the BEAST!

Lately I've been getting my fitness on, doing something aerobic at the minimum of five times a week. I've been doing really good too, losing a total of 13 lbs., perhaps within the last two in a half months.

One would think that I'm doing it to feel better, and to look better but that could be the furthest from the truth. I had gotten into a rut where I really didn't care. I enjoyed eating. What happened was I got a physical and it was determined that I am a full blown diabetic. The doctor told me that I was too young for him to feed me poison and was sure that if I lost the pounds this whole diabetes thing would go away. Upon learning this diagnosis I became very angry and depressed upon the notion of having this disease. I hated knowing that I would be deprived of the very thing that gave me comfort within my loneliness in this city I would never call home. The idea pissed me off royally because it was another thing in my life I had to deal with when I would rather ignore.

My doctor made me go to a few classes on understanding diabetes and enlisted a registered dietitian to put me on track. This RD was a Navy bulldog that talked too loud and gave me a headache every time I met with him. I did learn a few things, like reading labels and relearning how to grocery shop. Soon the lifestyle began to change. When I went into the doctors office for a second checkup, I had already lost 7 lbs and my blood pressure was "outstanding" according to the nurse. My doctor gave me an A+ report. He told me as long as I continued my routine I could avoid the drugs, which our primary goal. I was eating healthier and my sugar levels began to be under my control. Not perfect, but in control. I figured eventually, if it got waaay out of control the loss of a foot could prevent me from wearing my bangin' shoes and boots. The alternative no longer became an option.

All of that leads me to today. About two weeks ago I joined the YMCA because the gym in my condo was no longer challenging me. I wanted to step my game up but when I joined the Y, I then turned around and filled out a cancellation notice to end November 15. My thoughts are that by Thanksgiving...its going to be a WRAP! Seriously, I would have improved my condition by my next doctors visit. Okay so for the past two weeks I've been eyeing this machine:

It is the Nautilus TreadClimber, I have been intimidated to say the least. One reason is because I don't walk straight and all kinds of foolishness runs through my mind about getting a shoe lace caught and falling on my arse. You see with this thing, as you step you are also climbing on an incline at the same damn time. I see people on it and it looked easy enough. Today I decided not to punk out, because another guy was on my treadmill that is hidden in a corner with a nice view of the city. When I finally got my coordination into gear, I immediately became winded! Like, I can't talk winded. It only had been a minute in a half. In three minutes I was sweating and burning calories faster that I thought could be possible in three minutes. When I got to five minutes I was ready to quit because that pang in my side started appear. THIS THING IS A BEAST!!!! I can't stop, wont stop... uhh, uhh no.
At six minutes (Dougie Fresh) I put my hands on the pads to check my heart rate. No it didn't say 161,162,163....162. I knew then that I was at my maximum heart rate. In six minutes!!! Are you kidding me???? I was looking around look to see if anybody could see that I was about to die. Nope, everybody including myself were into their iPods.

Oh, I didn't mention that I was only going at a rate of 3.0 with an incline of 3.5. On a traditional treadmill, I've gotten to a walking pace of 3.5 with a 3.5 incline, only to burn around 68 calories in 15 minutes. But on this BEAST I was barely moving and burned 68 calories in 6 minutes and my heart about to explode out of my chest. I thought, "Sheletha, just get to 15 minutes. You can get on the other treadmill for 30 minutes to finish your cardio." I agreed with myself and pressed on to 15 minutes on the BEAST!

In my iPod I have a 15 minute exercise play list...I was so happy when I got to my last song which is Marvin Sapps "Praise Him In Advance" And oh how I was praising Him as I was counting down the last minute and a half. Sapp's crescendo was the icing on the cake to finish that BEAST!

In the end I was more than a conqueror completing my fifteen minutes, 210 calories burned and I was astonished as I realized I didn't even complete a mile. Another day, another goal.

As of now I look like this: