BOOT CAMP: DAY 13 OF WORKOUTS

Today was "Bring a Friend" day at Boot Camp.

It was a foregone conclusion that Andres would be my "friend". When he found out I was interested in signing up for boot camp he was all for it. He thought it would be great for me and he was right. it's been hard, but I can honestly say it's been great for me.

I feel good that I've done it.

I feel good that I haven't quit.

I feel good about the exercise challenges I never thought I could do.

It was important to me that Andres go today. I wanted to share this with him. I wanted him to see what I was doing and to be honest, I wanted him to appreciate how hard I've been working. Not that he didn't before. In support of my boot camp efforts, Andres has been getting up at 5:30 every morning to do his daily bike ride. He said he didn't feel good about sleeping when I was out there busting my hump. He hasn't missed a day and he's been understanding about my end of the day exhaustion.

Andres is in great physical shape. He always passes for 10 years younger than he actually is. (Which is great considering I'm 11 years younger than him. heh)

Andres' son, Andy Jr. came to boot camp with his wife Jaimie today too. And you know what? I was glad he was there too! We usually have a good time when we're all together and I think a lot of Andres' family. I know what it meant to Jaimie to have him there, but I didn't expect it to matter to me that he was there too.

Maybe it's because now the entire family has had this experience. Andres' daughter just finished boot camp and she took her hubby, Kevin, on her "Bring a Friend" day.

I really like that.

I didn't expect it to turn out that way because when Jaimie's mom first suggested I enroll in a 5:30 am boot camp with her I flat out said, "No way!" I wanted no part of getting up early because I NEED my 8 hours a night and I didn't want to be pushed to exercise.

But between the time Linda first suggested it to me and the time the class I wanted to take started I began thinking about it. Why did I flat out refuse to do it? What was I afraid of? And...if I don't do this, what WILL I do? I've always wanted to lose a few pounds and tone up. Why NOT boot camp?

It's a good thing I didn't know how hard it was going to be because I probably wouldn't have signed up, but I did. I emailed Linda (Jaimie's mom) and asked her if she still wanted to do it, but in the end Linda said no.

Miss Linda is NOT a morning person. LOL But she always watches her weight anyway. If she gets a few pounds out of whack she does what she needs to do to fix it. When you're 20 lbs out of whack (or more) you need boot camp. Add to that the fact that I had a 25 year high school reunion coming up in mid July and that Andres and I plan to marry SOME TIME this year and well...it became a no-brainer.

I took a big gulp and signed up. (Odd how easy it is to sign up for things online.)

Today was the last work out for week 3. It was hard. Lots of cardio and I was dying at the end of class. But Jaimie, two of her friends who are also in our boot camp class, and I had briefly discussed doing "The Big Hill" today. "We'll do it on Thursday" we said earlier this week.

OMG...class was so hard for me today that I didn't want to do the Big Hill anymore. When the instructors announced it was time for core and people who wanted to do the hill should go now Andres looked at me to see if I wanted to. I looked around for Jaimie thinking that if they weren't doing it, I wasn't doing it.

Well...they were doing it. There went Jaimie and Andy toward the Big Hill. I took a deep breath and followed them and Andres was right there with me.

I'm glad to say we made it up to the top of the big hill and that includes coming down once when we'd made it to the halfway mark the first time up and then re-scaling the heights a second time. At each tier of the hiil we had to stop and do our core exercises...sit ups. (Note: Andres rocked the cardio portion of the class, but told me later that ab work was NOT his friend)

I almost slid in some dirt and was holding on to grass to keep from falling the first time up, but Andres helped me.

So...that was our big day 13 at boot camp. Andy and Andres said it was hard, but they both did a great job. The instructors were impressed with Andres, but I knew he'd do well and I'm so glad he came to class today.

Now a 3 day weekend looms. No boot camp tomorrow. No work and to make it even sweeter....Uber Instructor, Kari, told me I could have beer with my splurge meal on the 4th. "Just don't tell me about it." She said. "Yes, Ma'am!"

I'm having a burger and potato salad and beer and whatever else I can cram into one meal on Saturday.

Everyone have a happy 4th of July.