Own It

Sometimes you look back at your life and regret things. And then sometimes you look back and see how far you've come. This mind set totally depends on where you are in life and if you're aware of who you are. In the mornings, I fall in between both of these two places depending on the day, but I fully intend to end each day knowing who I am and that I'm an over-comer.

I am strong, I am bold, I am beautiful, I am a little crazy, I am kind, I am a child of God, I am empowered, I am a winner. I am also slightly crazy...

My managers at my job both work out at this gym in town and were always talking about how hard the workouts were, how sore they were, and how much, despite the hard work, they loved going. I'm very much about trying new things and challenging myself but have been not so great about that in the past year or so. Hence the weight gain. Half of what I lost I was well on my way to putting back on. So the smart person that I am, decided to sign up for a free trial. Cause, why not? I can't be that out of shape right? So so wrong.

The free trial isn't sugar coated, it's not watered down, and it's hard. But if you need someone creating a workout and telling you what to do, like I do, and if you can push yourself and keep going, then this place is awesome. Being true to who I am, I pushed too hard (during the warm up...) and pulled something around my hamstring, but I finished the workout.

I'm not sure if you all have heard of D1 and their bootcamps. If you've done them, you KNOW. If you haven't, you just. don't. know. You don't.

I am on day four if you don't count my trial run. I go to the 6AM bootcamp. I hate waking up to get sweaty. But it's so much better to get this torture out of the way when it's cooler in the morning as the gym does not have air conditioning.

I got really excited my first day because Andrew the trainer asked if everyone knew how to karaoke. I was like, yes! I do! How will that work though if we're running around the field? He gave me a puzzled look, which I returned because it was slowly dawning on me that his karaoke didn't involve singing... what he really said was carioca, otherwise known as the grapevine. So yeah, starting off on the right foot here.

I've been introduced to box jumps, box pushes, medicine balls that I've lugged down the field and back countless times, tires and hammers, SO MUCH RUNNING, and jump ropes. I can't even begin to tell you how much running. I hate running, but if it makes me better, I'll do it, begrudgingly. Also, I've skipped more in the past two days then I have my entire childhood. I had to seriously delve into my memories trying to remember if I actually did skip in my childhood and the conclusion I've come to is there is NO WAY I skipped back then. If I had, I wouldn't suck so bad at it now. Have you ever tried to skip backwards? No? Imagine that, well, we had to. I looked so special. I actually stopped a few times to ask myself what was happening, as it wasn't skipping, I'll tell you that.

I could go on and on about what I've been challenged to do, but I'll save some for later ;) Here's a little nugget to end with:

Own it. Whatever you're doing or want to do. Pick it up and run with it, no one else can do it for you. Pick it up and don't look back, because whatever is behind you doesn't matter. For me, keeping my eyes on who God says I am is the most important thing. He says I'm a winner, that I'm awesome and beautiful. He says I can do this and He's right there with me.

Becky is gonna kill me...

It's been over a month since my last post. Stupid life always getting in the way of my words!

I've slacked off this past month and haven't lost any weight do to my inability to follow my diet, nor work out regularly.

That needs to change and in an effort to hold myself accountable, I've challenged my friend Tracey to a cook off. There are no prizes other than the cooking of healthy meals followed by the sharing of said healthy meals.

You can follow Tracey's nightly adventures here at http://trehops.com/. Now prepare yourself for her ability to actually cook hardcore vs. my ability to throw things in a pan, add heat and be satisfied :)

Let the cooking begin!

Boxing

Well, I survived! I was so red afterword that I looked like I had ran a mile on a 100degree day with a parka on, but I survived! Those boxing guys may be fit and good at instructing classes, but they're shit as photographers! This picture does nothing for me, but I don't mind as my class was free and I don't look nearly as sweaty as I really was.


We started our free class at Title Boxing Club by getting our hands wrapped, picking out loaner gloves and finding an empty bag near the front of the room. The room is just a large open area filled with hanging bags. I was slightly reminded of the scene from Killer Clowns where all their victims were hanging from the ceiling wrapped in cotton candy. I almost left right then and there.


I stayed, but it was a close thing. I'm glad I did, cause I had a lot of fun and felt extremely good after. Such a better way to work out then being tied to the elliptical or treadmill! I had my gloves on and was ready to start wailing away at the bag when the trainer said, let's run! Whaaaa?? Hello? Just like volleyball, I say, why run? It's not like the bag is going to scamper away every time I swing! So I start to run and then he yells out punch out! So we're running around punching out, then up, then out, then up. Then we shuffle sideways, my knee does something wonky, I look like I'm about to face plant, the trainer tells me to be careful and I decide that I'll sub in a weird cross shuffle instead. So we're side shuffling and doing a 1-2 punch, then we're doing side lunge squat thingies and the 1-2 punch, then we're running, then high knees, running, high knees with punches. It felt like this went on for 10 minutes, but really it was pry only five.

Then came the wall sits. I'm not going to lie, I was really excited, I'm the shit at wall sits. My legs look super hot when doing wall sits, and anything that makes me feel fit is awesome. Then he tells us to punch, fast. I'm not so great at wall sit punching. Nor am I used to switching to putting your weight on your toes and switching back to entire foot while punching. Wow. Wall sits just turned into my worst nightmare.

FINALLY we went over to our bags and got to hit the daylights out of them. A lot of different combos combined with more high knees to get random bursts of cardio to keep our heart rates up. Then we mixed in abdominal work as well, which, surprisingly was easy the first set and much harder the second set.

We finished with abs and then had to clean the bags, spray the gloves and put the smelly wraps into a wash bin. Overall, totally fun and worth it. I'm so glad that I have a pass to take a week of free classes, that will totally change up my routine and make working out that much better!

Also, I had to change my design just for the sake of my mother. She couldn't get her iPad to read the white font... so please enjoy the beach scene. Mom, are you happy now? Hopefully it will instill a frantic urge to start watching what you eat and working out cause beach time is right around the corner!!

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