PERFECT TIMING



May 1, 2011 I started my third weight loss challenge at Renton Results Boot camp. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=678245124#!/pages/Renton-Results-Boot-Camp/131962520198761?sk=app_4949752878

It is called “Get sexy for summer challenge”! The idea being to target those people who want to look good at the beach a bikini! Now I want to look good at the beach, 

Here's the exception --15 years ago on
our 25th Wedding anniversary
Still trying to hide in the water!
In Jamaica!!!!

but you won’t find me in a bikini or even in a swim suit unless its on a beach in Jamaica. In fact most of my bathing suit pix are from Jamaica and my one and only bikini picture too! It was 1969 and I was 22 years old! Rebekah tells me that these photo album pix were quite intriguing to her as some of them I had covered up with a piece of paper. It was her delight, I found out in more recent years, to show her friends these ‘forbidden’ pictures of her very conservative mother’s ‘wild’ days! The reason I had covered up the pix is one of them was me lying on the beach face covered with a towel from the sun looking like a cooked lobster—I was so sun burned.

Her current assessment? You looked really good, Mom. You weren’t real toned, but you were young so you looked pretty fit! Enough of this discussion!

So this challenge came at a perfect time when I was lagging in motivation and needing a challenge. I had actually put back on some of what I had lost! :0 My daughter, Rebekah,  recognized that fact and as part of our 40th wedding anniversary gift she and her husband, Keith, paid for me to do the challenge as well as another month of boot camp! Thanks so much Rebekah for being sensitive to my needs!

I saw this 3^rd challenge as an opportunity to get within very close range to my weight loss goal. This being my third time around I’m more aware of what works and what doesn’t. I immediately knew to go right back to phase one of Green faces, eating plan which in a sentence or two looks like this:

For most beginners we put them on a “green faces” diet. Which means—the food has to have had, or going to have, a face or grow out of the ground green or you can’t eat it.

Yes it is that simple, but there IS more to it! Along with green faces, I had renewed accountability to drink more water. We were given a suggested list of training to do on our own along with the boot camp sessions. This challenge included once a week small group boot camp sessions with about 6 of us in the group. These small groups really kick up the intensity to another more challenging level providing more personalized training, form corrections, and motivation.

My weekly work out during this challenge looked like:

Sunday: Rest

Monday:  AM Bootcamp; PM intervals—I jumped rope

Tuesday: AM Small group; PM body weight complex

Wednesday: Same as Monday

Thursday: AM Speed walking with my husband on our neighborhood hills/PM 4 minutes of push ups

Friday:  Same as Monday

Saturday: AM Boot camp/PM 3 minutes of V-sits

This was my most successful time of doing exercises on my own. It is so helpful for me to have a definite schedule of exercises. A big difference with this challenge is that I’m now at a fitness and experience level where I know a lot more of what to do and can actually do it!

Even with all this knowledge and motivation I had now been into this weight loss thing for 8 months and taken off 44#’s. But, for about a month now I’d been struggling, not eating really bad, but not really clean either. I was dreading the weigh in for the beginning of this challenge. I didn’t realize it was the morning we were to weigh in, so I’d drunk my quart of water and part of my work out shake before boot camp. I was not feeling good about stepping on the scales. On top of that, the gym scales always weigh me heavier than mine at home!  Well, I did NOT like the number on the scales—204#’s. That was back up from the end of the past challenge when I came in second place with a 15# weight loss. Pam, one of the trainers, encouraged me that it was O.K.. This is a new beginning so this is good!  

I reminded myself of “THE SCALES” and how fickle they can be. I reminded myself that the number on the scales is not who I am. I chose to celebrate once again how far I had come and how the timing of this challenge is just what I needed to keep going in the right direction. So once again I was off and running!  This time it was only 6 weeks, so I had to hop right on it with all I had learned and really make it work!

I looked in my journal and noted on the first day of the challenge this assortment of entries: 

“I have continued my journey to health and fitness. Even though I didn’t feel that I did as well as I should have, I still came in second in the weight loss challenge ending in March." My rambling thoughts continued: "I’m going to hit the gate running this time and take off some early pounds as I do this next challenge! I’ve been able to work through some minor 'injuries' and maintain most of my current achievements in weight loss. I’m working on that positive attitude! I’m having trouble with motivation for some of my projects and home front activities. Maybe a bit depressed or burned out. My blog has helped me to look at things once avoided and process various times and events in my life. I need to not let things bother me, but turn them over to the Lord. I’m learning strategies along the way that will help me maintain my fitness and health as a permanent life style. My mind is gradually doing a paradigm shift from fat and hopeless failure to fit, focused and flourishing!”   Wow, this was really an assortment of thoughts coming from all directions!!!

I set these goals for the 6 week challenge:

ÿ    Reach the 180’s from starting weight of 204.6

ÿ    Fit into size 10 jeans

ÿ    Increase my strength and stamina

ÿ    Do 20 burpees non-stop

ÿ    Reduce my muffin top

ÿ    Take life-time charge of my eating to make better choices

ÿ    Have my blog totally up to date

ÿ    Plan and shop for every meal at start of week

ÿ    Cook ahead as many of those meals as possible

ÿ    Record everything I eat and drink

ÿ    Get 7 hours of sleep

ÿ    Look for exercise opportunities:  Shoot baskets with my grandkids; take the stairs 2 at a time; walk with husband in neighborhood;

ÿ    Put more into each work out

ÿ    Win the transformation contest J

My experience with small groups began in January when I participated in a weekly group for 8 weeks. At that time I felt like I was back at the start of boot camp again. Even though I could do most things to some degree, it was all new and I was exhausted. We started with warm ups the length of the gym instead of standing in one place. Because there were only 6 of us rather than the 20 to 30 at boot camp, we could utilize all the gym! Over the 8 weeks, my strength increased significantly!

As I began small group in May, I found that I was the “pro”---Would you believe it!  Everyone else was there for the first time. I could do the work outs, so now was the time to push myself and take it to a new level! I began to back off the number of repetitions in favor of a more challenging progression and/or weight! There’s never a time I--or should I say Luka, Albert, or Pam--can’t find a way to challenge my body. This is a continual journey of arriving to a destination, a brief stop along the way, but then continuing the journey in maintaining, increasing, and improving!  I love small groups. I love getting to know the people in them. We become a team working together encouraging and challenging each other.

As Albert, small group trainer, was explaining the first work out of this new small group, I’m thinking about the regression he gave me last time for the bear crawls. He had mercy on me and had me do knees to elbows. Can you imagine my surprise when I found I was able to do bear crawls the length of the gym!!! Hooray!!   However, the other day at boot camp we were to do bear crawls forward and backward the width of the gym. Forward is fine, but backward??? Another mountain for me to conquer and more practice at home!!

Another first for me was two semi-private sessions with Luka. These were part of the 2nd place prize from the last challenge and included 3 or 4 participants. It was also an EXPERIENCE! I found out that I could step up and over a box--a tall box for me--back and forth for 30 seconds with 30 second break and repeat it 4 times; that I could push the prowler with 50 pounds on it the length of the gym and back several times; that I could do kettle bell swings with the correct form and increase the weight form 35 to 45 pounds! 

The second semi-private session I did was called Hurricanes. I've never been in a hurricane. My husband has and if our work out is anything like a real hurricane, I don't ever want to be in one!  Basically we did three sets of 4 different exercise and sprinted a LONG way down the street between each set:  It went something like this:  12 kettle bell swings--sprint; (do this 3 sets)  12 squat and thrust with 18 pound kettle bell--sprint (3 sets)--then do other arm(repeat), 15 band pull backs/sprint (3 sets) AND to end it? 12 burpees/sprint---do a total of 3 times!  I finished last, but I did finish and Rebekah though finished already, ran the last sprint with me to keep me going!  It was HARD!  Then we did a similar version of it on Saturday boot camp 2 days later as well as something with a lot of sprinting at Friday boot camp!  I loved it Luka because I know it pushed me beyond my limits at the time! And I was so happy that I finished!!! You didn't let me off easy!

The 6 weeks sailed by and soon it was time to weigh in again!  This time I had lost 16 pounds in 6 weeks. I think that was pretty good. Don’t know what placing that is yet, but hope its good enough to reach my 1^st place goal!! We shall see.

Oh, by the way---my goals?  Yes I am in the 180’s now, I can still breathe when I put on a pair of size 10 jeans! And tghey are getting looser and more comfortable all the time!! lol I kept my journal faithfully and turned in a report of every thing eaten to Luka; planned ahead and prepared all my meals; found exercise opportunities in everyday life; caught up my blog; Have done 20 straight burpees and reached a new high of 16 in 1 minute; doing better at getting that needed sleep---in fact I reached all my goals—that muffin top is GREATLY reduced PTL, so 1^st place must be in there some place too! LOL  

        [ 244# 9/6/2010]          [222# 11/11/2010]      [204# 3/18/2011]   [188# 6/13/2011]
My progression of weight loss

AND a side note!! I just recently bought a swim suit. No it is not a bikini, but a swim suit none the less and I plan to wear it at a swimsuit friendly lake where an understanding friend lives!!

Thanks for visiting with this  "Babyboomergrandma".  It is indeed a life-time journey!! Until next time, and a report on the weight loss challenge, may God richly bless YOUR life.