Wednesday Workout Update - One Year Later!

I really can't believe I'm writing this, because if you knew the old me, you'd know how NOT ME this is - but this week marks my one year Exerversary - yes, I have worked out with my trainers for an entire year now! I have to give props to my trainers for pushing me along, because I would not be where I am, physically, without them. So thank you from the bottom of my heart, Brad, Linda, Kara, Andreas and Will. You guys are the best!

In this year, I went from barely walking on the treadmill to running my first mile; yesterday I ran a mile on the treadmill in 11:10. There were tears of frustration shed over box jumps, and finally victory at doing the 12" box jump (still love my medal, Tina!). Along the way I lost nearly 20 inches from my neck, bust, waist and hips, and 43 pounds. I went from wearing size 16 pants to size 8; from XL shirts to medium; my workout capris were size XL and are now size small. I am running every week outside of my workouts - so far this week I've run more than six miles! Amazing - I still shake my head in wonder at all that I am doing. We did skills testing this week - Brad likes to do this every few months to assess our progress. I did a 4:02 plank hold - looking back, I lasted for all of 30 seconds on my first plank hold. I can do a maximum bench press of 105 (one rep), and I did the T-bar row (gotta work those shoulders) with 45 pounds (10 reps). I did 100 curls with 15 pound dumbbells in 3:59, and easily did a 5 minute wall sit.

There are days when it's easy to get up and go to my workout - usually it's nice and sunny outside, and the temperature is warm. Then there are days like today, when I have to drag myself from my nice warm bed, put on cold workout clothes (I should stow my sports bra in bed so at least that would be warm), brush my teeth and hair and run outside to my equally cold car where the outdoor temperature reads 34 degrees, drive through school traffic, doing 20 MPH so the motorcycle cop won't pull me over, and finally arrive at Brad's, where I work my tail off for an hour. The beginnings might be easy and they might be hard, but either way, I'm always glad I went. And that has a lot to do with the people there - my trainers, and the ladies in my group, who are so supportive and just a lot of fun to suffer with workout with! Here is a picture of us today - taken at the end of our workout, so please excuse the sweaty messes that we all are:

L to R: Brad, his wife Kara, Kathleen, me, Linda, Jenny, Nancy

Here's a few pictures of Jenny doing some AMAZING box jumps - for comparison, I did mine yesterday...I managed to hit the 14" jump (after not making it on the first try - surprisingly I didn't hurt myself).

Flying through the air with ease!

This one cracks me up - check out the look on Jenny's face as Brad measures how high she was going to jump (he kept adding weight plates for more height). I believe this was 22" high.And she jumps it with no problem!Moving on to even higher levels, Jenny peaked at 32" - I bet next time she will clear it no problem...she was getting tired at this point.

And just for fun, here's Kara at the start of our five-minute wall sit - she's quite pregnant but doesn't use that as an excuse to not work out.

Arnold is watching her...