Summer Boot Camp Kicks My Butt, But Not as Fast As I Want

Now that I’ve done boot camp for seven weeks, I can honestly say it hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be to get up on Saturday morning and work my butt off. Yes, the workout is tough and at the end I feel like I can barely drag my bag of weights back to the car, but all the effort is paying off. I feel very motivated to get out of bed and get to it because I’m seeing results and can tell that I’m reshaping my body. I’m getting stronger and have more endurance than when I started, and for the first time in my life I can actually do full pushups (aka toe pushups). At the beginning I could only one full pushup, and at my last assessment I did 17 before falling onto my face with pain streaking through my arms. Of course I did that assessment before doing the workout, because after one of these workouts I’m pretty pleased if I can do five full pushups.

The hardest part has been ensuring I get in the weekly homework, which amounts to two more workouts plus some light cardio and stretching on other days. My husband and I worked out a schedule where he makes an effort to get home at a reasonable time, then he watches the boys while I get in my workout, which is the only way I can do this. Summer vacation has just started and already the boys are climbing all over me. During the day I can’t even go to the bathroom without an entourage, never mind spend 45 minutes with weights and aerobics.

I’m using The Firm workouts for my homework and like how they work all the major muscle groups and keep my heart rate up.

The one metric that really counts for me is weight loss, and unfortunately that has not been consistent. I lost five pounds within the first two weeks, nothing the third, gained it back while in Germany, nothing the following week, then finally lost two pounds again. Except for that week in Germany in which I indulged in a good German beer every night and ate more carbs than I should have, I’ve stuck to a strict diet of vegetables, fruits, a little protein, one serving of whole grain per day, and have watched my calories. When I started boot camp I truly hoped that the pounds would melt off with the formula of tough workouts and watching my diet, but it’s not happening.

A part of me feels discouraged that the weight isn’t coming off as fast as I would like, but my logical side knows that slow steady weight loss is best and I try to tell myself that every day. Part of me wants to wail that it’s not fair, and I did have a good cry as I stood on the scales last week. Losing the two pounds wasn’t enough, I wanted more to be gone, but that’s what it is.

I’m sticking with it, not giving up. I’m improving in all the goal areas, I just need to keep my chin up and keep telling myself that I’m making myself better all over, not just on the scales.

Original DC Metro Moms Blog post.

Andrea writes about cooking, gardening and her four hungry guys at Andrea Meyers (Andrea's Recipes).