If you look back, you will see that my last post was over a year ago, and it was about a contest that I entered called the "Extreme Fitness Makeover." Well, my husband and I both made it to the interview session of that, but neither was chosen.
However.
Fast forward one year, and we applied again. Knowing good and well that we wouldn't get chosen, but not being able to come up with any good reason NOT to apply. We were called in for interviews again. And unlike last year, this year, they chose both of us! We are the first married couple to compete in the Extreme Fitness Makeover.
We are required to blog about our experiences on the EFM FB page, and I will gladly do that. However, as my past blog posts will show, I am very wordy. I like to express myself. Because of that, I am going to blog here about my experiences as well, and document them as detailed as possible so that I can come back and read about what we were going through once the 12 weeks is over.
We went in on Sunday to have our "before" pictures taken and for them to do our beginning weights and measurements. That was painful. Seriously. Painful.
Or so we thought.
Ya know, we knew it wasn't going to be easy. That's a given. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, we would all be thin and healthy and there would be no reason for contests like "The Biggest Loser" and our "Extreme Fitness Makeover."
But holy guacamole folks...never could I have expected last night. So here it is. In detail. If you are in shape, you may laugh at this. Just remember, this is a group of 10 obese, completely out of shape (I'm talking can't go up a flight of stairs without needing oxygen) people. (Some of us are old too, which doesn't help, LOL!)
We get there and are told to just walk the length of the gym warehouse to warm up. It's maybe 75 yards, no big deal. We walk it half a dozen times or so. Then the trainers came in and had us run the length of the warehouse and come back to the middle...ok. They immediately took us into jumping jacks. Real jumping jacks with hand claps in the middle. It was about this time that I looked at Sam and thought "what in the hell have I gotten myself into? I can't get through the warm up!" Went from jumping jacks into squats and lunges.
They then informed us that we are going to do a "Fit Test" that we will repeat in our 12th week to show how far we have come. It is a list of exercises and we were to do each one for one minute each and record our reps.
Here is a list of the exercises (though I don't remember the order they were in):
body weight squats
medicine ball slams
bicep curls
push ups
medicine ball crunches
tricep presses
medicine ball twists
steps (on step from step aerobics)
So they showed us the exercise and then timed us for a minute on each one. We then had a short break while we wrote down our number of reps and got ready to go on the next one. After we finished all of them ~ and was feeling really proud of ourselves I might add ~ they announced that it was time to do it for real...and we had to do a minute of each with a 15 second recovery in between (which was barely enough time to write down our reps). By the end of this most of us couldn't breathe and a few were gagging a little into their puke bucket (they oh so generously provided us each one with our names on it).
While we were thinking our hour must almost be over and, if not, then it must be time for a short break, they were telling us what station we were headed to next and to HUSTLE. So off we go to 4 more stations: up and down stairs, flipping the ropes (don't know the official name of this), blood and guts and pushing the heavy dummies up and down the warehouse floor.
It was after I finished this circuit that I found myself unable to breath. Probably because I was hyperventilating. So one of the EMT's had to come help me calm my breathing down. As I was doing this, everyone else was on all 4's doing a bear crawl across the floor. By the time I got to the floor, they were finished and on the other side of the room. I got down to get started and couldn't do it. I could go one or two movements but then my body would just give up. Seeing my struggle, two amazing ladies (one trainer, Tracy, one there for support, Amanda, and both of whom have been through EFM before) got on either side of me and started talking me through it. Having me go just 5 hand movements at a time. And I know that everyone says that it's your brain that gives out, not your body, but it damn sure felt like it was my body refusing to go any further. At one point, Tracy looked at me with tears rolling down her face and told me that she knows how it feels. She's been there. And that's what helped me get to the end of the bear crawl. Was it easy? Not one second of it. Did I finish it? Yes, finally. Was I proud? No, but I should've been. Instead I was embarrassed and ashamed that everyone else had done it without the struggle that I had.
It was at this point (as I'm laid out in the floor beside a few other people) that our hour had come to an end. I'm still not sure how that 8 hours of torture all managed to take place in the span of only one hour. But it was finally over.
Sam and I were walking out and it was cold and raining, but I don't know that it even registered with either of us. As he walked ahead of me to the car I remember yelling at him "if I ever come up with an insane idea like this again, please just tell me to kiss your ass and remind me of how we feel right now!" And then as I followed Sam to the car I started crying. I don't know why I was crying, but I couldn't stop. It wasn't tears of pain (because I was numb by that time). Maybe it was stress. Maybe it was relief that it was over. Maybe it was how overwhelming the workout had been. Maybe I was just furious with myself that I was in this situation in the first place. I don't know. But for the rest of the night, anytime I tried to talk about it, I cried. It was so emotional, and yet I don't understand why just yet.
After everyone got home, we all started posting on FB about the experience. My husband and several other contestants were so upbeat and posting things like "We got this!" and "Can't wait til tomorrow night!" And I just sat there and felt worse and worse. I don't know that I "got this" and I would rather chew my own arm off than go back tomorrow night. Several others did their blog on the EFM page and were very thankful and nice and hopeful. I chose to put off doing mine until this morning, hoping that I would feel better about the whole situation. Guess what? I didn't. And I refused to sugarcoat it on my blog. I want everyone to know the true emotions I am dealing with.
All day long I have dreaded having another workout tonight. I don't want to go back. I want to stay home, snuggle up with my kids and a book and a pizza. But then I look in the mirror and know where doing that will get me. And I know that I have to go back. I know that eventually I will share the same hope and positive feelings as the other contestants and I look forward to it. In the meantime, though, I don't have to be filled with the hope and positive feelings, I just have to show up and do it. I have to do it to the best of my ability, and that's all they can ask from me. OK, it's not all they can ask, but it's all I can give them.
I really do hope that I will come out of my workout tonight feeling proud. Feeling like I've accomplished something. I've got to learn how to get my mind where it needs to be, and once it gets there, I have no doubt that I will be halfway there!
To keep up with the EFM contestants on FB, please "like" the page HERE!
