Can an Overweight Woman Survive Fitness Boot Camp?

Fitness Boot Camp. What is it? A boot camp setting is a fast and fun, energetic indoor and/or outdoor physical regimen geared to help individuals lose weight and get physically fit. Think of the Biggest Loser last minute workout. You push your body and challenge yourself in a group atmosphere. These boot camps are popping up in most big cities. There may be one in your neighborhood. Fitness Boot Camp changes up the routines so that you get a total body workout using various methods of exercise. These methods may include kickboxing, free weights, punching bags, ropes, medicine balls, and other strength and conditioning equipment. Local boot camps vary their classes and may take you either indoors or outdoors. The key is to work your body hard in a fun way, so you exercise and get fit in a fun atmosphere. The boot camp atmosphere is physical, yet fun. The trainer will work with you and your body. Don't be afraid to work hard. The trainer will always try to get you out of your comfort zone, to push you mentally and physically to get you to a better place. The main goal is to get you moving and keep you moving until your own personal goals are achieved.

Most boot camp workouts are focused on weight loss, toning, strengthening, conditioning, flexibility and endurance. The most important thing to do is to get out and get going. Exercise is key. Once you sign up and pay for your classes, you'll want to get out and do it. These boot camps force you to get active. The hardest, but most important part, is to get off your bottom, and get moving. The Biggest Loser contestants all say the same thing. Most of them say they just needed that kick start. They just needed to get going and they didn't know where to start.  The end results are always amazing.  Most of the contestants leave the ranch and continue to lose weight and get fit.  Many of them get their friends and families motivated. Try to become the Biggest Loser of your family.  Don't rely on anybody else though, it needs to come from within you.  Get up and get moving and make it happen.

When you're out of shape and over weight Boot Camp experience can be a nightmare or a rude awakening or both. I arrived to my first class a few minutes before the class started. I looked around and saw a basic warehouse floor that was converted into a large workout area. There were mirrors on the east side of the room, dumb bells on a rack, two sets of ropes around a pole, a ladder make of rope that I've seen on football and soccer fields, a giant tire over to the side and other various pieces of equipment that I'm sure have their purpose. Other campers were there warming up. I looked around at my fellow campers and they all looked like everyday, hard-working people trying to better themselves. At exactly 5:00 pm on the dot, the instructor looked around and said, "Is everyone warmed up, then take two laps around the two buildings. Go, go, go."

I looked around, and by the time I realized what she had said, the rest of the group of about 12 campers were out the door and on their way. I thought to myself, my first day and one minute into it, and I'm already behind. As I headed out the door, and tried to get my large, overweight body to jog, I started to doubt my decision to come to this Boot Camp. Everybody else was thinner and they looked like they knew what they were doing. I volunteered for this discomfort and I'm going to pay them to make me sore, breathless and embarrassed. Yep, I said to myself. You got yourself into this situation by becoming overweight, now you need to reverse this mess. If it takes you out of your comfort zone, then so be it. I turned the first corner huffing and puffing already, and thought to myself, I would rather be embarrassed trying to bend over and touch my toes in a Boot Camp than to be embarrassed that I can't reach down and tie my five year old son's shoe laces when they come untied. I picked up my pace and did the best I could.

Throughout my first class, I did the best I could. I did some of the aerobic exercises to the best of my ability. I know my body and although I am very strong in my legs from walking in three different Avon Walk for Breast Cancer walks, I am out of shape and overweight. My belly was getting in my way and slowing me down, but I did the low-impact version of most of the exercises and vowed that one day I would do all of the various exercises at full-speed and at high impact. Until then, I would keep at it and work with the overweight body that surrounded and hindered me. I felt good after this first workout, that I had finally taken the first step. One step at a time is the key to achieve any goal in life.

I take full responsibility for eating too much and not exercising enough. Now, I'm going to take full responsibility and make amends with myself and my future me. In five, ten, fifteen years from now, I'm going to be thanking myself for getting off my bottom and doing something for me. I'm worth it.

My goal is to lose 100 pounds. I can go before or after work five days a week, and on Saturday morning. It's all on me. Life is about choices. I just committed myself to one year at Boot Camp. I'm not making monthly payments, I'm making a monthly investment in myself. I'm in the zone and ready to become healthy and happy. Wish me luck and I challenge you today to get off your bottom and do whatever it is that you have been putting off. You'll be glad you did.

Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. ~Carol Welch

I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing. ~Marsha Doble

Aerobics: a series of strenuous exercises which help convert fats, sugars, and starches into aches, pains, and cramps. ~Author Unknown

A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time - pills or stairs. ~Joan Welsh

Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. ~Edward Stanley

The daily grind of hard work gets a person polished. ~ Unknown

Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. ~Author Unknown

Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. ~Josh Billings

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them. ~G.B. Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893

Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down. ~Charles F. Kettering

With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. ~Thomas Foxwell Buxton