Imperfect Journey

I soooo did not feel like working out today, so I just did it as soon as I possibly could to get it over with. Fridays and Sat's are definitely harder because Daniel doesn't work those days (he does 4 10's), so it is so sweet in the mornings and the last thing I want to do is go face Jillian and her mountain climbers. Ugh. BUT I did get it over with.

I realized I was not doing the shadow boxing on beat, so I stepped it up today and it was much harder! I also upped the number of full mtn climbers in a row that I do from 7 to 9, before adding in 2 step-touches. Not too much harder, but somehow mentally knowing I can add in that little break helps me a lot. I made myself continue doing half of the plank raises in the full-blown position but that is SO hard. I also forgot to add yesterday that I also began using two 5lb weights in each hand for the dumbbell cleans. They still don't feel very hard, even with the extra weight. I think it's kind of strange that in each of the 3 workouts there is one strength move that is so much easier than all the others, even with extra weight. Nice break - I always look forward to it. :)

Emily, thanks for sharing about how eating was for you yesterday. Even though my stress yesterday was admittedly much less than yours, I too came home and ate way too many pita chips after 3 hrs in the Moothart contruction zone. (And by the way you are welcome! Even if it was stressful, it also brought me joy to help you out.) I say that not only to affirm that yes, your context is stressful right now :), but also for my own personal confession. I felt tired and just wanted to escape from the stress, so when I came home and Naomi went down for a nap, food was the familiar place to go. I felt discouraged after that, because it was close enough to dinner that I was then not hungry for mealtime, which always makes me sad because I really enjoy dinner as a family. But I share about it here to hopefully help myself realize that it doesn't therefore mean I am losing the battle of taking care of myself. (I know that sounds drastic, but that's where I go when I get discouraged, and I'm a perfectionist, so one slip-up can send me there.) So I don't have to "start over" today, because I don't have to cut yesterday's incident out of the picture to be succeeding in my journey - I am going to keep moving forward after yesterday (a low point), and realize that honest human journeys have highs and lows in them.

Day 10 and how it's going

I'm 1/3 of the way through my personal 30 day challenge (water, GS, exercise). And I have to admit that I'm really liking the results. Usually I have really miserable periods (enough so that I take pain medication to get through them). And right now I'm still feeling icky, but less miserable than usual. :) I think it is probably all the extra water and produce. But it is wonderful to feel good enough to want to do a yoga workout when usually I'd want to be lying in bed!

Water - 96 ounces
GS - yes
exercise - 30 minutes "weight loss yoga" (biggest loser)

Katie, I have to admit that I am green with envy over your exercise bike. My biggest challenge with exercise is feeling bored while doing it. I would love to be able to read a book and work out at the same time!

Christa, it can be really tough to find a good routine (and I'm sorry to hear about Dan having difficulty - that definitely doesn't help.) Keep experimenting. When I work on my routine, I always start with a list of priorities - things that really need to happen for the day to be a good one. Getting exercise into the mix required changing my focus enough to believe that it was important enough to make it on that list of priorities. ;)

Jess, about function. I think you're right about stewardship. Also, I've started to realize that the choices I make about body care now will seriously affect the choices that I get to make later. If I strength train now, and get into the habit, I'll be much less likely to end up with bone loss and osteoporosis (which would seriously impact quality of life later). I want to be able to be really active when I'm older - maybe a midwife, maybe a grandmother, maybe working at a life center - who knows - and I need to take care of the body I've been given now in order to have those opportunities to love and serve people later.