Truth & Grace: Strong Women

I've been going to my next-door neighbor Patsy Manning's Accelerate Boot Camp since the very first day she started it, in January 2009. That's our boot camp group pictured above, in Brookdale Park. We're all women with a couple of men [who keep us laughing with their jokes and groans]. That's Patsy with the hat, and I'm the tall one next to her.

Amazing Grace
You have got to see these women go. They are incredible, absolutely inspiring. They're fast, they're fun, parents or not, PTA moms, professionals [a lawyer, an engineer, a children's clothing designer]. They run their own lives and their own businesses. They are amazing. Some of them do things with very scary names like the "Warrior Dash," just for fun, on weekends.

I am a turtle compared to these hares. But we are all equals out on that field. We are all panting and sweating, and moaning inside or out when we have to lift those weights or lunge with those balls. Patsy is an awesome leader.

We meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:30 to 10:30 A.M. in Brookdale Park. If it's raining, or the dead of winter, we meet inside, at a church gymnasium. Patsy varies our routine every time, mixing up the sprints, jogs, squats, army crawls, lunges, shuffles, burpees, dips and shoulder presses so that we never get bored. She even does a 5:15 A.M. class M-W-F for early risers who head to work after.

Friends
Now we are friends also--uniquely committed to the same goal, always cheering each other on. Patsy took us all out for drinks and apps for the holidays; it was fun to see everyone in real clothes and makeup, rather than sweats and sweat. Patsy and Martha, another trainer, have led special free classes on Thanksgiving morning and New Year's Eve. When the tree fell on our house, I was brought to tears by the generosity of this group. And today, a bunch of us went over to Nicky's house for post-workout replenishment and then a caravan to Trader Joe's, to stock up on healthy groceries.

After the delicious yogurt parfaits and cucumber-lemon ice water, five of us headed to the Millburn store, one of Nicky's favorite haunts. I had been there once with my friend Anne, years ago.

It was fabulous. We egged each other on and caused traffic jams as we loaded up on Brussels sprouts, quinoa, energy bars at a good price, baby spinach, arugula, mangoes, avocados and hummus. I got Jarlsberg Lite at an excellent price.

Resistance Training
More importantly, we leaned on each other with the tough stuff: I was eyeing a frozen chocolate truffle cake that looked like it was to die for, but it was eight servings at 420 calories each and I knew I wouldn't have been able to pace myself.

"I won't lie," said Lisa, who runs like a gazelle and has three sons. "I've had it, and it's very good. But you know what, leave it behind."

Patsy picked up the frozen carrot cake, which looked amazing with its thick slick of cream cheese frosting. The box was heavy; you just knew it would be dense with carrots, nuts and oil. Patsy put it back.

I cradled the package of Florentine lace cookies, sandwiched with dark chocolate, a personal favorite.

"Look," I said to Patsy. "Don't these look delicious?"

"They do," said Patsy.

"Uh huh," said the Trader Joe's worker, nodding in agreement.

But no way I was going to buy them, not on this field trip. Nor would I succumb to the dark chocolate pretzel bark, the dipped butter cookies or the tubs of soft, colorful gumdrops.

A Healthy Dose of Chocolate
Near the checkout, I saw that Heidi had a canister of organic vanilla hemp protein powder, so I raced back and got one, especially after reading last night on the Vosges chocolate bar label that hemp is such a beauty miracle worker. The powder I bought is chocolate, made with organic cocoa. How bad can it be? Can mix in blender with skim milk, ice and even a banana. Will report back.

Also got a five-pack of 100-calorie 70% dark chocolate bars for $1.99, a Valrhona Le Noir Amer 71% cacao dark bittersweet chocolate bar [in that sexy black wrapper] for $2.99 and a bag of something I had never seen before: Dark Chocolate Mint UFOs, which are kind of like giant mint chocolate chips [but saucer-shaped], $3.99. A bit steep, but Figgy is excited to go away to the shore with her friend's family for two days this weekend, and I'm going to send along a batch of fabulous Baked brownies with those UFOs strategically landed on top. Am a sucker for baking ingredients like these.

Oh, happy, happy day. I thank my lucky stars for Patsy, and for all of my wonderful boot camp friends, who are out there working hard, rain or shine, all year long. They truly inspire me, in more ways than they can ever possibly know. They are strong but sweet, warriors with big hearts, brilliant minds and ironclad determination.