Wanna Get Physical, Physical

While sitting in my office thinking about my blog post for the morning, I couldn't get the Olivia Newton John song out of my head - thus, our title for today.  It's appropriate though, cause after the night I had last night it's exactly how I feel today.

Last night's bootcamp was a wake-up call to how bad I want to change my mind, body, and life.  I've known since January 17th that losing weight was one of my top priorities, but now I know that it is my TOP priority.  Despite my busy and hectic life - I've made sure I stick with my healthy diet and working out.  Sure, I've had my "off days" (sometimes weeks) but I have been working at this longer than I have in my whole life!!  This isn't just about losing weight anymore - this is about losing weight, getting fit and healthy, staying that way, and being a postivie role-model to my children.  Some people may think that it's selfish to put my weight and fitness above everything else - but what good will I be if I die of a heart attack?  How can I raise and support my children if I'm not here?  In order to give my family the best possible life, I have to be in the best possible health. 

Ok - so how did this epiphany come to be?  It started out with a discussion with the bootcamp coordinator before bootcamp started last night.  He spoke to us about the importance of taking responsibility for everything that we put into our bodies and the way we treat out bodies.  The phrase "eat to live not live to eat" came up several times - and it really hit home to me.  Even since getting serious about my weight loss there has been more than enough times that I have opted to grab Domino's pizza as a quick meal, because we're too busy to cook.  This same experience happened Tuesday night - but this time, instead of opting for Domino's I told the family we were heading to Subway instead.  I had a 6" sub rather than my regular footlong.  I was acutally making conscience decisions about what I was going to put into my body.  Even though we were in a crunch for time, and didn't want to have to cook - I was able to make a healthy decision.  Then he talked about our fitness.  We go to bootcamp for a total of 4 1/2 hours a week - and there are 168 hours in a week.  That means we are working out less than 3% of the week.  That's definately better than nothing, but more can be done.  That made me think about preparing my home gym, going to yoga class, etc.  I, again, was realizing that I was already making the decision to up the amount I'm working out each week - regardless of time constraints.  If I'm willing to get up at 4am to go to a yoga class - I'm making that effort.  The talk was very informative, not just because of the tips he shared to help boost my weight loss - but to the fact that I'm already implementing the things he was suggesting.  I have officially made the step from trying to lose weight to changing my entire lifestyle.

Bootcamp started last night and all that kept running through my head was "no more stationary bike!"  If you remember, I've had to ride the stationary bike on a couple of occasions either because of my stomach injury (which now seems to be 100% healed by the way) or because I just couldn't do what everyone else was doing.  That happened Monday night when I wasn't able to run with my team because I was too tired from the relays that we had done prior.  Last night, just 2 days later I might add, I wasn't going to let that happen again.  We started out with the hardest calasthetics we've EVER done - 40 jumping jacks, 30 flutter kicks, 30 swimmers, and 30 lunges. I was exhausted just from doing that..LOL  We then moved on to circuits.  Ugh, I really don't care for circuits.  We did mule kicks, horizontal pull-ups, swimmers, burpees (push-up and then jump in the air), flutter kicks, and mountain climbers.  We started out with 70 second rotations, then did 50 seconds, then 30 seconds.  It was hard, but I did NO modifications.  After the circuits, it was time for a run.  My nerves kicked in - but I was DETERMINED that I was NOT going to do that bike!!  I was placed in the front of the line of 6 runners that were running in my group.  This put the pressure on, because I had to keep the pace.  We jogged the whole time, and every few minutes the back person came to the front of the line and then the second from last and so on until I had to sprint to the front of the line.  We didn't walk ONCE - and I DID IT!!!!  On top of that, when it came down to the last stretch of the run - I actually picked up the pace and sprinted to the end.  I felt a surge of adrenaline rush through me, and I literally felt like I could do the whole night over again.  I was later informed that I had experienced my first "exercise high".  Basically I got to the point where I just couldn't do anymore, pushed through it, and was given a burst of energy.  It felt SOOOOOO good!!!

It was such an amazing night for me.  I literally felt my life altering change set in.  I have one more bootcamp before my 5K run on Saturday - and I couldnt' be more excited.  I am stronger, healthier, and lighter than I have been in a long time - and it's only going to get better from here on out.

Till next time.  ;)