Why I Love Extreme Boot Camp

I've never really been a morning person. But for the past seven months, I've been dragging my 45-year-old body out of bed at 4:45 a.m. to get to 5:30 Extreme Boot Camp five days a week.

The weird thing is I absolutely love it.

Not a very athletic person for much of my life, I did manage to run four full marathons in my late 30s and early 40s (albeit slowly, with my best time 5:09) to prove to myself that I could do it. Sure, I barfed behind a dumpster after the first one and had some nasty digestive issues after the third one, but each time, I crossed the finish line, and that was the point.

Lower-body strength wasn't a problem. But I never cross-trained or picked up weights while preparing for the marathons, so my upper body was like the Pillsbury Doughboy's. When a friend mentioned a boot camp program near my Southern California home, I was intrigued. Could I build some upper-body strength? And after having two kids, did I even have abs in there? Could boot camp make me a better -- possibly even faster -- runner? I wanted to find out.

So I signed up in February 2011, and I just finished my fourth six-week session of Extreme Boot Camp Tustin Ranch.

Boot camps -- outdoor exercise programs -- are springing up all over. Many strive to help people lose weight; all are fashioned to build muscle and whip campers into great shape.

At EBC, as we call it, you "test in" before the first class and record your results. Test-in involves running a timed mile and doing as many sit-ups and push-ups as you can in two minutes, and you write your stats in your "Survival Guide and Mess Log," along with your weight, BMI and measurements (waist, thigh, upper chest, calf and bicep). At the end of the session, you "test out," repeating the same timed exercises and recording your new weight and measurements.

Before I started, I could do one push-up and 37 sit-ups and ran an 11:56 mile. Since February, I've lost 14 pounds and 13.75 inches overall. I can do 29 push-ups and 66 sit-ups and run a 7:51 mile. My husband thinks my biceps look killer.

What happens at boot camp? On any given day, we might run a few miles, work with weights, do core-building exercises on mats, jump rope, or tackle an obstacle course (such as bear crawls in the dirt, crab walks in the mud and flipping tires). We also do plyometrics, resistance training and steep-hill drills. The exercises for the week are designed to be interesting and different, and I can say from firsthand experience that they're never boring. Participants at all levels of fitness and all ages do EBC (campers in my last class ranged from 17 to their late 50s); instructors always demonstrate modifications to exercise for those who need them.

It's not just about exercise, though. Extreme Boot Camp's nutrition component is an important part of the program. When I started, I had to write down everything I ate and drank during the six-week session. Instructors check the mess log daily and give "rewards" (such as extra push-ups and lunges after class) for infractions (such as indulging in Skittles and brownie-topped hot fudge sundaes).

Why the super-strict attention to diet?

"[It's] not rocket science or anything secret or special -- it's just good, basic nutritional guidelines," says Tracy Zimmerman, one of my instructors. "It's easy to learn...the hardest part is the implementation and discipline to stick with it."

Before Boot Camp, I'd have earned "rewards" for much of what I ate, but I've made some healthy changes to my diet, including swapping the sugar in my morning tea for Truvia and refraining from eating an entire package of Red Vines for lunch. If I can tweak my diet, I think I'm proof that anyone can do it.

Boot camp is about making the commitment to change bad habits to good ones -- like, for instance, eating fat-free, sugar-free pudding for dessert instead of ice cream and exercising instead of sleeping in every day.

I'm not going to lie: There are many mornings when my alarm blares at 4:45 a.m. and I don't want to crawl out of bed. But it's on those very mornings, when I do get up and go to boot camp, that I feel the most invigorated when class is over. I often walk to my car afterward, sweaty and dirty, thinking "It's good to be alive." Is there any better payoff for getting up early?

SecondAct contributor Lynn Pomije is a writer and editor in Southern California.