Ten months ago, I started to allow streaming videos to kick my hefty mom butt almost every morning. Today, I am two days from completing 80 Day Obsession.
Don’t worry. I’m not blowing off the last two days. I’ll get to 80. I’m going to finish. But I think I’m ready to talk about this journey and there are several things I want you to know.
- I’m 58 years old.
- I am a runner and have 20 (slow) marathons under my belt.
- I hate gyms.
- I was not then, and am not now, truly overweight.
But MAN! Ten months ago, I hated how my pants squeezed my hips and thighs. Over the last 10 years, my weight has slowly creeped up about a pound a year (looking at YOU warm, gooey brownies and coffee for breakfast.)
I don’t care if my BMI was smack dab in the middle of healthy weight calculations for women my age, I didn’t like how I felt. Worse than that, I was weak. Strong calf muscles don’t prevent every other muscle from succumbing to atrophy. I cringed in horror the day I realized my obnoxious arm flab was starting to flap and wave without my permission.
So I was ready and motivated to do something about it. Please understand that when I started, I could not do a single pushup on my toes and could barely accomplish more than 3 or 4 on my knees. I had never lifted weights and 6 pounds felt like 20. I had doubts how much pressure I would be able to put on my mildly arthritic wrists and toes that sometimes hurt enough to wake me up at night. In fact, I always told people that the reason I stopped doing P90X about ten years ago is that it hurt my wrists.
I started with 21 Day Fix, which I did for more than 21 days before moving on to Slim in 6, PiYo, and 80 Day Obsession.
Somewhere in that mix, I also gave Brazil Butt Lift a good college try. At least for a few weeks. But I never felt comfortable with trainer Leandro’s exuberance over all those tight, youthful “boom-booms” on his set, and I hated the butt jiggling.
Lord, can’t you please bless those little bottoms with a bit of cellulite?
Everything felt hard at first. Every move, bend, lift, and twist. But I immediately recognized that anybody can do 21 Day Fix. I applaud super-trainer Autumn Calabrese for insisting that there’s no shame in modifying. I believed her. I worked hard, did what I could, and felt zero guilt for my effort. For the first time in my life, I looked forward to working out via video every morning. And, honest to God, after only three weeks, I felt stronger. It amazed me that I felt a difference in such a short time.
But on to Slim in 6.
“Oh, that’s one of the oldest workouts,” my stepdaughter and Beachbody coach, Sarah, told me. It might have been a warning.
Slim in 6 caters to beginners and I liked the two basic workouts. I moved and grooved for about 3 weeks. Then I got bored. I plateaued. I wanted it to end.
Beachbody, if you’re listening SLIM IN 6 SHOULD BE SLIM IN 3. Just my opinion.
Then came PiYo, a cross between Pilates and yoga that uses no equipment other than your own body weight.
Oh Chalene Johnson. How I loved your upbeat, effervescent personality and uplifting music every morning. I loved PiYo. This was the workout that began to make the biggest difference for me. In 60 days, I grew strong and flexible. My aching wrists and toes stopped hurting the stronger I grew.
PiYo looks easy, but it’s not. Out of all the workout videos I have done in the past 10 months, only PiYo’s Drench made me cry. It pushed me to my limit. But I loved every minute of PiYo, even during my brief spate of tears.
I wasn’t sure if I was ready for 80 Day Obsession, which sounded scary and super advanced. But Sarah assured me it was “doable.”
I confess I made a few ground rules as I went. The first thing I decided was to ignore the eating plan. Earlier in my life, I struggled with disordered eating and although I am beyond that, my concern is to eat healthy, but not to obsess. So, I worked on improving my diet without adhering to strict guidelines.
The second adjustment I made was to do the workouts only 5 instead of 6 days a week. My husband and I usually go for a long(er) run on Saturdays and I decided to let that be my workout. If I were 30 or even 40 years old, I could have squeezed it all in, but honestly, I didn’t want to push it.
That being said, Cardio Flow had to go. It’s not that I don’t like cardio exercise. That doesn’t bother me at all. But I hated that particular sequence. Go ahead and put me through the ringer on Booty, Leg, and AAA days. Kick my metaphorical butt with Total Body Core and Cardio Core. But if I tried to force myself to do Cardio Flow every week, it would have been tempting to quit the whole program. I’m serious.
I also didn’t try to compete or keep up with picture-perfect Autumn and her gorgeous castmates, who looked runway ready from day one. Even in my workout this morning, I couldn’t always do as many reps or use quite as heavy weights for some of the exercises. It took me several weeks to learn how to use the loops and sliders, but I always did the best I could and dripped sweat with the best of them.
So what has been the end result for me? I admit it exasperated me that I did not lose a single pound for many months. I didn’t understand how I could work so hard and not see any weight loss at all. My effort and determination never wavered, but my frustration grew until all of a sudden, six months in, I started to drop pounds. In total, I’ve lost 8 pounds, which isn’t much, but if you look at my before and after hiking photos, there is a difference.
The other surprise is that my running hasn’t improved, but that’s because I haven’t been running as much. It was harder to fit in a run and an hour workout first thing in the morning, and to be honest, sometimes I was too sore to run and felt like I might injure myself if I pushed. It doesn’t worry me, though. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but running is actually easier than a lot of these workouts. If I concentrate on running for a few weeks, I know I’ll improve.
The best thing is that I am leaner, stronger, and healthier than ever. I can do pushups. On my toes. I have muscles where I never thought they existed. I’m not going to pose in a bathing suit to show off my abs, but trust me, I got ‘em! And (TMI alert) my husband says my butt is more toned.
What?! Now THAT’s a miracle.
I’ve signed up for Beachbody’s brand spanking new Morning Meltdown 100, which starts next week.
I CAN’T WAIT.