I’ve always been a girl who was good with numbers.
I mean, on average, I watch Mean Girls at least once a week—which is 52 times a year, my friends.
So I figured numbers would be a good way to update you on my life thus far, as told from my last check-in date of July 14th:
Days until competition – 136 days (for those of you who are curious, that is 11,826,423 seconds. You’re welcome.)
Total days on diet – 29 days
Total pounds lost – 13 lbs.
Percentage body fat lost – 8%
Meals per day – 6
Total cardio – 315 minutes per week
Full-time job at lululemon – 40 hours a week
Lead teaching at Pure Barre – 8ish hours a week
Amount of sleep – Wait…what’s sleep?
As the old saying goes, you’ll never work a day in your life if you love what you do. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do and I love my life. But man, I am feeling a bit delirious from working so hard right about now.
All of this training is new to me; I mean, like, real new. I went to the gym the other day and realized how difficult it is to “squat until I hate my life,” as Calvin instructed me. I’m a girl who prides herself on confidence, but this stuff is really knocking me off my game.
I think my confidence is building the more I become more comfortable with my everyday routine, which is my great segue to tell you a little bit more about me—and who doesn’t love a good Barrett Gargala story? (If you need more convincing that training matters, Gabrielle Reece shares her fitness and health secrets.)
I went to the University of Kentucky (Go CATS! #BBN) with dreams to become a sexologist. I mean, we all know at this point that I wanted to be famous, so do you remember Dr. Ruth Westheimer on Lifetime in the ‘90s? Well, I wanted to be her – but the young, hot version of her that was on Bravo. I realized however, that you needed a doctorate to do that, or people would just think I was some crazy person who liked to talk about sex.
I’ve had awful daydreams of being like the gym teacher in Mean Girls, intoning to a bunch of students, “Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant. And die.” Yeah, I just shuttered at that thought too.
It hit me then that a doctorate would require many, many more years of school, and to be honest, I was burned out. While trying to figure out my life purpose as 20-years-olds are apt to do, I found fitness as a way to deal with the stress of “real life,” which brought me to Pure Barre.
Metaphor 3: Sometimes Happy Hour Isn’t Always at That Kind of Bar
Remember my recurring theme of my life of being “all-or-nothing” or “being an addict?” Well, I started working the front desk at Pure Barre Louisville two months after my first class. It seemed like it only took a blink of an eye for me to become a teacher and teach an average of 10 classes per week out of the 30-some offered. Yeah, I’m not surprised either that it happened that fast.
It amazes me how quickly life can go by. I mean, if we step back out of the fast lane that I live in now, I started Pure Barre just over 4 years ago. That is crazy: while my personal life has been up and down, and my work life has taken me across the country, Pure Barre has been a steady staple all the way through.
One of the first things I did when I knew I was moving to Fort Myers was to see if there was a studio in the area. I felt like it was just another part of the plan: as it happened, Fort Myers was just about to open their doors and needed another teacher. Because of that, I have met some great friends and locals in the Fort Myers community from Pure Barre.
There is something about feeling like you’re an expert at something. Just looking back at my life in numbers right now, I know that what I’m doing is hard. Thankfully, I have so much support around me that it lifts me up on the bad days. But you know what also picks me up? Pure Barre. Going into the studio, whether it is with the mic on or not, allows me to feel back on top, which fills me back up to (sometimes reluctantly) get back under the squat rack or pull-up bar.
And the squats and pull-ups are well underway. In addition to the photos here, follow me on Instagram @bgargala for photos of me doing said exercises, or just some awesome Pinterest quotes.
But here’s the real news – brace yourself. Next post will be the first ever progress photo. But please, no paparazzi photos after that if you see me around Fort Myers. 😉
Want to see some other athletes making great progress? Read on…
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