Training Camp
Yesterday I wrote a post about the changes I've made in my life to take better control of myself and how I feel. One of the things that I mentioned, and could have talked forever about, was my health and fitness. In order to fully explain this part of my journey, we need to go back a couple years.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 was a rough day for me. I was just finishing up work at the Zoo and started to feel pretty sick. It started as feeling like really intense heartburn and just kept getting worse and worse. I remember this day well as we were just finishing up the cleaning and organization of a shed in preparation for summer camp to start. This would be my second year working as a program instructor at the zoo; a job I truly loved and will miss dearly. Thankfully, we ended up finishing early that day. I went straight home, took some Tums and laid down in bed and went to sleep. I woke up still feeling pretty sick but my "heartburn" ended up turning into blinding pains in my upper abdomen. I took some pepto and went back to sleep just to wake up around 11:00pm whimpering and unable to move. I was asked if I needed to go to the hospital and being the stubborn person that I am, I said no and that I'd be fine. Then the tears started to flow. I couldn't move, I could barely breathe. I honestly thought "this is what death feels like". So I swallowed my pride and bit the bullet. I went to the hospital. We checked the wait times on the internet and started heading to Victoria hospital. Half way there we needed to pull over into a very open McDonald's parking lot so I could be sick. One thing I hate more than anything is vomiting in front of people.. That's a private matter. Leave me to my business and I'll try not to gross you out. Anyway, I got to the hospital and after a relatively short wait in the waiting room, I got in to see the doctor. I've always been so stubborn when it comes to going to the doctor or hospital since most of my past experiences have involved the doctors telling me that it's all in my head. This time they could definitely see that something was wrong. They had me do the routine tests and tried to set me up on an IV. That experience was even worse than the pain I was already in!! I was so dehydrated that they weren't able to put the IV in. Every time they tried, my vein collapsed and they'd have to try again. Three nurses had to come in and attempt before they finally got it. If you haven't had an IV before, being poked 12 times with a relatively large needle is not my idea of fun.. but then came morphine.. This was my first experience with the stuff and oh man, one can definitely understand the appeal.. They ended up having to give me two doses and I was finally able to get some sleep. The morning came, I was feeling better, and they set me up with an ultrasound to check for gallstones. Fast forward a couple weeks and I went to my appointment. I was there for about 4 hours before I got my results. Fatty and enlarged liver. The doctor recommended I limit my drinking and start eating a healthier diet. Do you think I listened? No.. remember, I'm stubborn. I felt fine after, so why would I need to change it. Fast forward another couple of years and we're almost at present date. Enter my good friends Dan, Erik and J.D.
After my health experiences and getting to the point of hating the mirror, I knew I wanted a change. Myreally close and good friend best friend Dan started a tremendous weight loss journey of his own on January 5, 2016. He has also recently started a blog of his own to share his journey which you can find here. As of yesterday, he has lost 160 pounds and I couldn't be more proud of him!! When he started on his journey, I felt it was a good time to start on my own. I had put it off long enough and having a close friend I talk to regularly doing the same thing seemed like it would make it easier. And for a while it did. I felt that I was more conscious about the nutrients that I was putting in my body and I was going to the gym more regularly. It was short lived. That's a bad habit of mine. I do really well for a couple weeks and then I miss a day or two and fall off the wagon and can't quite get back on. It went like this for months. I had a good long discussion with another friend of mine, Erik. He is very health conscious and has always been a huge support and advisor for me regarding health and fitness. Although we live 2500km apart, we have helped each other though a lot of ups and downs and for that I will be eternally grateful. He frequently checks in with great advice and motivation. Even though he is going through a lot himself, he always takes the time to check in. About a month ago he sent me a simple text that meant a lot. "That's awesome! Just keep in going. Eye on the prize! It will be so worth it." Those simple short sentences was all I needed to refocus and push myself a little harder. He's good at that. And then there is J.D. Oh, J.D. Master of the tough love. He himself has also lost a lot of weight through discipline and training. He's the other side of the spectrum with the "you don't know if you should workout? Look in the mirror. Do you like what you see?" Many have interpreted this as being mean, rude or a bit harsh. But it works!! It's real. He doesn't sugar coat anything! If you're not happy with yourself then do something about it! I'll admit that I've also played into his bribes a few times. "I'm not playing online FIFA with you until we both workout." That works too.. I feel grateful that I have so many people in a support system with varying views of motivation. Sometimes you need that good heartfelt motivation and sometimes you need that reality check and kick in the pants. Having both is where it's at! So I started eating better and hitting the gym with a weight routine and occasional cardio. This is where I learned to love squats and lunges. We all want that squat booty!!
Next came the 21 Day Fix from Beachbody. I had heard a lot about the Beachbody program before, primarily Shaun T and the Insanity program. I tried Insanity on and off a couple years ago but "wasn't able" to keep up with it. I originally didn't sign up for a specific program through Beachbody. I ordered a knockoff set of the portion control containers on Amazon, signed up for the Beachbody On Demand trial and downloaded the 21 Day Fix program guide books and started doing my own thing. I did the food portioning part of the program but didn't do the workouts with it. I did a few of my own workouts at the gym and attended a few bootcamp sessions (which was a HUGE step out of my comfort zone) but that was it. After the 21 days was over, I ended up losing 11 pounds and 14 total inches. I felt amazing!! I couldn't remember the last time I felt that good. Of course, when the program ended, so did my motivation. I told myself that I was going to continue with the program as close as I could but I wasn't going to limit myself as much as I had. I had a total of 3 alcoholic beverages during that time, I had zero pops, no pizza or other unhealthy options, and I even tookk my own food with me when I went over to friend's places. I was super prepared and did a great job! Then I let up a bit and it went to hell. Well, okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration but I certainly wasn't as committed as I was before. You'd think that feeling of accomplishment and pride would be enough to keep going. When I started, I was at my heaviest at 208 pounds. I was finally back under 200 pounds at the end!! Not by a lot but I knew I didn't want to go back over. Enter Sam.
A friend of mine that I had known for years but lost contact with besides the occasional "hi" when we saw each other took amazing control of her life an was very open about her story. She was always a very beautiful person inside and out but like everyone, she had her own internal demons she was fighting. A while ago, she messaged me explaining that she had become a Beachbody coach and wondered if I would be interested in becoming a coach as well or at least joining one of her challenge groups. At the time I didn't think I was able to commit to that and I was not in a very good place financially to sign up for such a program. So I declined. She asked me again a couple months later and once again, I declined. By no means did she ever pressure me to join or pester me about her business. I just didn't feel that it was the right time for me. She simply informed me of the supports that were available through her if I ever decided that I would change my mind. Just over a month ago she messaged me again. Beachbody was having a spring sale on their program and since I had so much success with the 21 Day Fix that I did on my own, and really needed something to refocus me since I fell off that wagon, I decided to give it a shot. She set me up with the challenge pack of the portion cups (so now I have 2 sets which is awesome), Shakeology (I started with the chocolate flavour), and Beachbody On Demand. She created a Facebook group for our challenge and I was able to meet some like-minded people with similar stories to mine. The supports Sam gave were amazing. She does such a wonderful job at keeping people accountable, creating daily posts and questions/assignments so that we stay on track, and checking in when she notices that you might be struggling. This is a tremendous passion of hers and I couldn't imagine doing this challenge with anyone else. Through my first month of this challenge, I ended up only losing 3.5 pounds but also lost 10 total inches off of my measurements. I found that I was feeling stronger and noticing muscle growth and definition where I hadn't before. In all honesty, one of the places I noticed it the most was my collarbone and shoulder regions. I've never felt such definition in my collarbone and I can't stop touching it!! Okay, that sounds weird but you know what I mean. Again, I felt pretty amazing afterwards but I still couldn't keep up with it. The end of that challenge was about the time when I decided to go see my psychologist. I'm just hoping that I can get that motivation back. We are now in our June challenge (yes I did sign up for the next one) and to be honest, I am not doing well.. I haven't used the portion control cups, I went away to camp with my grade 6 students for 3 days in the first week of the challenge and didn't have access to a blender for my Shakeology (Cafe Latte this month) or to the healthy foods I was eating during my first challenge. I intend to get back into it but will need to communicate my struggles with my challenge group. That's my task for today in addition to meal planning and grocery shopping. When I'm feeling very unmotivated, I like to go to Sam's Instagram. Her quotes, pictures and messages are so well done and come from experience. She's a great person to know. If you're interested in her challenge groups, you should definitely hit her up!!
Having the means to take control of your physical health has such a huge impact on your mental health. Feeling good about yourself physically leads to much higher positive self-talk and satisfaction. Building that network of support from people on the same journey as you really helps you to stay accountable. It's easy to let yourself go and extremely difficult to take control. That in itself is such a huge accomplishment. When you get to that point, the possibilities are endless. Finding what works for you is a battle in itself but once you find it you have so much more control. Whether it's having people that positively motivate you, having someone give you that reality check you need, or having a group where the leader keeps you on track, you need to do what works for you. Do I have it all figured out? Absolutely not. Is that okay? Definitely! I'm still finding what works for me, but that is also what this blog is about. If I keep posting about my experiences, it keeps me focused and accountable to myself and the people who read it. Until I do figure it out, I'll keep experimenting and working on myself because that's all that I can do. I am worth it. The picture below was taken from a post that Sam made on her Facebook. I thought it pertained to these last couple of posts that I made.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 was a rough day for me. I was just finishing up work at the Zoo and started to feel pretty sick. It started as feeling like really intense heartburn and just kept getting worse and worse. I remember this day well as we were just finishing up the cleaning and organization of a shed in preparation for summer camp to start. This would be my second year working as a program instructor at the zoo; a job I truly loved and will miss dearly. Thankfully, we ended up finishing early that day. I went straight home, took some Tums and laid down in bed and went to sleep. I woke up still feeling pretty sick but my "heartburn" ended up turning into blinding pains in my upper abdomen. I took some pepto and went back to sleep just to wake up around 11:00pm whimpering and unable to move. I was asked if I needed to go to the hospital and being the stubborn person that I am, I said no and that I'd be fine. Then the tears started to flow. I couldn't move, I could barely breathe. I honestly thought "this is what death feels like". So I swallowed my pride and bit the bullet. I went to the hospital. We checked the wait times on the internet and started heading to Victoria hospital. Half way there we needed to pull over into a very open McDonald's parking lot so I could be sick. One thing I hate more than anything is vomiting in front of people.. That's a private matter. Leave me to my business and I'll try not to gross you out. Anyway, I got to the hospital and after a relatively short wait in the waiting room, I got in to see the doctor. I've always been so stubborn when it comes to going to the doctor or hospital since most of my past experiences have involved the doctors telling me that it's all in my head. This time they could definitely see that something was wrong. They had me do the routine tests and tried to set me up on an IV. That experience was even worse than the pain I was already in!! I was so dehydrated that they weren't able to put the IV in. Every time they tried, my vein collapsed and they'd have to try again. Three nurses had to come in and attempt before they finally got it. If you haven't had an IV before, being poked 12 times with a relatively large needle is not my idea of fun.. but then came morphine.. This was my first experience with the stuff and oh man, one can definitely understand the appeal.. They ended up having to give me two doses and I was finally able to get some sleep. The morning came, I was feeling better, and they set me up with an ultrasound to check for gallstones. Fast forward a couple weeks and I went to my appointment. I was there for about 4 hours before I got my results. Fatty and enlarged liver. The doctor recommended I limit my drinking and start eating a healthier diet. Do you think I listened? No.. remember, I'm stubborn. I felt fine after, so why would I need to change it. Fast forward another couple of years and we're almost at present date. Enter my good friends Dan, Erik and J.D.
After my health experiences and getting to the point of hating the mirror, I knew I wanted a change. My
Next came the 21 Day Fix from Beachbody. I had heard a lot about the Beachbody program before, primarily Shaun T and the Insanity program. I tried Insanity on and off a couple years ago but "wasn't able" to keep up with it. I originally didn't sign up for a specific program through Beachbody. I ordered a knockoff set of the portion control containers on Amazon, signed up for the Beachbody On Demand trial and downloaded the 21 Day Fix program guide books and started doing my own thing. I did the food portioning part of the program but didn't do the workouts with it. I did a few of my own workouts at the gym and attended a few bootcamp sessions (which was a HUGE step out of my comfort zone) but that was it. After the 21 days was over, I ended up losing 11 pounds and 14 total inches. I felt amazing!! I couldn't remember the last time I felt that good. Of course, when the program ended, so did my motivation. I told myself that I was going to continue with the program as close as I could but I wasn't going to limit myself as much as I had. I had a total of 3 alcoholic beverages during that time, I had zero pops, no pizza or other unhealthy options, and I even tookk my own food with me when I went over to friend's places. I was super prepared and did a great job! Then I let up a bit and it went to hell. Well, okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration but I certainly wasn't as committed as I was before. You'd think that feeling of accomplishment and pride would be enough to keep going. When I started, I was at my heaviest at 208 pounds. I was finally back under 200 pounds at the end!! Not by a lot but I knew I didn't want to go back over. Enter Sam.
A friend of mine that I had known for years but lost contact with besides the occasional "hi" when we saw each other took amazing control of her life an was very open about her story. She was always a very beautiful person inside and out but like everyone, she had her own internal demons she was fighting. A while ago, she messaged me explaining that she had become a Beachbody coach and wondered if I would be interested in becoming a coach as well or at least joining one of her challenge groups. At the time I didn't think I was able to commit to that and I was not in a very good place financially to sign up for such a program. So I declined. She asked me again a couple months later and once again, I declined. By no means did she ever pressure me to join or pester me about her business. I just didn't feel that it was the right time for me. She simply informed me of the supports that were available through her if I ever decided that I would change my mind. Just over a month ago she messaged me again. Beachbody was having a spring sale on their program and since I had so much success with the 21 Day Fix that I did on my own, and really needed something to refocus me since I fell off that wagon, I decided to give it a shot. She set me up with the challenge pack of the portion cups (so now I have 2 sets which is awesome), Shakeology (I started with the chocolate flavour), and Beachbody On Demand. She created a Facebook group for our challenge and I was able to meet some like-minded people with similar stories to mine. The supports Sam gave were amazing. She does such a wonderful job at keeping people accountable, creating daily posts and questions/assignments so that we stay on track, and checking in when she notices that you might be struggling. This is a tremendous passion of hers and I couldn't imagine doing this challenge with anyone else. Through my first month of this challenge, I ended up only losing 3.5 pounds but also lost 10 total inches off of my measurements. I found that I was feeling stronger and noticing muscle growth and definition where I hadn't before. In all honesty, one of the places I noticed it the most was my collarbone and shoulder regions. I've never felt such definition in my collarbone and I can't stop touching it!! Okay, that sounds weird but you know what I mean. Again, I felt pretty amazing afterwards but I still couldn't keep up with it. The end of that challenge was about the time when I decided to go see my psychologist. I'm just hoping that I can get that motivation back. We are now in our June challenge (yes I did sign up for the next one) and to be honest, I am not doing well.. I haven't used the portion control cups, I went away to camp with my grade 6 students for 3 days in the first week of the challenge and didn't have access to a blender for my Shakeology (Cafe Latte this month) or to the healthy foods I was eating during my first challenge. I intend to get back into it but will need to communicate my struggles with my challenge group. That's my task for today in addition to meal planning and grocery shopping. When I'm feeling very unmotivated, I like to go to Sam's Instagram. Her quotes, pictures and messages are so well done and come from experience. She's a great person to know. If you're interested in her challenge groups, you should definitely hit her up!!
Having the means to take control of your physical health has such a huge impact on your mental health. Feeling good about yourself physically leads to much higher positive self-talk and satisfaction. Building that network of support from people on the same journey as you really helps you to stay accountable. It's easy to let yourself go and extremely difficult to take control. That in itself is such a huge accomplishment. When you get to that point, the possibilities are endless. Finding what works for you is a battle in itself but once you find it you have so much more control. Whether it's having people that positively motivate you, having someone give you that reality check you need, or having a group where the leader keeps you on track, you need to do what works for you. Do I have it all figured out? Absolutely not. Is that okay? Definitely! I'm still finding what works for me, but that is also what this blog is about. If I keep posting about my experiences, it keeps me focused and accountable to myself and the people who read it. Until I do figure it out, I'll keep experimenting and working on myself because that's all that I can do. I am worth it. The picture below was taken from a post that Sam made on her Facebook. I thought it pertained to these last couple of posts that I made.
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