Boot Camp Street Party!

For me, getting in shape has meant more frequent visits to the gym, more personal training sessions and finding fun ways to get exercise in order to shake up the monotony of my daily gym routine.  I try and find free classes (or sneak into my fiance's gym for free classes) to add variety to my workouts without spending a fortune.

This week, I am attending an awesome boot camp party hosted by my personal trainer.  You will have to excuse the shameless plug to follow but it will be a great time with great people and great food!  

Tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m., NB Fitness, Lululemon Briarhill and the Daily Apple will be hosting a 70 person boot camp on Orchard View Blvd. and Yonge St. just North of Eglinton in Toronto.

There will be a one hour boot camp class led by Nate Bower, a live DJ and healthy food samples.  Oh, and it's totally FREE!

Bring your mats and tension bands and come out for an awesome fitness street party!

Broken Buds

I know I've promised to post about my Boston trip but I've been having technical difficulties in trying to upload my pictures and I am now in the middle of a crisis that will take precedence in this week's blog post.  My taste buds are broken.  Yup, broken. This is my crisis and it's a pretty big problem considering how much I love food.

It all started about a week and a half ago.  I picked up some bug that I just could not shake and ended up with a pretty nasty cold/flu that has lasted up until now. All I have been eating for the past week or so is chicken soup, toast and popsicles- the holy trinity of feel-better-food.  That, in combination with lots of water, lots of tea and heavy doses of Advil cold and sinus, I was sure that I would be able to get back to my life, real food and exercise in no time.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. I have been hermitted in my house all week and have seen no one except my co-workers who won't come within 5 feet of me.  This, I can deal with.  I am feeling better and will finally see the light of day outside of my home and office and see some friends this evening. 

As for exercise, my workouts have been pretty non-existent for the past two weeks.  Last night I decided not to cancel on my trainer and went for my one hour work out session.  Bad idea.  I almost died. We kept the workout pretty light with some weight training and low cardio.  All was good until I had a cough attack, took a gulp of water for some relief, only to spit it out all over my trainer and all over the free weight section of the gym.  I then proceeded to choke and almost passed out.  Why is it that the time I actually choke is the only time I forget how to indicate that this is what is happening to me.  I learned the universal sign for choking when I was 10, yet somehow in the midst of being unable to breathe I couldn't figure out that I should put my hands around my neck and ask for help.  Anyway, I digress.  Obviously, I survived and I will get back on track with my exercise routine.  Again, this I can deal with.

What I cannot deal with is the fact that nothing tastes the same anymore. While I am starting to feel better, my taste buds are not. All I can palette is plainness. Last night I was feeling up to cooking and eating a real meal.  I made some homemade guacamole to go with my fajita dinner and sat down to eat.  I was so excited at the idea of tasting something with flavour.  One bite and I was completely turned off.  The culprit: cilantro. 

As I am sure I have mentioned before, I LOVE cilantro.  I cook with it at least twice a week and to me, any dish with cilantro in it is a good dish.  Unfortunately, I think it is fair to say that I loved cilantro.  Last night it tasted like metal and I ended up eating a bowl of cereal for dinner and tossing the long anticipated fajita dinner into the trash.  What if I never like cilantro again?!? I know, life has bigger problems, but my distaste for cilantro is not the only thing wrong with my taste buds.  Nothing with flavour taste good to me.  The thought of eating anything apart from bread and butter and plain spaghetti noodles is completely unappetizing at the moment. Unfortunately, this includes cheese.

My co-worker just asked me if I wanted to order a pizza for lunch.  I said no because I’m just not feeling cheese right now.  You know something isn’t right when the Fat Girl in a Little Coat says no to cheese.

Extreme Juicehead

For the past two years I have been lucky enough to have access to a very private and very exclusive gym.  By private and exclusive, I mean that I live in a condo building that is essentially a retirement home and it has a fitness centre in it.  Since most people over the age of 90 do not lift weights nor do they run on treadmills, and since the majority of the tenants in my building are in fact over the age of 90, the condo gym is always empty. This gym situation is a dream for a fitness novice like myself.  I have enjoyed working out in the privacy of my very own, very unpopulated gym.

My stint of feeling like a celebrity with my very own private gym is coming to an end.  My lease is up as of August 31st and I am moving in with my boyfriend who does not have a fitness centre in his townhouse. Thus, my search for the right gym membership begins.

Across the street from my soon-to-be home is an Extreme Fitness.  My boyfriend belongs there, so I figured with the abundance of free guest passes he has I should give it a test run...or two.

Extreme Fitness Test Run #1:

On Tuesday, my goal was to try a Smart Start Cycle class at Extreme Fitness.  I have no clue what the class is like but I figured it would be something that my boyfriend may be into so he would come with me and I would not have to face the intimidation on my own.  Unfortunately, the class started at a later time than I originally thought.  Since we had plans later in the evening, we decided to just do a "regular" workout instead.

What a stupid decision. My workout started off great. I got on a cardio machine that is sort of like an elliptical and StairMaster in one.  It's actually a really good workout and burns something like 12 calories per minute and is a lot more fun that running on a treadmill.  Once I was all warmed up and ready to do some weights and floor exercises, I followed my boyfriend to a different area of the gym.  This area was my worst nightmare.  It was like MTV's The Jersey Shore gone wrong.  I know, I know, you are probably thinking is anything worse that the The Jersey Shore? The answer is yes.

I was in a room filled with juicehead Guidos wearing cut off jean shorts and their younger sister's baby doll t-shirts.  Was I expected to lift weights with these roid freaks??? I attempted to do some reps with 10 pound weights but the meat head freaks kept getting in my way. So, I found a secluded corner, put a mat down and pretended to so some ab exercises until my boyfriend was done his workout.  On our way out he pointed out another weight room.  Apparently, the one we were in is not extreme enough for some members.  I peaked into weight room #2 only to find even more roided out freaks with veins protruding from their necks while they benched 1000 pounds. We left and I vowed never to go back.

Extreme Fitness Test Run #2:

I know I said I vowed never to go back but it bothered me that I let the juiceheads from the day before intimidate me.  So, I found a half hour Hard Core Abs class to go to and headed back to Extreme Fitness for a second attempt.  I got on the elliptical-like machine again to get in some cardio before I headed up the stairs to the abs class.  To my delight, the abs class was great! Maybe it wasn't "Hard Core" enough for the juiceheads, but the fact that there were none in attendance was fine by me. 

My Conclusions:

I will not be joining Extreme Fitness.  While my second attempt was more successful and less intimidating than my first, I cannot see myself going regularly to a gym where juiceheads roam free.  Sure, there are iron freaks at any gym, but the abundance of them at this particular Extreme Fitness is enough to make me want to look elsewhere. This point aside, the gym has a reputation of being a meat market and many of the girls who workout there show up like they are ready for a night out on the town- flawless hair and makeup and perfectly pressed lululemon outfits.

My search for a gym that fits me continues... In the meantime, I will be enjoying my retirement villa's facilities while I still can.

Personal Torture...oops, I meant Training.

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to kick my workout sessions into high gear.  I am afraid of the gym, mostly because I don't know what I am doing, so I decided to get myself a personal trainer (torturer) to show me the ropes.

I have known my trainer, Nate Bower, for over a year now.  He teaches boxing classes on Saturday mornings, which I go to with a couple of my girlfriends.  I have also attended a few of his boot camp classes- 4 weeks, 8 sessions, sheer torture...in a good way if you are into that sort of thing.

I love/hate Nate Bower.  I love that he encourages me to reach my potential but hate him while he is telling me to do just "four more push ups!" (I can barely do one). We have developed a rapport in which he encourages me to push myself to my limits and I call him names and tell him to eff off at least 15 times during my training sessions.  I make claims that he is trying to kill me and scream bloody murder so loudly that the entire gym can hear.  I don't think he minds though.  I'm pretty sure he finds this more amusing and less abusive than it seems.

As a fitness novice, I truly recommend personal training.  My one-on-one sessions with Nate give me the confidence I need to work out on my own in order to achieve my personal fitness goals.

While Nate has not hired me as his PR rep (yet), I figure after all the abuse and name calling, the least I can do is plug his website: http://www.natebowerfitness.com/.