The Results Are In...

I'm currently in my final week of the Extreme Fitness Challenge. For those of you who don't know, EFC is a class the gym offers which gives you 2 personal trainers 5 days/week for 8 weeks. Our class started with 15 people and I think we are currently down to 9. I was surprised how many people dropped out since they paid to do it (I can hear my mom sucking air through her teeth right now because I hadn't told her I paid money for it - love you mom!). At the start of the program we got weighed and did the Air Force Physical Fitness Test (PFT). Over the class I dropped 7.5 pounds, went from 25 to 37 real push ups in a minute, went from 45 to 53 sit ups in a minute, and went from a 12:48 mile and a half to 11:29. I think I could get down to an 11:15, but I don't know if I'm willing to put in that much more effort for 14 seconds. While I'm very happy with these results, I've got mixed feelings about the class. I liked my instructors as people, but I'm not really confident in their abilities as personal trainers. For example, last week we did sprints 3 days, spinning on one day, and moderate running on the fifth day. It just seems that there is no balance in it - give me some upper body workouts! Also, it seemed to be an all or none workout. Some days were fantastically hard and I wondered if I could complete the workout, but just as many days were so easy that I did my own workout afterwards. Oh well, live and learn. Perhaps the best things that have come out of this experience are I've begun to faithfully keep a food journal (I highly recommend sparkpeople.com if anyone is looking) and I finally broke my soda addiction! It was tough. I used to drink 2-3 Coke Zeros and a Fresca every day and now I drink nothing but water and an occasional Crystal Light. The first week I was getting headaches and my mouth would just crave the soda, especially at around 2 in the afternoon. After the first week the cravings were gone and when I drank a few sips of soda halfway through the program it didn't even taste good! Victory!
In other news, Saturday I went to Charity's house for her birthday bash. It was so much fun. The only thing that would have made it better was if Chris had been around to be my designated driver! There were a few ladies from the Lunch Ladies group and I also got to meet new people. It was nice not being with people from Chris' squadron because there wasn't as much shop talk. Actually, I think everyone there were Marines. Hoo-rah!

This picture (courtesy of Charity) has Jess, Cooper (the cutest boxer puppy ever), me, Charity, and Heather. Hope everyone had as fun of a weekend as I did and talk to y'all soon.