So far, this journey has been in several parts.
PART THREE:
April 2012 - November 2012
Bootcamp and OMO (on my own)
Part Three of my journey is represented by the steep downward slope of my weight from April 2012 to November 2012 (eight months). For the first two months of this period, I was participating in a bootcamp.
Meltdown Bootcamp:
Pros: I'm not sure if all bootcamps are like this, but the Meltdown Bootcamp that I participated in was amazing. It was an eight-week program sponsored by
Next Generation Personal Training (NGPT). While located in my town, NGPT also has an online version of their bootcamp that is available to everyone everywhere.
NGPT was founded by a young man, Adam Schaeuble, who was at one time overweight. While NGPT is a business, it is a business grown from kindness and caring. All of their instructors have also been overweight. NGPT it the ONLY program that I have ever known that actually
understands me. The vast majority of clients there are people just like me - on a journey to be healthy. What is special about NGPT is the culture of support both from the staff and the clients. NGPT taught me three things: 1) what to eat, 2) the joy of facing a physical exercise challenge, and 3) how to prepare mentally for success. I like to say that NGPT isn't a place that you go (or an online system that you access) to lose weight. It is a place you go to gain health. And it worked for me. As an experiment of one, you'll note that the downward slope of my weight loss during bootcamp is steeper than the slope associated with the other weight-loss programs that I did.
Every two weeks, I was given a different nutrition plan and cardio plan. They described the nutrition plan as a "low sugar" plan. I ate five meals a day of proteins, healthy carbs and vegetables. Meals had to be at least three hours apart. Every day was different. Some days, for example, were low carb days. I also had to drink 120 oz of fluids every day. One of the things I really liked about the bootcamp nutrition plan was that we were allowed "cheat days" once a week. On those days, we could eat whatever we wanted. Cheat days were required so our body wouldn't think it was starving and slow its metabolism. I have to admit, I was never hungry. I had a
wonderful nutrition coach to whom I sent my nutrition log every night (and from whom I received feedback every night).
The cardio consisted of "high intensity cardio," tabatas and steady state. We also had to do a certain number of minutes as "empty stomach cardio" before we ate in the morning. In addition to my nutrition coach, I had a cardio coach to whom I sent my cardio log once a week. My cardio log was an excel spreadsheet and as I entered my cardio, a letter grade would be calculated. I always filled it in a week in advance so I'd get an A. Then, if I didn't follow the plan, the grade would drop so I always followed the plan.
The first "core cardio" class that I attended was crazy hard. I knew no one. I had never been to an exercise class before. But I told myself that I was not going to let my pride get in my way, and many times that night and in the years to come, I found myself saying, "DO NOT LET YOUR PRIDE CONTROL YOU!" The trainer had us rotate from station to station. The only problem was that the stations were about 10 feet apart and when an exercise required us to be on the floor, I was in trouble. I couldn't stand up. So I ended up CRAWLING to the next station. Was I embarrassed? Absolutely! GO AWAY PRIDE.
The next problem was that I could not do
any of the exercises. At every station, I had to raise my hand and ask for an alternative. GO AWAY PRIDE. But, my first instructor was an angel. After a while, she would get everyone started on the next station and then come over to help me with an alternative. And when I was on Jacobs Ladder, she
yelled across the room, "GOOD JOB SUE!" Oh my gosh, I was SOOOOO proud!
As I walked out of class on that first night, I could not believe that I was covered with sweat. I was sweating from exercise. How cool was that!! To this day, I love to sweat. When I'm on the stationary bike, I count my sweat drops. My record is 184.
Cons: I can't think of one con. Some people say the con is the price. But when I consider what I'm getting for my money (health), I think it's a great investment.
After bootcamp - On My Own
After bootcamp, I decided to develop my own plan using the lessons learned from bootcamp. Here is my daily nutrition. I'm lucky because I don't mind eating the same thing every day:
Breakfast: Yogurt, 1 C oatmeal
Lunch: Yogurt, 1 slice sprouted rye bread (yummy!), apple, V8 juice (11 oz)
Dinner: Spinach omelet (7.5 oz egg white, handful of spinach), 2 slices sprouted rye bread
Snack: Throughout the day) - more of foods eaten at meals, not to exceed 300 cal
For cardio during this time period, I started doing 40 minutes of running or swimming six days a week.
PART FOUR:
November 2012 - April 2013
Oh no! Trouble!
One of the biggest mistakes I made after bootcamp was thinking that just because I could do a successful "cheat day" and then return immediately to a controlled diet, that I could also do a successful cheat month in December. Wrong! In a month period, I had reestablished bad habits that were so, so hard to break.
At weight-ins at NGPT, I'd promise Adam that I'd have a successful next week. Usually, I would, but then the following week was a disaster. At one weigh-in, I told Adam (the NGPT founder and owner) and I wasn't doing well and asked if he had any suggestions. He told me not to worry and told me, "I will not let you fail." For some strange reason, those words gave me a lot of resolve. The next day, I think every staff member at NGPT send me an email just to "see how I was doing." I realized that Adam must have talked to his staff about me and put me on some kind of "hit list." Realizing that the entire NGPT staff knew I was failing, I immediately got back on track. This time, my pride was helping me!
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