Days 1 & 2

OK, so most of you know now that I've been selected to participate in a contest for Giggle Magazzine (www.gigglemag.com) with Sweat Life Fitness (www.sweatlifefitness.com). I am one of 7 moms in Gainesville selected. I think we might have been the only people brave enough to put ourselves out there for all of Gainesville to see. Because when you agree to participate, you agree to let yourself be out there for everyone to see. That is the part that frightened me! I think it is because I'm in total denial of how bad off I am after having 3 kids. I call it my baby weight, but when it has been on me for 5 years (after my first born), I'm not sure I can blame it on the kids!

We began on Saturday, Jan. 8th with our weigh-in and measurements. We were all horrified by our numbers, especially since they took them in cm and not inch. We met our trainers, Dan Griffin (owner), Megan Merkle and Intern (I'll let you know when she has worked hard enough to be called by her first name). They began slowly and I had a ton of questions for them about what all I can do.....now! I'm not used to doing things slowing, but they want to ease us all into this lifestyle change. On my way to the weigh-in a song by Usher came on the radio: More Here is a line: "Gonna push it to the limit, give it more". I declared that this will be my motivational workout song to get me pumped up to workout more....get off the couch more....lose more!!!! Listen to it, turn it up, get motivated too!

Tuesday I was excited about our first workout. I chose to work out at the 7:30 PM time so I could go after Chris got off work. I wasn't sure what to expect but all I had to do was watch 5 minutes of the Biggest Loser and I knew I was in for an intense workout and a reality check on how out of shape I have become. But Megan & Intern eased us into the workout slow. We were learning proper form and how to do the exercies correctly. Since I've been an athlete for most of my life, I've been pretty well schooled on the basics of form and style. I know how to do a proper squat/sit up/push up. But it's always good to get a refresher course! We did 3 circuits along with a warm up and cool down and I was suprised when it was over and I wasn't too exhausted. But I was sure I would be sore the next day!

To my surprise, I wasn't very sore the next day. I was planning on taking the day off and exercising my rest period (a time that the trainers say is very important) but my friend A. called me at 8:30AM to ask me to meet her at the gym. She is motivated by me being in this program and is determined to help me and help herself along the way. We did a low cardio class and then an abs/glutes class (which was way harder!). But the rest of the day my body was in overdrive. I felt hungry all day. I tried to obey the eating rules they had gone over at the first meeting (trying to stick to eating only 300 calories at a time) but my body was hungry. For the rest of the day my body could not get satisfied. I tried drinking lots of water to fill up my hungry stomach, but that didn't work. I feel like I probably ate more that day and it probably negated the calories I burned during the workout! This has always been a problem that I'm hoping to learn how to curve. I feel like "hey I worked out, I can eat this...." and thus I end up eating to negate the workout. I'll let you know if I figure out how to curve this hunger!

Today, I woke up very sore. Especially in my quads where I really felt the burn! But I drank lots of water an hydrated for my workout. I also need to figure out how to curb that mid afternoon snack crave. Today it was skittles, which isn't normal, but I found some that I had bought after halloween and planned on putting them in the pinata for my son's party, but we didn't do the pinata and thus they were calling my name. I also ate a full meal at 6PM right before my 7:30PM workout. Not really the smartest thing to do, but I didn't want to eat at 9PM after the workout. After the first circuit, I felt the food in my stomach and it wasn't feeling good! But I pushed through it! Today's circuit was much harder than the first. They stepped us up. Added 10lb weights to a few of the exercises and shortened the break in between. I felt good afterwards. I will be sore tomorrow! But I'm looking forward to Saturday when we'll head to Publix after the workout and learn how to shop for better food!