Joe’s goals for the Challenge!
I started working out with Kimo a few months ago after hitting what was, in hindsight, kind of a low-water mark for me physically as well as psychologically and emotionally. I'd been in the midst of a transition in my professional life that wasn't going very smoothly, which left me not feeling so great about myself and up 30 pounds to boot. It's funny how those things sneak up on you if you don't pay attention. I've had a lot of fitness ups and downs in my adult life. I was a heavy kid, a medium teenager, a light twenty-something, and then it's been a rollercoaster ever since. Now at 42, I realized that I needed to make some changes if I didn't want to end up in a pretty unhealthy spot by the time I was 50. I decided to start working out at True Body Fitness for a couple reasons. I had a couple friends who had trained there and were really happy about it. I also knew I needed some guidance and someone to be accountable to if I was going to make any real progress. And really, I was tired of feeling like crap and not even wanting to go out in public because I felt I looked so bad At first I didn't even want to acknowledge to my friends that I'd started working out. It took a little time before I was confident enough that I could keep it up, and I didn't want people to ask me how it was going (especially if there weren't many visible changes). As things progressed, I started talking more freely about my training, and when Kimo asked me to be a part of the TBF Spring Challenge I figured I'd take the plunge and go totally public. I mean, it's not like I'm that secretive about anything else! My goals in the challenge are pretty straightforward. By week four I want to be able to make it through Peter Van Dyke's 75-minute spinning class doing everything right – standing up at all the right times, going fast at all the right times, standing up going fast at all the right times. Right now I still hit what I call “the Beyonce wall” at the 60-minute mark – when we get to her song I just run out of energy. Maybe I just don't like Beyonce? By week eight I need to be able to do a three minute plank. I might be kidding myself with this one because I'm only at a minute and half now. If you see me enjoying the spring weather while planking don't talk to me, I'm counting in my head. And by the end of it all, I'm hoping to go down one size in my jeans. Basically, get back to where I was three years ago, before “the great gain.” I forgot to ask Kimo if going down a size in jeggings counts. I'm assuming yes. Hopefully all of us sharing our experiences will be a help to you if you have struggled with your weight, found it hard to incorporate exercise into your life or simply felt like you somehow missed the boat on the whole fitness thing. I know the first TBF Challenge helped get me thinking I could do this. Maybe you're next!
