Modify, Keep Moving, And Just Don't Stop

I've gotten to a point in my journey where I love to challenge myself.   I don't ever want to take it easy in the gym and I'm not satisfied unless I'm drenched in sweat, sore and utterly exhausted. A year ago, I looked at people who had this outlook on fitness and literally called them crazy...but that was before I drank the Kool Aid.

That being said, when my friends said they wanted to do the Hill workout again today, I was not looking forward to it.   The Hill just about broke me the last time we did it (The Hill), and it was hot, and a busy holiday weekend did not lend itself to exercise, but I'm up for whatever the majority wants to do and I've made it my mantra not to back down, so out to the hill we went. 

Standing at the bottom of the hill and looking up at the steep incline, I began to feel defeated already.  The last time I'd done the workout, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into but this time I was in full awareness of how hard things were about to get.  The sun was beating down on the asphalt of the street that afforded very little shade, the breeze that had made me optimistic on the walk over was nowhere in sight, and my weirdo sore toes gave an involuntary cramp.  My inner doubter (that has lately been beaten back into submission) was already telling me that I couldn't do it.  And so we began...

Usually our group is made up of ladies of all fitness levels and body types, but today it was just me and three of my friends who are in awesome shape.  Like gazelles they shot up the hill ahead of me and I chugged up behind in their wake.  These days I can do pretty much any workout that I attempt without modification and keep up with just about anyone, but suddenly on this hill I was back in that old place where I was the one who had to stop frequently and modify.  The sun beat down, my breathe was ragged, my legs were on fire and the only relief was the easy run back down the hill which was fleeting with the knowledge that I was going to just have to turn right around and deal with that hateful incline.  My mind told me over and over to stop, that I was going to hurt myself, that I simply couldn't do this.

But the cheers and high fives from my awesome friends drowned out the inner doubter and suddenly I took the old mindset from a year ago that was dragging me down and twisted it to my advantage.  What was my old philosophy back then, I asked myself, and answered: modify, keep moving, and just don't stop.

The lessons I learned today were:

• There will be times when I'm faced with things that are hard, but that doesn't mean that I'm back in my old state of un-fitness.
• The only way to get better is to keep challenging myself.  Growth doesn't happen from taking the easy way out.
• It's good to workout with people who can do more at this state than I can because they inspire me to move forward and give me a glimpse of my future.
• No matter what: modify, keep moving, and just don't stop.

So the hill may have kicked my butt today, but it didn't beat me down and it didn't break me.  And one of these days I will master it.

"I'm gonna cuss you tomorrow!"

Exercise makes you feel good...you get your body going, your blood flowing, your endorphins kick in, you feel the good burn, you push yourself past your limits and you end up leaving the gym feeling like you rule the world.  I myself get rather giddy and even more giggly than usual and I'm more often than not laughing like a hyena as I return to the locker room.   That being said, sometimes (no matter how much you like to work out) exercise can make even the cleanest of mouths involuntarily spit out a four letter word or two.  Maybe its because you're in the middle of a hateful set of squats and you feel like your quads are on fire, or maybe its because you moved your magazine to look at the time, thinking the timer on the elliptical was going to say fifteen minutes and only five have passed. One of my best friends (who shall remain anonymous) has even been known to get so frustrated with the way time seems to crawl the moment you step up on an elliptical machine, that she threw her water bottle across the room.  Thank goodness she works out at home or it wouldn't have been pretty.

We've been pushing it hard all week and today was no exception.  Our workout, courtesy of Pinterest, was as follows:

• 100 jumping jacks
• 90 crunches
• 80 squats
• 70 leg lifts
• 60 jumping jacks
• 50 crunches
• 40 squats
• 30 leg lifts
• 20 jumping jacks
• 10 bicep curls with weights

Like the maniacs we are, we ran through it twice.  Let me tell you,  twenty in to that squat set and you're ready to swear like a sailor.  And, if you're not ready to say a few choice ones at the time, the next day when you creep your way out of bed, muscles screaming in protest, you will.

Leaving work, one of my favorite workout buddies and I were predicting the shape we're going to be in tomorrow thanks to the workout above that was my suggestion today.  As we parted ways in the parking lot, she grinned and said, "I'm gonna cuss you tomorrow!" I just chuckled and realized, that makes two of us!

The Hill

In the ongoing effort of stepping it up (or going slowly insane, whichever definition you prefer) today we tackled my trainer Jeff's hill workout.   It looked pretty simple:  do some squats, run down the hill; do some jumping jacks, run up the hill (5 reps of this); then do some high knees, run down the hill; do some pushup rotations and run up the hill (5 reps of this) and then simply to finish up with two times up and down the hill.   No problem right?  We'll be done in no time right?

Ha ha.  The hill I thought Jeff meant was a nice, shady slope next to the gym and a rather short length.  Oh no. He was quick to correct me; the hill I thought we were heading for was a baby compared to the mother of a hill we were headed to one block down from work.  It was so steep that running down was a challenge in not tripping head over heels.

Here's us before the "Hill"; look how happy we look.  No pic of after but I am happy to report that we all survived.

 I love my workout girls because we're all different shapes, fitness levels, and ages, but everyone roots everyone else on and has fun sweating it out together.  There were a lot of high fives given through the ordeal that was that hill.

Not to sound braggish, but remarkably pretty much any exercise I set out to do these days I can do.  My strength and my stamina have really surprised me lately.   Well the Hill broke me today.   I don't know if it was the incline or the heat, but I didn't have it in me to go the last round.  No worries though.  I sat down in the shade, chugged my water and cheered my girls on.  Then we all walked back to the gym, relishing the breeze, and collapsed inside together.  And psychos that we are, we made plans to do it again.

3,000 Reps In 50 Minutes

The gym has a reputation as a place where the body takes over and the mind goes to rest.  While there are times when you go to the gym to just zone out and get your sweat-on, if you're really challenging yourself, the mind gets just as much of a workout as your body does.   The first part of it is just psyching yourself up for a challenge or, on the flip side, conquering the inner doubter.  The second part of the mental challenge comes with all the little tricks you use in order to concentrate on something else than how many reps or seconds you have left in whatever it is that you're doing. 

Today my friend Stephanie and I put both our bodies and our minds to the test with the 1,000 rep workout that we ran through three times.  Each round has 10 exercises that you have to do 100 times each and let me tell you...doing anything 100 times in a row is brutal.  When we'd done this particular workout last week we managed to get through it twice in an hour.  Today we got through it three times, for a total of 3,000 reps, in fifty minutes. 

Each exercise was challenging...100 seems like a long long way away, especially when you're doing something trifling like squats or running on the treadmill with no power, trying to get to 100 steps. Your body screams,  your muscles lock up, and you seem to get tired just counting to 100 over and over again, much less doing the movements.  But one thing I've found that works is to count to twenty-five four times as opposed to counting straight through from one to one hundred.   Twenty-five is a much more attainable number.

If we had set out thinking, "we've got to get through 3,000 reps" we would have most likely been defeated right at the start, but by mentally breaking it down into easy chunks, we got it done and surprised ourselves.  And an added bonus for me...realizing at the end of the workout how great of shape Stephanie is in and the fact that I had just hung with her every rep of the 3,000.

Milestone Buddy

I have to give a shout-out to my friend Katie who reached a big milestone this week with her weight loss: 50 pounds!!!  Katie and I have been on parallel paths in our weight loss journeys, at times with almost spooky similarities.   We lose weight at the same intervals, hit the same plateaus together, and then this week both hit major milestones, me 100 and her 50. 

Katie and I

My hat is off to Katie who has lost weight successfully even in the face of terrible back problems.  She really is a testament for the statement, "where there's a will, there's a way."  So she can't lift weights right now, no worries. She got on her bike and burned some major calories...all the way to a 50 pound victory.  You go Katie!  So happy to share this week of milestones with you!

Total Immersion

I'm one of those people that if I'm into something, I'm into it all the way or not at all.  Sometimes that's a good thing (i.e., working out) and sometimes that's a bad thing (i.e., Doritos and the couch).  When I started this journey, I jumped into it with both feet.  I put my story out there on the web, I told everyone I knew and some I didn't (i.e., people in line at Subway) my goals, and I attended triathalons and marathons either as a volunteer at a water station or cheering from the sidelines.  Just putting myself in situations where I was around athletic people put me in the mindset of the road ahead of me if I stuck to my guns.  The other thing I did was do my research: I scoured exercise magazines, checked out several gyms and different classes, quizzed my trainers, and cruised the internet to find out everything from what to eat, how to move, or what was going on with my stomach after a workout.   What all of that added up to was a state of total immersion that kept me engaged and always wanting more, whether that was trying something new in the gym or gaining more victories on the scale.

100 pounds and many months later, I'm still pleasantly surprised every day from the blessings that arise every day.   Today that surprise was the ten of my friends who wanted to do the workout I'd cooked up for my two regular workout buddies and myself.  There were so many of us that we had to book the group exercise room in our gym so that we'd have enough space. Then they made me get up in the front of the room to lead them. Now I am a back-row-in-class kinda girl (where else can I trip all over my feet and go the wrong direction undetected) so I was nervous about: one,  being front and center and two, making sure I gave them a good workout.  Soon though everyone was sweating and laughing and my nerves eased off. 

This journey is hard and it takes a lot of mental and physical energy to get where you want to go, but if you give yourself over to it, get into it, and work on getting over the things that make you uncomfortable, you will find some amazing things along the way...take it from me, a former Dorito-munching-couch-potato: anything is possible. Immerse yourself and see what happens.

100!

Today was an important milestone for me and the fulfillment of a goal that I've been working towards for a long time: losing 100 pounds.   I have been hovering over that number for months and although I didn't give up moving towards it, sometimes it just plain seemed like it wasn't going to happen.  I had a good feeling though when I stepped on the scale this afternoon that today was going to be the day. Two hours earlier,  when I was registering at 99 pounds, I looked down the digital readout, thought about all those lunches of veggies and brown rice and afternoons in the gym where I could wring out my shirt, and said, "REALLY?!!"   Luckily around that time my trainer Jeff was walking by and promised to write me up a workout that would burn that pound off.  Along with five other awesome girlfriends who have been with me literally through thick and thin, I sweated my way through Jeff's psycho 1,000 rep workout and although my legs and arms literally could take no more, as I stepped onto the scale it was worth it.

I am so excited to clear this first hurdle and move on to the next one but I can't leave this post without giving thanks for the many ways that I have been blessed:

• First and foremost: with God anything is possible.  I can't explain the reason why the motivation stuck this time out of the many times I've attempted this other than that God's hand was at work.  There is no other way that I could have gone from the state I was in to where I am now.   Many times during this journey I have felt His hand at work, lifting me up and keeping me going.  He is as much present in the gym as anywhere else, and believe me, there have  been many times I have called on Him in the middle of a workout!
• My husband has been my cheerleader and wonderful support along the way. He has eaten all my low cal cooking without complaint, cheered me on at my 5K, waited for 2 hours outside a zumba class I was attending, made sure I got up early on Saturdays for workouts, and cheerfully provided "opportunities" for me to burn calories helping him with yard work. 
• My awesome family and friends have had my back since the beginning.  No matter how many times they've seen me start and stop this process, they have always believed in me and the fact that this time it was going to work.  They have cheered every little milestone along the way. 
•  My trainers Jeff and Marisa believed in me before I could believe in myself and have given so much of their time and support in a way I could never repay.  I hope that I can encourage others the way they encouraged me.  
• My friends and coworkers and friends/coworkers have lifted me up, cheered me on, worked out by my side and shown me such overwhelming support that it blows my mind.   Having that daily reassurance helps more than they can ever imagine.   I cannot imagine a better working environment in which to get healthy and make this change.
• And to everyone who reads this blog: thank you.   I started it as a way to keep myself on the straight and narrow and to stay engaged.  I appreciate every time you've taken a minute to read it and hope that in some way it has helped you.  If you ever need encouragement, send me an email and I'll be glad to be there for you. Take it from me: you can start anytime on the path to success.

The journey to a triple digit loss has been at times frustrating and at overwhelming with joy to the point that it takes my breathe away.  I can't wait to travel farther...now on to the next fifty pounds!