Lemondrop

The first week of 9 to Fine? We're not going to lie. It was a bit of what the Germans call eine asskïcker.

Since our first post last Tuesday (We'll be posting more frequently going forward -- our arms have just been so exhausted from pumping iron this week that it's been hard to type. Seriously.), we've met twice with Rowdy (the adorable yet evil taskmaster who trains us), started logging every morsel we put in our mouths through the dotFit program, and used some HIP NEW ACCESSORIES to figure out how much we're burning on the daily.

The dotFit site is a really powerful tool. It forces you to be conscious of your caloric intake and helps you realize your weaknesses. (Erin saw how prone she is to overdo it on the afternoon snacking, even if it's something "healthy," like pretzels.)

But the food log is just one part of it; dotFit is a serious treasure chest of fitness info including customized workouts, a "virtual coach," recipes and a sh**-ton of other important stuff that those of us who read US Weekly instead of Woman's Health know nothing about. (Frreal? Just check out the subjects the "Fitness Vault" covers. Mind-blowinggg!)

Even if you're not a Crunch member, you can still use dotFit. It's $29.95 to start and then $9.95 a month. But if you do want to join a gym, Crunch is offering Lemondrop readers a 1-week free trial and a bonus personal training session (click here to go straight to the Crunch page to redeem the offer).



So, how'd we do? Check it, yo.

FOOD
Forced to note every little bite we put in our respective pieholes [Ed. note: We miss pie], we were definitely shocked by the calories we consume on a daily basis. It's really fascinating, actually. Sometimes, we're way over our recommended intake -- Julieanne had a birthday, there was beer and ice cream cake; Erin went camping, there was beer and s'mores; Carrie's on vacation all week, we're giving her a bye. Other times, we've been way under -- Erin realized one day that at 3 o'clock, she'd only consumed about 500 calories ---- which is hardly enough to power a Roomba, let alone a human girl -- because she was "too busy to eat." We've always thought people who say that are assholes, but in truth, it's more like "We're too busy to eat smartly" -- when you're trying to be healthy and a bag of Doritos from the vending machine won't do. Those are calories we'd rather use at happy hour.

Last week we shared one of our favorite "Rowdy Revelations": There's no limit to what types of food we can eat (schnapps is a food!), just as long as we're hitting our target burned vs. consumed for the day. It's math, folks -- if you want to lose, you need to have a "caloric deficit." And now we've learned it's kind of hard to have a caloric deficit if you eat bacon-cheese fries and a Smuttynose IPA for dinner. Which brings us to another, less exciting Rowdy Revelation: "You know if you're going to have a night of drinking that you're going to have to do make up for it in cardio."

Oh, hey, you know what sucks when you have a hangover? CARDIO.

Moving on, here's a sample of a good(ish) day: Julieanne was just under her target calories:


And one not-so-good day: Julieanne skipped breakfast and chose "scotch" as an evening snack:


(WHOOPS.)

EXERCISE
You know what's awesome about working with a trainer? You do exercises you'd never do if you were working out alone.
You know what sucks about working with a trainer? There's a reason you never do those exercises. They suck. (MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS!)

During both of our hour-long training sessions, Rowdy guided us through a circuit of moves we could do on our own, from your garden-variety push-ups (which are, he says, perhaps the greatest all-over workout you can do) to some seriously punishing sh**. He made us do things like jump and squat on command. We swore at him. Our arms hurt so bad the next day we could barely wash our hair. The back of our thighs ached so bad it we dreaded sitting down to pee. But seeing that "caloric deficit" on dotFit, even after logging a few drinks, made the pain worth it. And, OK, we'll admit -- knowing that we're getting closer to our "goal" clothes felt good, too.

Here's a sample workout. It's a cruel, cruel summer here at Lemondrop.

Warm-Up/Core Circuit: 2 sets
Medicine Ball Oblique Twist: 20 reps
Prone Iso Abs (Elbows and Toes): 45 second hold
Quadruped Oppositive Arm/Leg (Cat/Cow): 15 each side
Mountain Climber (Erin's fave -- she says these are the single reason she quit softball in high school): 30 seconds

Circuit #1: 2 sets
KettleBell Swings (these were killer): 24 reps
Step Up to Balance: 12 each leg
Tubing Tricep Kickbacks: 15 reps

Circuit #2: 2 Sets
Bench Push-Up: 8-12 reps
Crunches (feet elevated): 20 reps
DB Chest Press: 15 reps
Bench Dips: 12-15 reps

Cooldown: 30-second holds
Calf-on-wall stretch
Kneeling-hip-flexor stretch

See? Super-evil.

ACCESSORIES!
Less evil? Crunch was awesome enough to let us use the Exerspy armband and digital-display-watch thing -- another part of the dotFit program. We wear them pretty much 24/7 (yes, even with tube tops and sundresses) and it tells us how many calories we've burned, and how many steps we've taken (at right, and modeled on Julieanne, top left -- and in case you were wondering, the gun show is THATAWAY).

The Exerspy is kind of like Lohan's SCRAM bracelet, but for nacho cheese instead of booze. We upload the info to dotFit, where it compares our calories burned and activity levels to the food we've logged. It keeps us honest, and it's been interesting to see the discrepancy between what the treadmill says we've burned and what we actually burned (the treadmill wayyy overestimates, sorry to break it to you). Seeing your actual calories burned is really surprising; we couldn't believe that those squat things Rowdy made us do didn't burn the caloric equivalent of a whole Christmas ham, but you can't argue with the Exerspy (though we did come close).

TEAMWORK
A huge part of 9 to Fine is making sure that we encourage each other. If you're working to lose weight, get in shape or, really, make any major lifestyle change, you need people in your corner, whether it's a family member, your competitive co-workers or your sadistic, Texan trainer. We've been trying to push ourselves to eat better, drink more water, get rest and hit the gym every damn day. It's hard to make excuses when you have two people who want to out-ab you ... but when the Exerspy implies that we've been lazy, that helps too.

PREVIOUSLY: 9 to Fine: The Beginning

NEXT WEEK: Our first official "progress report!"

Have your own fitness questions? Ask us on Facebook, tweet to us @lemondroptweets with the hashtag #9toFine or fill out the form below and we'll do our best to get them answered by professionals.