Changing my life one push-up at a time.

The shutdown of your body comes slowly. One day you can no longer bend at the knees and get back up without grunting. Walking up the football stadium bleachers to the reserved seats you've had for 20 plus years feels like you ran a marathon (not that I would know firsthand, but I've heard about it) and getting up off the floor after playing with your grandchild or puppy is achieved by getting carpet burns from scooting on your knees to the nearest piece of sturdy furniture to pull yourself up. It is a sad day when you realize you have limitations and age and obesity have taken over your body. One would think that the moment this realization smacked me upside the head, I would do something about it....I did.....I told myself that this is what it is and I have to make the best of it. As the years passed I just kept "doing the best I can", or so I thought. I must admit that I have never been athletic. Sure, I was a cheerleader and walked everywhere as a teenager living in Germany but I never, ever exercised. I was on a running team in Germany and I would put on this adorable Adidas outfit, run into the forest, light a cigarette and wait it out. When enough time had passed I would sneak my way to exit from the forest and stumble back to school pretending to have run the entire practice route. We never competed. It was just a PE class. Am I ashamed of this? I should be but I'm not. A dear friend came to work for me and she is the annoying "exercise and fitness" freak. She gets up at the crack of dawn, goes to some boot camp, comes to work, goes home to ride 30 miles on her bike and on the weekends she runs marathons. She was truly getting on my nerves. The age difference between us became more and more evident as she talked of all her accomplishments. In my head I was saying "You just wait until you are in your fifties girly!" This is how I justified my aches and pains as I got out of my office chair to walk across the room. My diabetes numbers were slowly creeping back up and I never truly felt good. Even though I kept telling myself I could not change I started dieting and walking a couple miles a week. I felt accomplished. I lost 45 pounds and started walking more. I was now at a stage where I knew "this is as good as it gets". Then it happened...After a year of trying to convince me to at least try a boot camp (these conversations always ended with me rolling my eyes and muttering "that will never happen") my friend told me that the boot camp is in my area and that they were running a special and I could try it for a month for the measly price of $6. I pay that for a cup of coffee so I humored her and signed myself up. My friend Jennifer came with me to the first camp and I met the trainer Nicole. Even if you are in the best shape of your life, just looking at Nicole will humble you. She has .0001% body fat, muscles to put Arnold Schwarzennegger to shame, a smile that will brighten any room and the spunk to motivate even the most professional couch potato. THERE WAS NO WAY I COULD DO THIS!!! I will spare you the aches and pains detail and how I was so sick after my first workout I threw up and just say this. "I am a proud member of the Camp Gladiator team!" I have an entire group of amazing "family" that motivate me and encourage me to be better. They do not judge, make me feel bad if I physically cannot hang with them and pick me up when I am down. Nicole holds us all accountable by calling us out on social media if we miss a class.(I have never missed a class!) She also makes herself available 24/7 for each and every one of us. I am now 53 pounds lighter, ride my bike to and from camp, can get up off the ground by myself, can squat, plank and do a push up! Camp Gladiator has changed my life. It has offered me a new beginning and I am taking it! We are never too old, too fat, too weak or too uncoordinated. We just have to take the challenge and jump off that cliff. I promise you that Camp Gladiator will catch your fall. I am forever thankful. It is with great emotion that I say thank you to Jennifer for the push and encouragement and Nicole and my CG team for "Keeping it Real"! Wut! Wut!