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02 July 2012

Day 36: Start the week off right - Hit the ground running!

Endurance, Fountain of Youth and Facing Our Fears
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Another early morning spin class and I meet a rail thin woman with 0 body fat. Being the friendly person that I am, I ask her if she's been spinning long and she says for years and she's also a marathon runner. Not an ounce of body fat on her. She is wearing a short tank top/sports bra so you can see perfectly flat abs and tiny short shorts.

As I put on my spin shoes, I tell her I have just started triathlon training and am enjoying spin classes but I have not taken my new bike out yet. The petals have cleats, (like the spin bikes) and I need some practice getting in and out of them easily, while moving, before I hit the streets with the team. She's been biking for years, she says, and asks me if I want some advice. She won't wear cleats, it's too scary for her, and her friend is all black and blue from falling off her bike because she can't get out of the cleats fast enough when she has to stop. She wears her running shoes and she's fine with that. "Wear knee pads." she tells me and I'm thinking elbow pads too and maybe wrist guards.

We're warming up on the bikes and I ask her if she's planning to be in any races soon. She shakes her head and says she doesn't really do that anymore. She's been going through a horrible 5 year divorce, and she's learned endurance through her exercising. She's always been an athlete and the endurance helped her persevere while some one less strong would have given up long ago. She said "Exercising is the Fountain of Youth. I look younger than women twenty years younger than I am." and she does.

I admired how she learned endurance in sports and carried it over into her personal life. She felt confident in herself and how she looked while also being vulnerable. She was clear about what she was willing to risk and what she wasn't, and it was something simple like cleats on her shoes and bike petals.

What was too scary for her, I jumped right on. Sink or swim. I bought cleated spin shoes out of the gate and what a difference it made in my experience of spin class. And yet, what kind of a big shot am I on a trainer? That's what holds the bike in place in a spin class or store - basically like training wheels. The real test is taking it to the road and I have not done that yet for all my excuses. We all have our Achilles Heels, don't we? What's yours?

01 July 2012

Day 35: Spin, Beach bodies and Male Strippers.

What's more inspirational than the Olympic Trials?


Sunday morning started with an early kick ass spin class with my triathlon coach who pushes, pushes, pushes, me to add more resistance, go faster, stand taller, yaddie, yaddie, dah. He tells me he's disappointed with me that I don't ride and run with the rest of the team on Saturday mornings at 6:30 am. He tells me to get past the mental and do it. "It's not mental." or so I think. I have other commitments I tell him. "What, like a date?" he asks. As if that's the only reason one would not rally to take a long bike ride and run.

Regardless, it was an excellent spin class and he is a good coach. His pushing will get me out there on the road for a bike ride and run. I need to be pushed to get out of my comfort zone. I watch the other people in the spin class, some are younger and thinner and many more look older, wider, and slower. I have moved from the back row to the second row, so I can see myself in the mirror and have an unobstructed view of the instructor. It was a great way to start the day.

My sister and I spent a wonderful day at the beach soaking up the sun and riding the waves with the boogie board which snapped in half from the rough waves. We had lots of fun and the stress just left our bodies as we laughed. The only way we could leave the beach was to plan to go to the movies to see semi-naked male bodies and great dancing in "Magic Mike" which is about male strippers.

The movie was so-so with the best parts being the male dancers and the stripping. It was so provocative and entertaining, and the theater was filled with all women.

Later back at home, I had to watch the Olympic Trials. I thought of all the hard work and hours these kids put in and these athletes were in the best shape possible to compete for the opportunity to represent the USA in the Olympics in London. I wanted everyone to win and found watching the Olympics to be addicting.

Watching these athletes doing their personal bests is inspiring. They all have coaches pushing them to get there. No one does it alone.

30 June 2012

Day 34: If I can do this I can do that.

What I learned from writing every day


No matter how I feel, how tired, or stressed, I write every day. It's a non-negotiable. Not quite a ritual, it's a process that challenges and teaches me. Finding my voice. Sitting at my computer and bleeding.

I started blogging to write about my weight loss journey. My goal was to lose 20 lbs in 8 weeks and today is the deadline. Maybe I lost 5 lbs. The amount became unimportant. The journey became everything.

Learning how to eat healthy for my life style, portion control, the importance of daily exercise on so many levels, getting plenty of rest, drinking lots of water, nurturing my mind with good books, audio tapes, and music, connecting with family and friends and making new friends/contacts, choosing to take the road less traveled and not the easy way out.

The writing has pulled this all together for me. My energy gets divided between all these important areas in my life depending on the day. What's been consistent is my writing. It's taught me discipline, which is not a word I thought I would love, and yet it's exactly what this journey is about and what I needed.

If you have discipline and patience, you have the skills to be successful in anything you want to achieve.




30 June 2012

Weigh-in: 130.8 lb lost so far: 4.2 lb still to go: 15.8 lb Diet followed reasonably well
   add comment losing 0.4 lb a week

29 June 2012

Day 33: When one task leads to another to cleaning out the frig...

Gotta start somewhere!


Today I worked from home and being right before July 4th weird week holiday it was a bit slow. I've been working hard on a time sensitive project, got caught up, and needed to give my brain a rest for awhile. My sister calls me a hoarder, which of course is an exaggeration, of my relaxed attitude towards house cleaning. My papers pile up and I sorted through them, creating a more productive work area. My T-shirt drawers were jammed and wouldn't shut properly so they needed to get straightened out. The clean clothes got put away, hand washables got washed and my recipe books were found under a stack of papers. I decided to cook some healthy meals and have them on hand for the week.

To find ingredients for certain recipes I had to look through the frig and freezer and there was food there that expired years ago. Now there's a lot more room in the frig. I was multi-tasking with my recipes and making grilled cheese for the kids. Taking calls, consulting and shredding papers. It was a great day and a lot got accomplished.

This holiday I am definitely taking time to take care of myself. The energy is there.

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