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Editor’s Note: I am currently going through the Farrell’s Extreme Bodyshaping 10-week program. I introduced my reasons previously, and this is part six in a 10 part series following me throughout the program.

I had the butterflies and nerves again late last week in regards to my 10-week journey at Farrell’s Extreme Bodyshaping.

We had our five-week testing since we were halfway through the program, and a lot of thoughts raced through my head.

What if there isn’t any improvement?

What if everyone else has left me in the dust?

How am I going to shape the column if things don’t go well?

Luckily, after doing the testing on Friday, I was thrilled to say I don’t have to answer any of those questions.

The only testing we did were our sit ups and push ups and although I’ve avoided the scale up until now, I wanted to check out that number too on my own just to see where I was at.

The first test we did on Friday was the sit ups. I remember my first day in the orientation being disappointed at my number. I thought I would’ve been able to do more than the 13 that I did that day, but that was just a driver to push me.

Not only do we frequently work abs, but I’ve also had a fellow 10-weeker, Jim, push me to do some extra sit ups and push ups with him after some of our classes, and all the work really paid off by week five. I was able to do 33 full sit ups in a minute, more than doubling my starting number of 13.

Next up in the testing were the push ups. I already knew I was getting better in those, but again, I didn’t quite know what the true results would be. When I started class, I could not do a real push up from my hands and feet. I needed to be on my knees to do them. But, a few weeks ago in class, I tried some real push ups and was able to get near double digits, so I knew my numbers would do well in the five week testing.

I stuck to doing the push up tests from my knees because it’s impossible to compare the two different kinds of push ups and translating the numbers wouldn’t work. But, I was pleasantly surprised again. I went from doing 24 on orientation five weeks ago to 43 of them after five weeks.

That number seemed like a pipe dream five weeks ago. I didn’t think anything like that was even going to be remotely possible, but now I’m excited to just keep pushing to the 10 week finish line.

My final test that I did on my own was step on the scale. I hadn’t done it since the beginning of class and despite it taking the least amount of effort, it was the result I was most nervous for.

You know the typical sayings...

You’re building muscle, so you may not see weight loss.

Muscle weighs more than fat.

I didn’t start losing weight until eight to 10 weeks.

All of those literally and figuratively weighed heavily on my mind. I knew based on my testing results that I had gained a lot of strength and muscle in the past five weeks, but I had made so many changes in my activity level and in my eating habits that I won’t lie, I was going to be disappointed if I didn’t see much of a result on the scale.

But, after zeroing the scale out and stepping on it,  I sheepishly peeked down at the number and a sense of relief rushed through me. I had dropped nearly 20 pounds in the first five weeks. I didn’t have a specific goal in mind when I started, but when I Google’d what 20 pounds of fat looked like, I was ecstatic with that result.

Aly also crushed her five week testing, which was an awesome feeling for both of us. She has been battling a sore knee for the last couple of weeks and although she could feel herself getting a bit stronger, she didn’t think she was going to have much of an improvement at all when it came to the sit ups and push ups.

She couldn’t have been any more wrong. In the sit up exercise, she went from 16 at orientation five weeks ago to 29 this week and in the push ups, she went from 13 to 28.

I was so proud of her for battling through her knee pain and earning those results.

It hasn’t been easy for her at times, but she hasn’t missed a single class yet and is working her tail off.

We typically pair up with other people for our cardio kickboxing, but Farrell’s has something called ‘Fun Friday’ where you rotate bag partners throughout the class, so Aly and I decided to start together on a bag. On our first kicking exercise, Al led off with a right round and she pounded that bag harder than most of my kicks. The ‘thwack’ sound her leg made on the bag each time pushed me to work harder and set the tone for my day. She’s killing it out there.

The testing really reinvigorated me and Al for the second half. We both have enjoyed the workouts, but at times the nutrition has been tough, and there was a few times when we wondered if it was worth it. If the results were really going to be there. But after seeing where we are at now compared to where we were five weeks ago, it makes it all feel great.

As this column comes out, we are halfway through week six and powering through to the home stretch soon. Things have picked up even more as I’m now going straight from my Wednesday workout to softball, and Aly goes straight from her Thursday workout to volleyball, and then we both play volleyball on our off day.

As the weather gets nicer, the urge to enjoy a patio beer or a greasy burger goes up, but we will stay true to the course and keep grinding for the next four and a half weeks.

Wish us luck!

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