Farrell's Update

Well, I’m almost half-done with my 10-week Extreme Body Shaping course at Farrell’s. I started feeling some results myself around week 3, in how my clothes are fitting and even a little bit on the bathroom scale. The 5-week testing is coming up this Saturday, where I hope to see those results on paper. After which, I’ll be working towards more improvement by the end of the 10th week. If things continue to go well, I actually hope to continue on with the FIT classes (for 10-week graduates) – and also meet that goal of running a 5K this summer… but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m doing well sticking to the nutrition plan. The “free day” each week helps me have something to look forward to, and motivates me to keep up the good diet the other 6 days of the week. Last weekend, I enjoyed a bowl of ice cream with caramel and chocolate syrup, in addition to having some yummy appetizers and desserts at a Super Bowl party. :)

I’m also doing well sticking with the 5:15 am morning workouts. Some days I have to drag myself out of bed, but most days I’m waking up just before my alarm is set to go off at 4:30 am. I quick get dressed, grab a bite to eat to sustain me through the workout, and head across town. The only 5:15 class I've missed was during the blizzard last week. Actually Farrell’s was closed that morning, so I attended an afternoon class. The instructor for that class worked us HARD!!! Then with only a 12-hour rest before the next morning’s workout, I was kind of thrown off, and sore for the rest of the week – but somehow I survived. Otherwise, I generally have some tired muscles and maybe a sore spot or two every couple days, but that means I’m working hard, right? Usually, though, the soreness doesn’t last long and I’m ready to go for the next day’s workout.

There are still parts of the workouts that I can’t do very well, but I can keep up better than when I first started started. The worst are the shoulders exercises on upper-body resistance training days, and the lunges (quad exercise) and step-back lunges (ham exercise) on lower-body resistance training days. Those seem to be the most difficult ones for most everyone, so I’m not alone, but I can’t even finish the second set on these – with the lowest resistance bands (or dropping the bands altogether on the shoulders)! Sit-ups are difficult too, but I'm getting better at those too, depending on the day. The cardio days are getting tougher with each week. Every day I walk out stinky, sweaty, and worn-out from a tough work-out, and that's a good feeling (well, except for the stinky/sweaty :).