Boot Camp Blogger is a look into the life of Boot Camp participant Tara. Follow along each week as she experiences the challenges and successes of Boot Camp the Extreme Fit way!

An important thing (well, many important things, but I’m focusing on one in particular today) has happened to me since I began participating in Extreme Fit Training’s Boot Camp: I’ve become completely obsessed with calories. I’m not saying this is a good or a bad thing; it’s just a new thing for me. I mean, of course I know eating a big Italian meal and topping it off with a bottle of wine is likely more calories than I need in an entire day, but I love Italian food and wine, so I used to just accept that I wasn’t making the healthiest choices and move on. But now, looking at a plate of lasagna makes me sweat, and drinking an extra glass of wine has me waking the next day mad at myself. 

So today was my mother’s birthday, and as a special treat, we decided to go to the movies (Couples Retreat is hilarious, by the way). Since I knew I’d want to get popcorn, I decided to save up my calories for the day and splurge (no, I didn’t skip breakfast, but I do plan to have a very light supper). In my former life (BBC [Before Boot Camp]), I would not only have popcorn, I’d top it off with a Coke Icee (sorry Valerie, I know your entire body is convulsing as you read this). But now, I just can’t wrap my brain around ingesting more than 1500 calories per day (preferably 1200 until I reach my weight-loss goal). So we went to the movies, and I had my popcorn. And it was fabulous!

When I got home, I had to do my second weekly workout for Month 3, Week 1. So I completed the first half and felt like I’d burned quite a few calories, but as always, life got in the way. A stray dog decided to go along on the run with my daughter and me, and Kensie loved it! She watched him like a hawk and squealed with delight when he came over and licked her across the face. But when we got back to the driveway, and I lay down on my mat to do my full sit-ups, plank holds, and the rest of the ab work, the dog spotted our cat. You can only imagine what ensued. As my daughter stood screaming at me from the garage, “Mommy, he’s trying to eat Torgo! Mommy! Save Torgo!”, I chased this dog around my car (yay, more burned calories!) trying to grab his collar and pull him away from my cat, who was hissing and screaming as if being tortured. By the time I got the dog away from the cat and the cat into the house and safe, it was dark, and I had to move the rest of my workout indoors. 

So I hopped on my stationary bike, set it for 20 minutes on a relatively tough setting, and started peddling. On this bike, you’ve got every number you could want at your fingertips: heart rate, pulse, distance, time, and the dreaded calories. The problem was that the calories just didn’t seem to be moving as quickly as I would have liked. So I increased my peddling, and still, the calories rose at a snail’s pace. According to our weekly agenda, I was to do 20 minutes and burn no fewer than 250 calories. At 10 minutes in, I knew there was no way I was going to hit 250 calories in 20 minutes. So I began to pedal as hard and as quickly as I could. Final number of calories burned in 20 minutes: 150. It had been nearly two hours since I began my workout (including the dog and cat debacle), and it was past time to feed my hungry daughter. So I had to accept the fact that I hadn’t burned what I’d wanted, and I there was no more time in my day to burn more. I was very disappointed. 

What I’ve concluded about the issue of calories for me is this: There has to be a happy medium. I have accepted the fact that I will never be a fanatic like my coach, Valerie, and that fitness will only be a small part of my life with everything else that I have to fit into a day. But it has become a much more important part of my life in the past few months—one that has made me a new, better version of me. I’ll never completely give up a good Italian meal and a luscious bottle of wine, but Extreme Fit Training and Coach Valerie have opened my eyes, and I will forever be grateful for that.