Here's a picture of the computer screen after I downloaded my final run

The Nike+ system is a device that you plug into the bottom of an iPod Nano, and it syncs with a chip on your shoe in order to track distance run, time, and calories burned.  Then you can download your run onto a computer and track your progress.  The computer program keeps a history of your runs, and it congratulates you when you reach certain milestones (100 miles, 500 miles, etc).  When I first wrote out my list of 100 things to do before I die I thought that 1,000 miles seemed impossible.  I had no idea how long it would take me to get there.  Would it be 1 year?  Two years?  The thing about setting a goal for yourself is to set it and not get too caught up in the details about how you’re going to accomplish it, or how long it will take.  Go ahead and set the goal, and then steadily work toward it.  A year is going to pass anyway.  Two years are going to pass.  I may as well be working toward my goals during that time, right?  I’ve frequently heard that the journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step, and never was it more clearly illustrated than by reaching this goal of mine.  What’s your goal?

I have taken boxing-style classes before:  Cardio Box, and Flyte Time to name a few, so tonight was my opportunity to see what the difference was between those two classes and Turbo Kickboxing.  I was pretty sure they were all cut from the same cloth, but I was about to be surprised. 

First of all the instructor was crazy, I just know it.  No one has that type of in-your-face enthusiasm and can still be called sane.  Secondly, the class had that sort of circus atmosphere vibe where the wackier you behave the more you get out of it.  Lastly, if you stand in one place for too long you’re bound to get run over, so it is wise to keep moving even if you’re not exactly sure what you’re doing.  Figure it out some other time.

We start off with the usual warm up routine, except with a lot more perkiness than normal.  Some of the basic boxing moves are demonstrated, but you are encouraged to put a cartoonish spin on them.  A basic jab in a regular boxing class looks more like a bang-zoom-to-the-moon in this class, and an upper cut originally meant to punch someone under the chin is now intended to send them into orbit too.  Correction: send them into orbit with a huge smile on your face.  Regular kicks are now landed with comic theatrics either before or after (or both), and a duck and weave can look more like a limbo stick routine complete with a shimmy. 

I have to admit that I am somewhat enjoying the madcap energy in the room now that I know the whole point of Turbo Kickbox is to be rather zany, but then the instructor yells out, “Ok, here it comes!  Are you ready for it?”  I’m not sure if I am…what could it be?  Then she wanted to know if we were excited.  Some of us indicated that we were excited, but I held my tongue not knowing what I was agreeing to.  That’s when she pulled back the veil and said, “This is what we were waiting for!  Here comes the TURBO!!!  Now GO!!”  What?  I thought we had already been doing the turbo, no?  No!  The turbo started and it was everything we had been doing, except louder, grander, peppier, bigger and with a lot more bounce and cheer.  I hadn’t thought it would have been possible for her to become more enthusiastic, but it happened right in front of my eyes.  The reckless abandon, the wild-eyed glee, it was absolutely infectious as if to say, “Go Kristin, it’s your birthday! Go Kristin!”  Who wouldn’t enjoy this? 

After the cooldown I looked at the calorie burn on my BodyBugg system and it said that I burned 380 calories in 45 minutes.  I got a lot of bang for my buck in Turbo kickboxing, and I think you will too.

Description of the class from the class catalog:  “Maximize your workout with ab sculpting moves and a fat burning cardio set to the hottest dance music. The workout that feels like the party has finally arrived.”

Class size:  22

What you should know:  Bring some water with you because you will get thirsty.  Otherwise, just go with the flow and enjoy the energy in the room.

Most turkey trots happen on Thanksgiving Day, but luckily there are a few that happen the weekend before so that all of us who might be bogged down in holiday plans are still able to share in the fun. 

I love this time of year, and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  Anything remotely related to Thanksgiving is ok in my book, so today I participated in the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot 5 and 10K run.  I chose the shorter distance because I am also in Half-Marathon Training with Chicago Endurance Sports, and one of our long runs was schedule for the day before this trot.   

It was the perfect temperature outside for an event like this; the sun was shining, the breeze was light, the temperature was cool, but not frigid like last year, and there was no snow or moisture on the ground.  The starting horn blew at exactly 8:45am, and I felt excited to get going.  Each race like this always starts out the same way:  I get no sleep the night before, I’m excited and smug in the beginning, saying things like “Oh, it’s only 3.1 miles, no biggie,” and then when the horn blows and the realization sinks in I spend the whole first mile cursing my existence and wondering why the heck I’m torturing myself like this.  Sure, it’s “only” 3.1 miles, but I still have to run them. 

By the time the second mile starts I find that I am in a comfortable groove and starting to relax, and that’s when I can look around and enjoy myself.  Invariably there are always people along the side either cheering on runners they know, or cheering for people just because, or simply looking on with curiosity.  All of these people are important to runners because we each have some sort of sense of certainty that any one of them would probably call 911 if we had a grabber right in front of them, and there’s comfort in that knowledge.  Sometimes they bring snacks too, and that’s just as good.  There is also that unique class of volunteer along the route that isn’t there to block traffic for you, or hand out water, or direct you around the correct corner, but one who simply came to yell encouragement to you even though there’s no possible way you could win this race, or any other for that matter.   God bless those people for being them!

Without too much drama, I near the third mile and decide to sprint the last bit of distance into the finishing chute.  My normal time for a 5K race is somewhere around 36 minutes (yes, I’m quite slow due to asthma), but today I was feeling especially light and cheerful, so my time is going to be close to three minutes faster than the regular pace.  I did not win the race, but having a good run can be just as satisfying.

I started the lesson by enthusiastically demonstrating my poor form to Anne, who quickly diagnosed the problem as “snowplowing through the water.”  Yes, I have to admit, that’s exactly what it feels like too.  Snowplowing. 

We tried a few drills close to the wall to practice breathing into the water, and then turning the head slightly when it was time to inhale again.  The movement is much more slight than I had imagined; almost stealth-like, as opposed to crashing to the surface and gasping for one desperate breath like I had been doing all these years.  I might never have known there was a problem if I didn’t happen to pay attention to the swimming portion of the most recent summer olympics.  Imagine the breakthrough moment when I saw all the air being thrust into the water instead of out of it!  “Oh!”  I remember thinking, “Wow.  They’re breathing INTO the water!  I never would have thought of that!” 

Doing a drill near the wall, and then performing the exact same drill while moving through water is a completely opposite experience.  Anne asked me to slow down so that I could concentrate on better form, but I have to admit that I had no idea HOW to slow down.  It’s almost like I was panic-swimming.  I saw the end of the pool and I HAD to get there.  Even worse was when I would get tired and stop swimming, and then had no wall to push off of to start to swim again.  It was like a red light going off in my head “DANGER! DANGER!”  What on Earth did I think was going to happen to me?  Would my friend really have let me drown right there in front of her?  Not a chance; but where was all this fear-talk coming from?   It’s hard teaching an adult to swim, especially one who has been invested in her unique style for so long. 

Certainly there are issues to be worked on between now and my next lesson, so I asked Anne for homework.  I just needed one or two basic skills that I could work on between now and the end of November so that when I saw her again she would notice an improvement.  She did not disappoint:  my job, should I choose to accept it, is to work on exhaling into the water through my nose, and then when I need to inhale again I should concentrate on turning my head smoothly on the same side each time for now.  Later we can work on inhaling on opposite sides with each stroke, but even an expert swimmer had to start with the basics.  I decided that I can definitely work on that.   I need to work on that.  I will work on that.  As of today’s date I have not worked on that, but with vacation starting in 2 short days I will have a lot of opportunity.

Wish me luck!

Today’s workout took me to Montrose and Lake Shore Drive for the Hot Chocolate Race.  This is only the second race I have participated in since January. I was nervous going into it because it was a 15K (or 9.3 miles to the metric challenged), and I hadn’t trained for that distance.  I was supposed to be training for that distance, but I was doing everything else other than running, and before long time just got away from me.  The only reason I signed up for this race was because of the promise of chocolate.  There wasn’t anything else that was going to get me out of bed at 6am on a chilly Sunday morning other than that. 

This was the second annual running of the Hot Chocolate 5K and 15K, and the popularity of this race was off the hook.  I really don’t think the race organizers were expecting 12,000 people to sign up for this event.  If the flurry of emails regarding changing packet pick-up locations, starting times, and parking scenarios are any indication of how surprised they were by the interest then I would have to say they were quite overwhelmed.  This could have been one of those races that got so big so fast that it seemed disorganized, or poorly executed, but it was not.  In my mind this race was incredibly well put together, the location was excellent, the availability of chocolate at the finish line was stellar, and the amenities in the staging area were quite nice.  The only hitch that I noticed was a problem with the goodie bags at the expo not having the advertised fleece hats in them.  They had run out of the fleece, so runners were instead given mesh baseball-style hats which you could later trade for the fleece once they became available again.  Otherwise, things were pretty smooth as long as you kept up with your email updates.

The shorter distance race started at 8am, and the 15K kicked off at 8:30.  I was really excited to be out there.  Perhaps too excited because when the starting horn blew I took off too quickly and completed the first mile in just over nine minutes, which is about three minutes faster than my regular running pace.  Yikes!  One of the girls in our group was really feeling good, so she kept going at that pace, while I slowed up and ran alongside the other girl who had a similar training plan to mine (none).  At about the three-mile marker I started to feel really good, and that’s when my running partner told me to go on without her because she wanted to walk.  I hate to do that; leave someone behind, but she was insistent, and I was really enjoying the run, so on ahead I went. 

For the next six miles I can’t say that there was anything that stood out in my mind other than how good it felt to be out there.  This is highly unusual.  I love to run even though I have no talent for it, but it is often very difficult for me.  Still, I guess I like the freedom of it.  That’s what this run reminded me of:  freedom.  The weather was perfect in that it was slightly chilly, the sun was out, and the breeze was gentle for the lakefront.  On top of that, the Gatorade tasted great, the people were pleasant, and yes – I was running well.  I just felt GOOD.  Wow!

Once I passed the nine mile marker and I knew I only had  a short distance left until the finish, I kicked it into high gear and sprinted across the finish line in under two hours.  What a nice run!  I also reconnected with the other two girls at the finish line who were enjoying some water while waiting for me. 

Then, on the heels of all those good endorphins I had just released, we saw the first of many volunteers that were handing out a variety of chocolate treats from some type of luggage they were wearing, and I was absolutely giddy.  A suitcase full of chocolate?  Sign me up!  There must have been at least twenty of these volunteers along the way, walking around near the finish line, or in the staging area.   We also got right in line for the tent marked “Chocolate Fondue.”  There’s nothing bad that is ever going to happen to a person who is in a tent marked “Chocolate Fondue.”  Nothing.  I picked up a small plastic tray with apples, marshmallows, and pretzel rods and handed it to a volunteer who was scooping up ladles of chocolate sauce and putting them in the trays.  Sweet, glorious sacrifice!  Could it be possible to immediately negate the calories burned during a nine mile run by eating too much chocolate immediately afterward?  I was about to find out.   That fondue was SO good!  We all munched and delighted in our chocolate treats (there were bananas and graham crackers for dipping too), and then made our way to the Hot Chocolate tent to get a warm drink for the walk home.  Luckily the hot chocolate was bad (it tasted burnt), or else I really would have collapsed from a sugar overload.  

We started walking the two plus miles back home, exchanging, bartering, or giving away less favorite chocolate treats in order to concentrate on the ones that were worth the calorie excess.  I found that most of them were worth it.  Hello Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Nestle Crunch, Milky Way and Almond Joy, allow me to introduce myself…

Tonight’s class was a jump roping, boxing, and cardio extravaganza! 

I don’t normally make it to the gym in the evening due to my schedule, but tonight was different and so I finally got to try out the curiously-titled Flyte Time workout. 

Description of the class from the course catalog:  “This is a high intensity jump rope and core conditioning class.  Boxer-style jump roping techniques and martial art core conditioning exercises make this a killer workout!  If you want a class to push the envelope of your cardio conditioning, this is it.”

And so it was…

When the class first started I was surprised that there were only 3 of us in attendance.  This is an unusually low number for this particular gym, and it forced me to stay longer than I had thought I would.  I had taken the hour-long class directly before this one, and that class had been a weight-lifting session that completely burned out all of my muscles.  My thought process was this:  “Oh, cool, I’ve got the muscle work done for the day, so now I’ll just stay for about twenty minutes in order to get in some cardio, and then I’m out the door.”  This logic would only have worked if there had been a ton of people to blend in with.  As it was, my sneaking out would have been glaringly obvious here, and this is the genius of working out in a small group:  accountability. 

There we were, the three of us and the instructor, and the instructor was the only one who had actually taken the class before.  She was also the only one with any jump rope skills whatsoever.  In earlier posts you might have noticed that I’m not necessarily a natural with gym equipment, or balance, or moving my own two feet.  My streak continues.  Is there a limit to the amount of jump rope welts a person can have on her legs?  If there is I have not yet reached it, and it isn’t from lack of trying.  Basic jumping skills turned out to be much more difficult to master than you’d think.  We started simply bobbing side to side without using the rope.  Once we got that down, we held the rope in front of us and did some sort of whipping motion right to left while we continued jumping side to side.  If you have seen the numerous still photos from the famous workouts featured in the Rocky movies then you’ll know what move we were doing, or check out this link for a brief, but incredible video.  Then, in one swift motion, the instructor did something with her rope and ta-da!  She was jumping through it like a normal person while I was untangling mine from around my ankles.  Ok, I decided to skip the fanciness and just go right for the old-school jumping that I remember from my younger years.  This was only marginally more easy to manage.  Now it was time to do the regular jumping while bobbing back and forth from side to side.  Impossible.  I went back to the basic skipping moves.  Now we were trying to move our feet as one would while doing jumping jacks.  Wasn’t going to happen.  At one point I balled up the rope and held it in one hand while just jumping like a jumping jack in order to try to get my timing down.  Once I attempted to do this with the rope again I was tangled up in less than two moves.  Eventually, after some exhaustive effort, I was able to manage the bobbing and the jack jumping for about a dozen skips of the rope, so it wasn’t a complete loss.  Apparently there is a learning curve here, and this makes me hopeful. 

We put the ropes down completely, and in my mind it’s because the teacher was completely disgusted with our near total lack of game, but it might have been a calculated part of the class too.  Right?  We did some stretching, and general instructions were given, and then some slow ground work was being laid for our next jumping segment.  Half way through this second chance at hurting myself, one more person came to class and evened out the number of students.  A light bulb literally exploded in the instructor’s head, and that’s when she had us pair up for some boxing manuevers.   Good bye, rope!

We practiced jabs, cross punches, hooks, and several sequences of simply-choreographed moves before donning some boxing gloves to try it out with our partner.  Because the other two girls had come to class together, I was paired up with the late comer.  This ended up being a very funny class for me.  I put the boxing gloves on first and practiced striking the young man opposite me.  He turned out to be a good coach, and offered some really helpful tips such as, “put your hands up by your face to protect yourself, ” or “watch my shoulder so that you know when and where I’m going to move.”  Cool, eh?  Just when I was getting into it, and sweat was literally falling off my face, it was time for him to put on the gloves and practice punching the pads that I was wearing, and that’s when it got to be ridiculous.  The guy could hit, and I’ve got these ridiculously weak girly arms.  The pads I was wearing kept coming loose on my hands, which meant that half the time he was hitting me directly where my fingers were, and not my palms.  I tried to hold my hands up higher to fix the problem, but the instructor said it was too high for him to hit.  Fine lady, but he’s packing quite the wallop and I’m afraid he’s going to break my fingers.  All of them. 

Sweet justice!  An inaudible bell rung and it was time to hang up the boxing gloves for an equally hilarious round of “Chase Your Partner and Yank the Towel out of the Back of Their Pants.”  For real?  Yes, for real!  First, my partner had to stuff a towel in the back of his pants, and then we had to face each other and move in a frenzied circle while I tried to grab the towel from his waistband.  I’m not even making this stuff up.  When it came time for him to grab the towel out of the back of my pants I had this vision of him really going for the towel, but instead accidentally yanking on my pants until they were at my ankles.  I told him that if he pants’d me he was a dead man, but as it turns out he was a gentleman and repeatedly missed opportunities to grab the towel when he didn’t have a clean shot.  Thank you, kind sir!

Then we quit doing the punching and grabbing and started on the intense cardio portion of the class.  We were running from one wall in the studio to the other one, then stopping to do burpees (or squat thrusts with push-ups, if you prefer), then a bunch of push ups, then some high-energy abdominal work.  Here I had thought that I always needed someone to hold down my feet in order for me to do a full sit up, but nope…the human body is perfectly equipped to do a full sit up whether your feet are stuck under a piece of furniture, or someone’s hands, or nothing at all.  Just knowing this has increased my confidence level by at least a half point. 

The class wrapped up with a segment of stretches, and some words of encouragement from the teacher.  This class was long and hard, but equally enjoyable on all fronts. 

What you should know before taking this class: 

- This was a long class, and I would suggest that you take it, but don’t take a really hard class directly before this one like I did.  I was watching the clock the whole time because I was tired, and that only makes it go slower. 

- This is a fun class, and I laughed out loud several times, so I really did enjoy it and I think you will too. 

- You don’t need any skills to take this class.  If you can’t jump rope then don’t worry about it because neither can a lot of the other people in the class.  You’ll fit right in. 

- You don’t need to bring boxing gloves or pads, but if you have them then bring them because otherwise you’ll have to use the ones that everyone else used before you.  I try not to think about that. 

- bring water and a towel.  You’ll be glad I mentioned it. 

Class size:  4

Duration of class:  One hour

Ok, I’m kidding.  This really wasn’t a workout at all, it was more like a guided nap, but it was still one more class that I can check off the list.  As of today’s writing, I only have seven more regular classes to take to complete each one in the course catalog, and then there are five yoga classes left to try. 

This class was called Nidra iRest.  I liked the sound of that, especially the rest part. I was greeted by the instructor, who introduced herself and explained the theory behind Nidra yoga.  It was during this explanation that I heard the most beautiful words ever spoken in a gym: “Did you know this is a non-movement class?  There is nothing for you to do other than lie on the mat and listen to my words.”  Can I get an Amen?  That’s exactly what I was in the mood for this day, being inert.  She continued to tell me that the purpose of the class was to undo negative thought patterns we had built up during the week, to relax the nervous system, to have an hour to peacefully meditate and recharge our batteries, and some other stuff, but she had me at “there is nothing for you to do…”

I grabbed two yoga mats and two blankets per the instructor’s suggestion.  I laid one mat on top of the other, and then I put one blanket down on top of those.  I got onto the blanket, and then pulled the remaining blanket on top of myself as I reclined and got ready for class to begin.  To make sure we’d reach ultimate relaxation, we were also given a towel to place under our heads, and another smaller towel to place over our eyes.  I closed my eyes and smiled broadly, thinking back to nap time in kindergarten, back when the world made perfect sense and the only things that mattered were naps, hugs and the occasional snack.

The teacher’s voice was soothing as she began to guide us through a meditative sequence to focus our attention inwardly.  We were instructed to consider our closed eyes, the smoothness of our lips, the intricacies of our ears, the gentle slope of our necks, and then some other stuff that I vaguely remember here and there as I drifted in and out of a light sleep.  Yes!  Along the way I’m pretty sure we got through the whole body, and after that I can’t say for sure what she wanted us to concentrate on.  Does it matter?  I was happy to have this hour to myself where, to the casual observer it might seem that I was highly engaged in some group activity, but to me it was a precious escape from the frenzy of the week.  This was the oasis in the desert of life; the glass-like calm of the sea the day after a violent storm.  This was that cool drink of water after a hot day in the sun.  This was a freakin’ nap, and I loved it!  “Can’t you nap at home?” you might ask.  Well, sure.  What’s your point?  The thing about this class was that I was not at home, and thus I was not likely to be interrupted by the phone, or a neighbor’s music, or a honking horn, or the doorbell.  This was one hour set aside for total relaxation, and it was brilliant!

Description of the class from the class catalog:  “The goal of Nidra Yoga, meaning ‘yoga sleep,’ is the release of self-destructive patterns and recognition of our selves as pure awareness.  Done laying down.”

Class size: 8

What you should know:  it’s ok to let go and relax because that’s what this class is there for.

Today is Saturday, and that means getting out of the gym and into the great outdoors.  The setting was the beautiful lakefront in Chicago, the time was early morning (but not too early), my partner in crime was Mary, and this ridiculous question was all my doing:  “How about we do four miles out, and then four miles back?”  This comes from a girl who has been goofing around taking all manner of different classes at the gym while managing to not run more than 3 miles at a crack in the entire month of October.   I was supposed to be training for a 15K, which means building up my running stamina gradually, but for whatever reason I had this brainstorm on a blustery, wet day that eight miles sounded like a good idea. 

For the most part, this was not a bad run.  It’s late October, and it was chilly for simply walking along the lakefront, but running kept us reasonably warm.  The problem was that you had to keep running in order to enjoy that reasonable warmth.  I haven’t run eight miles in a long time, so on the way back I was starting to poop out, you know?  Still, I had to keep with it.  Just when we got within about a 1/2 mile of our goal, where we’d start our cool-down by walking the rest of the way back to Mary’s house, the skies opened up with freezing rain and some hail mixed in for good measure.  Within less than a minute I cried out, “My face is frozen!”   Ah, the frozen face.  An early gift from Old Man Winter.  Welcome to Autumn in Chicago; wimps need not apply. 

What you need to know:  dry fit clothing is not really going to keep you dry, a baseball hat is a good idea, gloves make cold runs bearable, and eight miles is a long way.

When you wake up angry, there is no finer gift to give yourself than a whirlwind class of boxing-inspired aggression.  It was finally my turn to take the Cardio Box class today, and I am super glad that I did.  If you read my previous post then you know that I recently purchased a BodyBugg system to augment my workout and nutritional goals.  This class was only forty-five minutes long, but I was able to burn 374 calories during this brief time.  Incredible, right? 

This was another class taught by Vlad, who has quickly become one of my favorite instructors at the gym.  I don’t know if it’s his teaching style, or musical selections, or his completely unintentional double-meanings during the workouts, but I thoroughly enjoy being a student of his. 

We started out with a simple and quick warm-up, then moved into the basic moves that would set the tone for our session.  Jabs are described by some boxers as a quick way to get in a punch while testing the distance to your target.  Jabs are quick thrusts of your punching arm, and an equally quick return of your fist into a protective posture guarding your face from attack.  Jabs can be done singly, or in double time, or for as long as the person in front of you needs a beating. 

Next came hooks.  I like hooks.  Hooks are done when the opponent, or offender (depending on the scenario you like to imagine yourself in) is very close to you and there isn’t enough distance for a more powerful punch.  Think of this one as the round-house kick of punches.  After hooks we did some upper cuts, which is the move I like best because when someone is right up in your face you can come from underneath and sock ‘em one right under the chin.      Imagine the surprise!

Another good one is the cross punch, which is performed when your punching arm makes a motion across your chest to impact the opposite part of the opponent’s body.  So, where a jab with your right hand would end up on the left shoulder, say, of an aggressor, a cross with your right hand would end up punching the right shoulder of an assailant (or some idiot that needed their bell rung).  I think the cross might be the most powerful of the punches because you put your whole weight into it by pivoting your back foot as your arm extends. 

Once we mastered these punches we got to put them all together in a rapid-fire fury of punches that sounded something like this: “Ok now, GO!  Jab, jab, cross!  Hook then uppercut!  Jab, jab, cross, hook, then upper cut!  Hook, hook, upper, cross, jab, jab!”  If you weren’t careful, and you got a little too wild with the punches, it was easier than you’d think to end up punching yourself in the face.  Not that this happened to me…

Finally we graduated to some of the kicks, which were done in stages.  Vlad explained about chambering the foot, which means not leaving it hanging out there during a kicking motion so that the other guy can kick it, grab it, or break it.  If you keep it in the chamber then you have some protection from the knee and thigh.  It all goes so quickly though that you don’t have a lot of time to think about being in the chamber, you just do it.  We did side kicks, stomp kicks, jump kicks (anyone remember Karate Kid?), and round house kicks, all of which were great fun.   

The kicks were soon joined by the punches we had recently executed, and then one of my favorite little routines started.  In my head it sounded something like this (and remember that I woke up angry):  “Stand in defensive position, here comes that jerk, and he’s charging right at you.  Before he has a chance to say one more ridiculous thing, BAM!  You get him with a cross check.  He’s surprised, so he moves in closer and that’s when you hit him with two hooks; one on each side of his fool head.  As he’s shaking off the confusion you clock him one under the chin with your upper-cut.  He’s pinwheeling backward, but now he looks angry, and he’s trying to reverse directions and launch himself at you.  What’s a girl to do?  You grab him by the shirt collar as you drag his sorry self towards you in a downwards arcing motion, then you thrust your knee right up into his big, fat belly.  You hear the wind rush out of his lungs, and as he pitches forward in a last-ditch effort to throw his arms around your waist and tackle you, that’s when you hit him right between the shoulder blades with an elbow blow called The Pile Driver. Take that, Loser!  And if you ever come back here, you’ll get more of the same!”  [Insert appropriate western-themed music, and brush the dust off your leather jacket.]   This whole sequence was great, and was a wonderful opportunity to work out some tension.

Lastly, we were to get a partner for some virtual sparring.  No one actually hit each other, but we did practice throwing punches and doing some kicks with a real person standing in front of us.  This part had me in hysterics at one point, so it was almost like free therapy.  Before I had a chance to say, “Thank you sir, I’ll have another,” class had ended.  The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.

Description of the class from the catalog:  “A combination of punches, jabs and kicks along with intervals of jumping rope, push-ups, plyometrics and/or abdominal crunches. No equipment is necessary.”

Duration of class:  forty-five minutes

Class size:  22

What you should know:  You do not need any prior boxing experience to enjoy this class.  Bring some water and a face towel and then just listen to the instructor as he guides you through easy-to-follow choreography.

Calories burned:  374

The BodyBugg is a weight-management tool that is worn on your left upper arm.  During the day, this little device counts the calories that you burn during your daily activities: working out, walking around the house, washing the car, you name it.  It even monitors your sleep so that you can see the quality of rest you are getting.  The Bugg also counts out the amount of steps you take during the day, with the recommended goal being 10,000 steps, or five miles worth of movement.  Additionally, the software allows you to enter in the food you have eaten during the day so that you can see whether or not you met your target of calorie deficiencies (based on a program you design) in order to either lose weight, or maintain weight already lost.  I was thrilled to find this item, and I have been using it for approximately two weeks now.  

Why would anyone need this item? you may ask.  The answer, for me, is that I have been working out more regularly than ever, but I’m still not seeing any results.  I can lie to myself and be mystified that this is happening, but deep down I know that no matter how hard I work out I am also going to have to put in the effort at controlling my caloric intake in order to see change.  I watch the TV show The Biggest Loser.  I know that there are some that would argue that it exploits the obese, is humiliating, and/or glorifies abusing oneself to gain notoriety (as though someone would purposely eat themselves into oblivion in the hopes that, one day, a television show might come along that would put their fat ass on the screen so that they could have a chance to lose said ass and possibly win some money.  We all know that’s bunk).  The reason I like the show is this:  I know that the people on screen didn’t wake up one day looking like that. Like me, their stories began the same way as mine – with a gradual acceptance of one pound here, two pounds there.  Each level of weight gain being met with resolutions that no more weight would follow; that this was it, the rock bottom point.  Then the next day, one more pound.  One more size up.  One more piece of pie. 

Truly, someone might look at me and think that I do not have a weight problem, that I look just fine.  The truth is that I’m carrying around 150 pounds on a 125 pound frame.  I do not look good at 150 pounds.  I do not feel good at 150 pounds.  The truth is that my entire family struggles with weight, and the health problems that go along with it: diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol.  I do not have these issues.  Not yet anyway.  I have, however, seen the writing on the wall and now I am taking measures to get control of the situation before I have to go on a TV show and get my fat ass kicked in front of the world.  I’ll do my ass kicking in private, thank you very much.  And I’ll do it with the help of the BodyBugg, and a really good gym membership. 

The Bugg came with a really interesting offer in the name of a free forty-five minute coaching session over the phone.  You can opt out of the coaching, but since there is always something to be gained from listening to someone in the know I accepted this session without hesitation.  I had no idea what the session would include, or how useful it would be, but I was willing to trust the process.

Once I had received the Bugg, I spent about one hour setting it up, and three hours charging the battery.  The following day I received a call from the BodyBugg support team to set up my coaching session.  The recommendation was to use the system for ten days before talking to the coach.  I was asked to methodically enter in my food intake, and to download my calories burned each day prior to my call.  The process of doing both of these things is quite simple after the first day of playing around with it.  I didn’t even read the instruction booklets aside from looking up how to remove the unit from the armband, and I’m no computer whiz either.   The last request from the consultant was that I was logged onto the system and sitting in front of the computer when my coach called me for our appointment. 

On October 9th, at the exact appointed hour, Pam called me at home and went over every detail of the program.  She was able to look at all of my information on her computer while she walked me through the various screens.  She showed me how to pull up the information regarding the percentage of fat, carbohydrates, and proteins that I was eating each day.  She looked at the amount of time I spent working out, and gave me pointers on increasing some of the default parameters that were preprogrammed into my device.  With her guidance, I was able to increase the suggested amount of daily moderate activity from thirty minutes to one hour, and I was able to see that my sodium intake was a little high, making me retain water.  Further, she explained the importance of getting in the proper amounts of fats and proteins without ignoring that carbohydrates were essential in supplying my body with the proper amount of fuel to keep working out.  We talked about vitamins, we talked about printing out my screens to better gauge my progress, and we discussed the importance of spending time each day to log my activities and calorie intake. 

Nutrition was a prime focus of our talk, but maneuvering around the software to make it work for me was the other big component.  I had no idea what to expect from the time spent on the phone with Pam, but I was very impressed with the quality of instruction and help that I received.  I was motivated to get off the phone and start putting her feedback into practice.  I really felt like I had a better handle on caloric intake questions, and it felt as though my goal was more clearly defined. 

What is my goal?  I want to drop 12 pounds.  I’d be happy with that.  With the BodyBugg helping me, I am on track to achieve this goal by December 17th.  After years of struggling with this, I am almost shocked to know that it could all be over before Christmas.  Is that possible?  Is it too good to be true?  Stay tuned to find out!