60 days

Today I completed day 60 of the workitout100 challenge. Going back and looking at my day one photo compared to day sixty, I don't see a ton of difference, but there are changes.  Just because I can't immediately see them when I look in the mirror, doesn't mean that there aren't positive changes.  There is some slight definition in my arms compared to the first picture, as well as some in my legs.  There is also that when I started I had a hard time with some of the TRX moves, whereas now they are getting easier.  

I am happy with where I am now, but I also know I can't stay here.  I have more changes to make. I have made a lot of positive changes in my level of fitness, but also my commitment level.  It hasn't been perfect, not by a long shot, but I keep getting back up and keep pushing forward.  I have begun to make positive changes in my diet.  I haven't fully commited to that yet though.  I am drinking more water and less soda, and am trying to make healthy choices when we are out to eat.  The next step for our family will be cutting back on carbs from bread and refined sugar.  A friend of mine shared an article this week about why we are fat.  Our bodies are trapped in this vicious cycle because the fatter we are the more food our bodies tell us it wants.  When we cut back on the bread carbs and sugar, our bodies start to reset.  They quit craving things that will put us into a talespin.  That is my goal now, to reset my body.  We only get one body, so why not take care of it.

Adjust the Sails

I know that I just posted a few days ago, but I ran across a quote that I really like and it seemed appropriate, as I seem to keep applying it in my life.

"You can't direct the wind, but you can adjust the sails" - President Thomas S. Monson

Even when I have small hurdles, I don't just keep doing the same thing over and over again, I adjust and try something different.  I don't want to get into a rut and just stay there because it's comfortable.  I want to challenge myself and my body.  TRX is doing that for me right now.  It's a tough workout and there are times that I want to quit because it's that hard.  Quitting is not an option though, so you adjust and you make it work for you.  I will eventually be able to do spiderman push-ups and burpees, just not at this moment.  My job right now is to do what I can to make myself stronger so I can do them.  It's not going to just magically happen one day.  I have to do my part.

My goal once I have my CFT certification and can start training people, is to instill in them a desire to keep pushing everyday, even if they're not where they want to be right now, and even when some of the tasks are still out of their reach physically.  There are going to be some things that might be too difficult right off the bat.  That doesn't make them weak or inadequate, it just means that we need to take a step back, adjust the sails and work on a plan to get of where we want to be.  Life is full of ups and downs and challenges, we just need to work on getting through or over them, even if it means asking for help.  We can't expect a neglected body to perform at a high level.  We need to nurture it and feed it and then reward it for the work it has done for us.

My challenges have been with injury as well as my diet.  In the past I have asked a lot of my body and my muscles and I didn't properly feed/fuel it or reward it.  Thankfully I have learned from my mistakes and have actively made changes to both fuel and reward my body.  I have a supplement strategy to make sure that my muscles are getting what they need to be strong as well as to help them repair.  I'm taking a detox supplement because years of poor eating have caught up with my digestive system and I am finally setting the reset button.  I am strengthing more muscle groups so when I do ask a lot of my body during runs I won't have any imbalances that will overtax other muscle groups.  And the reward process for me is to stretch and foam roll sore muscles.  We only get one body, so we had best take care of it now.

Hopefully someone outthere is getting something positve out of my ramblings.  Happy running or lifting or TRXing!

Fall down 6 times get up 7

It doesn't matter how many times we fall down.  It only matters how many times we pick ourselves back up and keep pushing forward.  I won't ever say my fitness journey has been easy or even that consistent.  There are days that I don't want to workout or run or even eat healthy.  The trick is that you can't beat yourself up too much when you fall down, even if it's completely your fault.  You need to say "I made a mistake, but I will keep pushing forward".  I have had one of those weeks.  I was supposed to start week 3 of the TRX force workout, and I was really excited about it.  I underestimated how hard it was going to be. I tried week 3 day 1 and was quickly discouraged about 1) how much more difficult it was than I thought it would be and 2) that I just did not have the upper body strength to get through it, even with modifications.  Previously I would have scrapped the whole deal and not really gone back to TRX, but the new and more determined me said lets take this week to regroup and we will start weeks 1 and 2 over again, and do them again and again until I can safely move on to week 3.  This week was going to be difficult anyway since on Wednesday and Thursday when I would normally be in the gym, I had a Mother's Day breakfast at the school with my daughter and then Jury Duty. 

Fitness is not easy. Being healthy is not easy, especially not in the beginning. There are going to be days that we are thrown a curve and might not get our workouts in.  All we can do is try to make smart decisions the rest of the day and maybe sneak in some short workouts, even if it's only a few squats or calf raises.  This week, my healthy decisions were to try and get my diet and macros under better control.  For some time now I have had issues with my body not wanting to get rid of food, specifically bread/carbs.  I made a pit stop into Total Nutrition to see what I could do about it, short of cutting out carbs altogether.  Even though I know better, it was good to hear feedback and reaffirm that I need to take care of my insides as well as my exterior.  I have never done a cleanse before, but that is the direction I decided to go, to try and give myself a jump start.  I also am making sure that I give my muscles what it needs before and after my workouts.  I have never been good about taking vitamins or tracking what I eat, but this is me, getting back up and recommitting to track what I put into my body and make sure I'm giving it what it needs.  I know that it won't be easy, and I know that there is still a possibility of my falling down, but I will continue to get back up.