Excuse me, what's my motivation?????

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." -Jim Rohn

Hmm, so I found this quote quite profound when relating it to my Bootcamp Test Group experience.  I'm 7 weeks in and I'm feeling more like this is slowly becoming normal day life.  I tend to gravitate towards the better food choices or putting the effort in to work out.  However,  I have not totally perfected this journey but I'm making a conscious effort to ensure that make healthier choices. I remember how motivated I was to start this journey and must daily remind myself of that to ensure I keep up the hard work and dedication.  I also think of how I enjoy the positive feedback that I've received from my family and friends.  Regardless of all the praise, I have to remember to push myself because it's up to me and no one else. I often think about how I will raise my future kids and will teach them healthy choices. I also was excited to have a friend join me for class.  He's currently starting his own personal Project Healthy, so I was glad to introduce him to Bootcamp at th
 e Underground.  He's supposed to come back next week for more!

Last week, I came up with a "healthy" spaghetti.  The week prior, I'd made a soup that used low sodium V-8 juice, so I had some leftover in my refrigerator.  My old self would put sugar and ketchup in my spaghetti sauce.  However, this time I added V-8 and some hot sauce.  Sounds nasty but actually was really good.  I also used 4 different colors of peppers: green, orange, yellow, and red; along with ground turkey meat.  This turned out to be a wonderful meal and the cayenne gave it a nice kick which caused me to not eat as much in one setting.  One night I found myself a little hungry so I ate a couple pieces of grilled chicken with salsa on top!  Never in a million years would I have pictured myself attempting this things, but now I enjoy them instead of turning my face up at them.

Body-It's quite weird to me that as I lose more weight, at times my body feels heavier.  There were quite a few days last week where I felt like my legs weighed a ton. We had some tough workouts but I pushed and attempted to give it my best each and every time.  My knees were giving me a fit, so I did the modified workouts.  I guess I need to be more careful and continue to focus on my form so I don't injure myself. I was able to get a few extra workout

Learning-The biggest thing I learned last week was to listen to my body.  Even though I wanted to try to do a second class last week, my body said it needed rest, so I had to listen.  I'm also working to trying to do some of the exercises not modified when my body allows.  The last thing I want to do is to injure myself and prohibit myself from being able to work out.

Goals- This week, I'm going to make sure I get at least 2 extra workouts in.  I'm going to focus more on my eating choices and ensure I don't use food as a stress reliever.  I'm going to continue to push beyond the break to ensure that I get the most of my workouts.

"EXERCISE IS MY THERAPY!"

Setback = Setup????

There's a quote that says "A SETBACK IS A SETUP FOR COMEBACK...THE LONGEST JOURNEY BEGINS WITH A STEP!"  I took the first step in this journey by volunteering to join the test group.  I took the second step by showing up for the first class, even after going to my first one a week prior and being intimiatdated by the workout.  I took the next step by preparing for my journey with the necessary tools of good workout shoes, trying to prepare healthier meals and by making healthier food choices.  Yet some where in there I lost my focus on the goal.  I even did an extra Boot Camp class, which a big challenge for me!  So after rebounding and coming back to life last week, I realized that sometimes you have to fall down to get back up harder and stronger. This week I rededicated myself to my goals!

Body:  As most of my friends know, I can be some what of a klutz.  I've been known to bust my butt on ice while walking from my car to my apartment (an injury that is still a pain in the....), sprain my ankle 2 weeks before my college graduation, or even even pull a muscle in my hand.  My biggest obstacle this week was a pulled muscle in my left hand between my pointer finger and my thumb.  I think I may not have had the correct form while I  was doing my pushups or I was putting too much pressure/weight on my hands.  It hurt like heck and it made it tough to fall asleep a few nights, but through ice and pain meds I survived.  I used bags of frozen fruit to ease my pain while at work.  I even noticed that I can now do the stretch where I hold my leg behind me.  I can't hold it during the entire stretch, but I'm almost there.  A feat that I couldn't do when I first started.

Learning- I learned that I can influence others around me, not by my words, but by my actions.  One of my friends said to me "You're influencing me to go to the gym tonight."  Another friend said the same thing and has been pushing to stay sober.  I told her about one of my Test Group friends who had the same goal in mind.  We have linked up our fitness pal accounts and are working towards posting our food to help us monior our calories.

Goals-Next week I plan to get at more workouts in and focus on preparing my meals at home.  It's easy to get lazy but this is for the long term, not just for 60 days! 

but I'm back!

This title explains it all.  I really did flat line..................................................................... I thought that I could handle it all dealing with family health issues, the pressures of finding a new apartment, and the weight loss challenge.  There were many points during this week where I felt like I should just give up and stop wasting everyone's time.  I was going through the motions and had a tough time staying afloat even to the point that I had told my coach that I needed some motivation.  I'm grateful to my friends who would tell me "No you can't quit!" or "You better go to class" which is what I did.  I felt like one of those patients on Grey's Anatomy that had just flat lined and all you heard was "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppppppppppppppppppp!"  While Doctor's all around you scurried to get the Heart Defibrilator set up on you to jumpstart your heart.  I was now that patient laying on that table waiting for somebody or something to save me.  I felt like I was having an outer body experience because I could see everything but not from the point of view of the corpse layin on the table.  I was watching everyone else panic in a rush to save me.  It was like I pertty much couldn't bring myself back without the help and push of others.

The first shock to my heart came from my family and friends.  It was almost like considering suicide because i Iwould tell my friends "Oh, I don't feel like going because I need to do X, Y, Z which are way more important" and they would fuss at  me and tell me that  I better go or remind me of my results so far or how I was on my way to being a healthier me!  Every night I would call my Mom after clas, while she was at the hosptial with my aunt, and her first question would always be "Did you make it to your class tonight?" Each time she would tell me how proud  she is of me and to keep going.  I didn't really tell her my thoughts of quitting the challenge but she has been quite supportive of me.  I usually talk to my Dad before class and he would ask me if I was going which was another push.  As always I wanted to make them both proud, especially now with this new lifestyle change. 

The second jolt to my heart was after the conclusion of our class when Maia had us all gather up front for a Test Group Meeting.  I'm not sure if she saw that we were starting to lose our momentum or what but that meeting was another shock to my chest.  She had us to close our eyes and think about how excited we were when received the email that they were having a Boot Camp Challenge.  Then to reflect on how we felt when we found out we were chosen for the group and the joy we felt the first day of Boot Camp.  That excercise helped me to stop going through the motions.  However, it wasn't quite the shock that brought me alllll the way back to life.

The third and life changing jolt came from my fellow test group friends, Jadira and Flo.  After class on Thursday night we all sat in parking lot and talked for what seemed like forever.  It was nice to know that we all had the same struggles and challenges with this, except they faced one extra one called AGE.  So they were getting on me because I was younger and now is the time to get the weight off.  However if you see these two, you would think we are all the same age because I was shocked when they told me how old their were.  I admired both of their drive, hard work, and dedication to not only the test group but to to making these lifestyle changes.  We talked about our goals after the bootcamp challenges, different health issues we faced, why we wanted to do the boot camp test group, various healthy choice recipes.  Basically we talked and talked and talked but when we finally decided to leave, I left with a smile and new will to be dedicated to my life style change.  I feel like I'm writing a paper where my Spelling word for the life is "LIFESTYLE CHANGE" becasue I've said it so much.  I guess it just reaffirms my committment to doing this for the long haul!

Body:  I was numb to everything this week.  I did my best during the workouts and still managed to burn over 1200 calories on my daily workouts.  The main issue was my mind wasn't there.  I was going through the motions. 

Learning- In spit of it all I still did pretty well with my eating.  I would have a few slip ups during the week but for the most part, I was making better food choices.  I learned that I'm not the only one who was having difficulties but I had to push through it. 

Goals- Next week I plan to focus on my motivatation for doing this challenge!  I won't forget it and will allow it to push me through when it seems like I can't go on. 

As the rap song says..... "I WILL NOT LOSE!" Well I mean, I will lose as I get healthy but I will not lose to myself, mentally! :-)