"Enjoy the process"

The last few days I've taken a hiatus  from my exercise schedule. With the side effects I was experiencing I felt that it was better to not push myself too much. It was the muscle weakness in my legs was the worse. Just going of the stairs (which I do everyday, multiple times a day) would cause my muscles to nearly reach fatigue (like as though I was doing squats or lunges with added weight). There was no reason that my body should have felt that way pre workout.

My doctor was right though. On Thursday he said I should notice a vast difference by the next day with the adjustment we made to my dose, and I did. I wasn't back to 100% yet, but my mind was clearer and the weakness was still there, but not as bad. I still took the day off from working out. I have not, however, taken any breaks in tracking my food intake and watching what I eat. We have been vegetarian for about 2 weeks now, and it's going very well. I started a post on vegetarianism, but I have yet to complete it. It is working with  making get towards my goals easier, and there are very good reasons as to why that is, but I will talk about that later. I mostly wanted to give a quick update to stay on track. I will be getting in Burn circuit 3, my C25K workout from yesterday where I will walk for 27 mins and run for 3. I will also do the CLX recharge and then Ab Burner as I can do a better job with my form and getting the most out of it than with the Extreme Abs. That will cover cardio, strength, and flexibility and abs for the day and I will feel a bit caught up. I have ran into set backs the past through weeks, but I am making it through and staying consistent. The results are definitely showing too.

Upon my last C25K workout, I ran into through with running the full 2 mins. I was thinking that perhaps I should break it up into 4 intervals instead of doing 3, but I will try to continue with 3 for the next two workouts to see if it was simply the muscle weakness that was causing the trouble as it really felt like it shouldn't have been that hard.

I am very excited about my progress, but so far the scale is still showing previously conquered territory. I am getting a bit anxious about when I get down to 231 and below 230, I've never been able to maintain lower than 232 or so. That's usually the point where my tendency to self sabotage kicks in and I end up losing steam. That was one reason for this blog, to help me when it gets hard to stay on track. To motivate myself to stay consistent and to find my way around any road blocks that I come across. To build accountability. I have gotten behind on the Chinese thing, but I was excited when I was watching Reno 911, the episode where Junior accidentally gets married to the mail order bride from China, and I understood some of the stuff that the Chinese woman was saying, when the previous time I saw it, it was just gibberish. Woohoo!!

I've also been thinking of trying to take up knitting again. Specifically learning to knit lace. I've been drooling over arm warmers and fingerless gloves on Etsy.com and since money is sort of a tight resource, I was noting that I could probably make some of them fairly easily from old shirts and such, and/or learn to knit them. Maybe I could try to sell a few, for really just the cost of the materials to support the hobby.

Until Later.

Day 25

Trying to listen better to my body, and have no fear of it's limitations

I always hate it when I start a new exercise routine and end up hurting myself. It happened when I started running, and the last time I started doing ChaLean Extreme. It can end up derailing me. I feel terrible and awful because I'll be injured and unable to do anything due to shin splints, or severe back pain. I would hold back to avoid this from happening, but it doesn't get me anywhere.

So I've been trying to push it, but not over do it with this round. I can't afford to injure myself form my stupidity or impatience. Chalean Johnson also shows you how you can create your own resistance, so if I end up going a little lighter, I can adjust as I need to to work my muscles to their limits. But again, I am still anxious about getting hurt, and losing more and more progress. I LOVE the feeling after I get through my workouts. It's hard and I may have to force myself a bit to get going, but I focus on how great it will feel in the end when I get that physical high and also the mental boost of logging my minutes and calories burned.

My hamstrings have felt really tight today and also sore and a bit like they were a little over worked.  Not to the point of injury, but felt like it was a warning side that I needed to give them a rest. So I took today as my second rest day in the week as opposed to it being on Sunday. I am concerned that it would have been fine and that I shouldn't worry so much about it. That maybe I'm using the "fear" of my body's limitations as an excuse not to exercise today because I'm tired (which I am). What if I do the same thing tomorrow and the next and the next? I can't allow it though. I have to stay on task. I have to keep moving forward, give my body this day of rest and then push it again tomorrow. It has to change. I can't hide beneath these layers anymore, because it's no longer comfortable and it gets less and less so every day.

I haven't worked on my Chinese much the last few days. It was fun while we were camping talking about it and practicing it slightly with my sister (she was a teacher in China for the last year and is going back for one more year). I misplaced my ipod in my house somewhere which has the podcasts that I've been using to help with learning. I also have been busy with my new routine of tracking, exercising and keeping this blog. Maybe I needed a short break. It's been a busy few weeks. And we're getting down to really having to get our ducks in a row for the wedding.

Day 4

Goals: July

Fitness & Weight loss

• Begin Burn Phase of Chalean Extreme. (about 45mins 5x's a week)

• Begin 16wk C25K program (30mins 3x's a week)

Home

• Organize kitchen cabinets
• Go through kitchen tools and appliances to figure out what to keep and what to send to Carson's parents' garage sale or to Goodwill
• Begin planning new floor plan for 'dining area' and 'computer areas'

Nutrition

• Eat at least two servings of fruit and/or vegetables a day
• Try one or two new recipes or ideas a week
• Stay within calorie ranges and get in water

Chinese

• Complete two to three sessions a week
• Review vocabulary and dialogues for speaking practice
• Continue learning Characters for Fluenz vocabulary and for Chineseclass101.com vocab.