Sneaking Out the Back

Greetings, loyal readers, and fellow competitors in the DYJCMF challenge. It's been a while since posting, and I am definitely in egregious violation of the DYJCMF agreement. Luckily, Alice hasn't exactly been pulling her weight over in London, both on the blog front and unfortunately for me, quite literally. She's down 14 pounds. She's kicking my ass in this challenge. The good news is that there are no real losers here. I'm proud of Alice and her hard work. She's certainly forcing me to be more disciplined than usual. So it's with a small sense of accomplishment that I am happy to report a week three weigh-in loss total of 5.6 pounds.

To catch you guys up, that's a total of +1.4 pounds for the first week (going the wrong direction!), a net loss of 0.6 pounds to the good for week two, and a net loss of 5.6 pounds for week three. I lost two pounds in the second week, and five pounds in week three, for those of you who don't like doing the math. So for now, I'm losing the contest by 8.4 pounds. However, I like my chances to catch up in the next few weeks, and I'll tell you why.

Eight days ago, in the face of a seven pound weight loss in one week from Alice, my brother finally talked me into taking a class at the gym with him. He's claimed for a while now that it's the same as hiring a personal trainer, but you don't have to pay someone an additional 120 bucks per session. Now the reason I'd never taken one before wasn't because I didn't believe him, but that I was afraid to walk in there, take five minutes of the class, pass out, throw up or some combination of the two, and then leave a defeated sweaty mess. But desperate times call for desperate measures. So, I gathered my dignity, wrapped it in a towel, and tossed it in the trash just outside Workout Studio 1. My brother set me up with all the accoutrements for Abs/Total Body Lifting, padded mat, medicine ball, hand weights, and best of all, a spot in the back by the door.

So we were sitting there way early, watching people filter in, grab mats and find spots. Not just any people, mind you, pretty much the Greek goddesses of Lincoln Park all walk in, give me the stinkeye, and take their places. We're talking about pretty much the creme de la creme of the Equinox fitness crowd. The kind of people who interview for jobs like "Girl in Bikini #1" and sideline on-air talent for ESPN. Turns out I've been working out with the peons out on the floor. It was intimidating as all hell. (side note for the fellas, despite the intimidation factor, the scenery was definitely motivating. Sorry, ladies.)

Anyway, class started, and I gave it the old college try. There was a bit of a learning curve with all the moves, and a bit of trying to decipher the overhead sound system, but I made it through the first fifteen minutes of class winded but feeling ok. Of course, the first fifteen minutes were the Abs portion. Even at my best, I wasn't nearly at the level of everyone else in class, although I tried. Then came the second part, the Total Body Lifting. We started out with three sets of twelve squats each, while holding a medicine ball. I can't really tell you what happened after that, because the abs workout caught up with me, I got really lightheaded, and stepped out for a drink of water. Once I got out into the cool air, I was done for. The lightheadedness turned into full on threat of passing out, and I got pretty nauseous. So I made it into the locker room upstairs, sat down on the couch, and pretty much sat there a defeated sweaty mess. And I felt great.

Sure, I realized that I'm way out of shape compared to people who've taken those classes for months, or even people who haven't, but it felt good to have broken through the initial resistance and fear to try something I knew was going to suck. I'm still not ready for the Total Body Lifting class any time soon, but it's become clear how much work I have to put in to get there.