Hey all! How was your weekend?
I did okay this weekend – not great, but then again, I’m not striving for perfection here. There is cherry pie in my house. and ice cream. I didn’t gorge myself on it, but I did enjoy it. Immensely. Progress, not perfection, people. :)
On Saturday Debby and I decided to be accountability partners, which motivated me to work out so I decided to pull out The Shred dvd and can I just tell you that I feel like the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz? I am moving so slow but I’m milking it. Ya know it’s one of those “oh wow look how sore I am because I WORKED OUT. Yeah, man I am feeling the burn because of, ya know, my WORKOUT. Woo! That was one tough WORKOUT that made me sore today!” I am nothing if not modest about my accomplishments.
I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been getting up early and exercising before work and Laura asked how I started doing that. Awhile back, I was searching the ‘nets for some new blogs, specifically blogs about busy moms who work out. I found Workout Mommy and struck gold. One of the features of her blog is Get Inspired by Fit Moms, a page where she interviews moms about their active lifestyles. She asks each one mostly the same questions, and one of those questions is how do they get motivated to work out when they don’t feel like it, and the majority of them basically said, just do it – make it happen. Over and over again I read about these moms who didn’t make excuses, they just made it happen. Then one morning not long after that, I decided to just make it happen. I got up, threw my workout clothes on, did 35 minutes on the elliptical, and was done for the day. Then I did it again the next day, and the next. I didn’t make any big proclamations to my husband, I didn’t tell myself “we shall arise before the dawn and do this!!”, I didn’t even say it here on the blog – I just quietly and uneventfully did it. And it’s been great. When I stopped kicking and screaming about how much I hate working out in the morning, I discovered that I actually don’t mind it so much. Imagine that!
That segues nicely into something else I’ve been thinking about: accepting my limits. In Karly’s Untangled course, she talks about being able to accept and honor our limits. I had to think about my limits, and what I needed to do to finally accept that there are some things that I can do and some things I can’t. Another way of thinking about this is to ask yourself, “how do I wish my life was different?” For instance, I wish I could eat as much as I want without gaining weight. I wish I could eat junk food without feeling ill and sluggish. I wish I didn’t have to exercise to get in shape. But, like most of you, I have limits. My limit is that I can’t eat as much as I want without gaining weight. I do feel ill and sluggish when I eat a lot of junk food. I do have to exercise to get in shape. So in order to move forward, I have to accept and honor these things about myself. I can’t be in denial anymore that I will somehow magically lose 30 pounds without trying. Not gonna happen. When I was on the elliptical this morning, I thought to myself, “I need to accept that working out in the morning is the best time for me right now. There are so many benefits to getting up and getting it done early. I am choosing to honor and accept that.” Are there any limits that maybe you need to think about accepting? It really helps lessen the need to kick and struggle against the things that are good for us.
Well that’s all I have time for today. I have to go hunt down a copper nail for my son’s science fair project. Do they even make copper nails? Guess I’ll find out!
Layta!
I have been reading any chance I can get. I am devouring books as fast as my eyes can flit across the page; I’m drowning in words, bingeing on stories, and ingesting characters as if they were sitting across the table from me telling me their tales with their own voices. Reading is very satisfying – it makes me feel content…almost full. And yes, I am fully aware of the words I am choosing here. 
