DAY 1 - Oh Joy!

I decided to hold off on a surgical solution to weight loss and attend a weight loss - "boot camp" style facility in Tampa. Florida for a period of 10 weeks. I am holding back on identifying the boot camp's name, I want to keep an "open mind" for now. I plan to add a separate information page with additional details of the boot camp, the check in experience, the facility and all the "doctor fun" I had to deal with the week prior to the start of the boot camp

Please note this is my first blog post and I'm cutting out a lot of detail until I get caught up, future post's will have more meat.

Couple of core reasons why I chose this boot camp:

1. While I was doing the research on a weight loss facility selection, I wanted to stay away from the facility that advertised more on the location and experience instead of the actual weight loss program, I am going there to lose weight, not enjoy a vacation. 
2. I wanted something "all inclusive" one price for the entire program.
3. I wanted to stay away from a fitness camp that says they can help you lose weight, this is good for those in semi-good shape looking to drop extra weight, not a good scenario for us bigger folks.
4. I wanted to find a facility that had smaller classes and had  experience with obese clients or even better, obesity was one of their specialties.
5. Wanted a program that was to include more than simply hours of excising to get the weight off, I was looking for education on nutrition and how to deal with external factors (aka stress) that lead to overeating.
6. Results from reading reviews from previous clients, A MUST!

Day 1 5/13/2019

7:15am - Meet in office for health interview, full body measurements, photos (to be posted later) and body fat analysis.

Key Numbers from Day One:

• Starting Weight 351.8
• BMI: 55.8
• Blood Pressure: 170 / 98
• Max Heart Rate during program: 160 BPM
• Average resting Heart Rate: 90 BPM 
• Max Calorie Intake during program: 1800

According to the body fat analysis the numbers say I am carrying 157.37 pounds of extra body fat, my ideal weight is around 194 pounds. Last time I was under 200 pounds I had a full head of hair and was in my last year of high school. I was told the target numbers are just that "targets" and that they need to be adjusted to take into consideration other body factors such as bone mass and body composition. Realistically 225 would be a more accurate target weight.

8:00am Breakfast & Snacks

Steal Oats with natural honey, 1 small apple, 2 small clementines,  1 oz of raw almonds

The Oats was actually very tasty, not a fan of any thing oats related but this can be an exception.

8:30am - Basic review of pre-workout requirements and warm up on several machines to measure heart cool down. Introduced to an elliptical this morning, beast of a machine. 10 minutes at a slow and steady pace or until heart rate reached 140 BPM.  Took 8 minutes for me to reach 140 BPM, was told to rest and measure time till heart rate was within 10% +/- of average resting rate, 2 1/2 minutes, was told this was very good considering my size / weight, OK works for me!

Did the same on a treadmill, this time walked at normal to medium rate, go 12 minutes at a slow and steady pace or until heart rate reached 140 BPM. This was difficult for me, after only 8 minutes and HR at 137 my right hip which was replaced in 2016 started to hurt, During the health interview, I was told to stop any exercise immediately if any discomfort /  pain was felt, this was very good advice, I stopped as directed.

9:30am - Stretching, lots of stretching procedures and non machine exercises, way to any to list in my first post, over an hour just on this. All reps counted and documented for current mobility tracking. A few of these I was unable to do.

More elliptical, I'm already hating this contraption...

11:45am - 1:00pm - Lunch Break

Back to room, taking a cold shower, wow I can feel the burn already my legs are on fire from the elliptical, very tired but not wiped out, looking forward to lunch, all meals are allegedly cooked fresh on premises and are delivered to your room.

Hamburger? Nope, Black Bean Veterinarian Burger, 1 slice of cheddar cheese with some kind of home made sauce with shredded carrots on two small THIN slices of Pita Bread, 1 cup of red grapes.

At first glance I was not impressed until I took a bite. Unbelievable, surprise real meat, under the fake burger some sliced Boars Head Turkey, the combination of ingredients used in this false cheeseburger was simply delicious! The grapes were fresh and cool, a nice finisher for a healthy lunch, so far the food is 5 out of 5

1:00pm - 2:30pm Low impact weight training

Warm-up and stretching first, then worked on three separate weight machines focusing on upper body strengthening. The concept I was told is large people can't do high impact aerobics so working with weights as the core exercise is what we are going to focus on first. I will get more detailed on the machines and the type of exercises in future post with pictures. Each exercise was based on 3 sets of 10 reps each. Another 8 minutes on the elliptical to close out the day.

Overall condition:

Very tired, some joints are burning but not totally wasted, a 2nd cool shower then relax time, looking forward for dinner delivery at 5:00pm.

Now this looks interesting, broiled sliced chicken breast, fresh green beans, cantaloupe  an a few low fat / low sodium garlic crackers. I have no freaking clue what is around the chicken, it's certainly not rice. Will have to find out what this is, but whatever it is, it has awesome flavor and added to the chicken, another fantastic and healthy meal. Most important from a food perspective I felt satisfied and was not hungry the rest of the evening.

Lights out at 9:30pm

Overall Day 1 Experience: 5 / 5