EDITOR’S NOTE: Jeanette Balmut has been selected to participate in the Year of You, a fitness challenge hosted by The Manteca Bulletin, CalFit Manteca and CORE Athletic Performance. Balmut is keeping a weekly journal, highlighting the strides and struggles of her fitness journey. These are her thoughts and feelings shared with you.
Day 43
Here we go, let’s bring on the 7th week. Still in the exciting, eager and willing mode. If I don’t start seeing some changes in me soon, that might have to change. I can’t believe I can go from eating basically anything and everything I wanted and never doing a drop of exercise to what I am doing now and the weight isn’t peeling off me. It’s so depressing. I am trying hard to keep myself motivated and on track.
I know this week will be a tough one with four baseball games. That means four times I will be waking up at 4:30 a.m. and hitting the gym.
I start my workout with a 30-minute treadmill and move on to some of the things that Antonio (Hernandez) has taught me. The rubber bands for the arms, the body ball for doing pushups, crunches, and squats. I feel good and like it gave me a good workout.
I continue to do my three protein shakes a day and two meals. I am trying to get as much water down as possible. The goal is at least eight bottles throughout the day.
We go to our son’s game up in Angels Camp and with the long ride home I am hungry. I pretty much beg for my hubby to stop at Chipotle and get something smart. Nope, he assures me we can do better at home. He was right! We make a great grilled chicken stir fry that was awesome. Plus, that means leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thanks, babe, you were right!
Day 44
Another early to rise morning. Again it’s the treadmill and then I move on to the Stairmaster. Today I try the “hills” for the first time. I feel so tough. I can’t believe I can actually do that for 10 straight minutes. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but please trust me when I say it’s hard! I continue with a few exercises on the machines and leave feeling proud.
We have another game day but I prepare our dinner before leaving for work. I cook a lean pork roast in the crockpot. We get home from the game and pull apart the pork and have it shredded on a bed of lettuce. OH YES, it was so good…and again, plenty of leftovers!!!
Day 45
I actually get to sleep in a little. I get to work out with Antonio today so no early to rise for me. I get to the gym and do a 38-minute cardio and we move to the outside to hit the tires. I tackle the small tire for flips. I hear its 110 pounds. Seems pretty easy compared to last week when I tried it. Then we move to the HUGE tire. Lying flat, it is about 18-24 inches high (my guess) … basically about halfway up my leg. Antonio gives me the direction to use one leg to stand up on the tire. Oh wow, that is hard. No hands, no help. UGH. I do three sets of 15 and I am dying. I do another exercise after where I stand on the tire with my legs spread out and I lower my butt into a full squat into the middle of the tire. CAN YOU SAY OUCH? I leave the back sweating and shaking but feeling good. We move on to an arm machine. By far my weakest part of me. I manage to complete the task … barely! The days I work out with Antonio I feel like I have accomplished so much more than I could have on my own. He is the perfect balance of tough but encouraging. He tells me he is proud of me and reminds me “Remember your first day working out and you kept saying ‘I can’t, I can’t,’ now look at you?” In my mind, I am still saying that but truthfully it is getting easier each week. Maybe I should rephrase that: Not easier, but more manageable.
The hubby is out of town for the night so you know what that means … PIG OUT! I wish. Instead I do the smart thing and go to the grocery store to replenish my stock of fruits and salad makings and then hit the corner restaurant for taco truck tacos. I get my son an entire plate of them and then for me I get two and ask for lettuce on the side. I come home and dump the tacos onto the lettuce and eat them without the tortilla. It was perfect and I think I wouldn’t even have to say it was “cheating”. I finish the night with a protein shake and hit the sheets.
Day 46
I almost feel like it’s a race now to see who can get to the gym the earliest. I swear every day I move it up and every day I am about the sixth person there. Most are already on their treadmills and have been for a few minutes. I think “they” (the morning regulars) are starting to leave my favorite treadmill open for me … thank you, I so appreciate it. It’s right smack in front of the big screen TV with the morning news playing. It’s such an easy way to catch up on what is happening in the world, while working out.
Today, I do a longer workout on the treadmill and do a little jogging and incline up then down and continue to change it up. My goal today is to go further than yesterday. I finish at 2.5 miles and move on to LEG MACHINES. Ugh, not pretty. HARD, but it felt good when done.
Day 47
Ok, what the heck is going on? I swear I feel like if I look over my shoulder I will see a group of “mean girls” laughing their heads off. It’s like they switched my protein powder with weight gain powder! I am being so good, so faithful, never missing a workout, eating right, healthy, smart … yet I still manage to see the same three numbers on the scale, day in and day out! Yea I know. We’ve all heard the “muscle weighs more than fat, it’ll come off, and you’ll start to see the results, it’ll happen.” OK! WHEN? It’s so dang frustrating.
Enough whining and back to the grind. Up at 4:30 a.m. to the gym by 4:45 and hitting the cardio. I do my regular routine of treadmill at high incline, over to the Stairmaster and tackle it today at a higher intensity level. Honestly, I only made it 10 minutes. It was so hard. My butt and legs are still killing me from the work out with Antonio on Wednesday and by raising the intensity level on the Stairmaster, OH MY GOODNESS it was so hard. A good pain, but still pain!
I moved to the floor in the back and did leg lifts (still the worst thing ever), bicycles, crunches and then pushups. It all worked, I was sweating profusely!
I’ll just keep on pushing on and continue with this journey. I know it’ll come off eventually.
Day 48
Yippee, its Antonio day. We hit the gym early so we can start our weekend off. I do a nice little warm up and then we get started — lunges, weights, and shoulders. As always, it’s tough but I manage and finish strong. I wrap up with a final 20 minutes on the treadmill.
I do our typical Costco run today and buy all the needed items for a healthy week of eating. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats. As always it ends up being tons of money. Like I’ve said before, sure is expensive to eat healthy. I know it will be beneficial in the long run.
End the day with a nice barbecue of tri-tip, asparagus and steamed spinach. It was awesome and music to my ears when my husband says, “Eat all the greens you want.” Love to hear that!
Day 49
Sunday morning. I love Sundays at the gym. It’s usually me and the diehard men that are on the weights. I usually get the cardio machines to myself. Sure enough, I get to the gym and feeling pretty good in my yoga pants. Honestly, the whole yoga pants thing is very scary. You put them on, they hold in just about everything. You look in a mirror AT HOME and think, yeah this is OK. You arrive at the gym and see yourself in the full mirrors that surround the gym and think to yourself, “Oh dear God, what was I thinking leaving the house in these?” Especially the side view, HORRIBLE! When I leave for the gym I tell Mike, “I’m going extra hard today.” I tell him my plans and he pumps me up and tells me I can do it. I map out my plan for my attack. I start with the treadmill warmup and then move up to a jog. Move on to the Stairmaster. Today, I am going to do the HILLS and up the intensity level. By the second “floor” I can already feel it. This is about the time my workout becomes more than just a workout. As I am on the Stairmaster, I see girls … not “just girls” but gorgeous, all done up, FITNESS MODELS in itty bitty, tiny little outfits with WINGS. You know like Victoria Secret wings. Seriously, just put me out of my misery. There are like 15 of them getting ready for a photo shoot. COME ON PEOPLE, seriously? At one point I actually thought if I looked around I would be on hidden camera. Like who does this to a middle aged, fat girl, in a fit competition trying to lose a hundred pounds. REALLY? Oh well, I kind of chuckle and pick up the pace. I move on to the next machine and add a little more time, a little more incline, a little more intensity. I push my work out to a full 90 minutes. At one point I think to myself. If I can get one of these girls to pose for a picture…I can actually use it as my “final results” post in 10 months. Ha, what a great idea!
I get home not feeling the excitement of what I just accomplished. For cardio, it was my hardest session yet. I see my hubby has left for his run. After over two hours he returns; 14 miles he did today. UGH, seriously?
I am hoping this is the week that finally the weight starts to “peel off.” People keep telling me that this will actually happen. I am anxiously waiting for it.
