A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!

I love competition. When I was younger I participated in several organized team sports – a lot of hockey (both roller and ice), lacrosse, soccer, basketball, flag football, baseball, and softball. I sought out good leagues with good teams and players and I loved competing. In hockey I played a decent quality game for an amateur, I was better at hockey than any of the other sports I played.  There’s something special about hockey as a player – the game requires so much concentration and draws you in so much, that you simply cannot think about anything but the moment you are in.  I loved competing so much, especially in hockey, that I forgot about the amazing workout I was getting while practicing and playing.

Me, turning it up-ice, circa 2001

Then I stopped with all the team sports. I got hit right in the mouth with a slap shot, which is by far the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced – then I moved to Chicago and, not knowing anyone here, lapsed into inactivity. Now, I’ve been working out very hard at Train With Ron for a year and a quarter, and lately I’ve been getting the itch to play a team sport again.  I think I’m just about ready.  I am going to try hockey, and see how my hips, knees, and especially ankles hold up. Hockey is a sport that really beats on you physically and I don’t want to do anything that will jeopardize my ability to continue with my workout routine at TWR, but I’m going to give it a go and see what happens.  I signed up for a local roller league (coincidentally roller hockey is more physically difficult to play than ice).

When I think about playing team hockey it reminds me of the last team I was on and the feeling of camaraderie we had.  We played together for 5 or 6 years and we just knew each other very well.  We were a good team, not great, but we definitely pushed each other, cheered each other on, and made each other better.  I miss that a lot.

Luckily, I’m getting a preview of it at Train With Ron before I get back out to skating!

You see, the Biggest Loser Challenge is going on at TWR right now and there are two teams – the AM team and the PM team – competing for respect, health, and prizes.  Monika and I both joined, although we are competing against each other, Moni on the AM squad and me in the PM. The first challenge we had this week was The Ten Minute Tank Challenge.  This consists of pushing a dolly loaded with weights about 35 yards over sport turf, back and forth (you must turn the tank at each end of the strip), as many times as you can within a ten minute window.  I’m not sure how much weight the women are pushing but for the men, it was 300 pounds.

I watched my teammates doing it the previous nights this week.  I cheered them on, coached them up, pushed them a bit, and high fived them when they did great.  It was a  blast and it gave me that feeling of being on a team, which I just love – it brings out that competitive part of me that strives to perform at a high level and get the people on my team doing that too.

I knew all day today that I would have my chance to do The Tank tonight.  I felt the impending surge of competitive adrenaline all day today… it was that feeling like I had a game later that night.  That competitive psych-up feeling was pervasive for me all day and amped up even higher on my walk to the gym.  It got really intense for me during my warmup and I was just telling myself, “YOU ARE GOING TO EXCEL AT THIS.  YOU ARE GOING FOR THE HIGHEST SCORE TONIGHT.  YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE UP OR QUIT – YOU ARE GOING TO GIVE THESE TEN MINUTES EVERY LAST BIT YOU’VE GOT.”

Well, I did just that.  I was able to complete 16 trips with The Tank, which is tied for the second most by any of the competitors (someone on the AM team did get 17, which is amazing).  I might have been able to get one more trip completed but I took one too many 10 second breaks.  I did push myself to the limits, and it just felt awesome for me that I was able to put up a really good performance for my team.  A year ago, I would have been lucky to do half as many.  I had people cheering me on and patting me on the back when I was done and it just felt fantastic.

I LOVE COMPETING – and I love that I can now, thanks to all the hard work we’ve done over the last 15 months.