OMG! I bought a Living Social deal a month ago: $33 for UNLIMITED boot camp classes at Fitness 101, a gym not to far from my place. Despite catching a cold last Tuesday and still being on the mend, I went to the orientation on Saturday morning. According to the deal, I have 30 days from that orientation to use it all. So, I can't piddle around too much. I'm still coughing a little and having a some difficulty getting a good deep breath (I even tried using my youngest's asthma inhaler. Talk about getting the jitters!). Alas, I just thought I'd suck it up and go tonight. I swear it was a miracle I didn't puke! An absolute miracle.

I have been curious about boot camping, and I'm at a point in my life where I really just want somebody to tell me what to do, & I'll do it. Actually, I've been there for several years.

My degree is in Exercise Science and during the early to mid-90s, I taught up to 12 aerobics & step classes a week, and lifted weights 3-4 nights a week. I swore I'd never take a fitness class if the option was open to me, I was so tired of teaching by the time I got out of it. That was in my 20s. In my 40s, I'm singing a different tune. Somebody, please, just tell me when to grapevine and when to breathe!

Having been very fit in my 20s, birthing two babies, one at 28 and one at 31, has pitted my body image and weight against my better sense some days. I'm a wee petite at 4'10" and 5 pounds makes a big difference when you're as close to the ground as I am. Ten pounds? Don't get me started! And sucking it all out is just not an option ($$), or I would probably do it!

I did start teaching yoga again about 2 years ago (note: yoga is NOT a big calorie burner!) and have been steadily increasing and regularizing my weekly exercise this past year. My Fitness Pal became my BFF from March-July 2012, and I started to see some terrific results. I dropped from 121 to 115 in 4 months.

And then we went on vacation, and I got away from religiously noting every crumb that went into my mouth or drop of sweat that left my brow. Here it is April 1st, 2013, and I'm back to 118. :( Arg!

What I have to get serious about is increasing my lean muscle. It is, after all, the super metabolically active part of you that actually BURNS the calories you consume. Duh! I know this! You eat to feed it, not your adipose tissue (fat). The problem as we age becomes 1) a decreasing muscle mass, which lowers the rate at which you burn calories (metabolism), 2) decreasing exercise levels (ugh! Who got time for dat!? This does, of course, exacerbate #1, btw)), and 3) lowering calorie intake levels to match with #2. Be certain, few of us actually think about lowering calorie intake just because we are aging. Alas, all that adds up to annual weight gain, increasing fat on our bodies, and the breakdown of our wonderful lean mass. Not great, not great at all. At least not when you remember with horror seeing your mom in a bathing suit when she was a mere 10 years older than you are now and vowing to never look "like that!"

So, the results from the Saturday orientation at Fitness 101 are this:

We performed both the F.M.S. (Functional Movement Screen) and the Body Fat percentage test (using calipers).

The F.M.S. is designed to “raise red flags” on certain movements that your body should be able to perform. The highest score you can get is a 21, but the goal is not to get a perfect score. Research has shown that a total score of below 14 greatly INCREASES your risk of injury when performing a vigorous exercise program.

Here are your FMS scores:

*Deep Squat- 3 *Hurdle Step (L) 3 (R) 3 *Inline Lunge (L) 3 (R) 3

* Shoulder M (L) 3 (R) 3

*Active S.L.R (L) 3 (R) 3 *Trunk Stability 3 *Push-up ---- Rotary Stability (L) 3 (R) 3

TOTAL SCORE 21

And the body fat percentage measures how much of your body is comprised of fat (in a percentage). We use a caliper method, which performed correctly can be very accurate. But there is always a 1-2 % margin for error. There are also a few factors that can affect your results. Here is a partial list of influencing factors: how soon you ate before the test, whether you just exercised, how hydrated you are. With that being said, here are your body fat results:

Body Weight: 120 lbs (with my shoes on!!) Body Fat %: 26.7 %

Pounds of Lean Tissue 87.96 lbs Pounds of Fat 32.04 lbs

As a general rule of thumb, women should try to get their body fat in the neighborhood of 20-25%, and men should work to attain 12-16% body fat.

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Yeah! I'm perfect on the FMS, but over on the body comp. Now the real work begins---in earnest... finally. I want to see that body fat percentage drop to 22% by the end of May, 2 solid months. If the weight drops to 112, I won't be too sad either. But, as far as I'm concerned the body composition numbers have always been more important.

Tonight was an important step. And I'll be danged if the huffing & puffing that left me dripping with sweat didn't do a fair bit to knock out the rest of that cold!

On ward & upward!