On Tuesday, January 5th, we woke to the alarm at 4:15am
Holy crap, what were we thinking? Last time Dave (aka @chefchopper) and I crawled out of bed that early, we were sprinting to make the redeye ferry off of San Juan Island and back to our beloved Portland. We are NOT early morning people.
We have, however, though some bizarre twist of fate, become fitness people. Granted, both of us did the sports thing in high school (and college as well, for me), but in recent years? It’s been all about short dog walks and long sprawls on our +5 Couch of Lounging. The last thing we ever expected was to become role models.
This changed in September when an opportunity to join an indoor fitness “bootcamp” landed in our laps. We’d already started taking slightly longer walks with the dog, but this… this new thing was daunting. Aerobic, even! The first workout? I think I nearly passed out three times. Second workout? Crash and burn in the break room. Third, fourth, fifth, I started to notice improvement. And by the third week, Dave started to drop pounds.
And pounds. And more pounds. As of this date, just over four months into it, he’s lost 74 pounds. (I know, it’s a guy thing…) Me? Two pants sizes. And I have this crazy thing happening called a firm core. As in stomach muscles! I haven’t had those since high school!
When Dave was 40 pounds down, I posted before and after pictures on Facebook. Our trainer immediately asked for copies and the next thing we knew, Dave was the new poster boy at the gym; up on the mighty wall of success. And rather than rest on his laurels, he kept going, sometimes even saying the craziest of things, like “I’m looking forward to exercising today,” or “I love BootCamp!” Soon he was over 60 pounds lost and looking (if I do say so myself) pretty darned good.
Which brings us to the morning of January 5th. See, our trainer managed to snag quite the deal for his business: a New Year’s Resolution fitness segment on KGW at Sunrise. The trick was to get all of us out there in the chilly pre-dawn, showing off our fit selves for Drew Carney and his camera man. And Dave – Dave had to be there because he was a featured success story.
Didn’t wake up quite so early that morning? No problem. Our exploits have been preserved for posterity on Drew Carney’s blog:
I do, however, feel compelled to point out an important behind-the-scenes fact:
Our usual workout (which burns in the neighborhood of 900 calories) lasts an hour. KGW’s crew hung out for two hours — and did we rest between each segment?
Hell, no. When you see Drew talking and all of us working out in the background, you might expect us to be thinking “Whee! We’re on the TeeeVee!” Nope. What we’re actually thinking? “Please stop talking now. We’re been at this for three minutes solid…must rest… please… for the love of God…stop… NOW!” We never knew quite when we’d be on camera for the next segment so we just kept going. And going…
I’m still in awe we made it this far, and Dave even more so. More than once he’s said to me, “If I’d known it felt this good, I would’ve done this years ago.”
Too true. I’d like to think that all it takes is getting over that initial hump of agony, but it’s not always that easy. Sometimes we have to trick ourselves. Or just push through the pain. What I do know is how we did it, and though this might not work for everyone, I figure what’s the harm in getting a little self-helpy for anyone out there with a fitness New Year’s resolution.
- Start where you are. Six pushups is your limit? Start with six. Don’t go all Lou Ferrigno on your first day out. Dave wants to start running and I’m still working up to it after months of training. I have bad knees, so I start where I am: walking.
- A little discipline goes a long way. We didn’t go for gimmick diets (do not get me started on those two miserable, constipated weeks on Atkins years ago… really, do NOT), and other than watching portions and cutting out a few excesses (life is too short for cheap beer), we just took the time to think about our food choices before making them. What ever you do, do not give up all your favorite foods. You’ll just want to splurge on them later.
- The scale isn’t everything. I admit. I’m still working on this one. See, I’ve only shed about 20 pounds compared to Dave’s 74. It’s a girl thing. (Right? RIGHT?) I’m gaining muscle weight and firming up and that’s what’s important. The weight loss is a by-product of getting fit, not the other way around. I need to remind myself of this. Frequently.
- But… but… but… I’ve already failed! No you haven’t! It’s still January, you donkey. Get back on the horse. It doesn’t matter when you start, or where. Just start somewhere sometime. It might be easier than you think. (Dave once owned the nickname Laziest Man Alive ™, and for good reason. Now look at him. Freakin’ Posterboy.)
So, who wants to share their 2010 fitness goals? Misery loves company, right? If you’re on Twitter and you want some cheering on, use the hashtag #getfit2010. We’ll be there, tweeting our aches, pains, successes, and failures for all to see. And I promise, if I start eating French fries every day and gain those 20 pounds back, I’ll tweet about that, too. But if Dave gains those 74 pounds back…nope. Not gonna happen. This isn’t a diet or a training regimen with a termination point. It’s a long term lifestyle change, and figuring that part out? That’s success.
(Editor’s note: We welcome MizD to the OurPDX family of authors! You can find her on Twitter as (wait for it…) @mizd.)
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I did a 12-week round of bootcamp with trainer Brad at Tri-D fitness in Beaverton last year, and it was fantastic. I am planning to continue starting next week.
Hey Albert, Maybe we’ll see you around! Brad was one of the (four? five?) trainers who ran our Thanksgiving morning BootCamp. Crazy day… some 30 plus people wanting to burn 900 calories that morning so we could all pig out on turkey and stuffing later!
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