Getting Fit Fridays {vol. 8}–Yawn.

Whining ahead.

You have been warned.

TRUTH: I woke up tired this morning. Not just tired—sleepy. My knees are achy. My feet hurt. My shoulders are sore. And I am feeling over-extended in most areas of my life. Oh yeah, AND I want to eat a lot of stuff that I do not need to be eating. I did not want to go work out this morning. I was dragging.

But I went anyway…after popping a couple of ibuprofen, that is.

I am thinking that I need to take me some stock out in a certain name-brand manufacturer of said ibuprofen.

So, I went to my exercise class today, feeling tired, but glad to go. After all, it is Friday, which in and of itself is most deserving of the Friday Dance. Music has a way of bringing me out of a funk. After Celebration by Kool and the Gang and Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benetar, I was feeling the moves and feeling a little more perky. Hashtag-doingitanyway.

So, we are in week 8 of this thing. This is the point in time where the novelty of “heck yeah, I’m doing this thing!” begins to wear off. The proverbial honeymoon is over and you must fight, fight, fight the urge to give in to whatever tiredness, overwhelmed-ness or “man, I just want to eat that”-ness that punches you in the face when you get out of bed each day.

Here is where I find myself.

REALITY: This is no short term deal. No matter what the numbers show—or don’t show—I must keep on keeping on. This is for the long haul, if what I am really shooting for is health and fitness and not just some temporary phase I am going through. And regardless of how I am feeling at the moment, I must not let my emotions get the better of me. I have to dig down deep and overrule my innate desire to do just enough to get by.

When I am at the end of my own strength, I have to look to the true source of strength. The Lord God. My creator. The designer of this body I live in. The One who says to me, “do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 NIV)

And so I press on!

Getting Fit Fridays appears weekly here at Red Van Ramblings to chronicle my fitness journey and more importantly, to increase my accountability. Do you need to get back on the wagon? Do you need some help and encouragement? Join with me, if you’d like. We can do it—together.

Getting Fit Fridays {vol. 5}- You Better Work!

As I said in Volume 4 of Getting Fit Fridays, last week was tough. Sorta sick-y. Struggling. I may or may not have spent ALL of last Saturday crashed on the couch watching The Walking Dead marathon.

I confess that I went to my Sunday afternoon workout with my Biggest (Winners!) Losers girls in such a Grinchy mood. I did not want to go. But I did go. And I worked pretty hard and *SHOCKER* my attitude improved immensely by the end of the time.

Hmm.

It is amazing how exercise affects my mental health. Can I get an AMEN??

I’m such a toddler.

“I don’t WANNA do my exercise. No! No! No! I don’t LIKE it!! Waaaaaahhhh!”

Yeah, it’s embarrassing, but true. And a couple of weeks ago, I was all, “oh, yeah, going for a walk, no prob…blah blah blah.” PSHAW!!

Ugh! I’m so whiney. But when I have done it—something, anything to get moving—I feel great afterwards. My mind feels clear. I am so glad that I have done it. And I wanna give myself a fist bump, but that would be weird, so I don’t.

Mental fist bump! Oh yeah!

The thing is just making myself take that first step out the door and making myself go for a run or go to workout with my girls even though there are about a gazillion other things I think I need to be doing instead. Sometimes it is hard to fight that pull of all the other things in life and use them as excuses to eat poorly or take a day off from doing something active.  My friend, Cris, called me out yesterday—

“That’s just an excuse,” she said, when we were chatting.

WORD, girl! WORD! She pushes me, and I love that. Okay, not right away, but she is right, and I do love it and appreciate it.

I am beginning to see some physical changes. My balance is improving. Three weeks ago, I could not do Tree Pose (a yoga style pose we do in a class I have been to) without nearly falling over. This week, I could do it! I can plank longer and my form is better now. Three weeks ago, I could barely hold my booty up or either it was sticking up too high! I can do a real push up now, y’all!! I feel better physically, aside from the creeping crud of last week, of course—just in general, I am feeling better.

Since I am only weighing and measuring once a month, I feel like it is important to recognize these changes, so I have a frame of reference for how far I’ve come and so that I am not just focusing on that number. You know, that number  which enslaves so many of us women. I have to tell you that my scale is still in the back of my car. I never brought it in after that first weigh in. And I think it should stay there because it would be too tempting to get on it every week and then get all crazy over a number that may or may not be any indication of my success.

I just keep hearing a song in my head…♫♪ You better work! You better work it, girl! Do your thing. On the runway…♪♫  (LCD*, again. What can I say?) I’m not looking to be a supermodel, but I know that I better WORK IT. You follow me, right?

So, I am working it! This thing is WORK, y’all! You can’t “sashay shantay” your way through it. I am a work in progress. And when I don’t want to do it, I am doing it anyway. It is the only way to get to where I want to be.

So, tell me, how are you working it these days?

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*LCD – Better known as Lyric Compulsive Disorder. This is a diagnosis I (made up and) gave myself due to my uncontrollable compulsion to associate song lyrics, and subsequently sing them aloud, with pretty much any situation or statement I hear. LCD sufferers UNITE!

Getting Fit Fridays appears weekly here at Red Van Ramblings to chronicle my fitness journey and more importantly, to increase my accountability. Do you need to get back on the wagon? Do you need some help and encouragement? Join with me, if you’d like. We can do it—together.

I don’t speak Whinese…much.

 

 

Enjoy the green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

“Untold suffering seldom is.”  ~Franklin P. Jones

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Word Of The Day: fanfaronade (fan-fare-uh-‘nayde) A noun meaning empty boasting:  bluster.  Sentence: We soon found out that Christopher’s claim that he could play the bagpipes was nothing but fanfaronade–he turned out to be just as bad as the rest of us.   I know some people like this, don’t you??  I mean, I’ve always bragged about my bagpipe skills…thankfully no one has ever called me on it.

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OY!  The weekend is over again.  The horror!

Last night, as Emma mopingly started to head up the stairs, she peeked back around the corner at me and said, in Whinese, “Mooooom, the weeeeeekend is never loooooong enough.”  I generally don’t reply when my children speak in Whinese, but this time I had to agree with her and give her a hearty, “I knoooooow,” complete with head tilting and foot stomping.  Waaaaah!  Somebody call the waaaaaambulance!

So, that was that and it didn’t stop Monday from coming.

We are able to console ourselves with the fact that it is a 3 day school week.  My kids’ spring break starts Thursday.  And for the first time in 4 years, their spring break falls around Easter.  In Iowa City, our spring break always coincided with the university, so it was NEVER around Easter.  I found that to be a bummer.  Previously, we had always had a week off from school in the spring and it always included Good Friday and Easter Monday.  Always.  So it was a bit of an adjustment when we moved to Iowa City.  Now we’re back in the South, baby.  We are going to go visit the in-laws for the weekend.  It will be nice.  Hubby is anxious to spend some time with his folks.  I’ve mentioned before that his dad is in poor health. 

The following week, the end of spring break, Emma is going on a trip.  WITHOUT HER MOTHER!!  I am a bit devastated, but I suppose I will survive.  She is going to fly to Iowa to visit her peeps.  What?? You may ask…BACKSTORY:  It goes like this…hubby has 3 sisters.  Sister One lives in NC.  Sister Two lives in Iowa City, IA (they moved there a couple of years before we did and I think they will be living there for the rest of their natural lives) .  Sister Three lives in SC, about 3 hours from us and she goes out to Iowa about twice a year to visit sister number 2.  She has invited Emma to travel with her to Iowa so she can visit her peeps.  Sisters Two and Three and the grandma have gone in together to get Emma her plane ticket as an early birthday present.  Now you are all caught up…So she won’t be flying by herself.  But still.  I will miss her.  She won’t miss me.  And I’m sure she will have a great time.

Last Friday afternoon we visited a new bird store here in town.  They have some way cool birds.  For example, there is Rocky, a Moluccan Cockatoo.  (The picture is not Rocky, but another like him.)  The coloring is so beautiful and that dude can ring like a telephone!  Not kidding.  It is freaky.  There was a fellow in there, not an employee of the bird store, but OBVIOUSLY an avid bird lover.  He was just a wealth of information.  Following us around the store sharing tidbit after tidbit.  <insert awkward smile here> We finally leave the store, hop in Big Red and then Jacob says, “Mom, that guy was like an information desk…only, without the desk.”   Oh, how I cracked up at that one.  That kid is full of ‘ em. 

I’m off to do some much delayed housework.  We are expecting some friends in for a couple of days this week.  I always find that somewhat motivational.