Losing it, part III

My schedule can get a bit hairy sometimes, especially as high school sports could keep me out every night of the week and I feel I also need to be home most evenings to help out with my kids and bath time/bed time. I decided that my third class would need to be squeezed in to a jam-packed Wednesday last week. I left a breakfast meeting, did some quick work at the library and then suited up to attend and work out with the Wednesday Warriors at the World Gym on Georgia Hwy 74. The class is led by Mary Catherine Domaleski, a trainer I had met several times before, including a Group Power class that she led a while back.

As a disclaimer at the beginning of class, I told Mary Catherine that I had a bit of a cold, but I still powered through. One thing I’ve found in all three classes I have taken is that I work out harder than I ever thought imaginable. When I had a gym membership and would work out by myself, I would work up a bit of a sweat, but I would never feel like this. I never pushed myself. I may be completely worn out at the end of these classes, but I can tell that I have done something. Since I am working towards a weight loss goal that will get me below 200 pounds, or at least close to it, I’m glad that each class pushes me to and past what I previously thought was my breaking point.

We started the class with five minutes of jogging outside. The weather was perfect, but soon all I could focus on was my breathing. The goal was to get our heart rates up and the rest of class was like a well-calculated symphony to get the heart rate down and back up again numerous times. We worked with weights to get our heart rates down and we did cardio activities, things like suicides and several laps of lunges, to get it back up again.

Despite having a cold and having to take a few short breathers, I made it through the class without feeling like I was going to be sick. I call that progress. Also, I found in the days after the class that I wasn’t as sore as I had been after the previous classes. I suppose my muscles are getting used to this.

The biggest sign of progress was that I had lost another 3.5 pounds. I was down from 214 in the second week to 210.5. The one class a week, staying active in between, and eating right seems to be working. I don’t know if I can maintain the pace of my weight loss, but if I can I will weigh 198 at the end of the eight weeks - 19 pounds down from where I started.

It feels good to be succeeding so far and I am making a promise to myself to keep pushing towards my goal.