Week 2

Monday of this week was my birthday, which was also the holiday observed so I was off of work. My sister-in-law and nephew were flying in to KCI from TN and were then travelling to the western part of the state, and my mother-in-law was picking them up at the airport and asked if I wanted to ride along so I could see them. Since I wouldn't have the chance otherwise (or didn't think I would) I said yes. Some fun retail therapy rounded out the late afternoon before we all parted ways . .. . and then my husband was taking me out for my birthday to dinner. So I didn't get my workout in that day. I toyed with the idea of getting up early Tuesday morning to fit in Monday's workout, and then do the regular Day 2 workout that evening......but anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a morning workout person! SO. That didn't happen, big surprise.

Other than the biscuits at dinner and the NON low-fat salad dressing, I didn't really have anything too bad for dinner (oh yeah, and the melted butter for dipping my crab legs in - ooops). So chalk that day up to being off for my birthday!

Tuesday I picked right up where I left off, no problem at all. And let me just tell you - DEFINITE strength gains from the first week! Part of it was probably being a little more familiar with the moves, being the second time of doing them. But I was able to keep up better and finish more of things/more reps, and that felt GREAT! So in short I FEEL great. I feel stronger, more energetic, and just. .. . .well, good. Who doesn't want that!?

One gripe I have is that I don't have enough space to do these rolling "Superman - Banana" things that they do. I feel like I'm moving my mat around 20,ooo times! Warm up with the mat, now move it out of the way, now pull it sideways to do this move, okay move it out of the way again, now move it the other direction to do the rolling moves. Ugh! What I wouldn't give for a nice, big, uncluttered space to jump around and work out in! BUT, since I don't have a lot of options I'll just make do. And gripe. Okay enough griping! :)


So I had my chin-up bar put together by the time the Legs & Back workout rolled around. ... . and I'm not proud to say that I was totally right about how many (orrrr should we say LACK OF) pull ups I was able to do. Geez, are you kidding me?! Who does this?! Obviously, Tony and the World Famous Dreya are able to do a ton - there must be SOMETHING to this strength building thing. As in, I'll get there someday, right?! And how long is it going to take me? B/c it kinda feels like I'm at the bottom of the mountain huffing and puffing - and someone is telling me that in a few weeks I'll be able to make it to the summit. As I huff and puff and strain and try to heft myself up without using my feet on the chair. .. .. my brain just isn't computing that at some point I'll be able to do one of these unassisted (meaning, no chair). But we'll see. I suppose since I seemed to gain strength pretty quick even after only one week - there is a good possibility this will happen quicker than I think! Uh. Huh. The jury will be out on that. .. .. .

Nutrition went well this week also - no slip-ups! Oh wait, I had half of an ice cream sandwich at work on Friday afternoon I think. Now, in the grand scheme of things this was only about 70 calories and 1.5 grams of fat (ice cream sandwiches are really not bad at all considering they have ice cream in them and we all know ice cream is pretty much a big ol' load of fat!). I was really beating myself up about it, but then someone made me look at the ingredients and nutrition info. So, it could have been a LOT worse. Could have been a Krispy Kreme or something - now THAT would have been bad! :)

Sunday I took the day off from working out. I could have done X Stretch (they say you can do either one) but decided to just hang out and rest. I also cooked up a bunch of food and portioned it all out for the week ahead (WEEK THREE COMING UP!! I'm so proud of myself for making it to day 14 already!!) just to see if this makes things way easier.

So far other than feeling more energetic and noticing my strength gains, I don't notice any visible changes. YET. I've always heard that it really does take 4-6 weeks for any program to start yielding visible results. And also again, I have told myself to have patience and not expect things to happen immediately!

Like any human, my motivation and drive vacillates on occasion. So far in this process I am feeling very focused and motivated, very 'into' what I'm doing. I am not naive enough to believe that I will feel like this every day forever! There will be times when I'm not as strong, or life circumstances that will hinder eating just the right things (ummm, can we say husband bringing home ice cream!?!? Yikes). I have to make a promise to myself to not let a small deviation derail me completely. A little detour now and then isn't going to kill me, and I allow myself to have that flexibilty on occasion. Call it what it is and then jump right back on the plan. The plan is kind of becoming the norm now, so that's good. They say it takes 21 days to make a habit. .. . I'm 2/3 of the way there! Awesome!

Keep bringing it!