I signed up for Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping. Ten weeks of 5:30 a.m. workouts (kickboxing and resistance) six times a week. I have a coach. Who makes us turn in food logs.
Why this fresh hell, you ask? Two reasons: 1) I want to get better and advance in Tae Kwon Do, and I have reached my limits, especially in sparring because I get so tired. I need more endurance and strength, or I will never survive the advanced class, which hopefully I will move to once I get my blue belt in March. 2) I gained a bunch of weight after cancer treatment, and it needs to go away.
So my friend and neighbor Stacie is an instructor at Farrell's, hereinafter referred to as FXB if you're cool, and she kept raving about it. And I got sucked in. I had to acknowledge that I had to put in actual work in order to shape up. There's no silver bullet to this program. It's just hard work and healthy eating. In fact, I eat way more than I used to, because we eat six times a day. In order to lose weight, I suppose I could just do a nutrition program, but I can't get conditioned for Tae Kwon Do without the exercise.
This program is way more involved than I thought it would be. We had a nutrition and techniques class. We had to have "before" pictures taken, which will never see the light of day if I have any say in it. Then we had a 2 1/2 hour testing, where we had to do situps, pushups, body fat and measurements, and a mile run. Yes, friends, you heard me. We had to run a mile. I can't actually run a mile, but there was this guy who was limping from shin splints, so I broke into a run in order to pass him. Yes, I beat the injured guy. I own it.
But here's the thing: I wanted to finish the mile running, but oh my god it was so hard. Then one of the coaches came up and ran next to me. He talked me through the entire thing and I finished running. That, folks, is what I'm paying for.
So anyway, this is the end of week one. We have a team of four with our coach, Darren. And every morning, I have gotten up at 4:50 a.m. to get to the 5:30 class. The first two days, I couldn't even sit down without grunting in pain. That's so attractive.
And I'm continuing to go to Tae Kwon Do twice a week. And I'm keeping food logs, with details about protein and carbs. I'm a daily full-strength Coke drinker who has had a half can of diet Coke in the last five days. We have a free day tomorrow to eat whatever we want, and everyone was talking about what they want to eat. Pasta, pizza, etc. I just want a Coke. A real Coke. In the bottle, not the can. Okay, I may be obsessed with this.
In any event, we have testing at five weeks and then again at ten weeks. That should put me right about at blue belt testing in Tae Kwon Do. And hopefully, I will kick butt.
