Last week: 387 lbs.

Start (Dec. 17): 470 lbs.

Total lost: 84 lbs.

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After eight months of working out in the gym, I’m finally starting to understand my fitness trainer. Not that he speaks a foreign language, but there is a certain amount of jargon involved in the fitness industry.

Jason McComber, general manager and director of personal training at Fitness Revolution in Lake Placid, gives members of the Take It Off weight-loss challenge exercise routines and fitness and weight-loss tips every week. He’s supportive, yet tough.

“Keep moving, keep moving,” he says during the workouts. “Twenty more minutes. No stopping.”

He and Seth Lang, the other trainer, try every trick in the book to keep us motivated. They clap feverishly. They say our names while roaming around the workout rooms. They inquire when people are missing.

“Where’s Andy?” Jason says between sets of exercises.

“He’s changing his shirt,” someone says.

After one shirt gets soaked with sweat, I swap it out for a dry one and keep moving until that one is soaked. By then, it’s time to leave. That’s what I mean when I say it’s a “two-shirt workout.” If I don’t fill two shirts with sweat, I’m not working hard enough. And when I soak three shirts, man, I’m moving.

This is my second 12-week Take It Off program with Jason. The first one was in the spring, and the second one will end next week. I expect to join my third Take It Off session when another one starts in January.

During the first couple of weeks of the program, the workouts are so tough that I dread going every Tuesday and Thursday. It’s two hours of hard work, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Plus, I always arrive 30 minutes early to warm up, walking on the treadmill for 10 minutes, stretching and then punching the speed bag as a concentration exercise. That’s a long night of pushing my muscles to the limit, being out of breath and filling two to three shirts with sweat.

Yet after several weeks, I get used to the routine. In fact, when I don’t exercise, I feel worse. Eventually, my dread of working out turns into anticipation. Strange as it may sound, I enjoy it now. I like having endorphins kick in. I like escaping the stress of everyday life, taking out my frustrations on a wall ball or a bench press. I like hanging out with my friends. Most of all, I like seeing results — being able to do things physically that I couldn’t do when I first walked in the gym in March.

And now that I’m stronger, I’m not afraid to do more. I recently began taking the BoomFit class with Seth on Friday evenings. It’s only one hour. I get a great workout, believe me, but it’s not as bad as the two-hour workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And now I’m making more friends.

I may not be losing the weight I want right now, but there’s no doubt I’m getting stronger. With that strength comes more confidence in my abilities. I still get sore, but my recovery time is shorter, so now I’m able to work out four to five times a week without any trouble. The hardest part is juggling my time, and I’m working hard to squeeze in those extra one-hour workouts.

Jason has always preached that we have to exercise at least five days a week. During the Take It Off program in the spring and early fall, I’d work out Tuesdays and Thursdays and walk the other three days because I was training for races such as the Lake Placid Half-Marathon. In the past few weeks, however, I’ve been trying to get to the gym on those walking days. Sometimes it’s tough to get motivated, especially on the weekend, but when I do, I feel much better.

In fact, now that I’m working out at the gym about five times a week, I’m starting to listen to Jason more. I see the results of his guidance and advice, and I’m hungry for more knowledge. During my first Take It Off round, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how machines worked and how to do certain exercises.

“What’s a standing DB corkscrew curl?” I’d say. “How about a cherry picker? A burpee? A sumo high pull? A KBSOHP?”

That’s a kettle bell squat overhead press.

I can finally take those workout sheets — listing all the exercises we need to accomplish in a certain amount of time — and follow them on my own time. If I need extra guidance, trainers are available to answer my questions. Now that I’m finally understanding this new language, I’m more comfortable, and I can walk around with more confidence.

When I first arrived at Fitness Revolution, I was like a fish out of water. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know how to use most of the equipment. I didn’t know any exercises. I was lost and intimidated by my own ignorance.

But I’ve found that Jason and his crew are extremely friendly and understanding. They genuinely want to help people improve their health and will go to great lengths to do so. Some staffers have even gone through their own weight-loss journeys and know exactly what I’m currently facing with the Lake Placid Diet. I’ve also found that most of the people going to the gym are just like me, average people trying to get healthy or maintain good health. Some members are world-class athletes, but most are not. I’ve found that all the people I’ve met — even the Olympians — are willing to help with questions. I’m finally feeling at home in the gym.