The men disappointed us. Today is Hot Pink Fun Friday and none of them wore pink. It's the 6:15 a.m. session of Dean and Nancy Carlson's Get Fit NH Boot Camp in Epsom, and I didn't exactly break out the neon myself. All I own are a couple of light pink T-shirts. I selected the one with a hummingbird on it to inspire me to reach beyond the speed of a brick.

This is my second attempt at boot camp. I attended Get Fit NH Boot Camp during June and July of 2008 and lost 15 pounds, becoming stronger than I thought possible. I am back and looking forward to getting into even better shape. Dean was my instructor for those two months, and his motivation helped me work harder and feel better. One of his maxims is, "If you're talking, you're not working hard enough." He was right.

The workouts I did in between boot camp sessions weren't as effective for me, due in part to an environment more conducive to talking than working to my fullest potential. When I work out at boot camp, I wheeze out a "thank you" to my teammates for their hard work, not a discussion on sports scores or politics.

Nancy is my instructor now, and she is just as fit and motivating as Dean. She can do pull-ups and one armed pushups. She often wears a Get Fit NH Boot Camp t-shirt that promises, "Your workout is our warm-up." This is true.

After Nancy leads us through stretching, we play "Crossing the River," which is like Twister without the colors. Nancy explains today's workout with dice. Think Yahtzee with sweat. We separate into two teams. Nancy encourages and advises as we begin a combination of squat thrusts, hip and thigh lifts, "prisoner" squats, pullovers, sprinkler heads, "Spider-Man" shuffles and ice skaters. We work out to the Star Wars theme, Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" and the theme from Rocky.

By the time we bring it in for the group cheer, I remember "The Hill." The Hill is steep. The Hill is wet, slippery grass at 7 a.m. I've done it almost each day since I started camp at the end of September. We cheer "Fun, Fantastic Five Friday!" and I head to The Hill with some of the other members. On the way there, we meet up with Dean and Nancy's son, Drew. He has been happily running the hills waiting for us. "Drew, how old are you?" asks Barbara. "I'm six!" he replies. "How many hills have you run today?" she asks. "Nine," he answers. We are running five.

"Here we go!" yells Tim, our incredibly fearless (and incredibly in-shape) leader, as we start up the hill that feels more like a wall. Drew keeps up easily. I'm gulping air. I finish the fifth hill behind everyone else and head back to my car.

Health inspirations

Dean's family inspired him to get healthy and start Get Fit NH Boot Camp. He and Nancy have six children, ages two to 23. By the time he was 35, Dean was out of shape and showing symptoms of Type II diabetes. He weighed more than 270 pounds and had a 46-inch waist.

In October of 2002, Nancy was five months pregnant with their fourth son, Andrew, when their son Derek, age 11 months, passed away from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (S.I.D.S.) "To call that a wake-up call would be a serious understatement," Dean said. "I realized how precious life is, and I realized the choices I was making were shortening mine."

Within nine months, Dean transformed to a weight of 185 pounds with a 34 inch waist. He began receiving so many compliments that he and Nancy decided to pursue training credentials.

Get Fit NH Boot Camp began in May 2008 at the Carlson's facility on New Orchard Road in Epsom; they now run five classes per day. Last June, they expanded to Concord and run two classes per day at the Concord Dance Academy. They also offer a blog, an e-newsletter with nutritional advice and personal attention between classes.

Their enterprise is part of a trend across the state and the country, as people discover the effectiveness of back-to-basics workouts and the value of the buddy system.

Boot camp differs from the traditional gym routine, in part because it doesn't use treadmills, elliptical machines and the like. Get Fit NH Boot Camp bills itself as "The Cure For the Common Workout."

"Everybody knows training and working out is hard, and our goal is to make that as fun as possible. If you can add laughs, hard work and sweat, you have boot camp," Nancy explained. "Nobody likes to work hard and sweat on their own, but they'll do it with a group," she said. "You build friends and relationships here."

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