Day 13: You're Gonna Have "Those" Days

Do forgive me for the last few days of my blog absence. I had a few days off in a row (which hasn’t happened in a looong time) and I decided to enjoy it a little too much and neglect my blogging responsibility. You didn’t miss much though. I did Cardio Recovery on Thursday and Cardio Power and Resistance on Friday. However, I have been bad the last few days and am trying to get over the nagging feeling of guilt.

Whenever you start any diet and exercise regime, you, or at least, I, feel guilty sometimes when I eat the wrong foods. I haven’t kept a close eye on the foods I’ve eaten in the last few days and am determined to get back on track with it. For the last few days, I’ve eaten more calories than I should have. I won’t go into details but some of the things that I’ve dined on include pizza, one cupcake, and some whoppers, among others things. To make up for the bad eating yesterday though, I did some exercising in my mom’s pool. I doggy paddle around the perimeter three times, ran back and forth in the shallow end (not easy when the water is going against you when you turn around), swam several laps, held the side of the pool and kicked my legs, and even some pull ups from the diving board. That made me feel a little better.

Anyways, as I was doing my workout this morning, Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs, I was thinking about the food that I had been eating. I wasn’t very happy with myself and I just decided that the best way to better my eating habits is to “just say no.” PJ (my husband), wanted pizza the other night and I didn’t because of the calories and the fact that I had just gone shopping for healthy stuff. I didn’t say no and we ended up eating pizza that night. It didn’t even taste that good, yet I still allowed myself to eat it. Next time, I’m just going to say “No.” I’m gonna tell myself that if I want to see a good number on Monday, I have to make my mind want to do the right thing. (When I have moments where I do make the right decisions, I feel so much better and a lot of the times, I forget what it was that I was being tempted about.) If PJ wants pizza, that’s fine by me, but I will just have something different. (Unless it’s a cheat day and then it’s ok.)

Also, even though you may eat something horribly unhealthy, it isn’t the end of the world. Chances are you won’t see any number change on the scale. If you repeatedly eat horribly unhealthy food, you can guarantee that it will reflect on the scale. I had three bad days. I’m not really excited about looking at the scale, but it’s not the end of the world. I know where I need to be more discipline and I plan to do it. A few bad days should also not be an excuse to give up completely. It may take a little more time, but if you keep at it and consistently keep your mind right, you will get to your goal weight. Don’t give up!!

About Day 13. It was Pure Cardio, that butt kicker of a workout that involves the 14 minutes of nonstop exercise. Like I said before, it’s not that bad if you find a place on the wall to focus on. Today was also the debut of Cardio Abs. This was a 16 minute workout that focuses on your abdominal muscles. You do the high knees move commonly seen in the warm ups on all the videos with a little bit of a twist, literally. As you are doing high knees, you twist your upper half side to side. You can definitely feel it too!! They also have seated ab exercises where you sit on the floor with your knees bent and your back in a position that makes your body look like a C with the curvy part on the bottom. Then, you use your arms in various ways so that you feel the burn in your abs (and your thighs!!). I like this workout better than the Ab Ripper X that we did in P90X. There are more things that I can do and I feel the burn a LOT more.

That was the basic workout today. I do, however, have something that I would like to address in this blog. It’s about motivation and depression when it comes to exercising.

I have talked to people who really want to work out, have more energy, eat healthier, and of course, look better. They get all motivated and excited about it one day but the next, it’s a completely different story. They are back to eating the same, doing the same stuff and feeling the same: pathetic and that they need to do something. I know, because I have been there several times before. Some of the reasons for this all too common experience is that we sometimes feel that we just cannot do the exercises the way the people on our videos are doing them. We can’t lift our knees above our waist like we are being told to do, we can’t hold a plank position and tighten our abs, we can’t do jumping jacks for half a minute, we can’t coordinate our body to do some of the things that we see. (These are all things that I have had problems with, or STILL have problems with.) The thing is, we are NOT supposed to be able to do it exactly like the people in the videos. (That is the ultimate goal, but if your body can’t stretch as far as Tony Horton, then it just can’t.) These are athletic people with buns of steel and chiseled abs, people who work out for a living. We are not going to be able to do everything exactly like them, especially the first go round. When I first started out with P90X, I could barely do 14 seconds of jumping jacks; and, I thought I was going to keel over afterwards. At the end, I could do a minute. Your body learns how to do this stuff. As you work it out, it gets stretched and toned, and it weighs less so that you can do more than you could when you started. There is no need to get depressed because fitness experts can do it and you can’t. This mindset will keep you bound and unless you break it, it’s likely that you won’t ever reach your goals. (This goes for anything in life, really.)

Another thing I have noticed is that people tend to give up after a day of eating poorly. They feel like a failure if they eat something unhealthy. This is far from the truth. As stated above, one unhealthy food is not the end of the world; it will not ruin your diet and it will not cause you to gain five pounds. It may take a little while to work off, but it doesn’t have to affect the entire outcome of your diet and exercise. Just get back on the horse and tell yourself that you can give yourself something every once in a while as a treat.

If your style of working out is in the gym, it is common to stop because you may not look like the other people you are working out next to. I used to have this issue as well when I had my gym membership. I felt very self-conscious around the fit people and sometimes slacked on my workouts because I didn’t want people to see how out of shape I was. I also didn’t want to feel that they were inwardly laughing at me because I didn’t know how to do the right stretches or because I was going super slow on the treadmill. This is all little stuff that your mind tells you that you just have to make yourself get over.  (They probably aren’t even watching you at all.) After all, how do you get, look, and feel better if you don’t do something to get, look, and feel better? It’s a vicious cycle, but you have to make up your mind to get over the shame and embarrassment you may feel. Besides, you are doing something to better yourself and that should push you through all the discomfort you feel.

Well, I guess I’ve blogged enough for the day. I hope that something in this post has helped you even if it’s the slightest bit. It is possible and you can do it!

Signing Out,

It’s Possible!!