Another "Camp" and a Metabolism Lesson

I tried out another “camp” (I won’t call it boot camp, as I don’t think it’s a much like what I just finished.) Blaine is a personal trainer and she is also certified in nutrition. You can join her camp or do one on one personal training sessions. The month long “camp” is outdoors rain or shine at various locations around town and the workouts are similar to what I did last month. There are two workouts per week and the cost $70 each month. You also get support from her via email or phone and before and after measurements.

A couple of my friends have been training with her for a while and really rave about her. The thing I really liked about this her is that for every task she gave us to do, she showed a few modified ways to do it and stressed that we should only do what we were comfortable with and to stop for water when ever needed. There were about 15 of us there last night. We did an obstacle course at a school playground. The workout was tough, but enjoyable. It was a mixture of cardio (jogging from station to station) and strength training.

After the workout, a few of us gathered at a picnic table and Blaine was happy to answer our questions (I wasn’t the only first timer there). Of course my first question was about the diet. She said that she gives us a guideline but since we were all different she would be available to answer questions or we could schedule an appt for a nutritional consultation with her to personalize it more. She also stated that 1200 calories was likely too low for me to be eating. I appreciated that when I told her about the struggles I’ve had over the last month; she didn’t have bad things to say about the trainer and was very professional. Our area is a small pond and I appreciate that she didn’t try to pump herself up by putting another local trainer down.

She spent some time explaining metabolism in layman’s terms. This was stuff I kind of knew, but the analogy she used was fantastic and I am going to paraphrase and share it with you.
She said your metabolism is like a bon fire. There are a lot of options of what we can put on the fire. Some fuels like newspaper (simple carbs, fruit) burn quickly but don't keep the fire going long term. Newspaper is fine to use on the fire, but realize that it will need something more substantial in order to keep going.
Some things like plastic bottles or garbage (sugar, white flour) burn too, but they really just really change composition and actually leave a nasty residue. Little twigs burn, but not for very long (meals with not enough calories, quick, easily digestible protein)
Nice sized logs keep the fire burning for a while (good sized meals three to four hours apart, quality protein, and whole grain carbs). You will need to add a log every few hours though in order to keep the fire burning.
But be careful, if you put to many logs on the fire, it will smother and go out (over eating, binging) another side effect is that log since it didn’t get burned up, stays right there and is being stored (like your body stores extra calories as fat).

I haven't decided if I am going to sign up for the month. The budget doesn't look good for this month to squeak an extra $70 out. I may just take it easy this and do my kettle bell classes in June and fill in with bike rides and long walks with the dogs. The next session starts on Monday so I'd better make up my mind soon.