New Campers! What’d you think?

We've had a ton of new people this month, so I'm curious how other newbies are handling their first month. What do you guys think so far? Have you gotten through your soreness yet? Did I give a realistic picture of what it Boot Camp entails? Share your thoughts in the comments; it's always great to hear how others are doing because someone else is probably thinking the same thing!

March Camp Goals

I thought I'd release my March goals out into the wild so you all can keep me accountable. Going to try and keep it short and sweet.

1. I will do at least one day of the homework workouts each week for the rest of the camp.
   
2. I will weigh 336 pounds or less on April 8. That will bring my total weight loss to 30 pounds in 3 "boot camp months" and a hair over 3 legitimate months. We started back on January 4.
   

This morning, I weighed in at 340.5 pounds. This is on track with my 2 pounds per week that I've averaged thus far and will get me to 336 by April 8 if I can keep dropping at my current pace. I really think the homeworks are going to make a huge difference. I don't think I'll have to use Monday and Tuesday to whip my butt back into shape from the weekend. It would be great if the homework gets me to 336 by April 4, which would be three months on the dot!

I should be able to average 10 pounds a month for a while. Hell, I'm carrying around a spare tire around my stomach and waist. I'd love to be down to my long term goal of 266, or 100 pounds, by Halloween. That seems so far away but actually more realistic than I would have guessed back in December. I'm going to count on Ryan to push me through the plateaus if they come. He switches up our workouts so frequently I don't see them as a huge risk.

P.S. – Boy, are my legs sore from all the squats we did on Thursday!

March It Up!

"Tomorrow's" update took a while to write, eh? I'm just going to skip the Mini-Camp post, but know that it was brutal. We did lower body exercises just about every day, so I was pretty sore all week. Last week was Spring Break in Cobb County, so SIU had a true off week. I planned to get out and jog Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning before work but only made it out on Monday. Normally I never hit the snooze on my alarm. Last week was a different story. My bed felt too good to leave when I had the opportunity to stay under the covers for a few more minutes. A positive side effect from the week off is that my ankle is feeling better. I haven't noticed it the past 2 workouts which is the first time since January 20^th!

That brings us to this month's boot camp. I'm beginning the camp weighing 344 pounds. This is down 4 pounds from my March 3 post and 22 pounds since January started. My weight has consistently dropped 2 pounds per week for a while now, so I hope I can keep it going at least at that pace. It can be frustrating hearing about other people losing huge poundage in a week or month, but my weight is coming off safely, the changes I've made are sustainable, and my fitness level has skyrocketed. Not only that, but there is plenty of room to improve my diet still. Last weekend was especially bad and it showed in my Pre-Test fitness results, as you can see below.

Exercise	February 25	March 14	Goal
Mile Run	--	14:00	12:00
Regular Pushups	35	30	40
Assisted Pushups	5	20	10
Regular Dips	19	--	30
Assisted Dips	8	--	10
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	26	22	30
Planks to failure	1:50	1:20	2:00

At the end of February we did 55's instead of the mile, and in March we skipped the dips, presumably because we had so many new faces this month that space on the benches were too limited. That's a great problem to have!

The real differences in February and March tests are not likely as severe as the results indicate. Some days are good and some are bad, and Monday definitely felt like a bad day. I mentioned above that I didn't eat well last weekend. SIU's Nutritionist Bethany says food is the gas for your body. If you put junk in, you'll get poor performance. I ate out just about every meal, drank lots of beer, and didn't exercise at all. I'd say that qualifies as junk. Those statistical losses should be quick to recover and may already have. Towards the end of today's workout my body started responding better and it should be no surprise that I ate cleanly since Monday.

Check back soon to see my goals for March! It shouldn't take me two weeks to post again, I promise.

February Recap

After last Friday's workout, I weighed 348 pounds, the same as the previous week's end but down 18 pounds since January. Given that I missed a workout due to work travel and didn't eat particularly well on the road, no gain or loss is about what I'd expect.

You can see the results from my February 25 post-test below. SIU had an off week this week, but Ryan and Danny – from the Whitfield camp – are holding a mini-camp so we don't get fat and lazy. Next week regular camp starts up again so I'm sure we'll pre-test, and I'd guess we'll be outside and swap the mile for the 55s.

Exercise	January 31	Goal	February 25	% Change
Fifty-Fives (55s)	11.5	13	13	+13%
Regular Pushups	35	40	35	0%
Assisted Pushups	10	10	5	-50%
Regular Dips	23	30	19	-17%
Assisted Dips	10	10	8	-20%
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	17	20	26	+53%
Planks to failure	1:04	1:15	1:50	+72%

While I didn't meet my goals for strength, I blew my fitness goals out of the water. My endurance and core strength skyrocketed. Man, I was rocking it to get 13 laps on the 55s. I am not sure how much more room those have to go up before I plateau due to just not being fast enough. I had a sneaking suspicion that sit-ups and planks were going to go up, but I didn't expect that much! Feels great seeing tangible results like that.

I'll have a post after tomorrow's workout about the mini-camp's agony and ecstasy. Agony seems to be winning at the moment.