot ropes became a challenging favorite of mine!
I had great progress and found boot camp getting a bit easier for me each week. Calling boot camp easier is very dangerous---Luka does not like to hear that we have not been challenged. So when I say easier I’m just saying I could actually DO some form of most of the exercises now. What is so wonderful about boot camp, however, is that you never arrive at an ultimate level because there’s always something more to do to challenge your body. That’s why all fitness levels can be successful in the same boot camp. No longer were they letting me ‘get away with’ the easier moves, but were challenging me to kick it up a notch every time!
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| 198 Pounds--first time below the 200# barrier in years! |
The 8 week challenge was over in no time and that ended my small group session. I really missed them, but I had learned so much that would help me in regular boot camp. At the end of the 8 weeks came another weigh in. This time I lost 15+ pounds. Not as much as my first time, but I was satisfied.
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| With my sweetheart of 40+ years at the transformation party! |
My husband accompanied me to the follow up party since he hadn’t been at the first one when I won second place. I thought it was too bad he was coming to this one rather than the other since I didn’t expect to win anything this time. Can you imagine my delight and surprise as Luka is introducing the second place winner----She’s been in this spot before, etc. etc----It was ME!!!! Wow! What can I say? I’ll take second place a second time! I’m just so grateful for the encouragement and support of friends, family, fellow boot campers, and Renton Results Boot Camp staff! One of the reasons I have included so many of my very humbling ‘fat’ pictures is that I want my friends to know there is hope for them if they are struggling with weight. If this 64 1/2 year old baby boomer grandma can join a boot camp with ‘kids’ half her age then you can do it too!
Still got more on this continuing journey---yet to come are "Picture, Picture on the Wall---my wall of Pain," "Spanx to the Rescue", "What's on Your Mind?"---Thanks for visiting with me once again and until next time, may the Lord richly bless YOU.
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