Editor’s Note: Susan McCreath has been selected to participate in the Year of You, a fitness challenge hosted by The Manteca Bulletin and CORE Athletic Performance. McCreath will keep a weekly journal, highlighting the strides and struggles of her fitness journey. These are her thoughts and feelings shared with you.

Day 9
Today I met with Robert and weighed in and he took my measurements. I was pretty confident going in that I had lost weight and some fat off the belly, but I was excited to learn that I had lost almost eight pounds in the first week and two inches off my belly! My belly bothers me the most because I hate when the students at school ask me if there is a baby in there. So, I will happily take away all my inches there. Loved the workout tonight … except for the damn push-ups. Why do we have to do push-ups in between everything? Who knew putting your hands in a triangle shape makes it virtually impossible to do a push-up. I tried my best though and thought of my son Josh who must have done thousands of push-ups at boot camp and that helped me to get through it.

Day 10
I so did not want to go and workout tonight. I was tired and crabby and all I wanted to do was eat a bowl or two of cereal and go to bed. Thankfully, my husband got home just in time to save me from disaster and cooked up some fish and veggies and off to the workout I went. Once I got to the gym I felt pretty good. The boot camp workout is challenging and we worked our core to the core tonight. I’m sure my belly isn’t going to feel good in the morning, but I just kept telling myself that every crunch, every plank means inches are coming off.

Day 11
Food is fuel, food is fuel! Robert told me that the first time we met and it’s something that I have to play in my head all the time. That’s what I kept telling myself today as I ate my plain tuna with just celery and tomato in it. It is amazing though how much better my body feels throughout the day and I have been sleeping so well at night. The workout tonight was one that I enjoyed – very little running. However, the class was super small so Robert had more time to pay attention to my reps and add weight as he felt necessary. But he had me lift some weight that I didn’t think I could do, so that was a huge benefit.

Day 12
My arms feel like Jell-O, but other than that I am feeling energetic. I had several fails today. First, I didn’t pack my lunch so I ended up going to Subway and getting their chicken chopped salad. I was able to pick the veggies so I didn’t feel too bad about this fail. Then I missed my workout because of an appointment with my daughter; not a fail as a mom, but I needed a workout to get some of this soreness out of my body. Then as I was sitting at the appointment I texted my husband, “let’s get pizza.” I was half joking, but halfway serious because I was craving it. Imagine my shock though when not 10 seconds later Robert texted to see if I was going to make it to the workout. I thought to myself “How in the heck did he see that message to my husband?” It was hard to tell Robert that I was not going to make it.

Day 13
It’s Saturday and there is an 8 a.m. workout, but I have people coming over to do some work on the house so I decide to get up and walk instead. I used to walk every day and today I remembered just how much I enjoy walking in the morning. It was super quiet and gave me a chance to clear my mind. I ended up walking four miles and felt pretty good about that. My biceps however are screaming from Thursday’s workout. I cannot even straighten my arms because of the pain and washing my hair was next to impossible. After Sam’s basketball game tonight we decided to eat dinner out. I read every single item on the menu and finally settled on some fish, veggies and a salad. Amazingly, I was unable to finish the meal because I felt stuffed! A few short weeks ago I would’ve ordered the fish n chips, a beer and a dessert. Things are changing.

Day 14
Cravings! That about sums up the day. I finally broke down and had a cup of Special K. Cereal is my weakness. But I was able to limit it to one cup and not several bowls like I would’ve in the past. Then I spent the rest of the day avoiding this basket of chocolate candies that my daughter won in a raffle last night. Quite proud of myself that I didn’t eat any of the candy, but had about five cups of coffee in the process. My arms are still amazingly sore and it’s hard to hold them up to drive the car! I’m actually looking forward to my workout (Monday) though as I am feeling … fat. I’m a little nervous about the weigh-in (Monday). I’m not feeling as confident as last week in terms of pounds lost.