Comparison Pic

Two Apple related things events (me trying to find my Ipod charger and in the process finding an old photo disk and me messing around with a new photo collage ap on my phone) culminated in the pic below of me before my journey (left) and the current me (right):



It's good to look back (especially when you're feeling frustrated) to see how far you've come.   It will some times blow your mind and very often put the wind in your sails for the continued journey.  :) 

The Finish Line Awaits

Some dreams stay with you forever 
Drag you round and bring you back to where you were
Some dreams keep on getting better 
Gotta keep believing if you wanna know for sure
...Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart.
~ Eli Young Band

When you've been at this a while, inevitably there are times when you don't have your mojo.  We all have days when we're not at our most motivated, but what happens when the new wears off, when things become old hat, when it seems like the road reaches outwards towards infinity and what you're working towards seems less like working towards your goal/dream, and more like just plain work.   Have you been there?  Do you feel like you're there now?

Don't feel guilty or let panic overtake you if you find yourself in this situation.   It doesn't mean you don't want your dream as much as you once did, or that you are doomed to be a failure.  This is just the inevitable thing that happens to even them most dedicated of us humans.  We take our eye off the prize sometimes when we are on an extended journey.  We forget about our desire for our destination and throw all our concentration on the every day mechanics of getting there, to the point where we resent the steps we must take and begin to doubt the confident stride that got us this far down the road to begin with.

One of my awesome workout buddies, Stephanie, was did the half-marathon portion of this past weekend's Beach2Battleship Triathalon.  She had not previously run 13.1 miles and was a little nervous.  Those of us who workout with her had no doubts whatsoever that she could do it; Steph is one of those people who inspire me to push harder in hopes of being in her kind of shape one day.

Saturday I was doing my usual volunteer work at the aid station, handing out water, etc to the athletes as they ran by, and I was anxiously looking for Steph,. My voice was hoarse from a recent bad cold (imagine Darth Vadar meets the Godfather), but as soon as I saw her round the corner and come running towards me, I yelled for all I was worth and jumped up and down.  She high-fived me as she ran by and told me later that around mile 11 of the 13.1, she felt like there was no way she was going to be able to finish. She had lost sight of the fact that she had just run the majority of the race (something that a lot of people can't imagine doing ever in their lives), and was doubting that she could finish the remaining two.  She then told me that when she heard me screaming for her and saw me jumping up and down, it spurred her on to finish her first half-marathon.   

Do my cheers have supernatural powers?  Nope (sadly).  Steph had the ability within herself the whole time to get to the finish line, she'd just gotten weary of the road under her feet.  Boy can I identify with that!  I am so guilty of forgetting the awesomeness of achieving my goal and instead letting the mechanics of getting there make me weary.  

I say to you as I say to myself: pull that dream back to the forefront of your mind.  Meditate and marinade on it until the desire for that dream outweighs the weariness, temptation, and self-doubt that clouded that dream in the first place. The finish line awaits.

Wanna Be Starting Something?

Sometimes all you need to put the fire back into your workout is a change in music. You can tell when you've listened to the same workout mix too many times when you're in the middle of your regular life outside the gym and when Pitbull comes on you've suddenly dropped down into burpees.  Then everyone's looking at you like you're crazy.  And then you really feel bad about yourself because you're the lunatic doing burpees voluntarily.  But I digress...let's just say that some new tunes were needed.

My awesome friend Regina not only provided us with the workout template that is now named after her (10 stations with one minute of an exercise, one minute of cardio, 10 push ups and 10 sit-ups at each station) but she also brought with her the Ipod speaker and the 80's cardio mix on Pandora.

The musical flashback was fun and distracting, whether using the cardio portion of a round to recreate Jennifer Beal's famous Flashdance moves (She's a maniac, mayyyyyyyyniac) or putting a little more funk into our curl presses with the King of Pop (ya wanna be startin' somethin').  And aren't those lyrics reflective of the frustration of the inevitable plateau (too high to get over, to low to get under....yeah yeah)?

In tunes, as in workouts, variety is the spark that will re-fuel your fire.   But be warned: new tunes spurs you on to push harder.  And a harder push leaves you Hungry Like A Wolf.

Another Sunny Workout

We are loving this weather! Sometimes all you need is a little climate change to revive your energy and motivation!

Seabiscuit Workout!

Since it was Friday and um GORGEOUS outside, we decided that we had to break free of the gym and head to the Riverwalk for our workout today.

I'd devised a workout using only bands but had yet to come up with a name for it. Shortly into the exercise (intervals of doing different exercises with the bands and dragging each other back and forth) I ended up hollering out the word "Seabiscuit!" as my friend Jenn flew past Rick and I, with Liz in tow like Jenn was the famed race horse.  So thus, the Seabiscuit Workout was born!

Liz and Jenn preparing to take off.

Rick and I (he's itching to go).

Hercules!  Hercules!

Me in the "reigns".

Erica, Lauren, Rick, Flo, Liz, Kaycie and I at the end of the workout.

As always guys it was fun and awesome!!!!

TGIF!  I am planning on thoroughly enjoying this weekend's weather!

We May Be Crazy...

Although I hate to see summer go, the slight change in the weather around here towards more Autumn temperatures has been welcomed!  It has put a new pep in my step and makes me think of shiny red apples, bonfires, pumpkin spice candles, and the smell of a big pile of leaves right before you throw yourself into it.  It also has made the gym a lot less crowded as a lot of us don't want to be cooped up indoors on our lunch hour if we can help it.

Having sworn off outside earlier in the summer when the heat, humidity and mosquito population increased, the slight dip in temp tempted us back outside today.  We had such a great workout with just some bands and the shaded street next to the office.

Millie and Regina groan as we band walk up the hill and back down.

We did some body weight exercises (like squats, arm circles, and wall-sits) then did some old elementary school arm circles (it will make you sweat) before grabbing our bands again.  Millie looked at me and said, "What are we gonna do now?"   "Drag each other up and down the hill." I said plainly and she looked at me like I was, as she says, "loca".

Saddle Up: Regina, Kaycie, Flo, Veronica and Mille get ready to "mush" up the hill.

 

 

First we did the hill in pairs, then we decided to really test our endurance and our trust in each other by dragging all of us in a group up the hill.  I started and took the first trip down and up again and then each person got to be "lead dog", and believe me, it is a workout for everyone, not just the one in the front.

Millie's turn up front followed by Regina, Kaycie, Flo and Me

We had a blast being outside and doing another one of our wacky workouts.  Yeah we got several stares but hey, we don't mind.  We may be crazy, but we're never boring.

Regina, me,  and Veronica

This Workout is a Motivator

Do you remember those bug zappers from childhood summer nights, those blue florescent things that would lure flying insect in with their neon glow and then proceed to turn around and zap the “the tar” (to use a Southern workaround for cursing) out of said naïve bug?  Well last week I was the bug and a nasty strain of norovirus was the zapper.  

I felt fine Tuesday morning and worked out with my trainers and buddies in the afternoon, even though I was beginning to feel nausea creeping in. At one point Jeff and Marisa had the eight of us lined up in planks and I looked up at Rick and said, “I feel like I could throw up.” But, I took this as the sign of a good workout and kept going.

Wrong!  Although it was a good workout, I later on found myself really, really sick.  This was very frustrating for me because: one, stomach viruses…SUCK and two: I haven’t been really sick in a long time.  Before I lost weight, I used to get sick about every six to eight weeks with something or other…but I’ve discovered that a pleasant side effect of weight loss is an improved immune system.  Needless to say, I’ve gotten used to it and therefore make a really lousy and cranky patient when I do get sick.

I was also pretty cranky when I got back into the gym this week and realized that missing a workout for three days puts you about two weeks behind where you had previously worked up to.   It’s so frustrating to not be able bounce right back.  My inner toddler wanted to throw something until I thought about all of my friends who have come back to working out after maternity leave and have been like rock stars.  Three days out of the gym? Wah wah little baby, I said to myself, these ladies have been out of the gym three months and look at their positive attitude and come-back skills.

So I have been doing my best to push myself past this little speed bump on the journey.  That’s not to say I haven’t said a few “workarounds for cursing” while at the gym this week.  We have an inside joke in our workout group that sprung from a network-censored version of the movie Resident Evil in which Millie told us that the TV editors had substituted a certain curse word for the benign word “motivator.”  So for instance the TV version would be like, “I’m gonna get that motivator.” Or “We need more motivating weapons!”

Pass us in the middle of one of our workouts and you’re likely to hear renditions of this in the form of, “This workout is a motivator!” or “I’m tired of these motivating burpees!” or “He’s lifting those weights like a motivator!”  So we complain. We feel frustration (especially after being out and having to work up to certain levels again).  We make faces at each other. But, we also say “motivator” and get things done.  It helps!  J