I took pictures of myself after p90x/at the beginning of ChaLean Extreme. When I looked at the pictures I thought, “That doesn’t look like how I feel!” I felt so much stronger and better about myself than what my picture showed. When compared to other fitness pictures I just didn’t feel like I measured up. But something to remember about the pictures we see in magazines…they’re airbrushed…mine weren’t…and mine weren’t taken with some expensive professional grade camera. I’ve still made progress that others notice when they see me which confirms that it’s not fabricated in my head. Is it as much as some crazy infomercial transformation? No. But realistic progress without airbrushing? Yes!
I hope that as I change both inside and out because of fitness I can inspire other people to get fit too.
(via reasonstobefit)
10 days left of p90x then bring on ChaLean Extreme!
(via reasonstobefit)
The other day I started reading Chalene Johnson’s book PUSH. I’m gearing up to start ChaLean Extreme so I thought this would be an added bonus to the program. In the beginning she talked about how it wasn’t just about fitness and nutrition but a full life re-evaluation and make over. I thought I didn’t have much remodeling to do but I was wrong…as usual.
Day 1 was creating a priority statement and that made sense, gave me some clarity. Day 2 was creating 10 “crazy cool if it happened” goals. I can do that. Day 3 was about finding my push goal. The one goal that made many, if not all of the other goals possible. I thought I knew my answer but this funny thing happened. I surprised even myself.
You see I have goals of wanting to pay off debt, go on a vacation that isn’t somehow associated with a wedding (although weddings are fun, it’s a celebration, not necessarily a vacation), become a beachbody coach, maybe even get a dog. But financially I need to get my butt a kickin’. So I thought my push goal would be to pay off debt. However, there was the third goal I’d written down that was just calling my name. It read, “I will have an elementary teaching position again.”
Last year I taught fifth graders at an inner city school. I found sadly enough that it wasn’t the right fit for me and took it very personally. I’d failed. I changed positions and started teaching preschoolers, who I love more than anything. You never know what will come out of their mouths. But more than that it’s been a blessing. God foresaw a lot of things I didn’t. I’m grateful that He presented me with the path that He did because I wouldn’t have had things like the time with my grandmother before she passed away if I was still in an elementary classroom. But at the same time there’s a little piece of me feeling that going back to an elementary classroom is where I should be, and that’s scary. It also would provide me with a greater income (although I do make most than other preschool teachers in town), in turn making achieving my other goals easier and faster. So today when it said “Push goal” instead of writing that I wanted to get rid of my debt so I could do all these other things, I wrote down the goal of getting an elementary teaching position. It certainly isn’t the easiest and I’m not sure if that’s what God has in store for me, but maybe the Push goal was the divine intervention I needed to get over that fear of failure and start to look down that road further.
I currently have only 2 weeks left of p90x. It’s incredible how strong I’m feeling and the changes I’m starting to notice with my body, although sometimes I feel like it’s not as visible to people that aren’t seeing me flex my muscles. It’s a work in progress. It’s better than where I was but I still have more I want to do. So after p90x I’m taking on ChaLean Extreme with Chalene Johnson. I heard about here new book PUSH pictured above. I went out and bought it and I think it’s going to be an educational 30 days of changing habits to new ones that will help me achieve not just my fitness but life goals. The last few months have gotten me fired up and so excited about fitness. But they’ve also gotten me fired up about pushing through all the doubts and self consciousness to start becoming a stronger, happier person. I am so much happier and prouder of who I am and what I’m doing with my life. And I can’t wait to see what other exciting things are down the road for me!
To often we get comfortable in life - in our jobs, in our choice of activities, in everything - including our bodies. I had…until recently. But p90x wasn’t just about getting back to working out. It was about getting outside my comfort zone. Sure I could go to a gym and run 20 minutes but that never got me anywhere and it didn’t really challenge my body all that much.
Day 1 of p90x I found myself swearing up and down because I felt beyond challenged. I felt discouraged by how weak I’d let my body get. I never thought that weakness would go away. I’d be a relatively slender but a weak girl forever.
I knew back in the days of swimming year round I could be fit and muscular, but that was 9 years ago. There was no way I’d get back there. Yesterday I learned that I could accomplish my goal of decline push-ups by working at building my core and upper body strength.
Today I learned that I’d gotten to comfortable with my fitness. I’d challenged myself in the beginning and learned to modify because full out exercises were a little too hard. But I never got out of modifying them. I let myself get to comfortable and into modifying. And really I did myself a disservice because not only did I let myself get comfortable, I started doubting and limiting myself. But as of yesterday that’s ended. I pushed myself to accomplish something I didn’t know if I ever would. Today when I approached my not so beloved plyometrics I reminded myself to try hard, not modify, push myself. And I did. It felt amazing. I felt stronger, more accomplished, and more determined.
Now if only I could transfer this new found belief to all areas of my life…
When I started p90x Rod showed me a decline push-up. Put your feet up on the bench of the bowflex, hands on the push-up stands…your feet are higher than your head making the push-ups harder. I thought he was on crack but I tried…and got stuck at the bottom of the push-up unable to come back up…epic fail.
Throughout p90x I modified the push-ups to do them on my knees. Recently I’ve done some standard push-ups. So today during day 1 of week 9 I got to the part of the workout with my favorite two words: decline push-ups. Rod asked if I wanted to try. In my head all I could think was, “I’m going to get stuck again.” But what I said was, “Let’s try it.” So I tried…I just wanted to be able to do 1…I did 10!
The feeling of accomplishment was incredible! It led me to try dive bomber push-ups and success! Round 2 of doing the exercises all over again…well I did all of the push-ups: standard, wide, military, even diamond push-ups all without modifying them! The second round even included 10 more decline push-ups.
And yes I’m a girl. When I finished Rod gave me a pen and I got to cross off decline push-ups cause yay I accomplished it. I then started to cry happy tears. And as ridiculous as that may sound decline push-ups were something I didn’t think I’d be able to do by the end of p90x let alone week 9! And even better, when I changed out of my workout clothes I got to see that I’m starting to develop muscles that haven’t been there since I was 15…that’s 9 years ago!
The feeling of accomplishment of achieving a goal is exciting. The ability to do more physically than I used to be able to…well I love feeling that strength that wasn’t always there. I love seeing that my body’s starting to look better than it has in years. And it’s because of the hard work and dedication of working out and good nutrition. It reminds me why I need to be consistent with my workouts and improving my nutrition is important. But today, well, it was a great start to 2012!
It’s January 1st and people love to make New Year’s resolutions. But what if we stopped making resolutions for just the year? What if we stopped limiting ourselves? So this year instead of setting a resolution for the year I’m continuing a lifelong goal I set in 2011.
My major goal is to continue to improve my health through nutrition and fitness so that I am able to manage stress and live the long fulfilling life I believe God intended for me. That goal is much easier said than done. However, it’s not about changing and sticking to it all overnight. I’ve been blessed with a very supportive boyfriend. He continues to tell me that it is a process and that it will take time. I’m reminded that no one is perfect so I’m going to slip up from time to time. But keeping in mind why I try to eat well and workout will help me to stay focused on my goal.
But that’s the beauty of a lifelong goal instead of a New Year’s resolution. I don’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to do it overnight. It doesn’t have to be done by the time 2013 comes. It’s not about reaching a number.
So what is it about? It’s about being able to manage stress. It’s about making life more enjoyable through that management. It’s about having the strength and endurance to go out on adventures either on my own or with those I love. It’s about not being limited by physical limitations - or as much as possible limiting the chances of developing physical limitations. It’s about being able to, God willing, be around to make lots of memories with friends, with family.
Are there other goals - like taking more quiet time at the end of the day and writing more - yes, but this goal about my health, this is my lifelong goal. This is what I will be working towards for the rest of my life.
So what is your lifelong goal? What do you want to start that you don’t have to be perfect at right away? That doesn’t need to be accomplished by the end of the year?
Recently I decided that I wanted to look into The Love Dare…it’s a 40 day challenge based on the Bible and how to love another through faith. Today was day 21 which asked me to spend some time in my Bible. It’s been a while and I didn’t know where to start…so I started in a chapter I really loved and thought was applicable. 1 Corinthians 13…the whole love is patient, love is kind chapter that’s read at so many weddings. It reminded me a lot of what I’d read about so far in the book.
And then I jumped around a little more…and along my Bible jumping journey I came back to almost where I’d started…I went to 1 Corinthians 12. There were some parts that really struck me today. For instance, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” (1 Cor 12:4-6)
Sometime I struggle within my current relationship. I try to remember that different people have different strengths. Where I am weak, Rod is very strong, supportive, and motivating. Where I am strong sometimes he struggles and although I always ask, “Is there anything else I can do?” My support and positivity is usually all I can offer. The rest is up to him. That balance between strengths and weakness is so incredibly beautiful, but at times it can seem like a curse…I’m strong in an area and I can give wisdom and support, praise and encouragement…but at the same time I can’t work on improving that area. He has to choose to do so for himself. And when that area is easy for me, when I’m good at it, it sometimes seems harder to understand why he can’t just do what I do, why he can’t just take my advice and put it into practice.
However, on the flip side he’s amazing at fitness. It’s a routine for him. For me…well let’s just say some days it’s harder than others to convince myself to get movin’ and groovin’ and eating right. He can tell me all the benefits, he can remind me how much it helps manage my stress and keep my body strong…but at 6am when I’m struggling to get out of bed I have to make the decision. I have to get over the obstacle of wanting to stay in my nice warm, comfy bed to go get my butt kicked by Tony Horton.
And so when I’m struggling to understand why he struggles, I have to understand the flip side. His routines are my struggles and maybe sometimes my routines are his struggles. But that’s why God put us together…because if we were both weak in the same area how would we support one another and help one another? We’d both be lost and frustrated about the same things.
Regardless…our gifts, our strengths, our acts of service…they may differ a bit here and there, but they are all from and connected to the same Lord. Crazy, cool how He does that. :)
When nannying recently one of the little boys said, “Look how big that tree is!” As we stood near the base (which was much larger than my arms could reach around it) I found myself in awe. How big the tree, how many the leaves. I don’t know the last time I just stood and marveled at something so simple, but yet so incredible. Take some time…look up through the branches of a giant tree. :)
