First Team Meeting

We had our first full group meeting last Wednesday night. It was a chance to meet the twenty plus people who will be climbing up the mountain next to me (ok, actually, far, far in front of me, but you get the picture).

The dreaded "get to know someone new" activity involved finding the person whose name was on the back of your name tag. I found my match right away. Now, let me digress a bit here and tell you I was one of those always picked last kids on the playground. Okay, that's a bit of a lie, when I was the last kid left, the team whose turn it was next would say something like, "We'll take the garbage can, that pile of clothing, and spot you four goals if you take her!" Now that I'm older (notice I didn't say grown up), I've gotten over those feelings of unwantedness. Thank goodness, because no one "found" me to introduce themself. The one person who unexpectedly was unable to show up had my name!

We learned a few intersting things. Tse tse flies, which carry sleeping sickness, are attracted to blue. Hmm, the group coats are all blue. Is that a coincidence?

We found out there is a one bag, thirty pound weight limit for luggage. There was a very loud, very panicked gasp from the back row and I'm sure that lady was on the verge of cancelling her trip before it was revealed the limit is only for climbing the mountain, not the whole three weeks.

Joan and Breanne, the fitness trainers leading us on this journey, made sure we knew that since we are all starting from different fitness levels, the goal is not to be uber fit next year, its just to be in better shape than we are now. The interesting thing is that my friend Helen can work out like a demon all year and if she's really lucky she may gain 1% fitness above where she is now. I can be dedicated and work out regularly and I'll gain about 1 x 10 to the power of 6 fitness! However, she'll still be way, way out of my fitness league!

Good things from this week:
Down 8 lbs in total

Pants are noticeably looser. I even fit into a smaller size shirt when the occasion demanded (Hello Kitty Valentine's shirt).

Two people asked if I'd lost weight, one was my BF, so that was expected, but the other was someone who doesn't particularly like me, so maybe I look more svelte.

I passed someone on the track! I wasn't sure what to do once I was in front of her, but settled for shoulder checking before cutting back into her lane rather than the mighty touch down dance I wanted to do.

I finished a workout and had that "My body feels good, strong and capable" feeling. As if I could conquer the world, or maybe I already did.

I have two new gym buddies, people who you see repeatedly when working out. We've now passed the nodding stage and have moved on to spontaneous "hi".

Weird moment of the week: I was on my treadmill at home, reading a book, going along at my tortoise speed when all of a sudden my body sent an emergency message to my brain, "I'm DONE!". My brain, obviously confused from lack of oxygen or carried away in the bodice ripper scene I was reading sent back a, "What are you taking about? The treadmill hasn't beeped and is still running - you're NOT finished yet!". Legs rebelled and won, workout ended.