A New Beginning

Yesterday, the Farrell's journey officially started.  At 8 a.m., I took a step test to ensure that I would not die during the ten-week program, and then I was sent upstairs for the "real" work.  First, we received our gloves, our wraps, and our student manuals.

Then, apparently Farrell's had decided that enough time had passed since we were first mortified by posing in spandex shorts and sports bras for our modeling session, and sent us to Mortification Stage Two by measuring our weight and body fat.  I have only two things to say about that: 1.) I much prefer my scale at home, and 2.) I will not be revealing those numbers until they are much different.

The next stage of pre-assessment was physical testing.  First, we did the sit-and-reach test.  Normally this is my strong suit, as I have always been super-flexible.  Unfortunately, BFF and I went for a four-mile run run/walk the day before, and I did not stretch like I should've.  My hammies were tight!  Second, we did push-ups and sit-ups.  Interestingly, I was able to do more push-ups than sit-ups, which really surprised me.  I definitely see those numbers changing significantly (both by increasing and by switching places for "the lead") at the end of the ten weeks.  Finally, we ran a mile (my Garmin, however, said we ran 1.1 miles).  I was really proud of myself because it was really chilly and hard to breathe, but I didn't stop once.

You may be thinking, "Emily, you ran a marathon just five months ago - you should be able to run a mile without stopping, you dummy."  To that I say, "Yes, but I have run maybe five times since then, so shove it, you meanie."

It certainly wasn't my fastest mile time, but it was close to my time for the Grand Blue Mile in 2011, so I think that's decent.  (And I'm totally counting the mile time according to my Garmin, not the 1.1 time that Farrell's is telling me.)

Following the physical assessment, we had an hour-long nutrition seminar with Tyler (?) from Max Muscle.  It was super informative, and while much of it was information I already knew, I learned a lot - which is likely why I had such a tough time figuring out my meal plan (more on that later).

Finally, the morning ended with a techniques session in which we learned and practiced the different punches and kicks that we will be using during kickboxing: the jab, the cross, the hook, the upper, the knee strike, the front kick, and the roundhouse.  I remembered each of these fairly well from my previous Farrell's experience, but during this "practice" session, I really tried to keep my hands by my cheek and chin like The Boy has been telling me and also worked on really twisting my body to maximize my core workout.  I also realized I had been doing uppercuts incorrectly, so I focused on improving that form.  While it was supposed to just be a short session to practice technique, we actually got quite a good workout, and I definitely broke a sweat.

And I'm feeling it today.

I'm so out of shape.

So, moving on to the meal plan.  Like most sound nutritional plans, Farrell's recommends eating six small "meals" per day.  According to the crazy formula that they have, I should be eating 33 grams of carbs at five of the six meals (no carbs before bedtime) and between 14-18 grams of protein at each meal.  There are two things thus far that are tripping me up:

1. Tyler (?) said that no more than 50% of our carbohydrates should come from sugar.  That is really, really hard to do.  I mean, fruit is almost entirely sugar, and I'm sorry, but I'm not giving that up.  (He certainly did not say to not eat fruit, but he did say to try and eat it before noon.)  Does anyone have recommendations for carbohydrates that do not have too much sugar?
2. Many of the protein options also have a lot of fat.  Granted, this is healthy fat, but it is fat nonetheless.

The first week's meal plan took me nearly three hours to put together.  I know it'll get much easier once I have a basis for what I'm supposed to be doing, but whoa.

Last night, The Boy and I went to Hy-Vee to pick up the bazillion groceries I would need for the week.  I was dreading the total, but it was "only" $111.  With that huge sum of money, we got a huge bag of chicken, a bag o' oatmeal, coffee, and other expensive things that would last us a while.  Granted, it was a lot of money, but I was expecting it to be much more.

As an example, this is the meal plan that I figured out for today:

	SUNDAY
BREAKFAST	2 eggs + bell peppers + toast w/cheese slice + Metamucil p: 20g c: 25g f: 16g
SNACK	Banana + almond butter + string cheese p: 13g c: 33g f: 19g
LUNCH	Tuna (w/celery, mustard, lemon juice) + toast + ¼ c cot. cheese + grapes p: 19g c: 33g f:2g
SNACK	1 tomato + 2 oz mozzarella + apple p: 16g c: 36g f: 11g
DINNER	Av-mango chicken + ¼ c brown rice + veggies p: 9g c: 28g f: 8g
SNACK	2 pieces string cheese p: 14g c: 0g f: 5g

And I did that for six days.  Yikes.

So, with no further ado, here's my breakfast, per the meal plan:

I scrambled two eggs with half a green pepper and topped that concoction with some Louisiana Hot Sauce (the best).  And on the side, I had one piece of whole-wheat toast with a piece of provolone cheese.  And, of course, a cup of coffee.

Oh, and some Metamucil -- because apparently I'm 80 years old.

Well, since it's officially the last day of spring break, I'm off to figure out exactly what I'm doing tomorrow in class.

Peace out!