Extreme Body Failure: Working It Out

May 4, 2010 | Story by: Leslie Huffman | Categories: Fitness

Cary, NC – I started my exercise program and made it through my first two weeks of Extreme Body Fitness.  Has it been difficult so far?  Absolutely!

The first day I came to class, I was encouraged when I saw lots of folks just like me.  There were no muscle bound jocks there (except the trainers), just many middle-aged people trying to change their body shape and fitness level.  We were all different sizes of roundish.

Week One – Muscle Confusion

Our four trainers were eager to begin our rapid transformation with calisthenics.  I don’t know about you, but I hate to sweat.  I hate being out of breath even more.  After an hour of sprinting, jumping-jacks, jump-rope, suicides (yes, that is an exercise) and a “cool down” of push ups, I knew I might be in trouble.  I think the trainers knew they had their hands full with me, too.  I never knew I could complain as much as my 13 year old.  And I think I crawled to my car.

The next class we worked out with hand weights.  This was much better.  I liked pushing myself and feeling the burn in my shoulders.  That is until the next day.  Raising my arms over my shoulders was extremely difficult along with sitting and walking up steps.  I seemed to move around my house in slow motion with a constant low moan.  I figured I had to lose weight on this program, because I was too sore to lift the fork to my mouth.

Don’t Talk to Mom Til She’s Eaten

Our last workout of the week was core exercises and stretching.  The words “core exercise” is a subtle way of saying lots of sit-ups.  I made it through the first week and checked it off the list.

Beside being extremely sore I was starving.  Not hungry – starving.  I bought some low-carb bread, organic almond butter, oranges and bananas for snacking between meals.  They told us to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day.  I ate half the jar of almond butter and whole loaf of bread before the week was out.  My family had to endure my mood swings from meal to meal.  My daughter said, “don’t talk to Mom until after she’s eaten”.

Week Two – Attitude Adjustment

So you get that the first week was an adjustment.  But during week two I was not as hungry and was able to keep-up a little more.  There is hope after all.  I may actually get fit!  Way at the beginning of my journey, “Barry the Trainer” as I affectionately call him, gave me a diet plan to follow.  It is somewhere buried on my desk.  I thought I was doing great just to show up and sweat three times a week.

Now the moment of truth.  I was actually excited to get on the scale.  I eagerly took off my shoes and got on.  Looking down I saw 122 pounds.  Hey, that’s what I weighed when I started!  You mean I’ve been sweating my butt off for two weeks and I weigh the same!  After the first week some of the other folks were losing 5, 8 and even 11 pounds.  Barry measured my body fat and told me the good news.  I had dropped my body fat by 6%.

The folks that were losing weight were also following the diet plan closely.  I have yet to do so.  It is hard for me to look at food as nutrition.  To me, food is pleasure, an experience, something to share with others and enjoy.  I like to dine.  Barry the Trainer has informed me that there will be no more “dining” until after my 10 weeks is up.  Time to count calories and cut carbs if I am at all serious about really making this 10 week program work.

Barry, Carolee and the other trainers have been fantastic and extremely supportive of all of us.  They are committed to our transformation and have made themselves available.   With Barry’s help, I have my arsenal ready for the next phase of this program.  I am really going to work hard on watching everything that goes into my mouth.  I just hope I can be a little less abrasive with what comes out.

Two more weeks and I’ll post my progress.