Reminiscing

Yay!  A few ladies at work are being bitten by the bug and starting up exercise programs - another gal who works in our building has had some amazing results working with a personal trainer (that combined with Weight Watchers) so I think inspired these ladies to start their own fitness journeys.  Love seeing people getting into exercise!   As I was thinking how awesome this is, I started thinking back to when I first started bootcamp, and what that was like.  One my oldest friends D, who I met way back from elementary school, had been going for a long time, lost a bunch of weight and looked absolutely fantastic so she inspired me to give 'er a go.  I thought she was crazy to get up at 5:30am in the morning to exercise, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try it out and give myself a kickstart.  Obviously working out on my own wasn't working for me, since I'd always come up with some kind of excuse.  I was tired of being tired, out of shape and unhealthy but I needed something more regimented and to be honest, I need to be told what to do when I exercise.  Leave it up to me and meh...whatever.  I'm a people pleaser at heart, so having a trainer yell (and encourage) me works.  I signed my little self up and met with the owner of the bootcamp who weighed me (ack!), took my measurements (double ack!!) and gave me a food log where I was to write down everything I ate and bring it to class for the trainer to review (triple ack!!!).  After that, it was just a case of waiting for impending doom - otherwise known as the first class.

I still remember that first class clearly - I got my out-of-shape carcass up bright and early and trundled off to class.  I started in February, so the weather was still pretty chilly...in fact, the first day of class it was snowing, and we ended up working out in an underground parkade to stay out of the snow.  Big class too, and I will totally admit that I was completely intimidated.  Scared shitless in fact - thank goodness D was there to nudge me in the right direction - what are lines?  Stinkbugs?!  Those sound painful.  You want me to do pushups???!  I was completely out of shape so any type of exercise was tough.

Well...the next day was even tougher.  Actually, the next week.  Getting up and walking was sheer and absolute torture.  I could barely walk, I was so incredibly sore.  Every part of my body ached...my legs, my abs, my arms, my back...every single muscle that had sat unused for the better part of a decade was saying "WTF, Wong?"  Friends at work had a good laugh because I walked like I'd just gotten off a horse - there was no delayed onset muscle soreness, it was instant!  I won't lie - it was hard and some days I didn't love it, but I kept at it because I met some really cool people there, and the trainers are tough but fun.  Three years later I'm still going and glad that I made that first move to start, as frightening as it was.

So to anyone who is reading this that might be thinking of starting an exercise program?  I won't lie - it's not easy to start.  It's real scary.  And I remember clearly worrying about being the last one in the class, being scared, and having flashbacks of my pathetic athletic life in school and the ineptitude that I exemplified.  What if I can't do it?  I'm so slow, what if everyone leaves me eating their dust?  Or what if everyone looks at me and are thinking that I totally suck?  As the famous slogan goes, just do it.  I saw this motivational poster the other day and it sums up perfectly the reason to just get yourself out there...

True dat.