A Sad Time for This Boot Camper

So...it's been over a month since I've written. I've been busy planning a wedding:) I have been going to boot camp faithfully since my last post (up until the past week, which you will see as this post continues) and I have felt great! At my dress fitting last weekend, they re-measured me and I am six inches smaller than my original measurements! SUPER exciting. But now let me get into the sadness. About 2 weeks ago my lower back started bothering me. I sometimes get lower back pain, and it usually is pretty painful for a few days then dissipates until I no longer feel it. While doing dead lifts (holding a weight in each hand, slowly bending at the waist until the weights touch the ground, then coming back up) I felt a sharp pain back there. I tried to push through it, I finished out the workout then at the end my instructor stretched me out because I mentioned how it hurt. That was on a Thursday. That night was Oliver's St. Baldrick's fundraiser and I was out pretty late (all the while with the pain in my lower back) so after going to sleep after midnight and the pain in the back, I decided to take a day off from boot camp on Friday. The rest helped and my lower back started to feel better. Emphasis on the LOWER back. Saturday the middle of my back started hurting, then by Sunday evening it hurt to take a deep breath. I thought maybe I sat wrong in the hour+ car ride to Hartford...but nothing made it feel better. Sitting, standing, laying down, stretching, it HURT. I went to work on Monday (no boot camp that morning) and was in a whole lot of pain. It really hurt when I took a deep breath and my job isn't the greatest for staying upright (the kids tables come to my knees so I am always either bending down or sitting in a tiny little chair with my knees above my hips.) It was an odd pain though, constant pain, extremely uncomfortable and right in the middle of my back. When I get back pain, it's the lower back, not like this. My co-workers began to worry, one thought that maybe I was overcompensating from last week's lower back pain and kinda screwed the rest of my back and she said I should go to a chiropractor, one said it might be a respiratory infection since it hurt whenever I would breathe (which, um..is all the time!) but my mom was visiting and I didn't want to spend her last day in the doctor's office. The pain got kind of worse throughout the day, so that and my mom convinced me to call the doctor. So mommy came to the doctor with me while I was taking tiny short breaths so it wouldn't hurt (which really only lead to me having to take a deep deep breath every so often and cry out in pain) and after my doctor felt my back, pressed in a bunch of places, asked a bunch of questions, he told me I was having pretty bad muscle spasms. He gave me a prescription for muscle relaxers and some Vicodin so I could sleep (did I mention the pain kept me up all night Sunday?) I asked him if I could still go to boot camp. He looked a little shocked and said absolutely not, stay away from boot camp for at least a week. I almost cried. This is the first time in my life that I have really stuck with an exercise program and liked it. Granted, it's really only been a few months, but that is a few months longer than I've ever done it before! Before leaving, I asked my doctor if a massage might help. He said definitely, so I asked if he could write me a prescription to Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa. Evidently they don't do that.
So I emailed the instructor and told her my diagnosis and how upset I was. She told me to rest, get better and she'll see me next week. I did end up getting a massage (no help from the doctor!) and the masseuse told me it felt like she was
"working on a rock." Those were her exact words. She said she didn't need to ask why, because I had told her about boot camp and the wedding, so she said it was a combination of the intense work out and stress, but she seemed very concerned with how tight everything was. She suggested that I come back for a 90 minute sports massage. I suggest that it doesn't cost $150. I know it will help, but that's a lot of money and when I get a massage it's usually a very big treat and it's for a nice relaxing time, I don't want to be told I have to have one for medical reasons!
Anyhow, that was last week. Over the weekend, I went to VA for Freddie's first birthday. My cousin, Garrett, is a personal trainer and I asked him what he thought about all this. He felt my back and said it felt like a bowling ball. He started naming some things I shouldn't do...all of which are the exercises we do daily at boot camp. My friend, Laura, who I have mentioned before (also a personal trainer) told me she thought I should stay away from boot camp for at least the rest of the month. The muscle relaxers are helping, I haven't had to take the Vicodin to sleep for about 6 days, and I am feeling better. Every once in a while I feel a twinge of the pain that I had before, but nothing like it was.
Today, I went back to my doctor because (surprise!) I have a sinus infection. While there, I asked him what he thought about all this. I told him how I was feeling, how the muscle relaxers helped and I stopped taking them on Sunday to see if I could feel better on my own, and I have. He said that boot camp is an intense work out and that I should not continue to do it. I told him I lost 6 inches and that I am getting married in 2 months. He said I can continue to lose weight and inches, just by doing less intense exercises, such as the bike, treadmill, or swimming. He said that the constant twisting, bending, lifting and jumping are not good for my back. I asked if I could still use free weights and he said yes, just make sure not to bend. So, there are three professionals advising that I quit boot camp. And I was afraid of failure, ha. Guess I am being forced to fail this time:( It doesn't feel much different. But even when I think of going back and trying to modify the exercises, I think about the things we do and EVERYthing would need to be modified. No squats, reverse crunches, lunges, twists, dead lifts, squat thrusts, mountain climbers, straight leg sit ups, V-sits...I could go on and on. It wouldn't be modifying, it would be a completely different work out...which is exactly what I am being told to do. A different work out. So now, I am going to email my instructor, tell her the news and hope that I can get my ass out of bed and to the treadmill at the gym EVERY morning until my wedding. Any help/words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

Beginning....Again

So my last week of boot camp was in January, and I think I mentioned before that I missed the last 3 days. Wednesday I missed because of some reasons I'd rather not discuss, Thursday was a snow day and when I woke up Friday morning, it was still icy and I just couldn't bring myself to go. I was not too happy with myself, but I almost made it the entire month. I emailed the instructor to tell her how much I appreciated her help getting healthy, and to let her know why I kind of disappeared. I also mentioned in the email that I was going to try very hard on my own to work out consistently and that I would love to do another month right before the wedding. She knew that I'm getting married, because there were 3 other brides in the boot camp and one more just got engaged a few weeks ago so everyone kept yelling "WD! WD!" for "wedding dress" whenever we got tired during a workout. It's a nice little group to work out with:) So, anyhow, she emailed me back, said they loved having me and that she would love to offer me another deal. She said she would charge me for one month but that I can join boot camp from now until the wedding day. One stipulation; I have to write a testimonial for her website for future on-the-fence boot campers. Um, done! Me? Write? Of course! So here I am, signed up again. I did hesitate, but really, how could I pass this up? The chance to get super healthy and into great shape? It's like having a personal trainer just in a group setting. But I hesitated, because I think my frame of mind when I first signed up was that, "hey, one month? I can do one month of waking up at 5 am." But now it's almost 3 months...can I do that? 3 months of waking up at 5 am, going to the gym to shower, working all day...I don't know, I am usually one to give up when things get hard. I don't like that about myself, but it just seems to be what happens. I fear failure, so I give up before I can fail...but isn't that just failing in itself? Yes, it is. So, I signed up. Missed day one. Ugh. Was supposed to be this morning. I got all my stuff ready, set the alarm, filled my water bottle, had my clothes set out. When the alarm went of at 5, I rolled over and saw Oliver in bed (which was super exciting because I hadn't seen him since I left for VA because he was working until midnight last night) and couldn't bring myself to get out of my warm comfy bed with my two warm snuggle buddies (Tiger was curled up with us too.) Plus, I didn't have school today because it's our Winter Break and I knew I could sleep in forever if I wanted to. And I wanted to. Dumb...should have gone to boot camp. Instructor emailed me and said "Caitlyn, where are you?? Get in here!" So, I emailed back and promised to be there tomorrow. So, tomorrow...we begin again.

100 Days Today

Day one went well, and for those of you waiting on the edge of your seat...what Oliver chose for me to give up for the hundred days is......fast food. However, I don't really ever eat fast food, like McDonald's and those sorts of places...it is very few and far between that I will go through a drive-thru. But there's this place, Norwalk Pizza and Pasta...and I am, well, to put it bluntly- obsessed. I love everything on their menu. Now, I don't really think it's that fair that this is what he chose, because he specifically said I had to give up "fast food...like, Norwalk Pizza and Pasta." The reason I don't think it's fair is because I do get healthy food from there! (yeah, I'm whining) It's right down the street, within walking distance, and they have salads and paninos and best of all, they have my all time favorite Slim Down pizza. It is DElicious. Made with thin whole wheat crust, no sugar added sauce, skim mozzarella, and I add roasted peppers and onions (to get some veggies:) and when I was doing weight watchers it equaled out to be 4 or 5 points for 2 slices, when a slice of regular pizza is 5 by itself. Anyhow, I do often order the amazing garlic knots, sometimes chicken tenders or wings, so I get it. So no "fast food" for me...including Subway. Ugh. 100 days of no Norwalk Pizza and Pasta? I can pretty much guarantee they will miss my business...yeah, they know me there.
This will not be easy. I added soda to his things to give up too, because he does love a good regular pepsi.
On the gym front, we both went today, which makes one more time to get to 3 for me and 2 for him. Maybe I'll go to a class this weekend to change it up a bit.

100 Day Challenge

So, tomorrow will be exactly 100 days until our wedding. After my month of boot camp, the first week of February began well enough. Went to the gym after work Monday, did some cardio and began Operation: Hot Arms (as deemed by one of my best friends, and THE best personal trainer I have ever known, Miss Laura DeSimone.) However, here we are on Wednesday and the sheet of ice on the roads has deterred me from going out. Okay, fine, Oliver and I went out to lunch (but he drove, cause the Keekmobile in the ice is a disaster waiting to happen.) At this lunch, we decided on the 100 Day Challenge. I was doing pretty well on an all natural diet (once again, suggested by Laura-really if you live in the Northern VA area and are looking to get healthy, look her up) consisting of all kinds of proteins, veggies and fruit. It made me feel better inside and out. I fell off that wagon when that one little part of the month came (sorry) and I caved to the sweet then salty cravings. But it's okay, I will get back. So, today at lunch Oliver and I decided to make a pact and really work on encouraging each other to be healthy. We want to start our marriage off as a healthy couple and to continue to be healthy for our children. We haven't always been the best for each other in the past ("just one more trip to get ice cream?" "okay, but this is the last time.") So, today we had barbecue, sweet potato fries...and cupcakes from Crumbs Bakery (seriously the BEST cupcakes EVER) before we begin our journey into healthy health.
100 days until our wedding, we each choose something for ourselves to give up entirely for 100 days, then we each choose something for the other to give up. I chose candy bars for him (it's just easy for him to stop at a gas station or convenience store while he's at work to grab a snack) and he is still trying to figure out what he will choose for me. We also go to separate gyms, which kinda sucks, but we are starting out with at least 3 days a week at the gym, then hopefully working up to 5, which I know I can do because of my month of boot camp!
So, wish us luck! I'll blog some more and let my followers (mom and dad;) know how it's going!

The Best of Intentions

Yesterday and last night all I was hearing on the news was how bad the weather was going to be today. Checked my go-to weather website (noaa.gov)and saw the Winter Weather Advisory: Hazardous Weather Outlook. So I assumed we would have a delay this morning. Yet, I still packed all my things so I would be ready to go in the morning. I am a firm believer that if you plan for a snow day, it wont happen. Always did my homework and such because I knew if I didn't and planned on not having to go to school, the snow or ice would miraculously just not show up. I digress.
So, my body woke me up at 4 am to check the district website. No little yellow square. Alarm woke me up at 5 am, checked again, no little yellow square. I checked the weather, maybe it didn't happen? Nope, noaa told me it was happening. Snow, icy rain, etc. But no cancellation or delay. Hmm maybe it's not that bad in Greenwich. So I get up, get ready and check just ONE more time to be sure. Still no little yellow square telling me there's a delay or cancellation. So I leave the house to head to boot camp. About 2 inches of that icy type snow on the ground and on my car. I cleaned off my car by using my coat sleeve, did't feel like doing the whole deal. Got in, drove off. Even checked my brakes by slamming on them in the driveway to be sure if things got super slippery my car wouldn't fail me. I do that sometimes. It left a skid mark but did a good job. The roads were not good. Slippery and not really plowed or salted. I trudged on, got on the highway and proceeded to go about 30 mph on 95. As I was reaching for my chapstick in my purse, I noticed it was vibrating. Oliver was calling. I answered. "Hey babe, Greenwich schools are closed, turn around and come home." WHAT?! I JUST checked! I believe I called the decision makers Mo's (like moron) and continued to have an inner battle of whether or not I should miss boot camp. Oliver is all about me and boot camp, so if he says I should come home, I feel like he's probably right. But I still wasn't sure. I thought I'd go and see how the roads were in Stamford, see if maybe I could park at the top of the boot camp driveway because they are notorious for not plowing or salting. But Oliver seemed adamant that I should make sure I was safe. So, I got off an exit in Darien and turned around to get back on 95 North. Both of which were semi-treacherous. I think I made the right decision, but I still hate to miss boot camp if it wasn't cancelled. I am gonna try really hard to make myself go to the gym today once the roads are better.

Week Three

Gooood morning week three! So, today is a holiday, no work. But, as my boot camp instructor said on Friday, "It might be a national holiday, but it's not a boot camp holiday." So, all weekend I have been preparing myself to get up and go even if I don't have to continue my day by going to the gym to shower, going to work, etc. I woke up at 4:57. Then for three minutes I guess I was half asleep, then freaked out when my alarm went off at 5. Hate that half-between-sleep part of waking up. I knew I was awake and didn't have to get up for three more minutes so I just stayed where I was and waited for the alarm to go off. Then when it did I jumped like I didn't know it was coming. Silly Keek. So I got up, got dressed (with my new arch support socks!) got in the car and off I went. Of course I called Oliver to whine and complain about not wanting to go, he told me that wasn't a good attitude and I argued that it didn't matter what kind of attitude I had, I was in the car on the way there, so what does it matter if I don't wanna go? I was going! But then, right after we got off the phone, who else but my girl Kelly Clarkson came on the radio! I blasted it and called him back to tell him that "now I am ready and wanna go!!!!" so he put the radio on the same station in his patrol car and we listened together for a minute:) Kelly always knows when I need her. So I was pumped and ready to go. Unfortunately today was super hard. There were only 10 of us there (normally 20-25) and it seemed like she was punishing us for the others not being there. We started with jumping jacks (which I hate...not necessarily the motion, but just the fact that my chest region isn't what you might call small and jumping up and down is just annoying) then went on to suicides, right away, THAT was the warm up. We did a ladder, so five of us did 1 suicide while the other half did jumping jacks, then we switched, then did 2 suicides, jumping jacks, 3 suicides, jumping jacks, then back down; 2 suicides, jacks, 1, jacks. UGH! I mean that was even difficult to TYPE, just think about actually doing it! After that we did some ab series and leg stuff on the ground, some wall sits, whatever whatever. At one point she told us to switch something and I guess I must have had an evil evil face on because she was like "whoa Caitlyn, don't look at me like that! You look like you want to kill me." Ha, I guess maybe I did at that point! But I didn't mean to look at her like that:)
Anyhow, I made it through another day. Then I drove home, got my new camera and went to the beach to take some sunrise pics. It was so fun using the super zoom lens and switching things up to take some pretty cool pics.
It's supposed to ice tomorrow morning, and if so that means no boot camp. And that really throws me off. Especially because I will be babysitting tomorrow and wont even be able to go to the gym after work instead of boot camp work out. I just need boot camp to happen 5 times a week the way it's supposed to.

Week Two

Welcome to week two of boooootcampppp! Not sure why I had so much energy at 5:00 this morning, but I did and I guess I shouldn't question it! Not that I was excited to be up that early, or to be going to push my body to it's limits, but I just was...awake I guess. I called Oliver on the way to boot camp (he's on the overnight tour, which means he works til 8 a.m. so of course he is up and probably the only other person I know that is awake) and said "gooooood morning!!!!!" He seemed pretty stoked that I was excited and not calling this time to ask him to just tell me I can do it, I can make it one more day, etc.

It wasn't that bad today. My soreness has almost disappeared and I asked our stand-in instructor (regular one is off running a half marathon somewhere in Florida) if I was over the super soreness part of this boot camp deal. He said probably not. Awesome. However, one of the other women in the class said the SUPER soreness is over, but I will still be sore. That's fine with me, I don't mind being sore from a workout, but the way I was last week? NO thank you! It took me until Saturday to be able to go up and down the stairs and in and out of my car without cringing in pain. I want my body to get used to this and crave it like it usually craves chocolate and potato chips. I even wanted to go to yoga at my gym this weekend, but...I slept through it. Guess that's what happens when I am up at 5 all week. (except that I did wake up at 4:56 a.m. on Saturday...but then went back to bed around 9 and missed the 11:00 yoga class..oops) So I got on our ancient stationary bike that serves mostly as a coat rack, peddled for a little while then did some stretching and wall squats with my exercise ball. I probably did all of the above in about 20 minutes, so don't be impressed. I am kind of wishing that this boot camp didn't cost so much regularly (without my LivingSocial deal) so that I could continue for longer than a month. Even though I am hoping it will make me WANT to be more active, I know that I am better at knowing I HAVE to be somewhere and that there are people there that can hold me accountable. When this is over, I think I will want to go to the gym, but I know myself and I honestly don't know if I actually will go....