Day 79

I know I keep saying this, but I’m so amazed I’ve made it this far.  Sure, I’ve had slips and tumbles, days when I didn’t want to exercise and days that I ate things I shouldn’t have, but that’s life, that’s part of the game.  And next week is our final weigh in for the 8 week challenge, which is just nuts.  I’m down almost 30 pounds, there’s no reason I can’t win this for the store again this year.  And who knows, maybe I’ll place for the whole thing.  Thing that worries me is, since the first weigh in, on their scales, I’ve gone from 175 to 149.  That’s 15% of my body weight that I’ve lost.  But with the weigh in that they were counting for the challenge, I’ve gone from 162 to 149, which is only 8%.  Last year the top person lost 15%, and the next person in line lost 14%.  If I stick with this like I have been and I can get down to my goal weight by the end of the next 12 week challenge (December 12), I’ll have lost 42 pounds over the course of the challenge, which is 26% of my original weight.  Now as we’ve never held an additional 12 week challenge, I’m not sure what kind of numbers everyone else was pulling, but I guess we’ll see.  If I don’t win the grand prize, I’ve still lost a lot of weight (33% since I’ve started once I reach my goal), and that’s all that really matters.

Since today is Friday, I had planned to do my C25K training today.  But I slept in, and that would have made my time really tight.  On top of that, my knee was bothering me today.  So I switched today’s workout with tomorrow’s.  So today I did Turbo Jam.

I don’t remember if I’ve talked about my history with Turbo Jam or not, but here it is.  Matt and I had seen the infomercials for Turbo Jam for ages, and we’d always said that we should get it.  But, like most things, we never did.  So last year when I was doing the weight loss challenge at work, Matt and I decided that we would finally buy it.  We split the cost, went online, and ordered the product.  It came about a week later, and I opened it up, like a kid at Christmas.  I was so excited to get to it, that I skipped my usual process of watching a new exercise video before using it.  How hard could it really be?

I thought I was going to die.  I stopped the DVD not even half way through, wheezing and panting and trying to find my inhaler.  That was so not fun, the liars.  It was forty minutes of torture with a bouncy, smiling, blonde devil yielding the whip.  I tucked the DVDs aside and promised myself that I would try again when I was more fit.

And there they sat until a month ago.  I tried again, and this time I was ready, having watched them first.  I brought down my intensity, tried not to call it quits during the Turbos (high intensity intervals), and limped my way through.  That wasn’t so bad.  Aside from the Turbos, it was kind of okay.  Not so enjoyable that I did it again, but okay.

Well, today I popped in the Fat Blaster DVD, which is all Turbos.  Each Turbo is done twice, once at a lower intensity to learn it, then once at full intensity.  And you know what?  I had a blast.  I was smiling despite myself, giving it all I had, and for once doing something that resembled what the high intensity people were doing.  I’m still amazed.  How much I sweat was gross, but that’s a good thing, right?

So tomorrow I’m going to do my C25K.  And I think I’ll change the route again, see if that makes things any easier.