The Work Ahead

Half way through the month of January and I feel on fire. My workouts have been going really well. I've spent a lot of time looking at different moves and adding some in to my strength training. Mixing it up a bit. My diet has been going well too. One day last week I was on emotional overload. I knew that if went straight home after work I would be on edge and not okay. I went to the gym for a second workout. WOWZA! I know a lot of people who do two a days to mix things up. I am excited to report that I ran further than I normally do and at a much faster pace. That second workout was a great way to help my body process all of those emotions and thoughts. I'm hoping to try and do this one or two days a week. I've also spent time in the past week reviewing the journey through pictures.

The review leads me to dichotomy of emotion. I'm proud of how far I have come, and overwhelmed with how far I have to go. My goal is to get another 50 pounds off. In my position as an elementary school counselor, I work more frequently than I care to admit speaking with young girls about body image. Yet, I find it so easy to fall into the trap of examining edited images where there is no flaw to be found. Looking at pics and videos for strength training is good on the one hand because I learn a lot, but challenging on the other because I look at those bodies and feel overwhelmed at the thought of how much work is still before me. In case you are wondering, it's my abs and thighs that bother me the most. And it's not just the pics of others I look at. It's me too. It's still difficult to look in the mirror. There are times when I am working out and catch a glimpse of myself and become disgusted. Yes! I do what I tell my students to do. I think of all the things I like about myself. I think of how far I've come. JEESH! It doesn't change what is right there before me! It doesn't remove the fat that is still there that I need to eliminate. Trainer Mike and I talked recently about my goal to lose 50 more pounds. He stressed the importance of monitoring my body fat percentage. I know he's right and I will, but it still feels like an incredulous task. (Let me just insert that I LOVE that I can still ask Trainer Mike for help and he is so understanding and willing to be there for me.) Diet is 80% of the battle before me. I am getting much better at making sure I eat. I eat both breakfast and lunch at work so there are many times I'm burning calories while I'm eating because I'm walking with my food, but at least I'm not longer using interruptions as an excuse to skip eating. Now if I can get serious about logging my food into my Fit Bit so I can make sure I'm taking in enough calories, I'll be much more confident that I'm doing everything I need to do. I hope 2014 is off to a great start in many ways, but especially your health and fitness. Take care of YOU!