The New Me: Phase 2

After 18 months on Weight Watchers, I've decided that it's time for the next phase of my "journey."  I lost 95 pounds on Weight Watchers (well until Christmas hit ... still trying to get rid of the last couple I put on during that time).  And I feel so good about that achievement.  However, I did most of that weight loss by just changing my eating habits...which, don't get me wrong, is HUGE.  Huge.  

But there's another element to health and that's exercise and I need to do more of it.  I've become even more motivated to work on this because both of my sisters are kicking butt in the exercise department.  Now, if you know the Fonner sisters, you know we are not big on exercising.  At least, not historically.  We were active growing up, no doubt about that, but not really "exercisers" or "runners" or "fitness fanatics" or whatever.  But these days, Kate is killing it in the running department - finishing a mini last fall and several, several other races before and after that.  Jenny was steppin' it up and elliptical-ing it up and now she's T25'ing it every single day.

Me, I was sitting on me bum.  Watching a little TV.    Doing a little blogging, knitting, whatever...

And I got to thinking about how Kate pretty much kicked my ass in the Viking Assault last year.  Now, while I was very impressed and proud of her ability, I didn't take too kindly to the ass whooping.  We Fonner girls are competitive and I'm not too interested in being walloped like that again when we do the Insane Inflatables 5K in late June (anyone wants to run it with us, we're signed up for the 9am heat!).

So time to get with it.

I heard about a program called Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping from a few people and became inspired to give it a shot because of this amazing and brave woman.  It's a 10-week program and the premise is that you exercise, hard, 6 days a week and you follow a nutrition scheme and you can see some pretty amazing body transformations.  This program isn't focused on weight loss (in fact, I don't care if I don't lose weight - well maybe just that extra pound or two from Christmas) but it's focused on your health - getting stronger, more flexible, better cardiovascular health, etc.

The exercise is 3 days a week of kickboxing - like the real deal - with a punching bag, boxing gloves, wrist wraps, martial arts shoes and the whole nine yards.  And then 3 days of strength training with resistance bands.

You sign up for a specific class time and go at that time everyday (with some flexibility on Saturdays to attend a different time).  My class time is 5 AM.  FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING Y'ALL.  That means my alarm goes off at 4:15 and I'm out the door by 4:35.  You are probably thinking I'm one of 10 people in the world who would be crazy enough to do this early class.  Nope - you'd be wrong.  This class time is one of the most popular.  I can see why.  It's really the only time that doesn't interfere with the rest of my life and responsibilities (you know, kids, work, etc.).

The nutrition piece is pretty basic in principle.  You eat 6 small meals evenly spaced throughout the day with a specific balance of protein and (good) carbs.  Sounds simple enough, however, this is actually my biggest challenge which I will spare you the details on for now.  But just imagine limited to no diet coke and no sweets.  So yeah....an adjustment to say the least.

Last Saturday was the orientation and baseline testing day.  We were weighed, measured, and photographed.  They checked our body fat % and resting and excited(?) heart rates.  Then we had to see how many push ups and sit ups we could do in a minute.  And then we ran a mile.  We'll do all those things again at the 5 week and 10 week marks to see how we've improved.

So, running a mile.  That was something.  We did it outside and I think the temperature at the time we ran was < 10 degrees.  It. Was. Bad. Word. Cold.  But I did it!  I ran the whole mile - never walked and I did it in 11 minutes 30 seconds.  I have NEVER run a mile that fast in my entire life.  I cried when I finished.  It was a testament to all the weight I took off and to the fact that I spent the previous 3 weeks doing T25 videos to prepare (thanks Jenny for the kickstart on that!).  I can honestly say that I am excited to run that mile again on week 10 to see if I can break the 10 minute mark.  That might be aggressive, but that's my goal. 

Now I've officially finished up week one and I didn't die.  I am pretty sore (though not nearly as sore as I would have been if not for T25).  But. I love it.  I love the kickboxing.  I love the camaraderie.  I love the accountability.  I love that I am already feeling stronger in my arms.  I love that I sweat like a mother.  I love the hollering and cheerleading.  I love that I am active.  I love it.  (I can't say "I love it" yet about the eating style...still working on that one....)

 

And I am ready for fun day tomorrow.  Boy, am I ready for fun day.  What's fun day, you ask?  It's one day a week where I don't have to follow the strict nutrition scheme.  I can eat chocolate and pizza and maybe some Mexican food and and and...oh yes.... fun day.  Except my fun day will not exceed what would be the number of weekly "extra" points you get on Weight Watchers.  That way, I keep it moderately in check.

Oh and one more thing I love.  I love that my exercising initiative is already having an affect on the kids.  This morning, I got back from my workout (which was at 5am EVEN on SATURDAY) and this conversation happened:

Lily:  Mommy, where did you go?
Me:  Exercising class.
Lily:  When are you going to do exercising at our house again?
Me:  I don't know.
Lily:  Well I want to do exercising with you, too.  So you have to do exercising at our house.
Me:  Ok, tomorrow we'll do exercising at our house.

And THAT, my friends, is how I signed myself up to exercise on my one day off.  Even my (almost!) 4-year-old is holding me accountable.

And one final note to this blog post that never ends.  Check out this little boxer!  Someday maybe we will square off!