- Monday’s Schedule:
- Final Weigh-in, Measurements, and Photos
- VO2max test & Body Age test
- Tennis Ball class (having to do with muscle massage)
- Spinning (1 hr)
- Lunch & Home to pack
I headed to the gym and met with Nicola to get started. I stepped onto the scale with trepidation, and deservedly so….I GAINED a half pound. WTF??!!! How is that possible? I went jogging…like…FIVE times since the last weigh-in! Talk about a very poor start to my very last day Omigawd. I was not happy. Alright, out comes the measuring tape. An inch-and-a-half in my boobs. WHAT??? I’m so confused. Doesn’t an inch-and-a-half weigh SOMETHING? I actually lost 2 ¾ inches since Tuesday…how can that possibly show a weight GAIN? And NO, it wasn’t muscle weight!!! I was dunked a little while later and that showed that in the two weeks since my last dunking, I had lost mostly fat lbs but also a pound of lean muscle mass. So, this leaves me with 42 lbs lost in 12 weeks. Alright…I’ll stop whining about it, because the GOOD thing is that I lost 65 ½ inches. Do you know that I’m only 63 inches tall? Here is where some of the most inches were lost:
- Chest 7 ½”
- Waist 6”
- Bellybutton 11” (thanks to this my hourglass shape is back!)
- Hips 9”
- Butt 7”
- Upper thigh 4 ½”
- Right Calf 3/4“ (I swear there is no fat on my calves; they are solid as a rock; I cannot wear knee-high boots as a result, or at least find any that I can slip up above my ankles!)
- Neck 1 ¼” (one triple-chin gone, one to go!)
So this explains why all of my clothes are too big and that little black dress ALMOST fits. In fact, the inches lost were soooo good that I went down THREE sizes in pants and FOUR sizes in tops! I even tried on a dress that was FOUR sizes smaller than what I was wearing 12 weeks ago. YESSSSSSS! I am really thrilled about that. I am also thrilled with my improved fitness level. I’m still in the “FAIR” range for my age range, but I’m not that far from “good” and thus I will continue to jog and cycle and do other cardio exercises daily to improve that. OK, I digress…Nicola next took my “after” photos. I’m not going to post my “before” photos just yet because they’re disgusting. I think when I get to about 65 lbs lost, then I’ll post them. For now, you can see my “after” photos (how’s my side pose, Betty, Ryall, and Ranae?) The first photo is at 5 weeks, the second at 7 weeks, and the third at 12 weeks.
I still had some exercising to do this day, plus I had to do my “Body Age” test later. So, I did the “tennis ball” class with Schuyler. While standing on the mat, we each used a tennis ball and rolled it back and forth on the arches, on the toes, and up and down the sides of our feet. Then Schuyler took this giant foam roll (kind of looks like a big fat foam water noodle that doesn’t bend and is short) and rolled it up and down our legs, back, sides of our legs, and front of our legs. For some this was very painful as it presses on the tissue around the muscles. For me, I actually liked it (MASOCHIST ALERT!). It felt like a massage except that I didn’t have to get naked, for which I’m sure the other clients and Schuyler were very thankful! Following this I did some stretching and then had a spin class. I should have had a shake before this because I struggled with this spin class. Spinning has grown on me. I still have to work on standing while pedaling and pedaling quickly while standing. And I need to invent a more comfortable seat. Damn, that thing hurts, and this time I DON’T like it.
After spinning it was time for my “Body Age” test. This is a new service provided by LIFE (Live In Fitness Enterprise fka Camp Technique) and I was glad to be able to do this before leaving. The first part of the test involved answering a questionnaire about various health risks. In my family there have been strokes, high blood pressure, mental illness, skin cancer, heart attacks, and diabetes (brought on by obesity). Regrettably I have no control over those inherited risks so that bumps my age up. However I have never had high blood pressure, I take extra precautions with my skin, I’m not crazy (though some of you might beg to differ), I have good cholesterol numbers, I have no problems with diabetes nor my thyroid, and in the last 12 weeks I’ve strengthened my heart so that I can max out at 170 instead of 139. I am still very much overweight and my body fat percentage is still too high. It has dropped by 6% in twelve weeks, which is REALLY GOOD, but I still have a lot of work to do. The machine/computer/contraption also measures blood pressure, and mine was normal, despite just finishing the spin class minutes earlier. There were two physical tests as well. First, I had to stand on what looks like a scale and pull up on a straight bar using only my biceps. I had to pull up as hard as possible; I guess the thing measures the pressure exerted by my “brute strength.” I tried twice and the second time the reading was “good.” I have no doubt that if I had been able to work out my upper body for those 4 weeks in April and May, I would have done better on that. The second part of the test was a BREEZE for me; it measures flexibility. Hah hah, I am the Queen of Flexibility in this joint. I had to sit on the floor with my legs straight and feet flat up against the side of the machine. Then there was a bar on a cord which I had to hold while I was sitting up straight, and then I had to lean forward as far as possible holding the bar. Hah…I was literally “off the chart” ‘cause I could bend forward so far. I get asked if I’ve “always been that flexible.” As far back as I can remember…YES, I have always been that flexible. I started dancing when I was only 4 or 5 years old, and I did try gymnastics when I was around 9 or 10, and even tried it in high school when I was 14. I can’t remember at what age I was first able to do splits and other stretchy things, but it has felt very natural to me all along, even when I didn’t exercise for over 4 years. I can still do a perfect split without warming up (although it does hurt) and even after no exercise for several years. Since I’ve been here, though, I’ve been stretching almost every day. Sometimes I only do it for a few minutes at home, at other times we either have a stretching class or if I have a free half-hour I’ll just go on the mat and do it myself. It just feels plain GOOD to stretch! Doesn’t it feel good to you when you wake up in the morning and you yawn and push your arms back and straighten your legs and point your toes? See, even you stretch every day! I really cannot recommend enough how important it is to stretch. I find I can stretch further if I’m already warmed up, but if it’s the first exercise of the day for me, I take it slowly and if I have time, I do the whole routine, from bottom to top, twice. And, while I am more flexible than most, I do have a weak spot, and that would be my quadriceps. Hamstrings? No problem! But my quads always need extra work.
Alright…lunch was next and then I was scheduled for cardio and the Santa Monica Stairs. And we were having a Memorial Day BBQ later on. I still had to pack, however, so I blew off the rest of the day with every intention of packing ‘til about 5pm and then heading downstairs for the BBQ. But alas, my body said “NO” again. I started packing another duffle bag, but pretty soon I was crashed on the sofa. Y’know, when your body absolutely, positively wants to sleep, it’s going to do it whether you like it or now. I actually crashed on the sofa all night long. It was a good thing. My body needed it, and I also think that the physical stress of the last twelve weeks just finally released itself.
So, that’s it! 83 days (should have been 84 but I missed the first day thanks to the snowstorm on the East Coast). I will write an “epilogue” of sorts for “Day 84.” I’m a day behind, but it’s giving me a chance to think about all that I’ve learned and accomplished and to think about my disappointments and thrills. I’ll write about that tomorrow. Hope you all had a fun holiday weekend.
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