Losing it - the end

On Sept. 17, I started a daring project. I would attend one “I Lost It at the Club” class at a local World Gym location each week for eight weeks. The program organized people into teams based on which class they attended and the teams would compete against all of the other teams to see which one could lose the most weight percentage wise. They were also looking for the individual who could lose the most weight.

I knew I could stand to drop some pounds. I didn’t look fat, necessarily, but I had a bit of a gut and with the holidays approaching, including a trip to Germany where the beer flows like water, I knew I had to make a change. Not just to give myself a cushion to eat what I wanted but to also get myself in better shape. My doctor had suggested the same thing, discussing some “not great” cholesterol numbers and citing concerns about pre-diabetes if I didn't make some changes.

I pitched my idea to Kim Hershey, general manager of the local World Gyms. I would attend one class a week, write blogs at www.thecitizensports.com about the trainers, the teams themselves and the workouts. It would be an insider look at what it takes to complete this program and lose weight. Kim agreed and soon I was taking my workout clothes out of retirement, busting my hump and sweating with strangers.

The first class was with “Sweat Equity” taught by Linda Famularo at the location on Georgia Hwy. 54. I weighed in at 216 and had a body fat percentage of 30.2 %. I decided my goal would be to get to 200 pounds or less - which would be two pounds each week. I didn’t make it all the way down to 200 pounds, but I got close.

The classes were challenging. I want to say they were hard, at times they were, but it was easy to push myself through each hour. I knew I was working towards something and I knew the class would end eventually. I might be a little tender for a day or two afterward, but that just proved that my body was going through changes. Something was happening. Each class was filled with people of all ages and all shapes and sizes. There was no competition amongst teammates, just encouragement. If everybody worked their hardest, anything was possible. The overall title would be great, but at the end, if they stuck with the program, everyone would be a winner.

I would have loved to stay with one team and grown with them while shrinking waist sizes, but seeing seven different classes (I missed one week due to H1N1) was a great way to do it too. Each trainer had a different personality and a different regimen and each class was unique. I never did the same workout twice.

Linda’s class featured a lot of cardio and some tough ab work, while Debbie’s class (her team was the Little Debbies) was a circuit class topped off with a game of what I dubbed “pain poker.” Each suit in “pain poker” represents an exercise. For instance, clubs were crunches and diamonds were push-ups. Face cards were good for 20 jumping jacks and Aces were good for 10 second breaks. That wasn’t the end of the class though. There was some running outside, followed by lunges with weights. I almost lost my lunch at the end of that class and had to seriously think about what I was doing and if I could actually finish this program without getting hurt.

The next week I was back at it though, taking a Wednesday morning class with Mary Catherine and her team (Wednesday’s Warriors). The class was a well orchestrated symphony of getting our heart rates up and then slowing it back down. My next class was one of my favorites, even though my weight, which had been steadily dropping, went back up a tick. Jeremy’s “Expect to Lose, Expect to Win” featured a lot of strength training and my arms and legs were shaking at the end from having been pushed so hard. It felt kind of awesome, although I had to consider that maybe I was punishing myself for whatever had led to the weight gain.

And then I got swine flu. Good for the weight gain, because I could barely eat for three days, bad for the energy level. After a week of recovery, I took a class on a Sunday afternoon (the time of the week when I like to do nothing) with Amy Moore and her class, Less is Moore. That class focused on leg work and everyone there that Sunday felt the burn as every exercise focused on leg muscles. Almost a week later, on Halloween, I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and made my way to the Fayetteville location for a class with Janet’s Jewels. This was another circuit class that alternated cardio work with strength exercises. It was also capped off with a series of push ups and crunches. We started with 10 pushups and then flipped over and did 10 crunches before flipping back over for nine pushups leading to nine crunches, and so on.

Yeah, it didn’t feel great.

For the first time in weeks, I thought I’d lose my lunch, but I cooled down and soon felt fine. I knew I only would have one more class ahead of me - Eddie and the Losers the following Wednesday at the Hwy 74 location. Eddie has a shaved head and a lot of tattoos. It can be a little intimidating until you meet him and realize that he is as nice as everyone else and talked with pride about his team and their dedication during the program.

The class started with the final weigh in and the final body fat measurement. My weight was 206 (10 pounds from the first weigh in) and my body fat was 26.2 %, four percentage points down. Eddie added that it was measuring two points high, so it really was 24.2 %. I felt lighter and I floated through the class - well the first minute of it anyway. There were a lot of exercises with the Bosu pro balance trainer, what looks like a blue bubble, which can be stepped on, balanced on or picked up and used as a weight. We also did some work with giant exercise balls, weights and more. It was another class where the exercises started out fun and then 10 seconds in started to burn. Throughout it all, Eddie was encouraging and, though there were a lot of exercises, they were short and followed by some quick recovery breaks. They weren’t long, but they felt like they helped.

And then it was over.

Eight weeks, seven classes, 10 pounds, 4-6 body fat percentage points and a mindset that has been forever altered. In the eight weeks of the program, I had to think about the choices I had been making food wise and now knew that I couldn’t just blindly make ice cream sundaes with crumbled up cookies and not expect it to lead to a belly and maybe even worse. Now, I plan my meals for each day and when I “need” a snack, I either make the portion small or the snack healthy. Water is my friend and soda is reserved for a cocktail on the weekends.

The program finishes this week with a ceremony where the winners are crowned at the gym and everyone can bask in finishing something they started, something that was never easy. The program may be over, but I’m not done and I’m sure a lot of the other participants feel the same way. If I keep making good food choices and getting some exercise each week, the pounds will continue to fall away. I will be under 200 pounds by Christmas and come New Year’s, I will have to make a new goal.

Thank you to Kim Hershey, Ben Moore and everyone at the gyms who made completing this project possible. I feel better and look better than I did and I now have the confidence to pursuit these goals on my own. When this program rolls back around next year, if you're ready to dedicate yourself to making a change, this is something you should strongly consider. It could be just what you need.