50 year old women kicking my butt

Those who know anything about being an auditor will have to agree that maybe busy season isn't necessarily the best time to start working out an eating healthy. We work 55-65 hour weeks, eat lunch, dinner and snacks at our desk on most days and are too drained to workout after leaving work late... (this is my story for not starting to make changes in January and I'm sticking with it! :))

Busy season ends for me in early/mid March... April rolls around and I'm supposed to go see Dr. S. in 2 months but still no change in my habits! (See http://myjourneytosizefour.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-it-started.html for frame of reference)...

I don't know when the exact moment was but the very first week in April, I turned to Google (oh how I love google!) and searched for exercise groups in the Houston/Katy/Richmond/Sugarland area! I knew at this point that I couldn't go at this alone. I needed some sort of support system. Adventure Houston Boot Camp caught my eye! (http://www.houstonareabootcamp.com/).

I almost didn't do it! I was thinking to myself- why pay $200 a month when I can go to a gym and pay $50? What can they offer that I can't get at a gym... I very quickly learned that what Adventure Houston gave me was other women who wanted to be healthy and who drew others into the group by holding them accountable!

My first week at boot camp was miserable. I thought the 1/2 marathon shed some light on how unfit I was but trying to keep up with the women at boot camp definitely confirmed that! I could not keep up with women in their 30's, 40's & 50's. Most of them are mothers, wives and carrier women and they were kicking my behind!!! I could not run as fast or as long as them, I could not do as many situps, crunches, push ups, squats, arm curls etc as them! Simply put, I could not keep up.

I said in my previous post that those who know me know when I commit to something, I like to follow through... But to be perfectly honest, I was extremely discouraged and was so close to giving up. I was impressed by most of the women there but I was motivated by Larisa, Sandy, and Yvonne! They all look 10 years younger than their age! These women and of course our wonderful instructor- Linda, were very friendly, encouraging and motivating! My one month of trying out boot camp became 1 year!

I say all this to say to the one person who feels embarrassed about working out with other people around- Find a friendly environment. Get a support system. I think the 1st step to losing weight and getting healthy is to go at it with people who will do it with you! Sometimes, you think joining a group is too much money. Well, don't buy that cute top you like, or those really cute shoes or that frappuccino from Starbucks! Make sacrifices for your health! Yes, $200/month was quite a bit but that's what I need for me. Find what works for you and do it!


Look out for subsequent posts where I'll talk about how much weight I lost in 1 year, how I went about it.

Peace.

How it started!

Let's start by back tracking to April 2009... Well, maybe I should go a little further in the past to around June 2008.

I graduated from HBU in May 2008 and I was to start work October 2008. The plan was to spend my summer relaxing, hanging out with friends and getting the CPA exam done (that hasn't happened quite yet but I'm working on getting it done in the next few months... I digress.)

Anyhoo, sometime in June, my sister from my white mother- Karindy Orr suggested we run the San Antonio Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon in November and in a heart beat I said yes! Doing a 1/2 marathon was something I'd been thinking about but didn't have enough liver for (for my non-Nigerian friends- this means I couldn't summon the courage to do it)!

This was supposed to be my starting point to getting healthy. I started training by running a mile at a time and swimming afterwards. I started well but didn't continue well! The first three weeks were great but it all went downhill after that. My training became very inconsistent.

Those who know me well know I will do all I can not to back out of a committment. November 16th 2008 came. This was the day I had to complete 13.1 miles! The most I had run while training was 6-7 miles!!! I started off feeling good... About 5 miles or so into it, my head was reeling with thoughts such as "What on earth possessed you to do this?", "Seriously Yewande. Whay is wrong with you?", "Are you crazy?" "You are definitely crazy!" "Just give up now" "well, if you give up, you'll look so stupid." etc... Needless to say, I limped through about 5 miles and dragged myself to the finish line where I finished the last .1 mile (which by the way is uphill) with a nice jog and a smile on my face... I finished my 1st 1/2 marathon in 3 hours 37ish minutes. I was sore for days after this and this opened my eyes to how unfit I was!

Fast forward to December 2008... Thank God for insurance... I went to see my doctor for a check up. The results came in January 2009 (of course after I had made a New Years resolution to get healthy and which of course I hadn't started doing by the 2nd week when the results came.) My doctor informed me that she thought my cholesterol was a little to high and I needed to start eating healthy and exercising.

At 23, I was putting myself at risk for health issues down the road! I was at size 12 (sometimes 14), about 186lbs, not comfortable in my own skin but not doing anything but complain about my weight and let people feed me with "oh girl! You aren't that big." Looking back, what they were saying was you are big but not that big!

To be continued (this is quite long! So for the sake of my friends who can't focus on anything longer than one page, look to my next post (50 year old women kicking my butt))