I know that I need to "get" in shape but I really thought I was semi on the right path. Not knowledgeable enough to be a professional trainer, not athletic enough to be picked up for a sport's team, not in shape enough to run a 5k tomorrow, but decent enough so that I could hold my own during a fit test.
I love researching things and I absolutely love signing up for various things. These loves of mine led me to signing up for a 12 week challenge at my local Anytime Fitness (Ghent Gladiators!). There wasn't a ton of information online and I didn't know anybody who had done it before but the advertisements had a few key words that caught my attention "winner" and "prizes". Each gym location will have a male and female winner. You get your gym membership waived for a few months and a gift card to a local supplement store. There is also an overall winner. Being a participant in the challenge entails weekly nutrition meetings at your home gym, weekly Saturday morning workouts with your team at your home gym, and then monthly team competitions at Mt. Trashmore. A 5k is run in early March and a team celebration happens in May. Overall, it is a great way to hold yourself accountable, encourage others and push yourself to achieve new goals.
This past Saturday was the Kick-Off event. I went to the Great Neck location at 10am. For you all's contextual understanding it is VERY rare for me to commit to being anywhere other than on my couch prior to 1pm on a Saturday. At 9:20am I was frantically showering and trying to leave my apartment looking semi-decent as it was on the agenda to take before pictures. Due to poor planning I was unable to eat before arriving at the location. We spent the first hour getting situated, taking measurements and meeting everyone. A video was then shown giving an overview of the program, a prior winner came to motivate us and someone else spoke about suggested supplements that we should take.
At this point, it is about 11:30am and I am extremely hungry. I'm daydreaming about lunch options when one of the trainers says "Ok, time for the fit test!". A slight sense of dread comes upon me until they explain we will do a minute of sit-ups, a minute of push-ups and then a minute of burpees. I detest burpees but I rationalize to myself that this is going to be easy. Anybody can do anything for three minutes right? Besides, I'm not brand new to the sense of workout out. This will be easy, break a sweat and then go find lunch.
We do a minute of sit-ups. My abs screamed during each one but overall, feasible task. A minute of push-ups. Arms screaming, triceps screaming, forearms screaming and I'm screaming on the inside "Why didn't we take a break after sit ups? Is this healthy? Is there a doctor on site?" I push through and focus on the fact that I'm almost done. Literally 30 seconds after push-ups they are ready for us to do burpees. I do 2 before realizing that I have no energy left at all. It was only my pride that allowed for me to do 13 more (with horrible form). At this point, everybody is flushed and looks a little sweaty but I'm laying on the ground fanning myself like I just ran for 30 minutes in the heat of the day in the middle of the summer...in Texas. I feebly crawled to the water fountain and promise myself that I will never put myself through something that rigorous without eating ahead of time. (You may laugh at this point, now that I'm 2 days past the experience I can also laugh but at the time I was so drained and ASHAMED that I was so weak).
I'm feeling wobbly but I knew that I had enough strength to maintain some pride, grab my stuff, wave goodbye to my teammates and go get food. I'm gathering up my stuff when one of the trainers waves me over and says we need to have a team huddle. I really wanted to say "Just text me!" and keep walking but I thought they might interpret that as being rude so for the sake of team I went to the huddle. We are all standing in a small circle (our team consists of 6 people). As the trainer is talking, I start to feel dizzy. I see black spots and my face begins to feel hot. I have fainted before so I know I only have about 20 seconds before I will fall out (I am considering carrying alcohol swabs with me as they have prevented me from fainting in the past). I try to focus on the trainer to see if he is near the end of his speech, he didn't seem to be wrapping it up so I was left with a decision. Try to be tough, pretend I was fully okay and then just act like I was just as shocked as everyone else when I inevitably fell out ("What happened? Did I faint? Wow, that has never happened before.") or literally take a knee, acknowledge my weakness and sit down before falling down.
I decided to sit down. Everybody just paused and looked at me (they are all standing, I'm sitting down like we are at a camp fire). I pretended it was completely normal to sit while they all stood. I was hoping group think would kick in and they would sit as well but they refrained. Five minutes later the trainer wraps up, I stand back up so we can all high-five, and finally make it to my car to drink some water and eat some chocolate covered almonds I had forgotten about.
I saw a quote the other night that says "You must fall in love with the process of becoming a champion". It gave me hope because falling in love takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. But just because it takes a while to happen, doesn't mean it won't happen.
