I should be in bed , it's 6:48 am and I woke up in the middle of the night and as I was writing a bad review for a show I recently attended , I thought I would go ahead and finally talk about OTF. Let's start off with why OTF? If you are someone like me who really hate going to the gym like it's the last place you will ever find me if I went missing , then this place is for you . OTF is group gym fitness with 5X what you normally pay for places like LA fitness. The pros of this place is if you are willing to spend 149.00 a month which is what I pay for this gym , then you better get your butt in the gym if not daily at least 5 times a week. The thing about losing weight is being consistent with trying to lose weight. The minute you stop going to the gym and stay home to be a couch potato , you will gain weight. If you are naturally skinny , I guess this doesn't apply to you . Lucky ! For most of us unhealthy looking people , and I say "looking" meaning that not all people with a little chub is eating 20 donuts or pizza daily . Some of us just don't have the lean cut muscles definition but we are still eating clean . Do I want to look like a lean cut machine , wash board abs , thigh gapping in my shorts , of course I do !! But it takes a lot more than just eating salads daily . So this is where the gym comes in . From my previous posts , you know that I love to dance for fitness and losing weight and I hate going to the gym . In fact I paid LA fitness 32 dollars for two years and only have gone every 6 months for a few days . Let's just say that was a waste of money . My main problem is I need motivation and people to motivate me in order to workout . I wasn't able to find a workout partner to go to LA fitness because even 32 dollars was too much for my friends to pay or they live too far . I know I should be depending on myself to lose weight and making myself go to the gym . The other problem was also the fact when I go , I don't push myself . Finally OTF is the answer to my problems . A place where you are not the only victim , many people attend with you and going through the torture alongside you . Plus you get a heart rate monitor and your name appears on the screen so everyone knows who is falling behind. My first week there , I was able to hit a few points in the orange zone which just means my heart rate is high enough to get some after workout burns . The only problem is I need at least 12 points which I haven't been able to get since I signed up a month ago . Did I mention you need to hit 12 points a class . So for some people with high heart rates , you can get in the Orange zone just by walking . For people like me , I have to be running a 6.0 or higher for more than 2 minutes to get in that zone . A 6.0 for a short girl like me ? Think lots of strides and steps to keep the treadmill from throwing me off ! On the treadmill you get base pace , push pace and all out . I'm not really too out of shape to be considered a walker , but I'm not that good to be consider a runner . So I'm kind of like a walker slash jogger. What I would do is walk 3.2 when they say go to base pace and run 5.0 when they say push and then 6.5 to 7 when they say all out. This method doesn't really put me in the Orange zone , I get no points even though I feel like I'm busting my ass ! And first week I got a few Orange zones even red zones at 105 heart rate by walking an incline of 5, at speed 3.2. Let's just say that never happened again by second week . My body got more in shape and walking was not enough for me anymore , soon jogging was too easy unless I wanted to kill my legs and jog a 6.5 and above or jog for 10 minutes straight at 5.0, I was never getting in the Orange zone. Today the teacher called out 3 min push , 1 min rest , or 45 second rest in between . Let's just say I pretty much jogged the entire time without stopping for 10 minutes straight . The only reason I did that is because the entire screen is Orange where everyone is in Orange zone but me who is in green . And the teacher made sure she mentioned my name being the only one not there . So something in me told myself that I had to prove to her I can get in the Orange zone and I knew in my head if I stopped running I would immediately go from green to blue . So needless to say I pushed myself there and got 5 Orange points for being in the zone for 5 minutes . The problem with me is that the min I stopped running I could literally be in the blue zone which is below green and much farther from Orange . Some people who go there can be in the Orange zone while resting or sitting down , and for me , Immediately go to blue at rest within 30 seconds . It sucks because I feel like I'm jogging harder than the person next to me who's just walking and the person next to me is apparently getting more of a workout than me ? There was this girl who always got a whole bunch of Orange points but didn't lose weight . For me I got smaller and smaller . I guess what I'm saying here is just because you are not killing yourself to get in Orange , it doesn't mean you are not doing effective workouts. For example someone lifting weights could be in the grey zone because let's be honest your heart rate shouldn't be at 100 if you are just lifting Dumbbells . Not asking people to move a piano , just a few Dumbbells should not raise your heart that high unless you just have a high heart rate to begin with or you are seriously out of shape. So when I'm in the weight floor I'm almost at grey . So the point I'm making is that if you just attend class , and go through the workouts , even if you don't leave with your minimum 12 Orange points , don't kill yourself , you can still be changing physically and become skinnier and more toned . I went to OTF for 3 weeks straight and went at least 5 times a day missing Sundays usually and occasional Fridays or Saturdays because they don't have a night time schedule . Then work happened and I was forced to work early hours and felt exhausted for a week and half and didn't go to the gym and ate like a pig. So end result was I lost 4 pounds from the 3 weeks of hard work and gained it all back in one week. The defining moment was I stepped on the scale for the midweek weight loss challenge , to have the person work there record my weight and said nothing . A week and half ago I was sure I would be the top people winning the weight loss challenge and in one week I ruined everything . Also what pissed me off is the scale i had at home was telling me I was 10 pounds lighter when I'm not . So right before work week started I weighed myself only to find out I have only lost 4 pounds and my scale was selling me a dream and I finally woke up. I think that was another reason why I decided to eat junk again because I realize I wasn't even 142 , I'm 152. It seriously pissed me off and set me back a little . The good news is I got back in the OTF again and started working out . First day back I couldn't even run , my chest and throat felt like somebody forced a bucked of ice down and washed it with mint. Finally after 20 minutes of push pace , all out calls , I was able to jog towards my last 5 minutes with minimal chest and throat pain. Second day back I got better at jogging , this time with an empty stomach and gum chewing before class. Third day which is earlier yesterday , I got 5 points for running 10 minutes non stop on treadmill . Today is Sunday and I am thinking of going to the last possible 10:45 am class. So to end this long novel , I have to say I do think orange theory works , and if you want to get down to a size where it's okay to binge eat for a week because you still would look cute and sexy , for me that's losing 30 pounds at least and I have a long way to go before I could stop ruining my body in one week then this place is good to quickly get you there and also get you back on track when you mess up. The price is high to attend OTF which could be the main reason why some people show up to the class more often than LA fitness or Gold gym or whatever . So let's see if I can drop the 4 pounds I gained and get back to the old me 1 week ago . I'll keep you guys posted .
