Where to find motivation...

I've been lazy these past few weeks with my daily workout. It's getting increasingly difficult to find the motivation to keep it up. Now that the weather's colder and the days are shorter it'll be even more of a challenge. What motivates you to do something you don't want to?

I'm back...finally!

After a long hiatus from blogging, I've finally gathered enough thoughts to start up again.

Here's my first:

The human body is amazing! I just found muscles on me that I never knew existed.

For those of you that love to keep up with what's happening in other people's lives, you can now subscribe to my blog via RSS. Look over to the right ----> for the subscribe link.

Are we too late?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080710/ts_afp/warmingantarcticaice;_ylt=ArZMK41d3y2pkbbWI8l406134T0D

Day 30 of 30

Yesterday was the beginning of my first week without the guidance of Mr. Pain. It was also my first day back to work. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for 1) getting through the "30 days" and 2) actually getting up early enough to workout on my own.

A little clarification about my 30 day journey. It was actually 28 days, 2 of the days overlapped my return to work.

Here's a quick recap of my "28 days":
81 - Highest % drop of fat on my body (pectoris muscles)
28 - Days off work
20 - Actual days of working out
6 - Pounds lost
5 - Pounds of muscle gained
1 - New me

Looking back, I'm proud to say I accomplished everything I set out to do. Yesterday was not the end, but the beginning of a new lifestyle. I'll continue to post on my progress and hopefully influence others to do what I'm doing. I know it's already working cause Minnie has gotten bit by the exercise bug. You go girl!! I'm proud of you :)

I owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Pain (aka Brian, aka my cousin) without whom this would have been a lot harder. His knowledge, experience and most of all guidance was definitely key to my success. Thanks Mr. Pain!

Until tomorrow...

Day 23 of 30

Today is the second day of my final week in this 30 day journey. I was extremely exhausted after yesterday's workout. My carb free diet and late nights hanging out during the weekend really wore me out. I am so craving sweets!! All I want is one Krispy Kreme doughnut! A traditional glazed, hot outta the fryer, still dripping with sugary goodness, doughnut. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Instead, I took a nap in the afternoon and went to sleep early last night to recover.

Today's a different story. The extra sleep really gave me the extra energy to push hard during my workout. We concentrated on the upper body. Mr. Pain's getting me ready for the end of the 30 days when I'll be doing the programs on my own. He's been getting me used to each exercise in the 4 programs he's put together, each about an hour long. Each program will be of different intensity levels as well as target specific parts of my body. Hopefully without Mr. Pain's guidance everyday, I'll be able to push myself just as hard.

Tuesday is usually the body fat and weight measurement day. Today's no exception. I was extremely happy to see that I've lost 6 pounds since last week's weigh in. I weighed 185 last week and today's weight is 179!! It feels awesome to finally see some weight drop. I feel great and this is only the beginning.

I'll post more tomorrow, my cardio day.

Day 19 of 30

I didn't have a chance to post yesterday. I think the modified diet and added exercise is taking a toll on my body. For the remainder of my 30 days, I'll be eating only meat and vegetables. No carbs at all. So after my workout yesterday I was extremely tired.

Today was another interesting day. Started out the same but during my workout I got this intense headache in the back of my head. Much more intense then the one's I've felt in the past. After stopping the workout, Mr. Pain asked the owner of the studio, who's a licensed holistic practitioner, to see if he could pinpoint the cause. I'm not quite sure how to describe what he did next but it was nothing like seeing a regular doctor. In short, he placed these small vials of "stuff" in my hand and with my arm raised, he would press down. He repeated this many times with several different vials, sometimes placing them at different points on my body. After alternating between vials for about 10 minutes, he wrote out some supplements that I should take to help with the problems isolated through these "tests."

I left the studio with the supplements that I'm to take for the next three weeks. I've never seen or have had any experience with a holistic "healer" before. Needless to say, I'm a bit skeptical but since all the supplements are natural and made by a company called Standard Process http://www.standardprocess.com/display/router.aspx I'm willing to try it. They're way cheaper then prescription meds.

Any of you have any experience with holistic healing?

I'm becoming more aware each day that there's so much humans don't understand. We're bombarded every waking moment with messages about how to live, think, feel that we're really forgetting there's an enormous universe out there and a time scale that's beyond imagination. I think Carl Sagan illustrated this best in his series Cosmos when he equated time in this Universe with a calendar year. All of recorded human history is but a few seconds of existence!

Just something to wrap your mind around...

Day 17 of 30

Today was a relatively easy day for me. Woke up around 10AM and went to do my weekly cardio. I was instructed by Mr. Pain to do a 30 minute workout instead of the typical hour I was doing before my 30 day journey began. The 30 minutes consist of a 5 minute warm up followed by 2 minutes at 130-140 SPM (Strides Per Minute) then down to about 90 SPM for 1 minute, all at level 9. After 20 minutes of alternating, I cool down for 5 minutes. Relatively easy compared to the exercises Mr. Pain has me do! Afterward, it's "Hey! Protein!”

Since there's nothing much to write about today, I thought I'd post about why I decided to commit to these 30 days (finally huh?) I'm sure some of you are probably thinking it's a midlife crisis. It seems like the most logical explanation but also a very sad one for me since I'm only 35. =( But since you can probably interpret a "midlife" crisis in many different ways, it may not be that far from the truth.

I'd like to think of it more as a realization.

What do I realize?

I realize that we live in a new world. A world that's seeing a far greater rate of increase in population and "progress" than when our parents were growing up. I'm seeing a planet being polluted and our food sources contaminated. I'm seeing global warming and climate change happen right before our eyes. If our life's purpose is to procreate, what are we leaving to our children?

So what does this have to do with me working out for 30 days?

I decided that I needed to rebalance my life in these 30 days, both mentally and physically. I’m sure many of you have heard people say that without good health, nothing else really matters. I've heard that so many times from so many people much wiser than me, so I decided to finally take action. I don’t plan to change the world in these 30 days. I have more modest goals. Simply to build a strong foundation for a healthy lifestyle. With a healthy mind and body, I will be better equipped to understand what my role is on this planet.

What do you think?