Saturday, June 30, 2007

Just improve. That’s what growth is.

Greetings from the Sunshine State! As I type, I am sitting in my hotel room watching a rerun of Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith. After going through a bit of hell to get here, the past week has been a wonderful whirlwind—kind of like experiencing a little bit of heaven without the inconvenience of dying.

My arrival was delayed 9 1/2 hours getting me to my destination at 3:30am on Monday. This gave me only 4 hours to sleep and prepare for my first day at tennis boot camp. Needless to say, Monday was comical. Not only was I trying to adjust to the insane heat and humidity here, but the 7 hours of ensuing tennis just about flattened me.

Despite the shaky beginning, I can’t say enough great things about my IMG Academies/ Bollettieri Tennis experience. The level of intensity of the tennis instruction and drills was fantastic. I was surrounded by adults and juniors from all over the world with incredible skills and athleticism. It was extremely inspiring.

Thursday was “Game Day.” An emcee conducted the day’s drills with great music blasting over loudspeakers as he announced various games and prizes. I especially loved bouncing around to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. Somehow it made the burn in my legs feel a lot less painful. Everyday after lunch, I jumped in the pool for a half hour to recuperate and recharge just enough to barely make it through the afternoon sessions. I had such a fabulous time. To top it all off, I had initially set out to shed some weight at this boot camp (or “booty” camp, rather), and I DID!!!

I have been in constant battle with my last 10 post-pregnancy pounds. Exasperated, I tried a famous weight-loss program three weeks ago and failed miserably. This well-known diet program whose name begins with J and C promised I would lose at least 5 pounds after my first week. Pssssh! No problem, I thought. So I wholeheartedly followed the program, ate their crappy food and faithfully logged my meals. I went to my first weigh-in only to find I’d lost a measly 2 OUNCES!! Screw that.

In my week here, I dropped 7 pounds. No pills. No 1000-calorie cardboard crap diets. No ooga-booga magic. Just plain, old-fashioned, kick-butt, working out. Yeah, baby! Now, that’s what I’m TALKIN’ ABOUT!!!!!!!! Bam!

No booty school dropouts here!

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