It's Not an Option

I'm so glad that people are excited about the giveaway! I can totally see these becoming a regular feature, its so much fun....any requests??

Yesterday was my second run through my strength routine at the gym. It pushes me! I'll be honest, I was doing leg curls and the last three reps of my 2nd set, my quads were burning, almost to the point where my eyes were tearing up. But two things came to mind- one, something I read on someone's blog about not shying away from pain. Why is it that we think we can be fit and healthy without sweat or pain? Now unhealthy pain isn't good, but the burn of a good muscle workout is exactly what's supposed to happen. I was doing plank exercises with the trainer during my program setup and was supposed to hold for 20 seconds, and I stopped at 18, saying I give up. He asked me why? I don't remember what I said, but I remember thinking because it hurt dumbass, why would I keep going when my arms are on fire and my whole body shakes because my abdominals are as strong as noodles????? I give up alot on workouts, always looking for the easy way out. But yesterday, I was reminding myself that relaxing and maybe not doing the full extension to minimize the burn, is not going to help me accomplish what I want it to! I'm working on pictures, and I have the perfect skinny picture- I'll post it soon and I think I'm going to stick a copy on my treadmill. I know what I want to accomplish, I know exactly what I want to look like and it will not happen by taking the easy way out.

The second things is something I read in a book, Secrets of a Former Fat Girl. I'm about halfway through it, and if it continues to be as good as as the first half has been, it may just be the next giveaway. She had a mantra of sorts called 'Its Not an Option' when it comes to breaking the rules. I decided to pick two reasonable rules. (No trying to hold yourself to 8 Jillian-style workouts a week or something that you know isn't going to happen!) I would so much rather be perfect on my calorie counting than exercise, so I made exercise my INO items- my 3x/week strength training rule, and my 3x/week 30-minute cardio rule. Case in point: I wanted to skip yesterday, because it was my day off and I had alot of stuff going on. But I laced up my trainers and told myself that not working out is not an option. I didn't even let myself entertain the idea of not going, I made it work in between everything else I had going on yesterday. And I went. I know it will be another battle tomorrow, but not going is not an option.

So that's my tale for today! I hope you all are having a great Tuesday, here's to a week of good choices and lots of water! :-)