Day Twenty-Eight – New Challenges (Tue., Mar 31st)

Today’s workouts:
• Beach Walk (2 miles, under 1 hr)
• Weigh-in & measurements
• Abs/Core workout (1/2 hr)
• Swimming (50 laps, 1 hr)
• 1-on-1 training (1 hr)
• Cardio (1/2 hr)
• Gym Boot Camp (1 ½ hr)

Today started off with a fantastic beach walk. The tide was low, the sand was flat, packed, and widespread, and the temperature was just right. It was so clear, too, that the pier seemed closer than usual. We were a small group for the walk, and the others were running, so I started as soon as we arrived to get a head start because they’d be waiting on me at the end of it all. Not far into the walk Nicola joined me and really picked up my pace. I made it to the pier in just under 25 minutes! Wow! So, I turned around as I normally do, and Nicola joined up with Fern who was jogging. I slowed down a little bit, but still tried to go as fast as I could without getting breathless. I had to stop at one point, though, because the sand was like a mirror and there was a small flock of birds whose reflections were nearly perfect on the sand. I couldn’t let this photo opportunity pass me by; I wish I had had my Nikon D40 instead of just the camera on my Blackberry Storm. I’ve included the photo below to the right; it’s really much prettier than it appears here. I returned to the start of the walk within 50 minutes…my personal best. I did some stretching while I waited for the others (who were on their second jog to the pier!). When I joined them, Nicola said that it’s time for me to go further (i.e., past the pier) so I will try that on Thursday! Hopefully the conditions will be as good as they were this morning. It was just perfect! And actually, I’ve been wondering what’s past that pier ;-)

We went straight to Nicola’s office for my weigh-in and measurements. I had a feeling it was NOT going to be as good of a weigh-in as the previous three weigh-ins. I had been looking in the mirror and I didn’t feel that much different than the previous week. The pounds lost reveal that I’m consistent at least…another 4 lbs. That’s 15 ¾ lbs in 28 days. In inches, I lost another in my abdomen and butt and a little here and there, adding up to only 3 ¾ inches, my smallest loss. However, when you add all that together, I’ve lost over 34 inches in 28 days. That’s pretty impressive and I’m very happy with that.

I know that the reason I’m losing the most inches in my abdomen is because of all the “Abs/Core” workouts. These are BRUTAL! Crunches, reverse crunches, planks, pushups, scissor kicks, etc., etc. These are harder than anything else that I have to do (except for that dang Sand Dune) but they obviously work. We work on Abs/Core several times a day, whether as a separate workout or integrated into boot camps or other workouts.

I’ve mentioned that I want to suck out all that weight on my thighs so that I can make my legs move faster. Swimming is great for this, so happily we were heading to the pool as usual (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Alas…we forgot the fins and goggles! I can swim just fine WITHOUT the exercise fins, but I can swim more laps while wearing them. So, today, I did 50 laps, mostly freestyle, but also some with the float between my knees, which forces you to use arms only. Also did a few with the kickboard, but it was slow-going with that, which is why I did mostly freestyle. Doing the freestyle makes my heart rate go higher longer, but it was manageable. Meanwhile, Nicoletta (not Nicola) cranked out 96 laps – that’s a mile-and-a-half! See…this is why I need my legs to be smaller. Even WITH exercise flippers I haven’t been able to do 96 laps. I was pleased, however, with how well I did using arms only. I can feel my back getting stronger; actually I think it was pretty strong in the first place. It has to be! Have you seen my “girls”?! It’s a workout for me just to keep my posture straight to hold them up ;-P

After lunch and a counseling session I was meant to have partner training with Marco, but as Arnae was out today I had him all to myself. I love the 1-on-1 and 2-on-1 sessions with the trainers. They are all extremely attentive to all of us even when we’re doing a group workout, but with only 1 or 2 of us, obviously they can spend more time with us and have a critical eye. Today Marco worked my back and arms, and let me tell you, my triceps were DONE. Put a fork in ‘em! He increased the weight on a bar that I lifted. Sue (aka Miss Bermuda) had suggested to me that I shouldn’t think about the weight…just do it! And I did. I didn’t even look at the numbers on the end of the dumbbells or on the bar. There was one lift which I couldn’t handle so he modified it for me and I was able to handle the weight in a different position. I realized, too, that this was another challenge…more weight and increased repetitions. It feels great when I do try something harder and I can do it or at least almost do it. At least I tried! At the end of the hour, though, my arms were just busted, and I could barely lift my bottle of water to get a sip. Oh, I forgot to mention…EVIL Marco made me run! Aaaaargh!! I really, really hate running. Besides trying to carry all this weight on my knees, it just plain hurts “my girls.” They especially hate it when I run ;-)

I was meant to have an hour of cardio but I was absolutely drained. Besides that, I had a fun session (that went on longer than scheduled) with Karen, our nutritionist. She cracks me up. Nevertheless, I managed to get in 30 solid minutes of cardio on a treadmill before the gym boot camp with Marco started. But before that, we had to say g’bye to Amber ;-( Today was her last day, and as I’ve previously mentioned, she will be sorely missed. Amber has definitely challenged me and helped me to achieve things that I didn’t know that I could do. I’ve learned a lot about posture and exercising in general from Amber, too; this is invaluable to me and to anyone else that Amber has trained, I’m sure.

For boot camp, I think there were eight of us participating and Marco was pushing hard. I really need to learn how to do a proper pushup. No matter how hard I try, I cannot push myself up from the ground nor lower myself to the ground without plopping down hard. At the end of it, I was absolutely exhausted and I had nothing left in my arms (he did more arm and upper body work with us). HOW I was going to hold myself up on my bicycle I do not know! Before leaving Marco said that he was going to push me harder; I’m totally OK with that. I do feel like I’ve stepped up my game a bit and I’m ready for more challenges. Even that FREAKING SAND DUNE FROM HELL. I hated that damn hill but, dammit, I’m gonna conquer it.

Tomorrow I want to conquer the other bike ride. Marco usually takes us northward for a much prettier bike ride while Schuyler usually takes us southward on the bike path that has more hills and isn’t as pretty. Yesterday I finally made it all the way to the end of the northward path. Tomorrow I want to get all the way on the southward path. Before the bike ride we have circuit training – Lord, I hope my legs can do both! I also have 2-on-1 training, cardio, and another gym boot camp (I bet evil Marco will be back!). Tomorrow is April Fools’ Day, too. Gosh, I wonder if there are any tricks which we can play on each other in the gym? If you have any good April Fools’ Day stories, let me know. In Bermuda, keep an eye on eMoo. Every year someone tries to get a bogus ad through the approval process. Hopefully no harm will be done…just a few inconveniences ;-)

Have a great day, y’all!

Day Twenty-Seven – No Distractions, Please! (Mon., Mar 30th)

Today’s workouts:
• Bike Ride (15 miles, 2 hrs, personal best)
• 1-hr Cardio
• Massage!
• 1-on-1 session (1hr)
• Gym Boot Camp (1hr)

So, I’ve had a not-so-perky-as-usual attitude the last three days, initiated by the climb up the Dune of Hell on Friday morning. Throughout the weekend, though, I lost my focus. I let myself be distracted by unnecessary things and while I completed all of my required workouts, my heart wasn’t in them and I only felt tired instead of good and tired after each one. Even this morning, during the bike ride, which I normally love, I couldn’t shake whatever the distraction was. I even made it to the end of the trail. Hadn’t done that before. And instead of being excited and satisfied as I should have, I stopped, looked at it, adjusted my bike seat, and turned around. What an idiot. I should have been really proud. I AM proud NOW but at the time it just rolled off my back. On the return trip, though, I kept thinking about why I was annoyed or perturbed or sad or distracted or whatever. And I figured it out. I let things over which I have no control distract me from my goal and make me lose focus. Y’know, it feels GREAT to be absolutely focused on a goal. I really can’t remember the last time I focused on a goal and actually achieved it. Maybe finishing university? That was a very difficult time for me and due to distractions at THAT time, I didn’t do so well in one of my final classes and fell .003 short of achieving cum laude. Right now, though, I have only one goal, and that is to lose pounds and inches and change my lifestyle so that I will do something healthy every day for the rest of my life – and hopefully it will be a much longer life now than previously expected. So, by the time I was back in the gym, my attitude had improved and I was pretty sure Desdemona had gone into hiding.

We had fish & chips for our hot lunch. They weren’t like the best fish & chips that I’ve ever had in Surrey, England nearly two years ago, but they were pretty good (not fried, of course, but panko-breaded and nicely seasoned). I can’t say often enough how good the meals are. I had a turkey enchilada this weekend that was to die for. I think it has surpassed the turkey lasagna as my favorite meal so far. Gimme more o’dat! Claire spoke to us during our lunch about inspiration. This was of particular interest to me because I’ve had so many notes from lots of you saying that I’ve inspired you (which just makes my heart explode with joy). I had to think about what inspires me. I couldn’t think of a LOT of inspirations over the years, but I did think of the ones that really stuck with me and upon which I acted. Most recently, the bodybuilders at Seaview Gym have inspired me with their dedication and discipline. At Camp Technique I’m inspired by the campers who’ve been here several weeks because I want to get as strong as they are. A few years ago in Bermuda, I was inspired by a colleague who refused to engage in gossip. I respected her so much for that and it made me want to endeavor to not gossip either (I don’t always succeed!). Over the long-term, I have been inspired by the work ethic that both of my parents have exhibited my entire life. Had I not learned from their example, then I would not have been successful as a tax CPA and later an entrepreneur, and now in my current “job” of working out all day every day. There are other inspirations over the years, too, but these are the ones that are most present in my mind. I hope you’ve had inspirations over the years which have helped you to do good in the world.

Following an hour of cardio and the first of my twice-a-week massages, I had a 1-on-1 session with Marco. We worked on chest and arms, and honey, they feel like jello right now! I saw that Marco increased the weight on some of the exercises. I took Miss Bermuda’s (bka Sue Rebello) advice and didn’t think about the weight and JUST DID IT. It worked. And when I was sooo tired and doing these back row/squat things, I pushed through it. I’m yelling or grunting a lot more, too. I swear it helps! Following this we had a gym boot camp with Marco and he had us working on chest and arms again. I lost count of all the chest presses, pushups, chest flies, back row/squats, and everything else that I did in those two hours. I did the freaking planks though, on the Bosu ball. When I get down to the ground to do them, I have to psych myself up for it ‘cause I have to hold it for 30 seconds and make sure my butt isn’t up in the air. Those suckers hurt but I did ‘em.

Thus, thankfully, I’m back to my usual happy self and am looking forward to each day ahead. Tuesday means beach walk to the pier, swimming, and maybe measurements? Weigh-in wasn’t on the schedule when it was printed but I think I can ask for it. It doesn’t look like I’ve lost many inches in the last week, so maybe this time the number of pounds lost will increase. We shall see!

As always, I hope your week has started off nicely and you have productive plans ahead. Ciao for now!

Days Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six – How Do You Get An Evil Twin To Shut Up?

Saturday’s Schedule:
• Beach Boot Camp (2 hrs)
• Group Circuit Training (11 machines and cardio between each one) (1 ½ hrs)

Sunday’s Workout (2 hrs):
• 10-minutes cardio
• Upper Body Machines: 50 Chest Flies, 50 Lateral Pulldowns, 50 shoulder presses, 50 bicep curls, 50 tricep pushdowns
• 2-minutes cardio
• Upper body with free weights: 50 chest press, 50 back rows, 50 side raises, 50 hammer curls, 50 overhead tricep extensions
• 2-minutes cardio
• Lower Body Machines: 50 Leg presses, 50 leg extensions, 50 Leg curls, 50 inner thigh, 50 outer thigh
• 2-minutes cardio
• Lower body with free weights: 50 regular squats; 50 Duck squats; 50 lateral leg raises; 50 front leg raises; 50 back leg raises
• 2-minutes cardio
• Abdominal exercises on mat: 50 regular crunches; 50 butterfly crunches; 50 Russian twists; 50 reverse crunches; 50 “reach for the stars” crunches
• 10 final minutes of cardio

Saturday was a gorgeous, blue-skied, comfortable day. My Evil Twin, Desdemona (thanks to my sister Kitti for coming up with that one; Donna means “lady” and Desdemona means “wretchedness”) decided that she was going to try to ruin it while at the beach today. As usual we had our Saturday Boot Camp at the beach. We welcomed a new trainer, Jason, and sadly it was Amber’s last Saturday with us for awhile as she’s off to Asia for an exciting opportunity in the fitness world. Amber will be sorely missed, but I would take off for two months for this opportunity if I was in her position, too. We started our boot camp a little later than usual so it was warmer than usual (yaaaaaay! You know I prefer warmer temperatures). Marco was there as well. After a short warmup trek through the sand, we all went around the Bird Cage. I’m trying to beat my time of 15:12 but can’t seem to make my legs move fast enough. This made me think about just how heavy each of my legs is. Have you seen my thighs? They’re huge! And honey, those aren’t calves, those are steers! Anyway, made it around the Bird Cage in about the same time and joined the group for various drills in the sand. As we were doing them, Desdemona was needling me as much as she could, AGAIN questioning the value of these exercises in the sand that just drained the life out of me and making me hate the sand and making me not want to do anything else. And I used to love the sand…at least, Bermuda sand. It’s way prettier and I never exercised in it before – actually, that’s not true…my first or second summer in Bermuda I went to Warwick Long Bay a few weekends in a row and walked the length of that beach a couple of times. That was a good workout. And then I started going out on Friday nights and was too tired to do that walk anymore. That was another thing about which Desdemona would not keep quiet; these sand workouts exhaust me and thus I have nothing left for the next workout – in this case, Amber’s group circuit, which I really like doing. I don’t know what it will take to erase those thoughts out of my mind. Eric talked about my internal dialogue yesterday and how it will either motivate or deflate me. WHY am I letting it (i.e., Desdemona) deflate me, especially after I’ve been doing so well?

I had a somewhat restful afternoon, took a nap, did laundry, nothing too exciting. The Sex & The City movie was on HBO. I had seen it already when it debuted in the theatre at that fantastic event that Paul Sofianos put on at Liberty Theatre in Bermuda, but watched it anyway. I had forgotten about the New Year’s Eve scene…have you seen it? The scene is so sad to me, and it makes me cry. If you have any single friends, make sure they’re (girls or boys) not alone on New Year’s Eve, OK? Thankfully I have always had something to do on NYE, but I know what that lonely feeling is that Miranda was having. I think the movie put me in kind of a sad mood and thus I didn’t get a good night’s sleep.

Sunday was another lovely day and we had our “50-Reps” workout which I quite like. I burned over 600 calories this time. I’m frustrated that I can’t find a happy medium between aerobic and anaerobic states and thus not burn fat without burning muscle. I just want my legs to get lighter so that I can move them faster. How do you do that quickly? I’m needing some instant gratification here!

For the rest of Sunday I’ll rest, do some housework, stretch, and speak to Sue and John in Bermuda. Maybe that will help lift my spirits today. I don’t like feeling like this. It’s counterproductive to my workouts…makes me more tired than I need to be! Any ideas on how to make Desdemona go away?

I hope your weekend is finishing nicely. I was glad to see some of you getting some kind of workout in this week. Good on you!

Day Twenty-Four – Meet MY Evil Twin (Fri., Mar. 28th)

Today’s workouts:
• The Dunes (2 hrs)
• 30-minute cardio
• Kayaking (1 hr)
• Cardio (1/4 hr)

Today I was going to tackle The Dunes. I’ve attached photos below. The Dunes is a giant, manmade hill of sand that I THINK was originally used for military fitness training. It is now a public park, and all you do is go up and down the dang thing as many times as you can. I missed out on this last Friday since I was feeling ill, so I was ready to go this morning. I was slightly nervous, but I was more eager to give it a try. As we drove up and I saw the monstrosity I cried out “holy shit!” – it is waaaaaay taller than it looks in the photos. OK, no problem, I can handle this. I was hoping to get at least two round trips up this little mountain. I took about 20 steps from the bottom – and keep in mind that with each step UP you sink DOWN – and I said, “you gotta be f**kin’ kidding me.” My whole attitude changed immediately. Or rather, I became possessed by my evil twin (we need a name for her) because every curse word and complaint that I could muster came out of my mouth. I don’t complain, and after the first week of camp I refuse to say, “I can’t do that” but I swear, I could not do this. As before when walking or jogging in deep sand, every step just sucks the life out of my legs. My heart rate was already zooming and I was breathing heavily. And I had only taken about THIRTY steps at this point! I tried taking 10 to 20 to 30 steps at a time. Sometimes Marco or Josie pushed me (literally…they were pushing me from behind…that’s friendship for ya!). The whole time I was going up I was swearing that I would NOT do it again. Once was enough for me, if I made it to the top at all. I finally did make it to the top with Marco pushing and encouraging (I’m sure I annoyed the hell out of him today) and had to stop to catch my breath and let my heart rate settle down (it was over 160 by the time I reached the top). I took my time descending, which was easier, of course, but still precarious. The hill is quite steep and if you’re not careful you could end up rolling your way down. Actually, one tiny little child was rolling himself down and was laughing all the way…that made me smile. Thank goodness ‘cause nothing else was working! I get down to the bottom, get some water, catch my breath, and evil Marco makes me go up that damn hill again! Aaaaarrrrgh! Can you believe I am paying these people to torture me like this? Seriously, I complained the whole time. At one point I said, “who was the idiot that came up with this idea?” Another climber said, “we’re the idiots who still keep climbing!” Exactly! It felt totally counterproductive. With every step up I slid down several inches. I kept going, slowly of course, and complaining either to myself or to anyone who would listen the whole time. I made it up a second and even a third time. By the third time I was near tears. I really and truly could not see the point of doing this exercise! All it did was make me hate it more and not want to do anything else today – and I still had kayaking and boxing to do! As I was coming down the third time, about 2/3rds of the way down I was shouting to one of the other campers that “This sucks!” and “I hate this!” WELL, Eric the OWNER of Camp Technique was down at the bottom and heard me. He told me when I came down that he could not believe that it was I who saying all that negative stuff, ‘cause I’m usually the one with the sunny personality. Seriously…it was like I was not myself at all. I was possessed by an evil twin. Anyone want to suggest a name for her? Eric gave me a pep talk…basically he said that I’m battling the negativity and letting it win, and that hill represents my past…it represents why I became fat and inactive and was living an unhealthy lifestyle, and when I conquer that hill, that past will be gone. I feel like that past is mostly gone. I am loving all the workouts (except this one!) and the camaraderie and the changes and improvements that I’m seeing. But, actually, right now as I’m writing this, it makes me wonder if there’s part of that unhealthy lifestyle that I’m still gripping tightly. Hmmmm, something deep to which I must give more thought; if I am still hanging onto part of that unhealthy lifestyle – WHY? And which part? I swear…I really wanted to do well on this thing before I started, but by the third descent, I just didn’t care. Marco said it was OK to stop – we still had about 45 minutes left. I could have made it up a fourth time if I wanted, but I did not. So I went to a cool patch of grass and stretched. I was still catching my breath and still cursing to myself about what a stupid exercise in futility this damn hill was. Presently Claire came to me and chatted and helped me through my emotions (because typical Donna was ready to bawl her eyes out). She was very helpful, and at this moment I can’t recall everything Claire said to me, but I had calmed down and caught my breath, and she convinced me to give it one more shot. We had about 30 minutes left. Claire stayed with me the whole way (this is Claire who runs marathons and can conquer that hill in no time flat – not that I was expecting to do that…no way!), made me laugh quite a bit, and just kept pushing me. I finally got to the top. And do you know what? I still didn’t give a shit. I still hated it and I didn’t care that I made it four times on my first attempt. I was mad that this exercise made me so angry and made me not want to do anything else.

Back to the gym for our usual Friday hot lunch (turkey burgers!). Eric (the owner) spoke to us about our internal dialogues and how it can either help us or harm us. I had to laugh to myself because the only dialogue I had had so far was extremely unpleasant. Even while he was speaking to us I was trying unsuccessfully to push out all the bad thoughts that I still had in my head. Even now as I write this some of them are still there. But…he made an excellent point. We are our own best coaches, and if my coach (i.e, ME) is telling me that “this is a stupid exercise” and “this is pointless” and “you hate this”, well, there’s probably little chance of success. I’m still trying to flush out the negativity. It feels stuck in my head. I need a distraction. Writing isn’t helping right now.

My weekly session with Claire was cut short due to a staff meeting, but I felt like Claire and I had already had a good session at The Dunes. However, we managed to get about 15 minutes together, and she said she was proud of me for letting them know how much I hated The Dunes. Claire said that I always have a good attitude so it’s not easy for them to know when something isn’t right with me (well, except when I’m crying like a big baby). Today was a pretty good indication!

Next up was kayaking with Amber and Marco. I was looking forward to that (my mood had improved by then) and I had packed a swimsuit and my wetsuit just in case I fell in the water, or in case Amber made good on her threat to tip one of us over. We went to the nearby marina and each had a single-rider kayak. I had never done that before. Yet another thing I’ve never done before is checked off my list (not that I have a real list). We stayed in the marina as we only had about an hour. I stayed close to the boats and admired them while ensuring that I was rowing fast enough to stay in at least my fat-burning zone. It kind of felt like being in Bermuda again…except that the water was not as pretty. Happily I did not fall in the water and my wetsuit kept me warm. Marco was not so lucky…he tipped over almost as soon as he was in the water! Oh no! That water was COLD, man! I felt so bad for him ‘cause this was the START of the exercise and he had to go along with us all wet. Brrrrrr. He said he was OK, but I’m pretty sure if it had been me in regular clothing instead of my wetsuit, I would have been screaming like a wet cat! The kayaking was nice and I hope we get to do it again, especially when it’s warmer.

Since Marco was all wet, we weren’t able to have our boxing class, so I did some cardio for a little while and then headed home. I’m still not quite out of my surly mood from this morning. After a day like this I would really love to share a bottle of Malbec with a friend or friends, chatting to relax and unwind and forget about the day’s unpleasantries. I guess every day can’t be as wonderful as the rest, so I’ll just chalk this one up to one of the yucky days to which I hope I’m entitled!

Tomorrow is Saturday which means Boot Camp at the Beach. I’m fine with that. We had a fun and vigorous boot camp last weekend so I’m looking forward to another. After lunch at the Catering Kitchen there will be a group circuit with Amber (stations, please!) and then hopefully a relaxing Saturday afternoon. I hope your weekend has started off nicely and you’re doing something fun and/or relaxing!

Hugs to all,
Donna’s Evil Twin

Days Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three – Who's Being Pushy (Wed & Thu, Mar 25th & 26th)

Wednesday’s Schedule:
• Body Fat Test
• Bike Ride (1 ½ hrs, 13 miles)
• Circuit Training (1 hr)
• 1-on-1 Session
• Out for lunch!! (first time!)
• Gym Boot Camp (1 hr)

Thursday’s Schedule:
• Beach Walk (1 hr, 2 ½ miles)
• Abs/Core workout (1/2 hr)
• Swimming (1 ¼ hrs, 64 laps (= 1 mile)
• 1/2 hr cardio
• MASSAGE!
• 1-on-1 Session
• Cardio and a movie (1 ¾ hrs)

Hi, Y’all! When I returned home from the gym on Wednesday I was absolutely exhausted. I had to nap, get dinner, and then get to bed by 9:30pm. Man, I’m OLD! ;-)

Just kidding. Wednesday was a busy day with a bike ride, but not on my own bike. Rose (that’s her name, by the way, because of her color, and that was my Granny’s middle name) had a flat front tire which needed repairing. The bike shops didn’t open until 10am but we were starting at 9am. The bike that I used was a bit beat up…I call it Julius, for Orange Julius, because it was orange. It also had no water bottle holder and the gears wouldn’t change. Sooooo, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get further than my previous record of 15 miles. The ride made my legs absolutely busted. Immediately following the bike ride we had a group circuit with Amber. Recall that circuit training is when we work several upper and lower body machines and insert cardio in between the stations. There were 4 or 5 leg machines in this circuit. Normally I like doing the leg machines and want to increase the weight on them, but I had nothing left in my legs. Following this was a 1-on-1 session with Marco. Silly me got the schedule wrong though and thought that session was immediately after Amber’s circuit, so I found Marco and started the session. Well, dang, I’m more exhausted now! I’m such an idiot….I really had an HOUR break before that session. Could have rested and maybe done more in that session. Anyway…I was looking forward to lunch ‘cause some of us were going to Souplantation with our nutritionist, Karen. As I had plenty of time, I had brought real street clothes with me, ‘cause if I was going out in public for lunch, I was gonna look like a real human being again. I wish I had taken a photo though…’cause that would have been a good chance to see my progress. Oh well…afterthoughts are always the best, aren’t they? Souplantation is a buffet with a large salad bar, bread station, sundae station, soup station, and probably some other stuff that I ignored ‘cause I was NOT going to blow my carbs and proteins. Except that they didn’t have many proteins that I would have liked. For example, I would have liked some grilled chicken strips or shrimp or something. So, as I didn’t have enough protein on my salad, Karen put a big blob of cottage cheese on there. Now, early on I have raved about how I loved the cottage cheese with cinnamon and apples. Regardless, cottage cheese plopped on my salad did not look that appetizing. However, I learned that by mixing it up with everything, it really had no flavor at all and thus I ingested enough protein, I guess. Gotta keep trying new stuff, whether it’s food or exercises.

I’ve skipped ahead of myself. I got “dunked” again Wednesday morning. The test revealed that while I had lost some pounds from fat, I had lost more muscle weight. I’m struggling with my dang heart rate ALWAYS being in cardio zone, which means I’m burning fat and muscle at the same time. A bit frustrating, I must say!

Following lunch and a long break, it was time for one of Schuyler’s gym boot camps. I don’t usually go into detail, but this time there only three of us (Val, Felleng, and myself) so he could really keep an eye on us. WELL! Talk about work it out! When I did Tae Kwon Do years ago, we were encouraged to yell or shout or grunt or whatever whenever doing a kick or a strike, to help pull the power from the center of our bodies. My old TKD self came out ‘cause I was apparently making some primal noises. Couldn’t help it. Schuyler kicked our butts. Val is super strong and fast but even she was having a hard time, and at the end of it, she said, “you hold him down, I’ll hit him.” We were BEAT, but I swear it feels fantastic when you’re finished and you know that you did all that was required. It made me realize, too, that I’m ready to be pushed harder. And sure enough, I was pushed hard on Thursday.

Usually on Thursdays we start with the Beach Walk, Abs/Core, and then swimming. So, Thursdays are among my favorite days of the week. EXCEPT that it’s a long day ‘cause we always have Cardio & A Movie so we don’t finish until about 7pm. We started late on the Beach Walk so I was disappointed that I ALMOST made it to the pier. Fifteen more minutes and I would have made it. Abs/Core workouts are ALWAYS tough, but I can feel my improvements….whether it’s strength in my arms or in my lower abdomen (still working on that upper abdomen). I’m very happy with that. After lunch, cardio, and a massage, I had another 1-on-1 session with Marco. Oh, man, he really pushed me with some new exercises. That gym is going to hear a lot more primal noises from me, I swear. The last workout of the day was the Cardio & A Movie…tonight we watched “Perfect Stranger” with Halle Berry and Bruce Willis. Hmmm, it’s kind of cool that I can become a movie critic and get in shape at the same time ;-) I thought the solution of this movie was wrapped up too neatly; i.e., it came together to quickly for my tastes. Or, it could be that I missed important bits every time I went to the loo. It was entertaining though….certainly worth renting if it’s not on cable or satellite yet.

Cue the “2001: A Space Odyssey” theme music again..I’m scheduled for The Dunes. I’ll try to get a photo on Friday. Recall that I was meant to do this on Day Seventeen but I was feeling ill, however I DID say a bit later that I was ready for The Dunes. I guess Arleigh read that ‘cause now I’m doing it. While I’m a teeny bit nervous about it, I’m actually more ready to ATTACK it. The goal is to get up and down the hill as many times as possible in a two-hour period. Yikes. If I get up and down twice I’ll be happy. Today during Marco’s workout I was on this stair-climber contraption that absolutely knocked me out. But as I was doing it (and hating the damn machine) I thought that it would be a good representation of what climbing The Dunes will be like. It ain’t gonna be easy! Regardless, I’m going to try as hard as I can. Following lunch, cardio, and a counseling session, we’re going KAYAKING. Woohoo!! I’m wearing my wetsuit just in case, and late this evening Amber has threatened to tip me. Hey, Amber…you’re goin’ in with me, girl!

Today was Michael’s birthday, and I was very pleased to sing my special version of Happy Birthday to him. There might be a video posted soon...first time it has ever been recorded. I think there are a few of you in Bermuda who have seen or received that birthday song….I had a lot of fun singing it again for Michael. “The Girls” enjoyed it, too.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Day Twenty-One – Good Habits and Bad Habits

Today’s Schedule:
• Beach Walk (1 ¼ hrs, 2.5 miles)
• Abs/core workout (1/2 hr)
• Swimming (1 hr, 1 mile)
• 1-on-1 training session (1 hr)
• Gym Boot Camp, AND
• WEIGH-IN and MEASUREMENTS

I think we’ve all heard it said that it takes three weeks to create a new habit. Today was the end of my third week so I’ve thought a lot about what new habits I’ve created and what bad habits I’ve eliminated. Bad -- I’m not falling asleep watching TV anymore; Good -- I am getting good, restful sleep for the first time in years. Bad -- I’m not snacking nor having cravings; Good -- I’m eating four healthy, balanced meals a day, each with small but filling portions. Bad – I’m not dreading what the day ahead has in store for me; Good – when I wake each morning I can’t wait to see what new strengths I can achieve. Bad -- I’m not sitting on my arse wishing I had the energy to clean house or work out or cook a healthy meal; Good -- I am working out nearly 30 hours a week, and while I won’t continue exercising that many hours per week once I’ve left this camp, I’m CONFIDENT that I will do something that is healthy every day. I CANNOT WAIT to take brisk walks on Horseshoe Bay Beach in Bermuda every day while I’m there in June. At my Mom’s, I will hop on her treadmill or use her Wii Fit. When I’m travelling, I will look for ways to exercise and enjoy the places that I will visit. Except for injury or illness, I have no reason not to do that, and actually, I know that I will WANT to, ‘cause it feels so good. Have any of you created new habits in the last three weeks? Or, what habits do you want to create and which ones do you want to break?

When I received my schedule for Tuesday on Monday evening, it said, “Weigh-In” at the top. I weighed in on Wednesday last week so I didn’t expect it to be on this day. I was hoping for good numbers, but I’m always wondering which week will be my “plateau” week. I was hoping for at least 5 lbs and 5 inches. I can see differences in the mirror….my face is thinner and my profile is more narrow (still wide, but just not as wide); I also see the difference in my tshirts as they are not tight around my stomach and hips. The three LIFE/Camp Technique t-shirts that were given to me when I arrived are too big for me! After a brisk, but not-so-lovely beach walk (because the wind storm from the previous two days wrought havoc on the beach; lots of junk on the beach; yuck!), back at the office Nicola weighed and measured me. Another 4 lbs lost. That’s 11 lbs so far. That by itself doesn’t sound so great to me. BUT!!!!! As Nicola was taking my measurements and writing them down, she would say, “1 inch” and then “2 inches” and “another 2 inches” and “2 more inches” and then I lost count! In the end, I had lost another 11 ¾ inches, for a total of 30 ¼ inches in twenty days. I am just FLOORED by this! And THRILLED.

Of course my mood is soaring now. And my focus is razor sharp. On Sunday, while walking along Santa Monica Boulevard and The Third Street Mall, there were tons of temptations – Starbucks, MickeyD’s, a Wine Bar, etc. I didn’t want any of them. OK, that’s a little lie….I would really LOVE to have a nice glass of red wine. I WILL be having that the day after I leave camp! Anyway, the point is, I’m focused on this goal…to lose as many inches as possible, to create a healthy lifestyle, to decrease my body fat percentage to a healthy proportion. I don’t want any distractions from that.

Speaking of distractions…Dear Automobile Drivers….please be mindful of Cyclists and Pedestrians on the road. Today, while we were returning from the beach to the gym in our van, we witnessed (actually my head was down but some of the others in the van saw it all happen) a cyclist being struck by an SUV. He was following the rules of the road; the driver of the SUV made a right turn, not yielding to him (and very obviously not paying attention) and struck him, rolling onto his bike. Omigosh, I was praying to God that he was not seriously injured. We pulled over in the van and called 911, as did other witnesses. The cyclist was moving both legs and was conscious, but still on the ground. Josie was an accident investigator for the last 15 years of her police career, so she made sure to go to the officers when they arrived to assist. Praise the Lord, the cyclist stood up! His bike was destroyed (i.e., FLATTENED). He had a gash on his leg and apparently needed stitches. We left as the LAFD had arrived and we saw the ambulance on its way, too. I was just so thankful that the man stood up. I hope he went to the hospital and had a full check up. It was very troubling to see this. When we ride our bikes, we stay in the bike lane or on the sidewalks and are on the bike paths on the beach. Where this cyclist was struck, there was no bike path, but he appeared to be a seasoned cyclist as he had all the necessary gear and he was minding the rules of the road. The SUV driver was definitely at fault and there were several witnesses to prove it. When I’m crossing intersections, even if I have the “GO” symbol, I still ensure that the cars that are waiting to turn see me first before I go. Anyway….please share the road safely with us cyclists and pedestrians!! Trust me….getting to work or home a few seconds or minutes sooner by speeding is not worth someone’s life!

One of the services that are included in the camp is Posture Analysis. Amber is certified with Egoscue which specializes in posture analysis and correction. In my situation, likely due to my motorscooter accident and subsequent knee surgery on my right knee in November 2000, I have been favoring my left leg ever so slightly; this is more noticeable now while exercising because everything on my left side is rebelling against me. Thus, today, my 1-on-1 session with Amber concentrated on posture exercises. Some of them might seem quite easy. For example, the first exercise is to lie on the floor with my legs up on the sofa or a seat, for example, so that my knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. The goal is to let the back and hips to simply relax into their proper position. Another exercise involves lying on my back again and stretching out one leg on a “tower” while the other leg is bent. Believe it or not, this stretches and muscles and knees and hip joints back into their proper shape. Let me tell you…when you feel that muscle stretching and the joints moving back into place, it’s NOT “quite easy.” I won’t even get into the wall stand; let’s just say that feels like someone has lit a fire under my heels and the fire slowly rises up my legs, butt, then back. I might as well be Joan of Arc being burned to death! It’s all for good though, and thus when you hear that I’ve worked on posture, I’m doing exercises like this that will help re-align everything. I’m STILL going to have to visit a chiropractor soon, I think (Dr. Robinson, can’t you come see me in L.A.?).

We had a good final gym boot camp with Marco at the end of the day. It’s incredible to me how the simplest positions can create the most torture…more so than lifting any weights or going the extra mile. Try slipping down into a deep squat, slightly bent at the waist, with your arms raised straight above your head. And then hold it! OUCH! Talk about make your heart rate go up!! I know I have moved up a level in my fitness but I still have a long way to go; simple exercises like that squat prove that.

On the books for tomorrow are a bike ride, circuit training, a 1-on-1 session, and another boot camp. I’m also getting DUNKED tomorrow. Normally this happens once every two weeks, but I had an extra dunk last week; thus tomorrow’s is the normally scheduled dunk. Hopefully it will show that I’ve decreased my body fat percentage some more – I imagine it HAS TO show that with all the inches that I’ve lost. That has to be 30 inches of fat that I’ve lost, don’t you think?

I’ve heard it’s CHILLY in Bermuda tonight. Hope you’re all staying as warm as you can wherever you are. I’m ready for SUMMER! Have a great Hump Day!

Day Twenty – Wh'chupto? (Mon., Mar. 23rd)

Today’s Schedule:
• Stretching (1/2 hr)
• Bike Ride (10 miles, 1 ¾ hrs)
• Massage
• 60-Minute Cardio
• 2-on-1 Training (1 hr)
• Gym Boot Camp (1 hr)

Up and at ‘em for another week. Usually I’m excited when I see a Bike Ride on the schedule, but after Shella’s and my very windy walk above Santa Monica beach on Sunday, I was praying that the winds will have died down. But, NOOOOO, the wind was against us coming and going. What torture! Usually I can go at a pace that I can burn calories and enjoy the scenery, but this time I had to keep my head down to avoid sand being blown in my face, large patches of sand on the bike path, and dead palm fronds all over the place. The wind was brutal and I struggled to go more than 8mph at any point. You know that I always try to go a little further in each bike ride, but this time it was not possible. I barely made it past the Santa Monica Pier, or 5 miles, and decided to turn around. The wind on the ride back on the beach was a bit more in our favor, but heading up Washington Blvd to return to the gym was a friggin’ nightmare. The entire boulevard was like a giant wind tunnel and we were going against it. I hope that never happens again ‘cause I’ve been loving the bike rides but this one was awful. It was even worse than passing the stinky beach that one time.

Back to the gym for lunch, a group session with Claire, and then a massage. I’m always excited about getting a massage (can you tell?). I’m not sure what’s up with my left shoulder, arm, and fingers. The tingling is still bothering me and no matter how well Nina massages them, the discomfort won’t go away. I’m on the verge of calling a chiropractor. My whole left side is bothering me, actually. Blisters on my left foot, cramps in my left butt cheek, and the tension or soreness in my left shoulder which seems to be contributing to the tingling. It’s like my left side is out of alignment with my right. What a nuisance.

After an hour of cardio, Eric (v’ball player) trained Brian and me partner-style. As a reminder, partner training, or 2-on-1, is when one trainer works with two campers and gives each basically the same exercise, and perhaps one of the two campers will get additional weights or reps because of his or her ability. After seeing Ryall Graber’s video of her back/chest/shoulder workout, I wanted to work on back today, so Eric obliged. One of the exercises was standing on one foot holding free weights and doing bicep curls up to shoulder presses. Yikes! Another that I hadn’t done before was lie down on the Bosu ball, hold a small medicine ball straight behind my head, then crunch up with the ball to reach Eric’s had in the air. I did it! I’m very pleased that I’m increasing the amount of weight that I can lift (nothing like I’ve seen Jeni lift, but it’s more than I did nearly three weeks ago). I’m also pleased with my improved stamina. I still have lots of improvement to come, but it’s satisfying to see that I am improving each week.

Following this was a Gym Boot Camp. This was meant to be Marco’s session but he was out sick today (hope you’re feeling better…we all missed you!), thus trainers were moved around a bit today, and I was with Schuyler’s group. Schuyler’s bark is a lot bigger than his bite, but that doesn’t mean his bite is small. He had us doing drills on the mat, on the spin cycles, and this contraption called Jacob’s Ladder. I had never done some of the exercises he had us do, and guess what…I had NEVER BEEN ON A SPIN CYCLE before! Our group first had to do bear crawls and crab walks. I gave it a shot, but the weight on my left shoulder made the tingling shoot all the way down my arm this time so I wasn’t able to perform the exercise as planned. Rather, I crawled on my hands and knees forwards and backwards on the mat while Divya and Maxime showed off and did them properly ;-) I couldn’t put the palm of my left hand flat on the mat, because bending at the wrist is what caused the problem, so I looked kind of lopsided as I crawled on the fingertips of my left hand and a flat right hand. Our next group of exercises included the rope pull, which I don’t mind, and this Jacob’s Ladder thing….it’s like a ladder that you continuously have to climb and I’m not sure how to describe it and THANKFULLY time ran out before I had to get my arse on that thing. I have a feeling my left shoulder would have made it problematic anyway. After a killer wallsit for two minutes (no, I could not hold it for two minutes without breaking), we jumped on the spin bike (made sure I found one with a cushy seat!) and went at it. Maxime, our theatre star-in-the-making, wrenched her ankle soon after starting. Maxime, are you OK?! That was kind of scary! For myself, the spinning wasn’t as bad as expected…took a minute or two to coordinate myself on the spin bike. I don’t think I like the bending over part. For you regular spinners out there…doesn’t it hurt your back? We rotated again and finally the hour was over. Phew!

Happily on the way home, I was thinking that I didn’t really have anything interesting to say, but I WAS wondering how YOUR workouts are going. So many of you have said that you’ve started working out again. How’s it going? Are you making improvements each week? Are you seeing results? Please let me know! These workout shenanigans are much more fun if we’re sharing the effort, don’t you think?

Busy day tomorrow: Beach walk, abs/core, swimming, 1-on-1 session, and another boot camp. Gosh, it’s nearly a 12-hour day tomorrow! Not 12-hours of working out, but 12 hours away from home. Must get to bed early. I hope you’ll have left me notes about your workouts so that I’ll be inspired for tomorrow. OH! ALSO! I’m getting measured tomorrow. I hope it’s good numbers!

Hope your work week has started well. Happy Tuesday!

Day Nineteen – Shopping vs Housework

Today’s Schedule:
• Housework (started at 7am, too!)
• Circuit Training (2 hrs)
• Leisure time (more housework, walking around Santa Monica, and shopping (5 hrs)
• Calories burned: 2336 (1200 of those from shopping!)

Outside it was cold, wet, and yucky, but inside, I was ready to go! Never before have I done housework at 7 in the morning! OK, I know you Moms and Dads are probably thinking “that’s normal for me” but for ME it is definitely not. For several years I have worked from home, on the internet, and have sat at the computer for no less than 12 hours at a time most days, more often than not working past 2:00am. Thus, I barely awoke before 9am to start another all-day session at the computer. Nowadays I am usually ASLEEP by 11pm and waking before 7am. I’m loving it, too. Never thought I would become a morning person, but I’ve had no choice but to do so in order to succeed at this lifestyle change that I’m making.

I decided to keep track of the calories I was burning while doing this housework as I was mostly keeping a pace that kept me in my fat-burning heart rate zone. Happily, doing laundry, putting away dishes and stuff burned off over 300 calories. That’s almost one of my whole meals. Additionally, since the sidewalks were wet, I decided to walk to the gym instead of use my bike (thus more calories burned). I have a bit of a phobia about wet streets because both of the times that I came off my bike (i.e., motorscooter for you non-Bermuda residents) the road was wet, and the second time in happened I ended up in the hospital and then an eight-inch scar on my right knee.

Our group circuit was the self-guided “50-Repetitions” all-around circuit that looks like this:

• 10-minutes cardio
• Upper Body Machines: 50 Chest Flies, 50 Lateral Pulldowns, 50 shoulder presses, 50 bicep curls, 50 tricep pushdowns
• 2-minutes cardio
• Upper body with free weights: 50 chest press, 50 back rows, 50 side raises, 50 hammer curls, 50 overhead tricep extensions
• 2-minutes cardio
• Lower Body Machines: 50 Leg presses, 50 leg extensions, 50 Leg curls, 50 inner thigh, 50 outer thigh
• 2-minutes cardio
• Lower body with free weights: 50 regular squats; 50 Duck squats; 50 lateral leg raises; 50 front leg raises; 50 back leg raises
• 2-minutes cardio
• Abdominal exercises on mat: 50 regular crunches; 50 butterfly crunches; 50 Russian twists; 50 reverse crunches; 50 “reach for the stars” crunches
• 10 final minutes of cardio

It’s a pretty good all-around workout that takes nearly two hours. If you wanted to keep it to an hour, I would suggest doing the upper body and abdominal exercises on one day and do the lower body and abdominal exercises the next day. If you’re new at a gym, please be sure to get a trainer to show you how to use the equipment and use proper form to prevent any injuries. I still have tingling and a little bit of numbness in part of my left hand because I didn’t hold my hands properly when doing bicep curls last week. It doesn’t hurt; rather, it’s just a plain nuisance.

I was excited to hurry home (thanks to a lift by Valerie) to get showered and ready to head to Santa Monica to see Shella Udoh, an “ol’” friend from Bermuda now living in L.A. for nearly two years. It was my first time since arriving here to venture away from the gym or the apartment. Shella and I had fun walking around and shopping and smelling food that I can’t eat. That was OK, but I would have loved to have had some of the wine that I saw on display. I made up for it by buying two more pairs of Crocs – really cute styles. I now have 25 pairs of Crocs (most are in storage for now)! I burned more calories per hour from shopping, walking, and giggling with Shella than I did doing housework this morning. It was also fun to put on some street clothes and makeup and see how I looked without my baboon-ass face and a sweatband. I’m pleased to say that I had to keep pulling up my pants while we were out and about (‘cause they’re too big around my waist)! I hope that this week’s weigh-in reveals more pounds and many more inches lost. I do have a little black dress in my closet which is too small now, but I want to be able to get into it before I leave. I still have just over 9 weeks to go.

Time for bed now. I could go on about a difficult and expensive cab ride which we shared to get home, but it’s done now and I’m too tired to care about it. I’m more happy about the productive and fun day that I had and especially the chance to reunite with Shella. I hope you all had a nice weekend and have a productive week ahead of you.

Day Eighteen – Confidence

Today’s schedule:
• Beach Boot Camp (1 ½ hrs)
• Group Circuit Training & Stretching (nearly 2 hrs)
• Calories burned: 1294

A week ago at this time I was still feeling traumatized by my panic attack or whatever it was after having chest pains when no one was close enough to help me if I had fallen. And this time yesterday I was feeling yucky and not up to doing anything. I even felt a couple of chest pains last night while I was simply resting in bed…not going to sleep yet, but just resting. I don’t know what that was all about…my heart rate was fine and the EKG on Thursday revealed that my heart was fine. I felt around my sternum and nothing hurt, so I’m hoping it was just a stitch in my pectoral muscle or something like that. Today, however, I woke feeling renewed and much better. The regular Saturday Beach Boot Camp was scheduled and I was just slightly apprehensive about going. I also didn’t want to embarrass myself again like last Saturday. Our warmup this time was to walk around that dreaded Bird Sanctuary. I warned Amber that it took me 15 minutes to get around last week. That was OK with her, so off I went. Well, I have a new hero in Sean. He walked with me 3/4ths of the way to ensure that I felt safe and that I had no issues. I adore Sean. Only 19, he is mature beyond his years, and he is working his butt off (literally) to get healthy. More than once Sean has “distracted” me to get through an exercise or he has pushed me into doing a little extra cardio. I’ve attached a photo below to show where he was pressing 70-lb free weights. Ouch! My heart rate gets right up there quickly as usual, but there were no problems…it didn’t spike, I didn’t have any chest pains, and I wasn’t breathless at the end of it. THANKS, SEAN! Following this we did some other warm-up exercises to stretch. I was pleased to see Jeni’s dad, Mike, had joined us for the Boot Camp and later for the group circuit at the gym. This weekend was the first time Jeni had seen her parents in 7 weeks, since starting the camp, so it was a treat for them to see Jeni looking so fantastic, too. I cannot wait ‘til my visitors come (Amy, John, then Mom). I’m really proud of what I’m doing and excited about what I’ve accomplished so far, and I want to share the experience with them. Today was a good example of how far I’ve gone in only 17 days. I made it around the Bird Cage in less than 15 minutes (I actually think I shaved off a whole minute) and got through the warm-ups without getting winded. We then had to sit in pairs with stretch bands and do back rows. While we were doing that, one person had to run under each of our bands…I think there were 7 altogether. As we progressed, the bands got lower and some of us had to do army crawls. OK, I didn’t do a proper army crawl, but I DID get down on my hands and knees and crawled as fast as I could. Then we did a relay of 4 teams with one of the exercise being running slalom around a bunch of cones. Didn’t want to let my team down, so I actually ran! I hate running! But I ran as fast as I could and lived. We had to do that five times, too. And I felt OKAY (had to catch my breath each time though)! Next up was another trek around the Bird Cage while Amber & Eric set up for volleyball. Yaaay! Once again it was fun to bump and serve the ball and fall into the sand, just like the ol’ beach v’ball days in Bermuda. I think most of us would have continued to play for another half hour if they had let us! However, it was time for lunch and I know we were all hungry.

Guess what I had for lunch? STEAK! Yum! It was grilled nicely (medium-rare) and included roasted potatoes, scrambled egg whites, and a cup of fruit. I am so full from all the meals that I really can’t help but wonder if I’m getting too many calories. I just had turkey spaghetti Bolognese with broccoli for my first dinner meal. It was delicious!

Back to the gym for the second workout of the day…one of Amber’s Group Circuits. Recall that this involves each person starting at a “station” in the gym, doing the required exercise for 2 minutes, rushing to do 2 minutes of cardio, and then moving on to the next station. There are some exercises for which I must close my eyes so that I can concentrate on proper form (like, keeping the body straight for pushups, or squeezing shoulder blades together when doing lifts, or keeping elbows close to the body). Right now I can do pushups from a bar…i.e., the bar is about 4 ft above the ground, I stand in front of it, keep my body straight, and then sink down and then push up from the bar. It’s hard, but I can do it. I can also do them if I’m using a yoga ball (i.e, the “beach ball) under my hips. I CANNOT do them the ol’ fashioned-way nor with my knees bent. I’m working towards that. You will hear it loud and clear when I can do them! Dang, when I was 14 and did gymnastics at Higgins High School in Marrero, Louisiana, I was able to do pushups ON MY FINGERTIPS!

As I’ve been writing today’s update, I was thinking about why I felt pretty good about doing the beach drills and today’s gym circuit. Besides feeling good and knowing that I’m working towards a tangible goal, I have more confidence. At first it was scary to go bike-riding again, but now I love it and can go on my own if I wanted. It was scary to try the boxing, but I can’t wait ‘til each boxing workout starts. It was scary to try high inclines and high speeds on the treadmill, but today I pushed the inclines higher and maintained a good speed for myself. I dreaded doing planks and pushups and crunches, but now I’ve lost count of the crunches that we’ve done and I CAN do planks and those variations on pushups. Best of all, today I had no problems at the beach. I had fun! A few days ago Jeni stated that she felt like she had reached a new level. Now…Jeni is a few levels ahead of me in skill and fitness, so I can’t wait to get to where she is now. But I think perhaps I’ve moved up a level from novice to beginner after 18 days. I kind of WANT to try The Dunes this upcoming week. Yikes….I just put that in writing so someone is going to hold me to it!

Tomorrow, Sunday, we have our 2-hour group circuit workout, and then later in the afternoon I’m going to hang out with Shella who I have not seen since she left Bermuda (has it been two years already, Shella?). It means I’ll have to put on street clothes. I have not worn street clothes since the day I arrived. Actually, I’m tempted to try on a pair of jeans that were too small for me. If I’ve lost 4 inches in my hips, they might fit, don’t you think? Maybe I’ll let you know.

Hope you’re having a fun Saturday and will have a lovely Sunday!

Day Seventeen -- My First Sick "Hour" (Fri., Mar. 20th)

Today’s Schedule:
• meeting with counselor
• Group workout
• Lunch & nutrition discussion with gym’s owner
• 60-minute cardio
• 1-on-1 training session
• home to bed ;-(
• Calories burned: 1034

On Friday I woke up feeling less than good. I usually feel pretty good every morning but not this morning. I promise you it had nothing to do with the fact that I was scheduled to walk up “The Dunes” for the first time. I had hoped that having breakfast would make me feel better. Every Friday morning we have a fresh omelette station at the gym, so breakfast was an hour later than usual. Despite the yummy breakfast though, I was still feeling nauseous. I chatted with Arleigh about it…she said she had a back up plan just in case I wasn’t ready for The Dunes; I felt like I needed to be very close to a bathroom, so I was happy to stay in the gym to workout. I thought maybe I needed extra sleep and I was considering going back home then returning for lunch, but I’m glad I stayed and worked out. I also had my counseling meeting with Claire since we missed it yesterday (because I went to get an EKG). The sessions with Claire are very helpful. Most of it is very personal stuff that I will not share here, but one thing that I can share is that I need to listen to my body and to my instincts and not second guess myself so much. My body was telling me that I wasn’t well, just like it did on Day Seven, when I hit my first wall.

We have hot lunches in the gym on Mondays and Fridays. Friday’s meal was a delicious grilled chicken, walnut, lowfat blue cheese, and spinach salad. For dressings we use the Paul Newman Low Fat salad dressings which are delicious. I particularly like the Asian Sesame dressing. During our lunch, the owner of the gym, Eric (not the same Eric who does volleyball) spoke to us about nutrition and eating meals when we’re back in the real world. Following this I had an hour of cardio on my own and then a 1-on-1 session with Eric (the volleyball player). I love all the 1-on-1 sessions with each trainer. Some work with the machines and weights, others work with non-weight equipment, and others use your own body for resistance. Each session is educational and a tough workout no matter how it is done. On Thursday I did these “travelling yoga” poses with Amber and I tell you, they were exhausting! With Eric, even though I was feeling yucky, my body parts were actually OK (the tingling in my left hand is diminishing), so we worked a little bit of everything…upper, lower, and abs. I promised myself from the start that I would not complain nor moan and groan because, for crying out loud, I’m paying a shitload of money to attend this camp, but I do like to joke around with the trainers and give them a hard time. I hope they all know that I’m just kidding when I call one of them “evil” or “ruthless” or “predictable” or “you bitch” (I was REALLY kidding about that one!). There was one machine in which I saw Eric put the weight around 340 lbs (!!!) and I cried out in surprise, “Are you insane?!” – I wasn’t joking around THAT time. What he was doing, though, was creating an exercise in which I held onto the handles, leaned back a bit, and then did deep squats for a minute. The 340 lbs (or whatever it was) was there as a counterbalance. I’m pleased to say that I’m doing stuff that I couldn’t do when I arrived. I’m doing the planks on my knees now, I can last longer without getting too winded too quickly, I’m going a bit faster on the treadmill and stationary bike, and I’m doing pushups against a raised bar (can’t do them on the floor yet!). It feels great to see the progress.

I had an hour break before the final workout of the day, but as I still wasn’t feeling myself, I rested for a few minutes in the lounge, with the intention of working on my posture exercises and then participating in the final boot camp of the day. When I stood up, though, uuuuuuullllggh, the nausea was in my throat. I waited a minute or two, hoped it would pass, took some breaths, but, my body was talking to me and this time I was listening. I went to Amber to let her know that I was feeling worse and would miss her group workout. I went home, showered, and was in bed by 6:30pm until about 8:30 when the meals for Saturday and Sunday were delivered. I definitely needed the rest as I was feeling better by then…well enough to get a meal down, but too tired to write a journal for the day. I think I was asleep by 10:30pm (on a Friday night in Los Angeles…sad, ain’t it? ;-) But, I have awakened on Saturday feeling much better. Admittedly I’m a little anxious about today’s (Saturday’s) boot camp workout, since last Saturday was when I felt chest pains and felt so scared. I have a new heart monitor & watch so I will keep an eye on my heart rate. Oh…this new heart monitor and watch also counts calories, so going forward I’m going to note the calories burned every day. I better get a move on…..hope your weekend has started nicely. Spring is here!

Day Sixteen – No Worries

Today’s workouts:
• Beach walk (1 hr)
• Abs/Core workout (1/2 hr)
• Interval training (killer!) (1 hr)
• Boxing (1/2 hr)
• Interview with magazine writer
• Massage!
• 1-on-1 training (1 hr)
• Surprise visit to a doctor
• Cardio and a Movie (I did ½ hr)

Hi, Everyone! I’m afraid I don’t have anything meaningful or clever to say today {:-P I started the day a little bit early ‘cause I wanted to have my bike at the gym for the end of the day. Whenever we do a beach walk, one of the trainers collects us from the apartment complex and takes us directly to the beach, and then we go to the gym. So I cycled to the gym first and went in the van with Marco to get the rest of the crowd. It was the first time that it was foggy…it kind of blocks the view! No problem though…new kid on the block Maxime is here for her first full day. Maxime, I was thrilled to learn, is into musical theatre and will be going to Sheridan in Toronto later this year (hope I got that right, Maxime). We chatted the entire time, and before we knew it, we reached the pier and returned just barely in time. There are so many theatre buffs at the Camp that I think we should create CTTC – The Camp Technique Theatre Company. Maxime could be the young ingénue, Amber can be the sex kitten, Schuyler can be the sexy leading man, Karen would be perfect as The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and I’ll be the not-so-fat lady that sings at the end (hmmm, we need more men for acting). Michael can write our plays for us and Sean and Maxime can compose the music. Josie could be the official photographer/videographer/cinematographer (for when we start making movies). Divya could be the business manager. Courtney can be the publicist. Albert would be the producer. Nicola would be the director. (I’m going to find a position for everyone, dang it!).

Back at the gym, Sex Kitten put us through the abdominals/core workout. I’ve stopped counting the number of crunches that I’ve done (except of course, when the trainers indicate how many should be done). We also did full sit-ups AND those hateful leg-push-down exercises where you lie on your back with a partner’s feet beside your ears, and you hold onto his or her legs, lift your own legs, and your partner pushes your feet down each time you raise them back up, with straight legs, of course.

Next was interval training with Arleigh…y’know, I need to get her list from her because I was dizzied by the number of different up and down exercises that we did. I did manage to increase my usual treadmill speed though…no excuses now when a trainer passes by and sees that I’m only at 2.5mph…gotta kick it up more than that now! This took an entire hour and we were all just BUSTED afterwards. But today was a busy day for everyone, so not much time to relax! After my 11am meal, it was time for boxing with Marco. We learned a few more moves and it was fun to spar around a bit…it REALLY made me miss doing Tae Kwon Do!

Following this was the interview with Jessica, a reporter from a local magazine. I’m still not clear on the name of it but I will let you know when the time comes. Jeni and Arnae were also interviewed; we were each interviewed individually so I didn’t hear the other ladies’ Q & A. It was a short but fun experience.

Next up…MASSAGE! I get two a week but since I was scheduled for only one last week, I was happy to make up that one this week. Two days ago I started feeling a tingling sensation and numbness in my left hand in my thumb, index, and middle fingers. At first I thought I had leaned on my elbow weirdly and they fell asleep, so nothing was unusual. But all day yesterday the tingling and numbness happened several times. After chatting with Mom we figured it was a pinched nerve somewhere in my left arm, so I told Marco and Amber about it this morning. All day while working out the sensation continued off and on; I figured out that holding my arm at certain angles caused the sensation to occur (unfortunately none of these angles were avoidable). During the massage Nina did more work on my left arm; regrettably it didn’t solve the problem, despite her efforts (massage still felt fantastic, as always!). I was scheduled for a session with the counselor, Claire, but Nicola and Marco wanted me to see a doctor to get an EKG to ensure that the tingling was not related to my high heart rate. Marco kindly drove me to a clinic and yada yada yada…EKG was normal. Hurrah! Didn’t get me out of doing the Cardio & A Movie, however I only did half an hour ‘cause the doctor said that the tingling was a mild injury to the nerves in my wrist, so I just needed to ice it down and take some Advil. Done!

The Advil PM is kicking in as I finish today’s update. I need to get to sleep anyway, ‘cause tomorrow, they have finally put me on…….THE DUNES. Holy Shit. Divya obviously saw the shock and horror in my face when I saw the schedule. She assured me that I could do it and gave me some very helpful advice on getting up and down. What are The Dunes? Oh, let me tell you…and I haven’t seen them yet, so I’m pretty sure this is a pretty mild description. Just wait ‘til tomorrow when I see the Hill from Hell and you’ll get a much more vivid and accurate description. The Dunes are a 75-ft high man-made sand dunes with an extremely steep incline. The goal is to get up and down the hill as often as possible within two hours. TWO HOURS. Damn. I’m going to bed NOW.

Have a great Friday and a good start to your weekend. Somebody please have a bottle of Malbec for me, OK?

Day Fifteen – The Incredible Shrinking Woman

Today’s Schedule:
• Group Bike Ride (1 ¾ hrs, 15 miles!)
• Group Circuit (1 hr)
• 1-on-1 Training Session (1 hr)
• 1-hr Cardio

Hello everyone! I can’t believe I have been here just over 2 weeks now. More than that, I’m surprised by how much I’ve accomplished and even MORE surprised by how much I’m loving it. I knew that it was going to be hard work and I expected that I’d be getting up every morning dreading whatever the scheduled workouts were, but it hasn’t been like that at all. I know the workouts will be tough and that I will be tired and sore afterwards, but I really look forward to each workout, and I wonder what new physical feat I will achieve each day.

Today we went a mile further on the northbound (i.e., the prettier, Venice & Santa Monica direction) bike ride. I was absolutely exhausted at the end of it; Marco pushed me to go faster than usual and I did the best that I could, stopping when necessary. It still hurts like hell to sit on the padded bike seat with the padded shorts (I’m sitting on ice packs now…SERIOUSLY!) but for each bike ride, I have succeeded in going a little further than the previous bike ride. Do you remember the 70s TV show “Sanford & Son” (alright, none of you smartass under 30y/olds better say anything) and the way Fred Sanford walked? That’s how I walk after the bike rides. Hah…my Granny would have cracked up; she loved that show. And it’s not very comfortable sitting on ice packs, let me tell you…

After the bike ride I was weighed and measured. I’m still not happy with the POUNDS lost, but I am THRILLED with the inches…another 7 inches! In 14 days I have lost a total of 18 ½ inches. I CAN see some of it, too…it’s noticeable in my face, and when I wear my tshirts, they’re not quite as tight around my hips and stomach. I’m thinking that this means I’ll have less of a problem with sagging skin when all the weight is gone? I hope so! The results are visible, too, in the new bumps in my arms (i.e., my biceps, in case you missed the Day 14 update), when I lift more weight or go further on the bike or in the pool. It’s real, tangible results. I love that!

After seeing another 7 inches gone (which all the trainers are saying is “INSANE”) I was READY for Amber’s group circuit workout. As before, this involved each of us starting at a weight machine and rotating between the machines and cardio every two minutes, with the cardio bits at increasing levels of difficulty. I did assisted chin-ups on this chin/dip assist contraption for the first time. Damn that was hard! And I did chest flies with 50lbs – I’m not going to complain about this at all because this type of muscle workout will keep the “girls” perky for a long time ;-) And holy mackerel, my thighs were ON FIRE when I was doing leg lifts. I don’t remember what the weight was…I was trying to figure out a way to put out the fire (are you hearing me, Carmichael?) and get through those TWO minutes of hell! Thankfully that was the last station for me….and even more thankfully it was only a one hour circuit instead of two like the last time with Amber. We did a few abdominal exercises on the mat after that circuit; I suck at the bicycles and “reach for the stars” but I was very pleased to do planks on my knees on all three sides (face down and on left and right sides) – I was not able to do that over a week ago! A plank is when you rest on your forearms and keep your entire body parallel a few inches above the mat using your toes, or in my case, my knees, and then hold it for a period of time (like, an ETERNITY!).

Y’know, I am loving working on the machines. That was one thing that I was excited about starting the camp, was lifting weights. I don’t know why I like it, but I do, and even though I am DYING when I’m doing the lifting, afterwards I think, “damn, that was a lot of weight for me” and “when will I be ready for more.” That’s my new mental mantra now…not, “are we finished yet” but “what’s next?!”

I had two hours to kill before my 1-on-1 session with Amber, so I went home for a shower and lunch. What lovely treat was waiting for me but two boxes of Harry & David’s Pears from Amy! Yum!!! Amy, thanks soooo much. I did share them and everyone loved them. On our meal plans, we usually have one fruit a day, so I’ll just substitute the tangerine for a pear.

I returned to the gym refreshed and ready for Amber. We worked arms again with some heavier (for me) weights. I did those chin-ups again. I don’t even know how to explain it, but basically you climb a couple of steps, kneel on a pad that is counterbalanced with weights equal to your own weight, and then you pull yourself up so that your chin is higher than your hands – OH, AND you’re doing this slightly leaning forward so you’re pulling yourself up from BEHIND your back. KILL ME NOW! This combined with two other back exercises and cardio went on for three rounds, but first let me tell you about this so-called “counter-stretch” that I had to hold for one minute before returning to the cardio bit. I really think Amber was doing this for a good laugh (just kidding!). I had to stand facing the wall and “assume the position” that someone who is about to get arrested or searched by the police would assume (you know, facing the wall, hands on the wall, legs spread apart), then push my hips back as far as possible while dropping my head and chest down, leaving my hands flat and up on the wall, higher than my head. So there’s my big arse sticking out….Marco frisked me, Sean nearly spanked me, and I’m pretty sure I cast a shadow on the whole gym from my butt blocking the sun from the window above. I had to do it three times and I am telling you, it was not easy. I would have traded twenty more back rows for that “stretch.” I think I would have even pulled on the rope machine for 10 minutes instead of the five minutes that I did in exchange for three one-minute stretches. Amber… do those stretches and holds EVER get easy?

The one-hour sessions with a trainer always end quicker than I expected. I’m dying, sweating, cursing, praying, and then suddenly I hear, “And you’re done.” What a relief! But also, what a great sense of accomplishment. This session was followed by 60 minutes of cardio on my own. Sean, 19 y/o from New Mexico, was on the treadmill next to me and we chatted about his future plans and business ideas, and before I knew it I had completed the hour. Sean helped to distract me another time this week when I was working on posture exercises, some of which are difficult to hold. That time while he was on the bike I was standing with my heels and back against the wall in the assigned position, and while I was feeling the fire rising from my heels up through my neck, Sean kept talking and held me there for a minute (I’m supposed to hold it for two minutes – eventually!). Thanks, Sean!

After cardio I was happy to have another massage! Yaaaay! What can I say about massages? I could get two a day every day and never tire of them. Nina, the massage therapist, said that one or two of the campers don’t really like getting massages. What? Are they crazy? I will take their sessions, too!

We all finished a bit earlier than usual for a Wednesday as the owner and trainers had a special meeting in the gym so all the campers needed to be gone so that it could be cleaned. But this just means that we get a full day on Friday instead of the usual shortened day. Back home for my yummy dinners (yes, that was plural). First up was chicken with grilled onions and pineapples, brown rice curry, and stir fry vegetables. Coming up as soon as I finish today’s update is carved LEG OF LAMB with honey roasted root vegetables and wild rice. Can you believe I’ve actually lost 18 inches on this meal plan?

BUSY day tomorrow…beach walk, abs/core, interval training, BOXING (yaay, I get to break in my new gloves), my interview with the reporter, 1-on-2 training, meeting with the counselor, and the Cardio Movie of the Week. Must be sure to get to bed on time and get plenty of sleep. As much as I love David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, I’ve missed them the entire time that I’ve been here so far (MUST SET UP TIVO!). SLEEP is a priority. I have learned how valuable it is to get enough rest each night so that you can attack each day (and proper nutrition is just as important, too). I hope you’re getting enough sleep and eating balanced meals. Not all carbs are bad!

Also, before I sign off, for those of you who are working out but think you’re not doing enough because I’m doing 4-5 hours of workouts a day, don’t get down on yourself at all. You all have jobs, family, homes, spouses, obligations to add on top of your workouts. I don’t have any of that. All I have to do is think about myself and nothing else. My job is to workout all day every day. If you can manage to get a 45-minute treadmill walk into your schedule at least twice a week, than good on you! Keep that up! And don’t limit yourself to the workouts…like I said, get sleep, drink water, give up the artificial stuff, and make sure your meals are balanced. For example, if you’re going to have sushi, go ahead and have the rice AND the seaweed, but skip the fried special rolls and the special sauces.

Love and thanks to all! Have a great Thursday!

Day Fourteen – What Are These BUMPS On My Arms?

Today’s workouts:
• Interval Cardio (1 hr)
• MASSAGE! (yes!!!)
• Abs/Core workout (1/2 hour)
• Swimming (1 ¼ hrs)
• 1-on-1 Training (arms) (1 hr)
• Nutrition
• Boot Camp (1 ½ hrs)

Woke up earlier than usual and feeling pretty good today. My knees weren’t hurting, thankfully. Knowing that swimming was on the schedule I was glad to be able to give my knees a break, especially with biking back on the menu for tomorrow. Before going on though, let’s do a St. Paddy’s Day check…yup, lots of green at the gym. None of my workout stuff has green in it, but I did have some green underwear, and I was happy to show them to anyone who asked ;-) Instead of doing the beach walk I was scheduled for Cardio with Schuyler. I’m guessing since I struggled at the beach this past Saturday they wanted to give me a break from it and keep an eye on me, which I appreciate. This was no ordinary 60-minute Cardio walk, though. Nooooo. Schuyler had us on either the treadmills or the ellipticals. I prefer the treadmill because I can monitor my heart rate more carefully; it zooms to past maximum on the ellipticals too quickly. Schuyler had us warm up for a few minutes, then we “sprinted” for two minutes….meaning going a lot faster. After the two minutes we cooled down for one minute. Then Schuyler had us increase the incline or our equipment – I think I started at 5. That lasted for 2 minutes, then we cooled down for another minute. We sprinted again, but a little faster than the first time, cooled down, then increased the incline some more. Each sprint and each incline was greater than the previous. This went on for 50 minutes. The highest incline was 15! The fastest speed that I could walk before I became too tired was 3.5 mph. Note that when I was in the higher inclines, my speed was slower. Dang, I was sooo sweaty after this. And I had a massage immediately afterwards. I feel sorry for Nina, but I guess I’m not the only sweaty camper with whom she’s had to contend.

On to the swimming pool. It’s a standard pool with swimming lanes, thus Marco says that 64 lengths is 1-mile. I did 56 lengths the last time, most with fins. This time I wanted to do 64 and get that mile. Using the exercise fins helps get the laps done in the time that we have (about 75 minutes) and it creates more resistance. I mix it up with the kickboard each time to get different stretches and muscle workouts. I love the swimming, too, because it’s low impact but I can stay in the fat-burning heart rate zone the entire time (except when I do freestyle). When I had about 8 lengths to go, I wanted to start doing freestyle. I guess I was still winded from the cardio workout with Schuyler ‘cause this time I couldn’t do each freestyle lap as easily as I had the last time. It’s OK…it just makes me more aware of how the workouts affect each other. E.g., yesterday my knees were worn out, so I didn’t want to do any leg work that exerted pressure on the kneecaps. And doing that strong cardio workout this morning affected my ability to do as much freestyle as I would have liked. It makes me wonder how athletes build up their endurance and what wears them out. While the cardio makes me so tired and gets my heart rate up there, I do like how my lungs feel expansive afterwards. Anyway, with 5-10 minutes to spare, I did complete 64 lengths….one mile!

Back at the gym and after lunch, it was time for my first 1-on-1 training session with Arleigh. Since I wanted to give my knees a break for the day, Arleigh had me work on chest and arms. I had to do bench presses! The last time I did that was in 1993! The bar by itself is quite heavy, so no extra weights were added. I’m looking forward to when I can bench press a lot more than that. I also did chest flies (50 lbs!), dips (from hell), tricep pull downs, and several other exercises. After each round there was always a minute or two of cardio on the treadmill to give my arms a chance to rest. I was pressing or pushing or lifting weights that were higher than I had before (nothing like you Seaview (Bermuda gym) people can lift, of course, but I’ll get there!). Nothing hurt, but it sure did wear them out (I bet I’m gonna feel it tomorrow!). By the time I had to do dips near the end of the hour, my arms were like jello. Three hours later when I had my 5pm meal, it was still a workout just to lift the fork to my mouth…and that was a good meal, too (rotisserie chicken with mash potatoes & vegetables). Normally I would want to get that fork in my mouth quickly, but my forearms, triceps, biceps, whateverceps were dead, baby. But guess what…..there are hard bumps where I think the biceps should be….especially the right arm. I mean…I actually have a little bit of a bulge on my right arm. Wow! Still have the “flags waving” below (i.e. the flab which covers the triceps), but there is definitely a new bump on each of my arms.

At some point during the day, Nicola came to me to let me know that a TV crew was going to come to the gym on Thursday to do some filming and interviewing, and she asked if I would be one of the interviewees! How cool is that? I’m very excited about it. I DID ask if it would be during or after a workout, ‘cause I don’t want to have my baboon-ass face on. The baboon-ass face is when I am red red red after a hard workout and I swear it is the color of a baboon’s ass! I’ll put some makeup on that day. I haven’t worn makeup since I’ve been here! I’m going to have to look through all my workout gear to see what’s the cutest! I’m thinking either my purple LSU t-shirt or my white “I Love NOLA” tshirt. I don’t think the one that I wore today will be appropriate….it says “Shameless Hussy” (I bought it two years ago for a naughty t-shirt party that I attended). Now I REALLY have to set up my TIVO to record it! Actually, you know what? I don’t even know from where the TV crew is coming. I’m assuming it’s a local news station, but I’ll ask tomorrow.

The last workout of the day was another Boot Camp with Marco. This time there were 12 or 13 of us so he had us in teams rotating between legs, chest, and biceps. The Evil Twin came out when he had us do that pyramid workout in between the legs, chest, and biceps sets (each of those sets had 4 or 5 exercises). Jeni the Rockstar did 25 bicep curls with 25lb dumbbells in each hand. HELLO! (Jeni, correct me if I’m wrong…I think that’s what you told me!). Geez, my arms are burning just thinking about that. I can’t even remember with which weight I started but it was killing me to do 25 reps with those damn things. We each moved down the row with a lower weight and fewer reps, then moved to another set of higher to lower weights to do shoulder presses. OK, after my workout with Arleigh which had ended nearly three hours earlier, my arms were already feeling like pudding, but I managed to do all the required sets. I could not get to the end of that pyramid soon enough! It was a “late” day, too…we finished at 7pm. I was very happy to head home, and actually anxious to get started on today’s journal.

Had another yummy meal at the end of the day…beer-braised pork tenderloin with roasted acorn squash and rice pilaf. You can be sure that when I saw something braised in beer in the menu choices I was going to choose that! The squash had cinnamon sprinkled on it. I am full and satisfied. I really cannot wait to get these recipes.

Hope you all had a good St. Paddy’s Day and that you have a great day planned for tomorrow. On the schedule for me…bike ride, group circuit (yaaaay, Amber has returned!), 1-on-1 with Amber, and cardio. And another massage. Wooohooo! I’m pretty sure I’m going to need it. Oh what the hell…I ALWAYS need a massage…don’t you?

Have a great Wednesday, y’all!

Day Thirteen - Meet Marco's Evil Twin (Tue., Mar 17th)

Today’s Schedule:
• Group Stretch (1 hr)
• Bike Ride (2 hrs)
• 1-hour cardio
• partner training (1 hr)
• Boot camp in the gym (1 hr)

What a rude awakening! Someone from Minnesota called both my cellphone (which was off) and the apartment phone (which was NOT off) at 5:30 in the freakin’ morning! Didn’t leave a message. And when I called back, I heard a “this is an invalid number” message. WTF! Despite my drastic change in schedule from the last several years, I am not a morning person and I DON’T LIKE TO BE AWAKENED FROM SLEEP! None of us do, right? RIGHT. Since I couldn’t get back to sleep and I was too annoyed to go back to sleep, even though I had another hour before I had to get up, I got online to check how your days are starting, and Chris gets me going with a good laugh. Thanks, Chris!

I re-read some of my Daily Journals, too, and need to make a few corrections now that I’m less ignorant than I was two weeks ago. The weather does warm up here…should be in the 70s this week and maybe low 80s next week. PERFECT! Marco, if I understand correctly, supervised the trainers who trained the boxers in Oscar de la Hoya’s organization. AND he used to be a major bodybuilder (still waiting on photos, Marco!). Venice Beach is too far of a walk from the apartments, however I can handle it on my bike.

I had mentioned that I’m usually anxious about what the day’s workouts will be like. Despite my bad dream that was Saturday, I’m actually no longer anxious – until maybe when I see The Dunes or The Santa Monica Stairs on them. Although, I expect that by the time those appear on my schedule, I’ll actually be ready for them.

I had a rather uneventful day. Marco gave a bunch of us a really good stretching session. I really love doing that. This was followed by a bike ride with Schuyler, but first with some annoyance ‘cause my schedule said to “eat a meal before” the ride. Well…we’re supposed to inhale a breakfast? That’s not right. Kinda pissed me off and I let him know it (wasn’t his fault…I just wanted it conveyed to the other trainers that it’s unreasonable for us to have to hurry up and eat before a big workout). There was a meal scheduled immediately before the boot camp workout at the end of the day, too….i.e., it said, “eat a meal before.” I don’t understand that. Anyway, I started the bike ride in a bit of a pissy mood which wasn’t helped by the fact that we were doing the “stinky beach” way which is more bumpy and hilly. It ended up being a good ride…the hills were still there but the smell wasn’t this time. The wind was in our favor. There’s one nasty hill near the end; I’ve made it over that hill both times, but not much further than that hill – which means I haven’t made it to the end yet. This time I made it up the hill; I find that if I get some momentum when I approach the hill it helps a little bit. The hill is still a bitch, but I made it over, and this time when about ¾ of a mile further. So, I did 14 miles instead of 13 as the last time (just like the Santa Monica Pier beach ride!) and including the ride to and from the gym, I did another mile. So, a 15-mile day in which I’m pleased. I’m really beginning to like this biking thing. OH, this time, however, for the first time I started feeling pains in my kneecap. I’ll elaborate on that later.

The bike ride ended at 11am and I didn’t have another workout scheduled ‘til 2pm (lunch was in between), so I worked on my posture exercises on my own, and then Sean convinced me to get on a stationary bike and do some more cardio/fat-burning. So I did. I thought I was getting weighed on Tuesday thus I figured it would be a good way to burn off more calories. I’ve mentioned that I have Broadway show tunes on my MP3 player. I love ‘em. They get me going and put me in great spirits. That’s how I get through the next hour of cardio ‘cause NOW only ONE TV on one of the treadmills is working properly (and I can’t watch CSI re-runs). It’s OK, ‘cause when I hear Benny Goodman’s “Sing Sing Sing” from the show “Fosse” I just wanna tap dance and clap my hands on the treadmill ;-) This was followed by partner training with Eric. This time he had Felleng (from S. A.) and me working on butt and legs (let me tell you….my butt is sore this morning!). It’s so interesting to me that even if we’re not doing anything strenuous, simple exercises like kneeling on one knee on the BOSU ball for 60-seconds can really get your heart pumping. Another good workout (they all are, really), although I noticed that my kneecaps are starting to hurt more than usual.

This was followed by inhaling a meal again (grrrrrrrr) and boot camp with Marco. “Boot Camp” usually means a variety of exercise drills, rather than repetitions on a machine or with weights. Well, it think Marco’s Evil Twin Brother showed up ‘cause he had us doing “pyramids” in which you start with the heaviest free weights doing a particular exercise and work your way down the weights with more or less repetitions. Bicep curls, back rows, shoulder presses, tricep extensions, lateral raises (hate these!), dead lifts, and squats with the kettlebell weights, and cardio in between each rough. Oh, plus there was this exercise where you hold the dumbbell with a pancake hold (flat hands between the hole between your two thumbs and index fingers), hold the dumbbell behind your head, and then lift up and down. I think that Evil Twin gave me a 20lb weight the first time. Aaaaaargh! I got through them, but barely! I noticed, too, when I was doing the squats that my kneecaps were really hurting every time I bent, and I wasn’t getting the muscle work in my legs…so that made me think I wasn’t doing it right. The problem was actually that the patellas in my kneecaps had probably been overworked today, so afterwards Marco said that when I returned home I should prop them up and ice them for a while just to get the inflammation down. And that’s what I was doing last night….watching “Dancing with the Stars” with ice packs on my knees and my ankles (‘cause they were hurting, too). I learned that when you feel a slight muscle pain, you should go ahead and ice it as quickly as possible to reduce inflammation to avoid more injury. I had already moved my laptop to the table from the coffee table, thus I wasn’t able to write the day’s notes.

It’s nearly 7am as I post this now. Must get a move on….breakfast, cardio, massage, abs/core, swimming (hurrah!), 1-on-1, nutrition, and another boot camp with Marco (I wonder if it will be his Evil Twin again) today.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day, y’all! I think I have something green to wear today…I must have some green panties, I’m sure! Peter, even if you’re not Irish and not wearing green, I’d pinch you anyway ;-)

Hope you’re all having a great day so far!

Day Twelve – That Must Have Just Been a Bad Dream

Today’s Workout – only 1 ½ hours, but this is what we all did:
• 30 reps on lateral pulldown machine
• 30 one-armed tricep extensions with free weight
• 30 reps on chest press machine
• 30 bicep curls with free weights
• 50 double crunches on mat
• 3-minute cardio
• 30 regular squats
• 30 shoulder press with free weights
• 30 back rows with free weights
• 30 reps on tricep extensions
• 30 reps on chest fly machine
• 50 Russian twists on mat
• 3-minute cardio
• 30 reps on hamstring curl machine
• 30 hammer curls with free weights
• 30 reps on shoulder press machine
• 30 reps on rear delt fly machine
• 30 pushups on mat
• 25 scissor kicks on mat
• 25 flutter kicks on mat
• 3-minute cardio
• 30 duck squats
• 30 reps on bicep machine
• 15 side arm raises with free weights
• 15 front arm raises with free weights
• 30 reps on back row machine
• 30 dips (i.e. the dips from hell!)
• 25 crunches on ball
• 25 EACH left and right oblique crunches on ball
• 3-minute cardio
• 50 calf-raises on leg press machine (ooooowwwww)
• Cool down cardio for 5-minutes

So, this morning I woke up before 7am – without the alarm. That NEVER happens! I had had a bad dream where I panicked when I had chest pains, my heart rate was too high, and there was no one around to catch me if I fell. Thank goodness that bad dream was over ‘cause I was looking forward to a short but vigorous workout day. I was also looking forward to unpacking my luggage since I’ve been saying I needed to unpack my luggage since Thursday. I had a productive and pleasant morning. It’s always pleasant and productive to read your messages and to check on how you’re all doing! I headed to the gym, wondering what Arleigh would have in store for us, as I had not worked out with her yet. We did the usual cardio warmup, and then Arleigh gave us the list above to work on our own, much like I did on Day Nine….except this time there were around 15 of us doing the same circuit. You’d think we’d all be fighting for the machines, free weights, and cardio equipment, but it actually went well, and before I knew it, it was 12pm and we were all finished. Courtney and I sort of stayed close together in the list, and I was happy to explain some of the exercises to her – hmmmm, maybe that’s my next calling, eh? Are there enough personal trainers in the world? Gareth, what do you think?

Anyway, good thing 12 pm arrived so quickly, ‘cause I was hungry for whatever delight Robert had prepared for today. A very delicious southwest quesadilla with fresh salsa. Yum! It was a lovely day again, and not tooooo cool to be on the bike. I headed round the corner to the Sports Chalet, a sporting goods store, where I purchased my own training boxing gloves, yoga strap (for stretching), bike gloves (since I’m going to be the next Lance Armstrong), and one of those giant plastic beach balls on which you can exercise…and I managed to get all of that in my backpack. I still have to pump up the beach ball. I know I know, I know that’s not what it’s called, but that’s what I’M going to call it! I couldn’t do a proper pushup to save my life right now (you ought to see Ryall Graber’s pushups!), but I can do them if I use the beach ball under my hips. Plus Marco showed Courtney and me some stretching exercises that we could do on our own on a beach ball (caution: do not try this on a REAL beach ball, trust me). AND I want to practice some of the exercises that we do so that when I do them, I’m getting the most benefit out of them (‘cause no matter how many crunches you do, if y’ain’t doin’ it right, it ain’t gonna stick!). Thus this equipment will stay at the apartment. Except for the boxing gloves. They do provide gloves for us, but since many of us are using them and our hands get sweaty in them, they’re not the most pleasant-smelling items there. So, if I’m going to be smelling anyone’s sweaty gloves, it’s going to be my sweat and no one else’s. Gosh…brings me back to twenty years ago when I was doing Tae Kwon Do and I had the gloves, shin guards, mouth guard, and head gear. I miss those days. I would love to throw a raging round kick at a kick bag right now (even as sore as I am)!

Back at home to relax, straighten up the apartment, and do laundry, my favorite household chore. Seriously! I love doing laundry! I HATE DOING DISHES! No man better propose to me unless he has a dishwasher for me. A garbage disposal, large capacity washer & dryer, and automatic ice maker would be nice, too. I would take all that over an engagement ring ;-) And I actually did unpack my luggage and stored away the luggage (duffle bags mostly). What a difference it makes when you clear a corner, hmmm? Is there a parallel in life for that? There must be…one of you creative writers out there needs to tell me.

As an added bonus, Marco called on me to check that I was feeling OK and that I had a good workout. I soooo appreciated that. I failed to mention, too, that as expected, several of the other campers asked how I was doing, and Jeni complimented me on my technique. Well, she sets a good example! And I want to set a good example for Courtney or anyone else that joins the camp after me.

Not much more to report! I spent more time on Facebook seeing how a lot of you were doing. Admittedly I’m totally self-centered (in a good way) at the moment, but I do care how you’re all doing. OH, I was happy to receive some “joy reports” today. Playing tennis, dinner with friends, reconnecting with relatives, attending a wedding, and cleaning house were mentioned. The latter was Jeane. If that gives her joy than I should have hired her to clean my apartment in Bermuda all those years that I was there! I hate housework in general, except for the laundry, of course, cleaning bathrooms, and ironing. Yes, I like to iron. I like to iron so much that I will iron my paper money so that it is crisp and straight. And my family thinks I’m crazy for it. But Mom indulged me MANY years ago with an ironing board cover that has a picture of a naked man on it with a sheet barely covering any important parts that shouldn’t get burned. I still have that ironing board cover! It is safely kept in storage back in Virginia. My joy today was reading more messages, both public and private, from you, especially those of you who say that I have inspired you to exercise more or eat fewer cookies or something like that. Thanks soooo much!

On the plate for tomorrow…stretching, bike ride (gawd, I hope it is NOT to the stinky beach!), 1-hour cardio, and partner training (i.e., 2 campers with one trainer). I hope that you’re all well-rested and ready for a great week. Spring is almost here!! Yaaaaay!