Snacking on Boot Camp

August, 2011

It was nearly 6am in my fifth week of boot camp and I was running for the first time. We were in Rose Hill Cemetery just as the sun started to rise. The mist combined with the disappearing grey of morning was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. That Friday morning, I was running for the first time since my accident and I was hoping the muscles I’ve built in the previous weeks would hold up. For a few shining minutes – two minutes to be exact – there was nothing wrong with me. Over the next three days, I felt that run across my entire back. Boot camp had given me a confidence I haven’t had in years, but it confirmed something of which I was afraid. I may never be able to run again.

If you’d told me a few months ago that I’d be doing a boot camp, I would have said you were crazy. Three years ago a car accident and the resulting injuries stopped me from running, exercising and weight lifting. The opportunity to write about the boot camp experience from the perspective of the injured was a great challenge.

Since October of last year I've been trying to lose weight. Not only was I looking at a face with which I was beginning to be less and less familiar, but I was also carrying weight that was adding extra pressure to my injuries. I started first by cutting what I ate in half. Yes, I was still eating burgers and ice cream and candy bars, but I was only eating half at a sitting, finishing the rest at different times. I lost approximately 24 lbs doing that – and all that with no exercise.

But then I didn't lose any more weight, hovering at the 24-lbs loss for nearly a month. In March, I started the slow carb diet, mainly to help Michael work his way through weight loss. Although I only lost 8 lbs total in the 6 weeks I was on the diet, the amount of fat I lost – unfortunately, I didn't measure – was astounding. I could find my waist, I was always full (even if the meals were a bit tedious), and once a week, I had a "cheat day" – a day where I could eat whatever I set my heart to – which was actually a part of this diet. The boot camp opportunity would give me a better understanding of how exercise affected your body during weight loss. My new health obsession would complete the circle.

My boot camp instructor, Betsy Pittard, was little. I towered over her 5ft-4in frame. She had a soft voice and when she gave instructions for the exercises, it was in a bright, sunny cadence that did not fit the hot, sweaty experience. The petite drill sergeant's voice seemed to be encouraging, but she trilled out instructions that brought your body to a place so painful, the relief was in the doing, not in the stopping.

If you had asked me before the first week if I would do a boot camp, the answer would have been “no”. But in the pursuit of different ways to return my body to a more healthy state, I've succumbed to diets, to a changed eating and drinking lifestyle, and now to exercise. While exercise was not a new thing, (I played soccer in high school and several intramural sports in college), this extreme type of exercise was.

One of the issues I had to deal with while doing boot camp was my competitive nature. I cannot run like the others in the group. I know they couldn't see my injuries, didn't know that they exist, may even have thought that I wasn’t actually pushing myself. That's where the competitive streak comes in. I struggle to balance my constant desire to push myself harder than I should with the knowledge that I can't if I want to preserve what little good health I have.

The first two weeks were grueling. As soon as I felt sore, my alarm clock would go off and I would roll out of bed for more of the same. I didn’t have it as hard as everyone else. Any exercise that targeted the lower back or shoulders was adapted so that I would have less pressure in those areas. Betsy definitely pushed me, but also allowed me the leniency to go at my own pace,which was necessary. As I entered the third week, my body could better handle the exercises. I could see the changes physically. Less fat below my triceps, on the outside of my thighs, and I could successfully distinguish my ankles from my calves. However, I didn’t lose any weight. The quick growth of my muscles outpaced the melting away of my fat. I could not have been happier about the results.

Most people hear the term boot camp and immediately think about the military. To be fair, that’s what Mary Cain, who recently won the title Jr. National NPC Bodybuilding Heavyweight Champion, wants you to think. She approaches the concept of boot camp with 100% intensity, running it like a drill sergeant with a touch of tough love. “Results aren't achieved from hopes and dreams but from actions,” Cain said. “You have to move to lose. The boot camp I teach is different because it is based on cardio which is excellent for burning fat and weights which are excellent for toning.”

I consider myself lucky to have gotten Betsy. While Mary Cain and the instructors at Body Evolution have their own instruction style and each one considers the needs of the students in the class, Mary is notoriously known for the toughness of her classes. Betsy was more of an encourager, but she was just as tough in her own way. If she knew you could do an exercise, she would not let you get away with slacking. She knew exactly what to say to get you to try harder. I remember in my fourth week, as we did lunges up Magnolia Street’s hill, Betsy congratulated me on how much quicker I was making my way up the street compared to my progress up Walnut Street a couple of weeks before. It made me feel good – helped me let go of my perpetually unsatisfied competitive streak.

It’s not really true that I kept the competitive streak. There is a part of me that resents my injuries and the things I can’t do. I played soccer, ultimate Frisbee and, before my accident, I was training myself to do a 5K using the Couch to 5K method. I imagined running Bragg Jam’s Moonlight Miles with my friends and neighbors one day. It was hard for me, especially during that first week of boot camp, to be satisfied with my progress. It was slow for me since I hadn’t done any level of exercise in more than 2 years. It was meeting my classmates and learning their reasons for being there that helped me draw a little more satisfaction from the fact that I could actually do some of the exercises. One woman was there to get in better shape for a triathlon. Others were there for health reasons. Most just wanted to get healthier – their own sense of healthy. One woman wanted to lose the last few pounds of baby weight. After class, we discussed things like whether or not there was a difference in the way the body holds weight for African American women versus Caucasian women. We discussed the different ways you can exercise that would help you shave off time running marathons. We discussed the beauty of Rose Hill Cemetery and postulated how much more exciting (or terrifying) our morning run would be if Doctor Who beings like the Weeping Angels actually existed while we walked amongst the statues.

In my last week of boot camp, Betsy left Body Evolution to concentrate on school. Her replacement, Jill Cole, taught the class. While she had a different style than Betsy, her difference added so much. Jill also had benefited from the boot camps with Mary and lost over 100 pounds on her road to good health and fitness. Weeks after my classes ended, I regret that I never took a class from Mary just for the experience.

People react when they hear the term “boot camp”. It’s a look of fear or a disdainful sniff, the concept that they don’t need to exercise “like that”, even as they drink way too much and eat in destructive ways. But there is nothing to fear from a boot camp and so much to gain. The other day, a friend of mine complimented me on how svelte I was looking. I am proud of the gains I have made. The diet and exercise helped me feel a little bit more like a human and less like a mass of injuries. These were my true gains from this grand experiment in being healthy.

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