Transformation Challenge - weeks 3 and 4

I typed this up last week and never got a chance to post it. So here's to a major catchup day on the blog.

Week 3 was a killer week physically. The first two weeks they were holding back just a tad so that they could make sure no one was going to injure themselves and allowed us a little time to ramp up. Week 3 they brought it. And some of its friends. It was intense. The workouts were amazing. I have honestly never sweat so much in my entire life. But it felt good. I thought I was going to die at times…but I didn’t. And it felt good. I felt stronger.

There was a little bit of the “the-rest-of-my-life-is-falling-to-shambles-what-made-me-think-I-could-commit-this-much-time-and-energy-to-this” going on, but I pushed through it.
I did get a shin splint in week 3, but the staff was so amazing. Advice on stretches, strengthening exercises, proper shoes, icing and other treatments was passed out by at least half the staff and they all would stop and ask how my shin was whenever they saw me. Truly amazing people at this gym. If you are a woman in the SLO area, I strongly encourage you to check it out. www.eqclubs.com. They are a smaller gym. They don’t have an indoor and outdoor pool or racquetball courts. But they have the most amazing team, lots of great classes and I love the smaller feel, the one-on-one attention. Everyone knows me there now and I know them and I fully believe they are there to support me and want to see me succeed.

Week 4 has been tougher than I thought it would be. This week has been good physically – I’ve been stepping it up and getting lots of cardio in, being adventurous and taking a few classes. I love Body Flow and Body Step and I tried Body Jam for the first time on Friday and loved it, loved it, loved it. Those of you who know me know I love to dance and this class is all about that. You don't even realize you are working your ass off and sweating a bucket because you're having so much fun!

Emotionally, mentally, logistically, this week kicked my butt.

Thursday night we had our meeting with our trainer. She is a great gal and an inspirational trainer. She is this skinny little thing that eats 4000 calories a day (no joke, she told us that) because she's a competitive cyclist and trains 5-6 hours a day. Anyway, she's super supportive, super knowledgeable; it was just a great meeting. A few of the girls that were struggling psychologically got pumped up by us all and I walked out of there feeling so good about things.

And then I went home.

The house is a frickin disaster, dishes overflowing the sink, toys and clothes everywhere. The kids are cranky and still need to brush teeth and do stories, so we hustle them on up to bed and get Gracie settled (my good sleeper, bless her). Ian comes back downstairs like 5 times and every time, he wakes Daniel up, who I'm nursing on the couch. UGH! So all the kids are finally asleep -- at 9:30. I'm so frickin' exhausted by this point, haven't showered from my three hour marathon workout yet, haven't gotten to eat . I sat on the couch and seriously contemplated quitting. What made me think I could make this kind of commitment. Seriously. What. Was. I. Thinking? I pretty much make my mind up that this is the last week. I’ll tell my team on Saturday at our workshop that I’m bowing out. They are all more of a woman than I am.

So then we're sitting there watching "Biggest Loser" and I start to cry because one of the guys talks about how getting the phone call from the Biggest Loser changed his life. And I realized that this is my chance to change my life FOREVER. PERMANENTLY! For the good. With an amazing group of women and awesome trainers and just more resources at my disposal than I would have ever had on my own and I don't want to quit. But I feel like I’m letting my family down. Scott and I talked about it and we're both going to try harder to do more things to make things easier on everyone (even more night before prep, lunches, clothes, etc) and trying to come up with a set schedule so he knows I'll be home for dinner x number of nights a week. Wish us luck, we are going to need it. 8 more weeks...8 more weeks... just let me make it through 8 more weeks!

I am blessed to have an amazing support system in my family, my friends and my team. They have pumped me up a bit this week and I’ll stick it out another week. I’ll post my measurements for the first month soon.