A new beginning: Week 1

Hi! My name is Jan and I have been chosen to be a part of “Get it Back - Give it Back 2013" at Global Fitness. It is a three month fitness challenge that has been sponsored by the following companies:

• Artix Custom Screenprints
• Beyond Nutrition
• Bread Company
• Canadian Mental Health Association
• Castanet
• Csek Creative
• Edge Digital Media
• Okanagan Naturopathic
• Q103.1
• Total E'Clips
• Vital Waters
• The Yellow House Restaurant
• And of course….. The Global Fitness Centre.

We first had to apply, show up for an information session where we were all weighed (unless you were too heavy for the scale), and wait patiently by the computer to see if you were accepted. Oh, the anticipation!

Yay! I was chosen along with my 33-year-old daughter, Jasmine. Monday night we showed up for our first date and met with Stephanie, our glorious trainer, who seems to be a very knowledgeable, health orientated person. So there we were, a crew of women who have joined for different reasons but are all working for one goal…….good health. There are 12 of us and we are from all walks of life;  tall, short, thin, fat, old and young. I am in the not so short, very fat and a little older category.  We are Team Castanet - Go Team!!!

Photo: Contributed

I was so overwhelmed when we started exercising. We started with aerobics and I realized that this body of mine was in the way. It wouldn’t move the way I wanted it to. It is funny how your mind forgets to tell you how large you are and if you always do the same things you’ve done, you really don’t notice how extremely out of shape you have become. I almost cried, curled up and died of total embarrassment due to all the healthy people working out around me. But then I realized that it was “me” who applied and it was “me” who wanted to change the way I am so I sucked it up and finished the class that evening. My body seized up and screamed at me “STOP!!” I went home and tried to curl up in the fetal position but I couldn’t move so I fell into a "coma".

The next morning I felt muscles I didn’t even know I owned. Each step was grueling and even breathing hurt but off to work I went. We are expected to work out for 30 minutes a day so my choice of exercise was walking for 25 minutes…..that is all I could put out. My daughter and I have decided to revamp our eating habits so we started thinking food smart with a little help from the Weight Watchers plan that we tried a few years ago without exercising and managed to lose weight. It’s about eating enough to burn fat and eating the right portions to also lose weight. It consists of starting with breakfast. I never used to eat breakfast so this is a hard one. Fruit is a great snack between breakfast and lunch. Lunch is when I eat my carbs. This usually consists of a sandwich or pasta. Now I think about what I want to have on my sandwich that will not only make me full but also give me healthy vitamins and nutrients. I have changed from white bread to light rye as there less calories and "poison". I also try things like cucumber, tomatoes, and avocados to flavour it and fill me up rather than having two sandwiches for my lunch. Yogurt for mid-afternoon snack, celery with peanut butter and a hard boiled egg about an hour before working out which I do after work daily. We try to have a no carb dinner and have found new and wonderful recipes that even the grand-kids gobble down.

The rest of the week had a bad down turn as I woke up with the worst three day flu ever. Needless to say I didn’t eat anything for two days straight and couldn’t keep tea or water down. By Friday night I started to feel like my old self again. I wonder why I got a flu shot this year? It doesn’t seem to stop the flu as I have had it twice!

I woke up Saturday morning feeling good and off to the gym we went. Since I wasn't able to get weighed the first night, I weighed myself on this huge freight style scale and found out I am 302 pounds. I was quite surprised because when I left Prince George in the spring (Easter) of 2011, I was a hefty, life sucking weight of 424 pounds! I have 140 pounds to go to be the perfect healthy weight. Yahoo…almost half way there!!! We worked out on the bikes and the elliptical machines. Unfortunately I could only handle 20 minutes this day.

Sunday morning I definitely felt my sore muscles but it wasn't as bad as I thought. We had our morning coffee and breakfast and off to the gym for our daily workout. I managed to do a whole 30 minute workout doing 15 minutes on the treadmill and 15 minutes on the bicycle. Yay - I feel pumped!  Thirty minutes lasts a long time right now and for some moments I truly think that the timer has stopped and has started to go backwards!  However, today I know that in a month I will laugh at the meager 30 minute workouts that were killing me as I will be working on 60 or 90 minute workouts.

Moving forward - on to week two.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.