Jennifer’s Journey: Week 3 – Continued

Written By admin • 5 min read

“Olympic Hill Friday has snuck up on me too quickly this week. As much as I look forward to going home for a week and seeing both my children and my husband, I feel that this time is flying by me and I am not feeling ready! I am lucky because I go home for only one week and then come back to Premier Fitness Camp for my last week. I have a week to see what is working for me in the real world for workouts and nutrition and come back and tweak it before I go home for good. It hasn’t been as reassuring as one might think because I still wake up with butterflies in my stomach at the thought of leaving this safe haven.

I have been comparing being here to moving to a foreign country like Italy. If you want to learn to speak, read and write Italian; experience the culture and the people; gain an understanding of the place… the best way to do it is immerse yourself in it! Premier Fitness Camp is immersion in the fitness, nutrition, and wellness lifestyle. When I am here I feel like I can do it, with rarely any question. The thought of going home to all the distractions and responsibilities is really scary and I have been staring it in the face this entire week.

The last couple of days working out has gotten better. My shoulder is recovering and I could do left hooks at kick boxing on Thursday that I could not do at boxing class the day before. I got to do Zumba with Lindsay and although I still can’t do a great body roll… I have the Merengue down!! I only got lost once in that routine! For me, that is HUGE progress.

I did some interval training in the fitness center instead of going to aqua aerobics because the water felt just too cold and I froze last time. For intervals, I warm up for 5 minutes and then do a 5 minute interval where I bump up the level to a four for 4 minutes and then recover for 1 minute. The next time I take the level to a five for 4 minutes, recover for one, and so on. I did this for 30 minutes on the bike, then moved to the elliptical machine for 30 minutes gradually increasing the intensity the same way.

I felt it was quite a workout even if I did miss doing aqua aerobics. Often there are choices of activities for us to choose from. For example, we may do a morning hike, scenic walk or walk the stairs. All provide a workout, you can just choose which intensity level and activity you prefer for that day.

I did do Olympic Hill for my third Friday in a row. I tried very hard to keep moving as fast as I could because I wanted to beat my previous time. I watched others flying up the hill this week and started to get a little worried. I jogged in the last 50 yards again and was very excited to hear Jason tell me that I beat my time last week by one full minute! I caught my breath and walked some other people in to the finish line!

So many people beat their previous times or put up great first times. We actually had everyone to the top in the shortest amount of time since I got here! Olympic Hill is one of those things you kind of dread doing, but as soon as you are done you are glad you did it! It’s also nice that we always have our snack waiting for us when we get done.

I have been enjoying all the new things we have been eating here. Every once in a while we will get something that I don’t really care for (lentils are still not my favorite, although we had some that were really good here). Friday nights are usually steak night. As Chef Jason has told us, red meat doesn’t have to be completely off the menu. You just have to get the right cut and right portion. Oh, and not have it every night. We were served our steak cooked to order with roasted asparagus. It was great! Now if I can just get my asparagus like that on my grill at home!

Speaking of home, I began freaking out again about how I am going to cook and eat healthy with my family when I return. I took some time to speak with Bonnie, Leah, Kimba and even Gino (one of our chefs) about recipes, tricks and snacks to get me through. I love that I am taking recipes home of some of the things I have eaten here at camp. I have all my notes from our training classes. I know I have the support of our trainers and even blog posts about nutrition to fall back on. I can use the Premier Fitness Camp Planner computer program to plan menus, see calories, and nutritional information and even print shopping lists. I think every tool has been provided to help me be successful at home. Now it is just up to me to follow through. Maybe that is why I am still a little nervous!” ~Jennifer

I am 37 years old and a mom of 4 beautiful daughters. I am a stay-at-home mom who is never HOME! I do some work from home helping my husband run his business. My weight was not a problem until I got pregnant and began having children. I have never completely lost that weight. I have tried different diets and felt like a yo-yo for the past 8 years! (see me on far right of picture)

A combination of things happened in my life to make me decide to make some major lifestyle changes and putting myself first, making healthy choices for me and my family. Please join me on my journey on several blogs: on the Premier Fitness Blog, on the TimeOutMom Blog, on the Mom It Forward Blog, and on the Today’s Mama Blog, as I do five weeks at the live-in camp and get twelve weeks of coaching and support after I return home. This is going to be life-changing! It is already life-changing!