What I Did Last Summer

Here's my full account of my summer Boot Camp experience. It was hard but fun, sweaty but sweet.
A much-edited version appeared in the Seattle Times SE Living section on August 5, 2007.

Diary of a Boot Camp Rookie
By DeAnn Rossetti
Today is the day I start a fitness journey called “The Biggest Winner Boot Camp.”
My first thought is, what the heck am I doing here?
My second is, maybe this was destined to happen to me.
A little background:I've always been chubby, shaped like a land-lubbing manatee due to taking cortisone, a steroid for asthma and allergies. Though I was able to get off the steroids when I turned 20, and I lost some weight, I was still chunky. After moving to Florida, I was doing a story on a fitness salon specifically for larger women, taught by large instructors. I was invited by the founder of the Yakima-based “Women At Large,” Sharlene Powell, to join the aerobics class and get a first-hand look at how Women at Large works. 16 months later, I'd lost 100 pounds. I was 26 when I started and 27 when I finished.During the next 20 years, I've driven diagonally across America with my Floridian fiancé, gotten married, developed a reporting career, given birth to a premature boy, bought a house in Maple Valley and been diagnosed with a variant of Crohn's Disease. I've also gained 110 pounds following another stint on cortisone and pregnancy weight. After doing a story on the Work it Out women's gym in Maple Valley, I felt déjà vu overwhelm me when owners Carol Kayler and Janice Zander invited me to take aerobics classes at their gym. My husband bought me a membership for my 46th birthday in December, and after 7 months of balls and weights class, I've lost 18 pounds, and I'm down one dress size. Still, I hesitated when Carol asked me to attend the “slower” boot camp for those who are out of shape or larger people. Boot camp has a reputation, thanks to Janice Zander, who runs the regular co-ed, 4-week boot camp, of being tough, like climbing Tiger Mountain in an hour tough. I wasn't sure I had the physical strength to complete boot camp, or to survive the dietary restrictions required. But Kayler reassured me that her Biggest Winner camp was created for people exactly like me. “When I went to Janice's boot camp, I noticed that some people lagged far behind others due to being overweight or having health issues, like a bad knee,” she said. “I told Janice right then that we needed a second boot camp that goes slower and modifies the exercise for beginner fitness levels.”Kayler said she's had a lot of women lose 20 pounds or more and several dress sizes during her boot camp, and that she emphasizes getting healthy by eating good foods and working out at least four times a week for over an hour. “Ultimately, it's the little successes that add up to the big ones,” she said. “I just want women to get up and get moving, regardless of how out of shape they are, because sitting around never did anyone any good.” Kayler also noted that she tries not to let the cost of the program get in the way of anyone joining the group, and will often take small payments or discount the boot camp for those in need.
Monday, 6/18 The First Day, 6:30 pm at Work It Out
The moment of truth has arrived. All 20 of us have to be photographed, weighed, measured and sign a contract full of commandments such as “No sugar, no alcohol, no caffeine, no salad dressing, no processed food, no artificial sweeteners, no soda and no cursing.” This last, one assumes, at Kayler for taking away your diet cola or morning coffee fix.There are pluses to the dietary regime, however. We are required to eat breakfast every day, plus lunch, supper and two snacks, one mid-morning and one late afternoon. We are told to eat lean protein (meat, nuts, eggs, dairy or soy) with every meal and snack, with lots of vegetables and fruits, plus whole grains. We're to eat 1,800 calories a day, and religiously drink those 8 glasses of water that has become a dietary cliché for good reason. Women are notorious for being dehydrated, notes Kayler and she wants us to be certain to bring at least a pint of water with us to the four exercise outings we're required to attend, Monday through Thursday at various parks and school tracks around Maple Valley and Covington.Some of the women in the class are taking boot camp for a second time, and the veterans relate their success stories and their healthy snack ideas with equal enthusiasm. “Try snacking on edamame (blanched soybeans)!” says Amy, “Adams all natural peanut butter on an apple is great, too.”Rae'Ann lost 18 pounds during her first boot camp, and another 35 pounds by continuing the boot camp diet and exercise, so she shows everyone her before and after photo, wearing a lovely bridesmaid dress at her sisters wedding. She's come back because she's hit a plateau and is ready to lose more weightJessica is in for a second round, too, and brought her sister, an aunt and a cousin along with her to boot camp. Last time, all lost weight for various summer activities, but it wasn't easy. “That first week we were sending emails back and forth saying, “I'm so sore and it's all your fault!” she said. “But everyone wanted to come back a second time because we all felt so good after (boot camp) was over, we felt like we'd accomplished something.”I have a motto for my goal. “I'll be looking fine by 2009!” I plan on going to my 30th (wince) high school class reunion and showing off my rippling butt muscles and flat abs to all those guys who nicknamed me “Bertha Butts” in 1979. Then I plan on disco dancing so well they'll all be chagrined that they never invited me to prom.The average age is of the group is 34, with only myself and two other 50-somethings representing the baby boomer generation. 90 percent of the women in the class are at least 50 pounds overweight. At least five of them, like me, have 70 pounds or more to winnow off our bodies.After signing all the papers, and agreeing to keep a daily food diary, Kayler announces that she is always available via her cell phone for consultation on what is kosher to eat and what isn't, or if there's any other problems that crop up, 24/7. She then sends us on a brisk half-mile walk to briefly access everyone's fitness levels. I stay at the back of the pack with Theresa, a young woman who is hoping to get healthy before her family's holiday cruise to Mexico in December. “The balls and weights classes are paying off,” shouts Kayler, as she notices that I've barely broken a sweat by the end of the walk. I run into the Work It Out gym to attend the last 45 minutes of the 7:30 pm Balls and Weights class, because it's the last time the class will be held at that hour all summer. I come home exhausted, but elated that I made it through the first day unscathed.
Tuesday, 6/19, 6:30 pm, Tahoma Junior High School track
Tonight, after a series of stretching exercises, we all stand in a circle and recite what we ate for our meals and snacks yesterday. I confess to eating frosted flakes for breakfast, because it was the only cold cereal in the house, and am sentenced to the punishment for verboten food consumption, 20 push ups. Next, we're each told to run or walk a mile, 4 times around the track, and we're timed to have a comparison for when we do this again in six weeks for the final boot camp. Only two women attempt a jog, the rest of us walk, and I come in at 19 minutes for my mile. Then we're tested for the number of sit ups/ab crunches we can accomplish in a minute (50) and the number of push ups we can do, either military style (with all your body weight on your hands and toes) or what Kayler calls “girl style” on your hands and knees, with your rump firmly in line with your straight back. I managed 30 of those, but then had to add my punitive 20 to make 50 push ups in two minutes. Again, the weighted arm exercises I've been doing in balls and weights class stands me in good stead, and I'm able to do the 50 push ups without pulling muscles or being sore afterwards. I do need to remember to bring sunglasses and sunscreen with me to boot camp, though, as I'm feeling a bit scorched in the hot afternoon sun.
Wednesday, 6/20, 6:30 pm, Lake Wilderness Park
Tonight we're hiking almost three miles around Lake Wilderness, along the hilly back roads and trails full of rocks and surrounded by massive foliage. I arrived lathered with sunscreen and wearing sunglasses and a damp t-shirt to beat the heat. For some reason, I've been really hungry all day, and I've eaten my allotted snacks and meals early. While huffing our way up the first big hill, Kayler walks along side and asks each of us what we've eaten and how we feel. When I tell her about feeling ravenous, she explains that I neglected to eat protein with the mini-pita pockets I ate for snack, and that I should have added soy nut butter (I am allergic to peanuts) to the apple I ate so my metabolism would take more time to digest what I was eating and keep my blood sugar from spiking and crashing with the carbohydrates in the apple and the pita pockets.My walking partner Theresa struggles on the hills and nearly doesn't make it up one particularly nasty vertical challenge, but with Kayler and I encouraging her, she triumphs at the end of the trail, red-faced but ready for a brief upper body work out with weights. I stumbled over a rock in the trail and twisted my ankle a bit, but not enough to consider it sprained.
Thursday, 6/21, 5:30 pm Work It Out Gym, 6:30 Glacier Park Elementary
Though my ankle is slightly swollen and sore, I've decided to attend the first kick boxing class of the summer at Work It Out and then cut out of class before the ending stretches and go to boot camp. Unfortunately, the new schedule doesn't kick in until next week, and I end up taking balls and weights class. Billie Otter, the instructor, is never without a smile and a joke to keep the class going, and heaven knows we need her sense of humor this evening, as she has us doing extra ab crunches by leaning all the way back over the exercise ball and then hoisting ourselves up while holding 10 pound weights on our chest. I roll out of class at 6:10, drive to Glacier Park Elementary, and meet up with the rest of the boot campers at the bottom of a huge hill. As we're walking up the hill in a residential neighborhood, backwards, two children circle me, a 6-year-old girl on a bike and a 4-year-old boy on a scooter. “Why are you walking backwards, and why is your face so red?” the girl asks. “Are you related to Santa Claus?” adds the boy, looking at my belly and sunburned nose with suspicion. Kayler tells me that this kind of reaction is common for this neighborhood, where she's brought other boot camps to climb the steep hills. “I've had women waving their arms out their windows, shouting, “What kind of group are you? How do I join?” After the backward climb, in which I placed dead last, we climb another, steeper hill as fast as we can, then with as long of a stride or lunge as we can muster. I imagine we look like a Monty Python sketch, “The Ministry of Silly Walks” to passersby. I'm gasping like a fish after three hikes up the hills, and I'm thrilled when Kayler tells us that we're going to stretch in the nearby park. What she didn't mention was that we also have to do 30 push ups off the side of the picnic tables. Then it's 20 forward ab crunches plus 20 on each side to work our oblique muscles. Whew! I am wiped, and barely hear Annette's recommendation of trying Stevia, a natural sweet plant extract as a sugar substitute. In a parting shot, Kayler reminds us that she's going easy on us this first week.
Friday, 6/22, home.
I awoke this morning to my glutes twitching and my abs doing their best to form a charly horse, ouch. But, I figured I'm due for some soreness, due to yesterdays 2.5 hours of exercise. Kayler emailed us a list of healthy foods and beverages, with a reminder to get outside and exercise this weekend.I'm taking today and tomorrow off, and then dragging my chubby hubby to “Spouse Spin” class at Work It Out on Sunday. He will complain throughout the roughly 14 mile stationary bike ride, but he knows he's doing one healthy thing for his cardiovascular system each week by going with me. Boot Campers are still required to stay on the healthy foods diet through the weekend, and keep track of what we consume in our food diaries. We'll have to recount our triumphs and transgressions to Kayler on Monday, so most of us will eschew the wedding cakes, graduation buffets or fried chicken picnic suppers that are synonymous with summer. One gal, who wanted to remain nameless, regaled me with the tale of a bender she went on on Memorial Day weekend. Seems she and her family and friends drank nearly every kind of alcohol you can imagine, from champagne to beer. “I also had a bottle of wine, but I wasn't going to tell Carol (Kayler) about that,” she said. “There are only so many push-ups I'm willing to do.”

Week Two
Monday, 6/25, 6:30pm Lake Wilderness Lodge
After a weekend of succumbing to PMS and eating too much, I was not surprised that I wasn't the only one doing punishment push-ups. Angie attended a graduation party, where she drank 5 beers, and a wedding, where she ate some cake and had a glass of wine. She was fined 140 additional push-ups, and managed to do 80 of them after our group warm up on the lawn to the side of Lake Wilderness Lodge. Annette had an iced mocha latte that cost her 20 push-ups, and Theresa had a small slice of cake and macaroni and cheese. She did her 40 push-ups early to get them out of the way.I made a miraculous risotto in the microwave (I assumed risotto had to be made in a frying pan) that swelled from one cup of Arborio rice into three cups of creamy cooked heaven. I told myself I was only going to eat one cup, but I devoured the whole bowl while watching Star Trek Voyager reruns.Because we're not allowed any fat that is solid at room temperature and I used light margarine to make the risotto, I had to do 40 push ups for that infraction. Then I admitted to eating half a tablespoon of all-natural salad dressing, and I was set at 60 extra push-ups for the evening. As a group, we did a 30 ab crunches, 30 oblique (side of the waist) crunches, bicep curls, military presses and 20 push ups, then on the Lake Wilderness trail, we were required to do 10 push ups at every bench along the trail. Kayler suggests that I try and eat red bell pepper slices next time I have the PMS munchies. She says it will stave off the sugar cravings and get another veggie into my diet at the same time.By the time we returned from the 1.5-mile hike (we only walked halfway around Lake Wilderness) my arms felt like jelly and the muscles between my shoulder blades were burning. Even thinking about risotto makes me queasy, so the push-ups worked their aversion magic.I asked Kayler if I was allowed to swear during the final 20 push-ups, and the answer was a stern “No!” Sh*t.
Tuesday, 6/26, 6:30 pm, Glacier Park Elementary
I overslept this morning, because I took some Aleve to ease the muscle pain in my back. Unfortunately, it wore off and my back and side muscles feel like I've gone a few rounds with a midget boxer. I'm tired and not looking forward to the hill climbs ahead. Turns out I'm not the only one who is reluctant and sore. That's the most often-heard comment as we do sideways lunges up the hill. “My legs feel like jelly tonight,” said Denise, who says boot camp is her “me” time away from the kids. “I always feel better after I've been outside and worked out,” she added. I decide to stick close to Denise for the rest of the work out, as she seems to have a gutsy attitude despite the same fatigue I seem to be battling. I hope her chutzpah will rub off on me.The backwards walk up the winding, hilly street seems slightly less difficult tonight than it did the first time I did it. “In four weeks, you will conquer these hills,” shouts Kayler. “You won't believe how easy it will seem the last time you climb them.” We complete the evening with a speed walk and more of the dreaded push-ups. I notice Amy's waist-revealing gym togs, and I tell her that I'm inspired by her slenderized midsection. “Trust me, it wasn't there six weeks ago,” she says. As a second-time boot camper, Amy notes that she's reshaped her body in half the time she feels it would have taken on her own.I've brought a non-hydrogenated, trans-fat free and flax oil enriched margarine, along with an organic sesame orange salad dressing with me to show Kalyer, in the hopes that they'll pass muster and make it to the approved foods list. They bomb, unfortunately, because the dressing contains salty soy sauce and the margarine is riddled with palm oil and more sodium. Kalyer advises making my own olive oil and vinegar dressing, and using soy-nut butter as a replacement for margarine on my toast. A former neighbor, who hasn't seen me for 6 months gasps when she drops her son off for an evening play date. “You've lost a lot of weight,” she says. “Your whole body looks different! What have you been doing?”
Wednesday, 6/27, 6:30 pm Fountain Court
I haven't been sore at all today, and I somehow feel lighter. I have been hungry for salty and sweet foods all day, though, and have taken Kaylers advice and eaten red bell peppers and apples, things that are naturally sweet, to curb my cravings.This evening's work out begins with 90 ab crunches of one type or another on the lawn of Fountain Court, an assisted living facility for seniors in Maple Valley. We also groaned our way through arm and shoulder exercises and the ubiquitous push-ups. Then the real fun began as we walked a hidden trail behind Fountain Court, and backwards up a very steep hill that I'd never seen before. A man in an SUV full of kids stopped beside us long enough to say, “Do you know how weird you all look backing up this hill?”I responded, “And do you know how hard this works our quad muscles? You should try it!”Only Annette owed push-ups this time, after missing boot camp yesterday for a day of spa treatments, salon hair styling and restaurant cuisine. “It was worth it!” she exclaims, as she dips into the push-ups on the grass.Several of us, myself included, are sneezing from the pollen in the grass as we leave and rush home. Due to the size of our group, Kayler has asked us to email her our daily food record, and she says she will flag anything that looks suspicious and let us know about it at the next boot camp. “The biggest group I've had prior to this was 9 women,” she says. “This group is like herding a huge beast!” Kayler has also promised to email us some great recipes for foods we can take to potlucks and picnics on the 4th of July.I asked my husband to make beef stir-fry with no oil and lots of bell peppers for supper, and my stomach growls as I listen to him explain how he accidentally blew up a plate he set on top of the frying pan, and had to toss the entire contents of the pan because there were glass shards in it. I made myself some home made tomato sauce spaghetti instead.
Thursday 6/28, 5:30 pm, Kick Boxing class at Work It Out, 6:30 pm Wax Road Park
This morning I felt so dehydrated that I got up at 6:30 am and drank about a quart of water. I haven't been drinking the 8 glasses a day I'm supposed to drink, in addition to the water I suck down while hiking up hills with my fellow boot campers. I've made it a point today to drink herbal iced tea, a small glass of juice and ice water with lemon.I even took a short nap this afternoon (my 7-year-old was reading me a book and I nodded off) so I was feeling spunky when I showed up at Billie Otters first Kick Boxing class at Work it Out. It didn't take long before I noticed that teaching a room full of balls and weights regulars to kick box was like teaching disco to the blind. As I lunged spastically to the left and nearly punched Mary Lee in the kidney, I reflected that perhaps my reach had exceeded my grasp.I huffed and puffed while driving to the Boot Camp site, an odd little trailhead next to the Maple Valley Post Office. Turns out there's a trail that runs under Maple Valley/Black Diamond road and though you can't see it for all the jungle like flora, you can smell the grease from McDonalds as you walk the trail. Because it had just finished raining, there were dozens of fat, long slugs lining the path, and I tried to take my mind off of my aching gluts and hamstrings by counting them. Kalyer walked up beside me and said, “I just noticed how long your legs are.”“I've always thought of my legs as daschund-like,” I responded. “They're certainly not as long as yours.”
“Actually, they are longer,” said Kalyer, pointing to her hip height. She asked Theresa and Sarah to back her up on this. “We think you have no reason to walk so slowly. You need to push out with those long legs, stride big, swing your hips and pump your arms and move!” So I sped up, striding like an Amazon for all I was worth, until the last quarter mile, when, soaked with sweat and tired of breathing the humid air, I ran out of energy. Kayler calls this “bonking” and it is due to not eating enough protein and carb balance to keep your blood sugar at an even keel. One of our group, Laura, has had trouble eating enough to keep her energy from flagging halfway through the nightly boot camp exercise, and Kayler tells us again that it's imperative that we eat nutritious food every 3-4 hours. Angie explains that she got too busy at work to eat lunch or her mid-day snack, and that's why she was only able to sprint on the trail instead of run, as she wanted. “You need to keep energy bars on hand, or a sandwich and an apple, some protein and carbs that you can grab and eat so you won't run out of fuel for your muscles during boot camp,” Kayler says. Several of us are charged with planning our entire weekends food before end of day on Friday, so we will be prepared for three meals and three snacks through Sunday evening, and won't have any excuses not to “refill our tanks.”I plan on riding bikes with my son on Friday and attending “spouse spin” class at Work It Out with chubby hubby again on Sunday, so I'll need to be fully fueled and ready for fun.
Week Three
Monday, 7/2, 6:30 pm, Lake Wilderness Park
Our fearless leader has informed us that after two weeks of “preparation” she's ready to take us to the next level of boot camp. Or, as she put it, “I'm taking it up a notch!”What that means is it's going to be harder, faster, with less time allotted for the back-of-the-pack hikers, like myself, to catch up with the front runners.After having a mild Crohn's attack and having to bandage my sons heel when he cut it open on a pottery shard, plus house cleaning and making boot camp recipe chicken chili, I was feeling a bit worn when I arrived at Lake Wilderness Park.Kayler started handing out Boot Camp t-shirts, and insisted that I could fit into a size smaller than I usually wear. I was shocked to discover that the shirt fit. Suddenly, I felt stronger, leaner and ready to tell Kayler to 'bring it on!'That feeling lasted all the way through the twenty extra push-ups I had to do because I'd taken one bite of a crescent roll I made for my son over the weekend. “You should have eaten the whole thing, because you have to do twenty push ups regardless of the amount of the offending food,” said Kayler. Heck, I would have eaten all 8 of the rolls had I known that. Jessica comments, during our weight-lifting session next to the beach, that when Kayler stops counting out the repetitions to correct someone's form, she starts counting again at the number she left off at, instead of accounting for all the reps we did while she was guiding a fellow boot camper. In response to this, Kayler makes us all do 20 reps three times, instead of twelve. “Any more complaints?” she asks, scanning the group, which is suddenly silent. We take a hike around the perimeter of the park, and then lunge, walk backwards and skip through the parking lot. I haven't skipped for 40 years, and it shows, as I'm once again at the back of the pack. Theresa begs to differ. “I'm always last,” she says, until I point out that I hold the title of the camper most frequently given the “hurry up” signal by Kayer.
Tuesday, 7/ 3, 6:30 Glacier Park Elementary
This evening we hit the “Big” hill, one that took a mile and a half to walk to. Once at the bottom of the hill, which didn't look as vertical as it really was, we had to walk backwards up it, lunge and walk sideways down it, and then take a long hike around the neighborhood to get back to the parking lot, where we worked our upper bodies with weights and push ups. Janice Zander's four-week boot camp happened to be using some of the same hills for their work out, except that co-ed group was expected to run or jog up and down the terrain. “Better them than us,” comments Laurie, who is working hard in boot camp because she's taking a trip to Ethiopia at the end of July. Laurie missed a couple of days of boot camp last week because of a family trip that has left her tanned, but in trouble for drinking a bottle of wine and coffee with cream. She starts her 140 push ups and manages to get 80 of them done, with the balance due tomorrow. After we finish stretching, Theresa asks Kayler about a nutrition bar that lists “tapioca syrup” as a main ingredient (Kayler says she will research it and get back to her as to whether it's okay to eat), and we end up talking about how important boot camp success is for those of us who came into it as larger people with a lot of weight to lose.“I was overweight in college,” recalls Kayler. “I signed up for this running class and it was populated by a lot of track & field jocks. The first day, I nearly died running around the track, and those jocks laughed at me, but the instructor pulled me aside and said 'I think you will finish the class just fine, but some of them won't make it, because they're in it for the short run instead of the long haul.” Kayler's persistence, just doing the best she could in each class, paid off as she was able to complete the long run required to graduate, while, as predicted, some of her classmates failed. “It's so important to keep whittling away at it, day by day,” she said. “I am proud of so many of my boot campers who don't complain about how hard it is, they just keep moving forward.”
Wednesday, 7/ 4, 9:30 am, Tahoma Junior High School track
It was already 90 degrees when all 20 of us met at the junior high track today, and yet no one was willing to forgo the workout because most of the campers were thinking about the 4th of July parties they were having, and the food they'd sworn not to eat that was going to tempt them.We ran or fast-walked a mile around the track to get loosened up, and then Kayler set up “stations,” where groups of 5 campers lift weights and do bicep curls, 'goalpost' reps, ab crunches and 'lawnmower pull' moves that work the back muscles. We were required to do the station for about 7 minutes, then run to the next station and begin working out another muscle group. There was a push up station, of course, and I had to admit to eating fruit cocktail from a jar without reading the label, thereby imbibing sugar and the extra-fattening, verboten high fructose corn syrup. Karla admitted to having a mocha frappacino and Amanda had croissant and chocolate milk, so both women were down for 40 extra push-ups alongside my paltry 20. “Now go home and make GOOD food choices!” Kayler shouts as we all limp back to our cars, sweat soaked and wiped, but satisfied that we'd all done our best and not allowed the sun to burn us out.
Thursday, 7/5, 5:30 pm, Kick Boxing class at Work It Out, 6:30 pm, Fountain Court trail
My second kick boxing class was much easier than the first, and I wasn't half the spaz I was the first time. For the second class, we focused on different types of punches, from jabs to left and right hooks to uppercuts, plus roundhouse kicks and frontal strikes using women's more powerful legs.There is a rhythm to the moves that allows you to get into a flow from one move to another in a sequence. By the time I had to leave for boot camp, I was really getting into the jab-hook-uppercut-roundhouse-kick-and-step- back sequence. I almost felt like Rocky for a minute or two! I arrived at the Fountain Court lawn drenched in sweat, with my legs verging on rubbery from all those roundhouse kicks, unfortunately, because we did a series of upper body weight lifting moves followed by ab crunches and push ups, and then a fast 2-3 mile hike up the trail and hills. Kayler sat all us sun burnt and slightly wasted celebrants down for a nutritional chat first, because she wanted us to know that those of us who are not eating at least 1,800 calories a day are sabotaging their weight loss efforts. She pointed to a story in a runners magazine about a chunky woman training for marathons who was put on a 2,000 calorie regimen and lost weight steadily until she dropped her calorie intake in half. Under the threat of starvation, her metabolism slowed to a crawl and she stopped losing weight. Kayler noted that when you are exercising frequently, you need to give your body enough healthy fuel to build muscle and have energy for working out. She said she has known women who have gained weight when they dropped their caloric intake below 1,800 during boot camp, and gained more when they stopped exercising 4-5 times a week because their bodies refused to burn fat, but would instead burn muscle mass and store fat to stave off starvation.Because I'd just had several cavities filled and a crown put in at the dentists, I had to skip my mid morning snack and a good lunch, so I felt guilty during Kalyers talk. During the hike, I nearly “bonked” as Kayler encouraged me to take “long strides with those long legs! Come on, DeAnn, you can move up this hill as fast as Laura, I know you can!” she shouts, and I huff and puff trying to keep up with a woman who has 6 inches of height on me and, consequently, whose legs are much taller than my own. Red-faced and flagging as we walk backwards up the hill, I empathize with Melissa, who wonders aloud what move we're doing that makes her rump hurt. Kayler tells her all the kicks and lunges that we do up hills are what is building muscle in our glutes. I've never been as glad to see the end of a trail in my life, as I stagger toward the Fountain Court lawn for cool down stretches. We are encouraged to all remember to write down our daily food intake and use an online calorie counter to be certain we're getting enough calories and eating the right balance of carbs, protein and fiber. Kayler also tells us that we need to complete two full hours of exercise this weekend, either outside with a family member or indoors at Work It Out. My one-hour spouse spin class on Sunday isn't going to cut it, so I'm going to get up early Saturday morning for a balls and weights class at the gym. I'm also going to remember to eat and to bring sunscreen to class next week, so I don't bonk on the trails or get sunburned in the hot weather.
Week Four
Monday, 7/9, 6:30 pm, Glacier Park Elementary
Eating healthy isn't cheap. I've spent well over $325 in the past three weeks buying fresh fruits and vegetables, snacks with no trans fats or high fructose corn syrup or nitrates, lean meats and low fat soy products. I can't have anything fried, or any cool Italian gelatos or sorbets because of the sugar. Because of my Crohn's, I was already unable to eat any dairy, eggs, nuts, onions, green beans or strawberries, but I'd still found ways to keep my sweet tooth satisfied with non-dairy packaged goodies, such as cheap cookies from the dollar store or the occasional Twinkie.Kayler swears that after eating non-processed foods and healthy fruits, veggies and complex carbs for 3 weeks, our cravings for the bad stuff, like fast food and pints of Ben And Jerry's ice cream, will fade like a bad memory. “Sugar doesn't even taste good to me now,” Kayler declared.I had a hard time believing her, until this weekend, when I willingly gave up a lush watermelon sorbet loaded with sugar for a fresh fruit smoothie made with soy milk, frozen bananas, cherries and blueberries. I found it very satisfying, but it was calorically hefty, at 412 calories for the big beer glass it filled.This weekend we were told to go to an online calorie counter, such as www.thecaloriecounter.com or www.sparkpeople.com to write down not just what each of us has been eating, but the calories within each food. I sat down and tallied the calories for the 6th, 7th and 8th, and discovered, to my horror, that I've consistently been eating 300-350 calories over the proscribed 1,800 we are supposed to consume per day.I already know I'm going to be consigned to push up purgatory for eating a tablespoon of real maple syrup (I asked Kayler about it last week, and during our discussion got the mistaken impression that she approved) on my dairy/egg free waffles. But now I wondered if I was going to experience further humiliation at having to admit to everyone that I've not been successful with the diet plan.Fortunately, Laurie got everyone's attention by announcing that she'd been eating verboten cuisine and drinking alcohol again. “At this rate, I will be owing (Kayler) push ups into next year!” she exclaims. Kayler gently reminds her that she only has a few weeks left before her departure for Ethiopia, and that if she wants to reach her weight loss goal, she needs to focus on eating the right foods and not giving in to temptation. Three other boot campers raise their hands to admit eating something not on the diet over the weekend, and Annette grabs my arm as we walk up the first hill and says “Don't be discouraged, DeAnn, we're all struggling with food choices, and you're doing better than most.” Kayler also gives me a boost as I slowly trudge backwards up the biggest hill. “Your calves must be tight, that's why this is hard for you,” she says. “We just need to get you stretching more and taking Pilates class at the gym to make you more flexible.” Kayler also promises to read through the last 4 days of my food diary and see if she can “refocus” my diet plan so I can dump that extra 300 calories.
Tuesday, 7/10, 6:30 pm Wax Road Park
It took a Herculean effort just to get to boot camp tonight. A stressful day of dealing with a PR jerk on the East Coast, (“We have Covington and Kent on our map here as the same place.”) trying to keep my son hydrated and slathered with sunscreen in the 95 degree heat, and dealing with a Crohn's attack and the onset of my period at the same time (double the cramps, double the fun!) had me dreading the walk along a hilly gravel trail that goes underneath the main drag of Maple Valley. I recalled that when I had tooth pain from a visit to the dentist, the endorphins from exercise made the pain disappear. That was the main reason I got into the car and drove to the boot camp site-the promise of those lovely endorphins waiting to free me from the pain in my gut.Kayler specifically chose this trail because much of it is in the shade, but there was nothing she could do about the humid, nearly unbreathable air that wrapped around our sweaty bodies as we lunged, squatted and ran along the gravel path. Every time a biker or a runner sped through our group, we stood on either side of the trail and hooted encouragingly, as if we were cheering on Lance Armstrong in the Tour De France. We got several funny looks and lots of laughter from the other trail users.After reading some weight loss success stories in a popular women's magazine, I noticed that the women who lost 100 pounds or more all took 2-4 years to take it off, and none of them ate anything after 7 pm. It occurred to me that the extra 300 calories could be excised from my diet plan by not eating the after dinner snack I'd been so faithfully recording for the past three weeks. When we'd come to stopping place on the trail, I told Kayler my theory and she said “I wondered why you were eating a snack at 11 pm every night,” she said. “You must not remember that I told you to eat only two snacks a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon-eat five times, not six!” Okay, so I am an idiot. At least I know what not to do now. As I race-walk at the front of the pack with Melissa, she says that she felt pretty crumby today, too. “But I have such a stressful job, (as a shipping agent) that if I didn't have an appointment to keep here every night, I'd still be at work,” she said.Sarah echoes that sentiment. “I really need this for the push I get from working out with other people,” she said. “It keeps me focused.”
Wednesday, 7/11, 7:30 pm, Work It Out Women's Fitness
Due to the 102-degree temperatures outside today, Kayler decided to do boot camp in the air-conditioned indoor facility, in two shifts. About 8 boot campers went in at 6:30 pm, and the rest of us went in at 7:30 pm for what proved to be an intense work out. We started with stretches and marching, and then broke into two groups of 6 people. One group did a mini-spin class on the stationary bikes, while the other did a mini kick boxing class, heavy on the high kicks. I pretended I was a rotund Lance Armstrong, and tried to pedal swiftly to the head of the pack, while Angie elicits a huge round of applause when she tells us that she bought the outfit she's wearing to class in the “regular sizes” department at the store instead of the plus size racks.The second half of class involved lifting light (5 pound) weights and using high reps for upper body strength, and Pilates for working our abdominal and back muscles. As I struggled to do my hundredth leg lift, I noticed that many of the women in my boot camp group have what I call “pretty pudge,” in that they carry their weight in an attractive fashion. In another era, Angie would have been the perfect model for a painting by Ruebens or Renoir, with her hourglass shape and voluptuous curves. Rae'Ann looks like the adult version of a Bottechelli cherub, all adorable dimples and round cheeks. Sarah has a classic Amazon warrior shape, with long legs, bronze skin and angled profile. I've come to see these women as beautiful and strong, working hard to fight the female body's tendency to store fat against famine, so we can repopulate the planet after devastations such as war. None of us wants to be a stick-thin model or Hollywood celebrity, who often look like Q-tips, with their big heads and skeletal bodies. Though I don't carry any pretty pudge myself, I can say that I feel stronger and look better than I have in years, and that I emulate Amy's firm waistline, or Sarah's strong striding legs. We're all here to get healthy and be strong and long-lived for our families. And that's the only goal worth all this time and sweat for me.
Thursday, 7/12, 5:30 pm, kick boxing class, Work It Out, 6:30 pm Lake Wilderness Lodge
We learned a new sequence of jabs, kicks and defensive blocks in kick boxing tonight, plus some serious bob-and-weave maneuvers that had me looking like a drunken quail. I did manage to stay upright and kick higher than I have before, despite having done way too many kicks the night before in boot camp. Those Wednesday night kicks left me with a slightly sore hips and a determination to get my legs kicking higher the next time.Kayler didn't realize that there was a country music concert in Lake Wilderness Park tonight, so we ended up doing our push ups and ab crunches in the arboretum to some local guy's warbling rendition of “Proud to be an American.” Melissa, who has become the fastest runner/walker in boot camp, challenged all of us to do some military push-ups with her. Those are the ones in which your body weight is supported off the ground only by your hands and toes as you hoist yourself face down off the dirt. Rae'Ann and I take her up on her challenge, and Rae'Ann does 6 while I power through a full twelve count, eliciting applause from the rest of the group. It almost makes the burning between my shoulder blades dissipate a little.As we start our hike along the Lake Wilderness trail at a brisk walk, Kayler paces me and says, “You need to buy a tank top and some shorts, girl, and show off those arms and muscular legs!”Laurie, who always wears tank tops to boot camp, swears they are the key to keeping cool on these long hikes. “I am going to go to WalMart and buy you a tank top and bring it with me to boot camp next week,” she exclaims, at my protest that I've not had the time to go shopping for new work out clothes.Kayler challenges me to do a short run to catch up with Theresa, who is mid-pack, and, like an idiot, I agree and start running with her. I barely make it to Theresa before I am panting like a marathon runner. Fortunately, we get the signal to start back down the trail, and I have a few minutes to talk to Theresa and recover. She confesses that she feels she's not being 'transformed' as fast as her friend, a former boot camper, was when she worked out. “I just don't see any big changes,” she says. I explain that she looks slimmer to me, and that she hasn't complained or whined about all the hard work we've done the past four weeks at all. She's a trooper, and I'd hate to see her quit before the final weigh-in.Kayler looks over my last three days of food diaries, and approves of the lack of late night snacks and more protein eaten at breakfast time. “I think it's amazing how well you are doing considering you have more dietary restrictions than anyone else here (because of my Crohn's Disease),” she says. “I think you'll find you feel less hungry throughout the day now that you're planning meals better.”Louisa May Alcott once said, "Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead."Amen to that!
Week Five
Monday, 7/16, 6:30 pm, Tahoma Junior High School Track
I started my week with an email from my friend Debbie, whom I met in Florida 20 years ago when we both worked out at Women At Large. She has also struggled with her weight in the past 20 years, and she developed adult onset diabetes about 15 years ago.“I had Roux-en-Y (gastric bypass surgery) done on October 25, 2006. I am doing so well. I have not been sick, at all. I weighed 222lbs before surgery and I now weigh about 165. I feel so good, and the best part is, my diabetes is GONE!!! The only side effect I had was some mild hair loss, but that has stopped now.”
While I am happy for Debbie, and thrilled that she's shed her diabetes along with her weight, I am not a proponent of gastric bypass surgery. My primary care physician and my gastroenterologist have both noted my weight gain during the past 16 years, and yet neither recommends gastric bypass surgery. In fact, the last time I mentioned it, my PCP said that she and my gastro doc had just lost a patient that they had in common from the complications of Roux-En-Y surgery, and she was only 30 years old. People don't realize that major surgery to the digestive system comes with a fairly high risk of severe complications like nutritional deficiency, infection, persistent diarrhea and nausea, vomiting, gut pain and death. Most physicians only recommend such drastic measures as a last-ditch effort to help the morbidly obese lose weight. I already have Crohn's Disease that causes enough problems with my colon, so I'd rather not make things worse by having some surgeon cut up my stomach until it's the size of a coin purse. With the new lap-band procedure (an inflatable band is laproscopically cinched around the stomach to make it smaller) gaining in popularity among those who aren't even morbidly obese, I think too many people are taking the easy road to weight loss, instead of just eating healthy and exercising. And there have been women who have discovered that even gastric bypass can't get them thin if they continue to drink alcohol, eat junk food and eschew exercise. It's not a magic bullet that keeps you thin for the rest of your life, and it could shorten what life you have. Gastric surgery, like all other forms of weight control, requires that you make a lifestyle change to make it work in the long term. So I'll take my slow and steady weight loss with a healthy diet and exercise and be happy with the modest results over a period of time, because I know my success will be sustainable. At the track tonight, I managed to walk a mile and a half in 20 minutes! I also did 40 extra push ups (for eating a teaspoon of margerine and a few potatoes off my sons plate) with no problem. This really is getting easier!
Tuesday, 7/17, 6:30 pm Lake Wilderness Lodge
Spam sushi. That's what had intrepid Annette down on her hands and knees doing 40 of her finest push ups this evening on the lawn next to Lake Wilderness Lodge.After a rather grueling round of upper body weight lifting and ab crunches that seemed to go on forever, Annette and Laurie, who'd been drinking again, had to get down and dirty, hoisting themselves on tired arms over and over. “I swear next time it will be LITE beer!,” gasps Laurie, in between push ups. After about 25, Annette starts to flag, and asks Kayler if she can do the other 15 she owes tomorrow. “Oh come on, Annette, you can do another 15,” says Kayler, giving her a skeptical stare. “I'm so tired,” Annette says, “I don't think I can do any more.” So I offer to do the push ups with her, though I've not transgressed to the dark side of the diet at all today. I must be insane, I think, as I assume the position and start to hoist myself up and down. 15 push ups later, both Annette and I are wiped out, but smiling. We're done, by heaven!Annette explains as we take our two mile cardio hike that she's been up since 5:30 am and working three different jobs during the day, including helping to paint and redecorate a friends house. She says she is probably going to keep the same intense pace the following day, and all week long. I think for working under stress like that, she should be given dispensation for a few pieces of spam sushi.I notice, during the trek on the trail, that Theresa's pants are getting rather baggy. “Your pants are too big, Theresa,” I tell her. “Way to go!”
Wednesday, 7/18, 6:30 pm, Wax Road trail
The air felt like wet wool and the group was half it's usual size as a result when we met up on the trail this evening. Melissa and Rae'Ann had work issues, and some other gals had relatives visiting. Kayler told us that tonight it's all about cardio, so we ran and speed walked the first leg of the trail, then walked backwards and lunged on the way back. There was easily three miles worth of cardio work, which seemed like 6 miles as we ran along in the rain, sweating and drenched.Kayler pulls alongside each of us and reminds us that we need to give her a food report since many of us have slacked off about emailing her their daily food diaries. After hearing my report for today and looking at my diary later, Kayler is still unsatisfied with my protein intake, noting that on the rare days when I managed to eat some kind of lean meat with breakfast, I wasn't overly hungry for the rest of the day.“Come on, stretch out those long legs!” Kayler cries as I stride by the end of the pack to work my way toward the middle. I feel energized, if sodden, by the time we reach the end of the trail.
Thursday, 7/19 5:30pm Work It Out Kick Boxing class, 6:30 pm, Glacier Park Elementary
Though it had rained all day, the sun came out for our last climb of the “hills from hades” at Glacier Park. Hoping that I'd gotten better at walking backwards uphill, Kayler walks alongside me, deriding my “baby steps” and tells me to stretch out my legs and get moving.I attempt to comply, and puffing like a steam ship, I steadily gain ground.Then we all walk to the bottom of the climbing hill, where we're made to run up the hill the first time, squat up the hill the second, lunge for the third and run or walk fast up the forth time. Rae'Ann barrels up the hill at lightening speed the first time, and shouts “I ran the whole way, whoo-hoo!” to Kayler, who gives her a big high five. Having just fast-walked the same hill, I am in awe of her speed, and tell her so. “But look at you, with your thin and muscular legs and arms,” Rae'Ann responds. When I point out that I still have a lot of weight on my stomach that seems to be stuck there, Sarah chimes in. “Hey, you remember earlier in the week when I helped you cinch the waist band of your fanny pack in?” she says. “See?” says Rae'Ann “You're making progress there (in the waist) too! You've got to enjoy the small victories, or you won't make the big ones because you'll give up.” I realize she's right, and thank her for the boost.On the third time up the hill, Rae'Ann noticed Theresa struggling to do squats sideways up the incline, and she troops back down the hill, stands across from Theresa, holds her hands and says “We'll make it up the hill together!”It's that “never say die” moment that keeps me going as I fast-walk up the hill for the fourth time, and feel like my lungs are about to explode. “You've conquered the hill!” exults Kayler “Give yourselves a hand, ladies, that was the last time you'll have to climb that hill, and you all made it!”I tell Kayler that I'm planning on walking the Guts and Glory 5K run for the Crohns and Colitis Foundation in Seattle the first week of August, something I never would have considered attempting had it not been for boot camp. “After all this, a 3 mile walk should be easy for you,” she says. “We've walked longer and worked harder on the trails here in Maple Valley for the past 5 weeks.” I realize she's right, and the confidence I've gained in my physical abilities, has increased tenfold. Though I'll never be a “jock” or an athlete, I can now go to the gas station wearing a tank top and workout gear without flinching. I can't believe I'm not looking forward to the end of book camp, the weigh-in on July 26 next week.
Week Six
Monday, 7/23, 6:30 pm, Lake Wilderness Park
I have always treated diets as a way to lose weight, not a way to gain health, until boot camp, when I discovered that I can eat healthy and still be satisfied both physically and emotionally. The latter was one of my main problems with my diet, other than eating sugar and eating more than a serving of any given food. I found that when I'm stressed, I want to eat sugary finger foods and when I'm watching television, I tend to eat automatically, without even tasting the food. Now that I've had to keep a record of everything I put in my mouth, those patterns have become evident to me, and therefore, avoidable. Tonight we completed a lot of “leg work” around the tennis court at Lake Wilderness Park. It was rainy and muggy, so we were all relieved that Kayler had us working on weights and doing lunges in an upright position, instead of making us lay down on our mats in the mud with those huge slugs that come out whenever it rains. During our hike through the trails around the lake, we all laughed about Angies latest dietary disaster. Her husband took her on a dinner cruise for her birthday, and Angie indulged in more than a bit of cheesecake. Kayler: “How many drinks did you have?”Angie, sheepishly: “Uhm, let me see…..about 10 or so. But they were cocktails, not beer!” Kayler decides to be merciful and only dock Angie for the booze and not the bad foods she consumed. (“I had no choice!,” she protested “There was nothing in the buffet that was good for you!”) But that's little balm when Kayler tells Angie she will have to do 200 push ups in the next four days. For once, I am thankful that my Crohn's medications prevent me from drinking alcohol.
Tuesday, 7/24, 6:30 pm, Fountain Court Trail
I had to go to see a gastroenterologist today to see why I have been having so much trouble with a Crohns flare up, and, as my gastro doc is out of town until September, they scheduled me in with Dr B., a gastro doc I've not seen for 6 years. He looked at my chart and the weight measurements, and noticed that the last time I was in the office for a colonoscopy in December, I was 30 pounds heavier. “Whatever you're doing, keep doing it, you look great!” he said. He diagnosed me as being severely dehydrated, however, and said that if I am going to be eating more fibrous foods, I need to drink more water to make those foods pass through me properly. The exercise I've been getting in boot camp also adds to my hydration needs, and Dr B told me I need to drink several liters of water or more a day in this hot summer weather we're finally having.Tonight on the Fountain Court lawn we worked our arms, abs and obliques (the muscles on the side of your waist) to fatigue, and then went for a hike along the trail and up the hills. This time, I was able to take big steps backwards and actually move up the hill in a decent amount of time. Kayler noticed that I was trying hard, and walked up the hill with me, saying “Look at you moving those long legs! No more daschund steps for you!”
Wednesday, 7/25, 6:30 pm, Tahoma Junior High School Track
Tonight we had evaluations, which meant that we were all going to see how long it took each of us to run or walk a mile around the track, plus do sit ups and push ups in one minute timed intervals. Kayler had our records from 6 weeks ago, so she could calculate how much faster we all are after weeks of running up hills and lifting weights.“Silent Sandy,” as I've tagged her in my mind (because she rarely speaks at all during boot camp) kicked major rump by doing 75 push ups and doing her mile in under 11 minutes. Sarah #2 and Melissa were the only ones to go faster, at 8 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively. Rae'Ann ran all the way around the track, which she was unable to do six weeks ago, and Theresa managed 72 sit ups and over 45 push ups! I actually did fewer sit ups than I'd done 6 weeks ago, but my colon hurt, and every time I sat up I could feel it squish, so I figure if I wasn't working under pain, I would have been able to do at least 50. I did 20 more push ups than before. I sprinted and walked the mile in 16 minutes, which was much faster than the 19.35 minutes I'd done it the first time around. My fellow boot campers cheered and hooted “Come on, give it all you've got, DeAnn!” for my final lap, and I felt so encouraged by their support. Silent Sandy summed it up best by saying “This (experience) was valuable to be because when I'm part of a group it motivates me to be not only the best for myself, but to not let anyone else in the group down.”
Thursday, 7/26,Work It Out Gym, 6:30 pm weigh-in and measurements, final day of boot camp.
It's ironic, but I've grown (as a person) by shrinking.I've learned that I can be patient in the face of adverse weather and cramping calves. I can endure that last half mile when I'm winded and tired, and I can push my body up off the ground and do 10 more push ups, even when I feel like my rotator cuff is going to spring off my shoulder joint. I exult when my fellow boot campers run a mile 4 minutes faster than they did 6 weeks ago, and I complain with them when their feet hurt, their knees weaken, or their backs ache. Tonight I cried with my stalwart fellow boot camp babes, as we listened to Kayler read the litany of inches lost and pounds winnowed off our hips, thighs, bellies and breasts.Sarah lost an astonishing 25 inches off of various parts of her body, and she lost over 20 pounds of fat.I lost 3.5 inches off my waist, 2 inches off my hips and 2 inches off my thighs. I lost over 10 pounds of fat, and gained amazing muscle tone and strength. Together we lost a room-sized ribbon of inches, and we all stood behind that long ribbon and celebrated our success as a group. In December, when I started at Work It Out, I huffed and puffed my way up the two flights of steps it takes to get to the gym. Now I can run up those same steps and not break a sweat. I can bend all the way over at the waist and touch the floor. I can do sit ups, and I have abdominal muscles I can feel. I can ride bikes with my son and have a great time, not worry about having to stop, gasping for breath. I am aware of my bad eating habits and my personal food pitfalls, and I take action to prevent myself from falling prey to them.Carol Kayler and 19 amazing women gave me that gift, and I took it and made it my own.In short, boot camp ROCKS!