Excuses and opportunities

I’ve been thinking a lot about one subject of late. Excuses…..so here we go with another post about excuses.

Last night I was at zumba. We were doing some move across the floor and my ankle flipped and I stumbled. The pain was immediate. I lifted my foot and started rotating it to stretch it out and see what was up. The pain was sharp for a few minutes then abated. Now let me tell you, this is not a rare occurrence. My ankles do this somewhat regularly. Todd is used to it….happens when we go out walking and hiking…happens in zumba…it just happens. Last night I sucked in my breath with pain and waited for a few minutes for the pain to subside. It did finally drop to a dull roar and I recommenced with the exercise. It still pricked painfully for a song or two…but overall it was ok. As I moved on the foot that was a little achy I started to think about it. For years upon years I used this phenomenon as an excuse as to why I couldn’t exercise. Last night I wasn’t going to be swayed. If the pain was intense I would have stopped. If the pain wouldn’t have eased up I would have stopped. I’m not in this to injure myself. However, I can’t abide by the excuses anymore!

I have eradicated excuses from my vocabulary in the last few months. I’ve pushed through sickness. I’ve pushed through bad weather. I’ve pushed through all sorts of obstacles. There is nothing going to stop me right now.

Consequentially, I’m kind of getting really sick of hearing everyone else’s excuses. Suck it up buttercup. Seriously, the excuses as to why you can’t do something is getting OLD! I don’t care if your leg fell off….get up and run! (Oh hell, I sound like Jillian Michaels now) I’m not saying that there are never any valid excuses. Quite the contrary, I think there does come along a valid excuse on occasion. I think that the true valid excuses are rare and far between. We give up and use anything we can come up with as an excuse.

We don’t run because we are uncomfortable. We don’t go to an exercise class because we have the sniffles. We skip going to the gym because we are tired and don’t want to get out of bed. I’m sorry….exercise IS uncomfortable. EVERYONE gets sniffles….if you still go to work you are ok to workout. As for being tired….the gym and a good round of exercise is energizing….I’ve had a good workout eradicate a headache too! Excuses no longer hold a power over me.

So last night my friend Paula and I met up with a personal trainer. He’s just starting out. He had been looking for some people that would be willing to be trained by him…for free. In return we will give him feedback about his techniques. We will also submit to before and after pictures that he can use as he builds his business. (success stories…lol). I was somewhat skeptical when I agreed to it. I have my routines and I don’t want to mess it up. I made my commitment to run and that is important to me. I also really enjoy my zumba social hours and don’t want to totally throw them under the sacrificial bus. I also know that I’m a bit of a picky eater. Come on now, I eat very limited meats (only chicken or turkey maybe 2-3 times a week). I’m not a fan of milk….or yogurt. Mushrooms are nasty and eggs are ok, if they are in a cake, but plain…..blech! So it had to be someone that understood that and was willing to work within that. It also had to be someone that understood that food IS and always will be a part of my life. Telling me to give up pizza is not a valid way to change my lifestyle. Allowing me to learn how to manage it is the route that I want to go. Deprivation is not the way to go.

So we met. He is quite nice to look at…so I was impressed at the first moment. Ha ha When he found out about zumba and my running he made it very clear that he wanted those things to continue. In fact he is training to run a 10k and since Paula also is starting to run, he talked about the three of us doing a 5k together. So that was one hurdle crossed. He didn’t seem too phased by my eating preferences. Just kind of chuckled when I would say ‘eww’ at some suggestion. Each time he immediately rattled off some alternatives and seemed comfortable with my eating preferences. Ok, so there is another hurdle crossed. . Ha ha ha As for understanding that there WILL be food that while I could give up, I just don’t want to. He started to laugh. His words were “this is life, you have to live and have fun” and then he went on to talk about his addiction…..Oreo cookies…and proceeded to validate his words by showing us his kitchen cabinet with a few packages of Oreos in waiting. I laughed and said Pizza is one of my non-negotiables. He immediately asked if I’d had a certain restaurants pizza and seriously looked at me and said “you have to try it!” So he understands that this is life and not a quest for eating the most perfect and healthy foods 100% of the time. I felt quite comfortable with it. And of course did I mention that he’s quite easy on the eyes????? He is realistic in his plans for how long it will take us to lose the weight and seems like he is it in for the long haul with us (remember before and after pics to help build his portfolio).


So unless for some reason he rescinds his offer or fizzles out on his plans, I’m in. I talked to Todd about it when I got home. I told him the highlights of the evening. I then asked him what he thought. Right now I’m already committed to a few nights a week of zumba and of course I disappear a couple times a week to go running. Committing to working out with a trainer and working with a trainer on other weight loss aspects will take even more time, especially going up to mert him to workout...30 minutes each way fir me to get to town and my gym. My husband looked at me and said, You are going to have a personal trainer for a few months where you work out with him a few times a week and he is going to also help advise on diet and exercise and be there for you via text/email/fb the rest of the week….and you are asking me if it’s ok. He reminded me what this ‘deal’ would cost me were I paying for this. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity (well I could pay…but being free is a once in a lifetime). He said that he would help me work around the scheduling stuff. So I’m on board. We shall see how this goes.

50 lashes with a wet noodle for me!

I'm due for a big verbal tongue lashing. Uhhh well, I didn't get any cardio in last night! I actually set up the dance dance revolution dance pads for Todd and i to play. And stupid me...waited for him. Ok, it's not totally his fault. He can't help it that he has some major issues with his digestion system. And I'm positive that he would have been much happier to have not spent the evening sick. BUT, I don't exercise based on his promise to exercise with me later. And then it gets thrown out the window and I don't get any exercise in. Stupid me, how many times does this have to happen? So I didn't exercise yesterday.



I did wake up and even though I was honestly dreading it, I went to the gym to have my hour with the personal trainer. She wants me to continue (ok, restart) my cardio routine. We talked about varying the intensity level, time and routine of my cardio workouts. (all of which I already d0). She recommended the spin classes. She said that they are a KILLER way to actually burn calories! And then she started setting up a strength training routine for me to work on. I go back next Wednesday to finish up with the arms and all that it entails. We did legs and core stuff today. She actually tailored the workouts and exercises for me. She watched me attempt or to do the exercises like a hawk and then we adjusted them to be harder or easier based on my individual level. MUCH better session than the one at the previous gym. I'll readily admit that I've let my strength training really fall by the wayside in the last 6 months to a year. It's really amazing how quickly you 'fall back' and lose what you did have. I'm here at work and I can feel it in my muscles from what i did today...and you know what's sad??? I only did one set of each thing today. (well, some more as we fiddled with the best level for me).



She is focusing on all the different muscles (of course) but she is leaning toward building my core strength at the same time...therefore she doesn't have me using any of the machines that target the one area.



Funny thing though....she asked me a few times, "You didn't have surgery?" Uhhh no, I lost 130 pounds naturally. The good old fashioned way. That made her setting things up I guess a little trickier...well heck, maybe easier. Because for the last umpteen years (forever it seems) I've focused on reading about health, diet and exercise. SO I know what I need to do. She was also blown away because she made suggestions and I was like, "OK" I finally looked at her and was like, "losing 130 pounds is sheer determination.....what your asking me to do is not impossible or even out of line. If that's what I need to do to get to the next level, so be it. I'll do it." Therefore we made my strength workout as challenging as possible. (some of my instructions are 3 sets or failure...which ever comes first....lol) At one point I was having difficulty with one thing she was setting me up to do. I looked at her and I had said, "I can't" Before she could even open her mouth I looked at her and said, "That's wrong...it's mind over matter" And it was true...my body hadn't given 'any' signal that it couldn't go on...it was my mind messing with me.



Enough about that. I go back next Wednesday evening (6pm) to finish setting up my strength training routine.



Eating wise, today I've been right on target. I've got my points laid out for the evening and I'll be in very good shape points wise as long as I stay to whats in the book. And I'll even be able to have a little dessert or something special this evening should I want...I'll have the points available. For a while back, maybe a year or so ago, before I ate anything I would convert that into how 'long' I would have to exercise or do something in order for me to 'negate' the food that i was eating. It really worked and kept me from eating lots of bad stuff. I need to start doing that again!



Not much else happening here. I did a few loads of laundry early this morning, hung them out and between the gym and work, I've been able to take them off the line. They are folded and sitting in baskets on the bed, ready to be put away. So tomorrow it's just sheets and towels. (and I can postpone those if I so chose....they can sit in the basket for a day or so if I don't want to wash them tomorrow).