Week 1 of P90X: So far, not bad!

Getting there, slowly but surely...

  

I'm still consuming between 1400 and 1600 calories per day. I ate a lot of sushi this week! For some reason, every time someone asked if I wanted to go out to eat, I would recommend sushi! I think, subconsciously, I knew it was a safe choice to stay away from oils, bad fats, and sugars. I usually order something with just raw fish and veggies - no rice.

This week has been intense! For the most part, my morning starts in the gym. I worked out with my trainer Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The other mornings, I rode the bike and jogged on the treadmill, then I would come home and complete a P90X DVD. My Garmin monitor was registering more than 6 miles per day, on average, and over 1200 calories. However, the scale didn't move much. I must be building a lot of muscle. My clothes fit differently and I think my face is looking thinner, even with curly hair (which, I was told in the past, makes my cheeks look super pudgy)!

The workouts are paying off, even if the scale wants to be an a-hole and not show my progress. Since the scale is not my BFF, I found another way to establish a reason for a mini-celebration each day! VisionSport! I love my new VisionSport shirts. They're soooo cool! When you sweat, an inspirational message appears! This is perfect for me because I sweat like a virgin at a volcano just by WATCHING someone exercise! I may as well get some instant gratification out of it! Ha!

Even though I worked out hard-core all week, I was so sore and tired this morning, that I decided I needed a rest day.

It doesn't surprise me that now that it's after 10 pm, I feel like doing some Yoga X. I'm going to fight the urge, though... it'll be good for me to rest up and start fresh tomorrow morning.

  Personal Score:  A
I have been consistent and diligent all week... until today. But, when my body is telling me that it's time to rest, I listen.

This week, I felt extra accomplished with my exercise regime. I pushed myself. My trainer pushed me too. He now has me up to "Level 6" in his workouts. We reminisced for a moment about how I started at Level 1 and he mentioned that he didn't have much hope for me before BLR. Apparently, I didn't have "what it took" to stick with fitness and nutrition. Much like the theme of this season's Biggest Loser, I was FULL of excuses! Now, he says, he sees that fire inside me and the necessary motivation, discipline, and mindset to be successful. I even noticed that he's more excited to come to our workouts than he was last year! I would even go so far to say that he's just as excited for me to achieve my fitness goals as I am! The biggest difference I've noticed is that when I ask him for a break or a day off, he doesn't react like it's an excuse! He says, "If your body says you need a break, you should listen to it." I now realize that he trusts in me because I am proving to him and myself that I am serious about making this a permanent part of my life.

Sometimes, nuggets of wisdom slip from my trainer's mouth (even at 6am), and I swear he could write his own book of personal inspirational quotes. One such gem came out yesterday as he was beating my body into submission and causing my muscles to shake like the shake-weight. I may have been grumbling... a little... ... ... ok... a lot... and I believe while he commanded that I do my fourth set of plank push ups after a brutal circuit,  an "eff you" even came out of my mouth .... to which he replied, "If your mind and body are telling you it's hard, then it's giving you a hard body." Ummm... ok... that's pretty effing sweet.

Isn't that sooo true?

I was feeling better about abusing my muscles for the hard-body end goal, but then he told me something that, at first, had me very discouraged. He said, "You're seven months away from your goal."

....

WTF?

Talk about an emo roller-coaster! I couldn't understand why he was happy about that and smiling as he delivered this ominous news! I felt so defeated! Seven months?!?! That's the end of July! Summer will be almost over! That sucks! I don't want to do plank push ups for seven months! And I sure as hell don't want to be sporting a mu mu on a beach until July! <tear>

Then, he put it into perspective for me...

"If you do what you're doing right now and don't change a thing, you'll be in 'athlete shape' at 18% body fat or less, in seven months. You don't have to do anything differently. Just keep up your routine." ... Wow.

This was a far cry from a year ago, where the comment from my DOCTOR was, "You will have to do W (with sleep patterns), X (with nutrition), Y (with exercise), and Z (with my mindset/attitude) consistently, at least 5 days per week, for more than a year to lose 100 pounds, JUST TO BE AT A WEIGHT WHERE WE WILL ALLOW YOU TO HAVE BACK SURGERY." Nice incentive, huh? Please let me torture myself to lose weight, just so you can cut me open and render my body immobile for 8 weeks while I recover! Oh, and there's no guarantee I'll be any better off OR out of pain?!? Awesome! Where do I sign up?

And now? I'm on my way to becoming an "athlete?" That just seems so unreal! And no surgery for my back either? I never thought this day would come! Biggest Loser Resort has truly changed my life. I would love to go back, if even for only a week, just to compare my fitness level and challenge myself on some hikes! I'm trying to make that happen before the BL13 Finale in May... 

This whole experience is bringing long-lost joy and happiness back into my life that I had forgotten existed. I didn't even realize how sad I was most of the time, until I became happy again! Being fat is hard! Harder than anything else I can think of! It's constant struggle, fear, pain, humiliation, anxiety, self-loathing, depression, and obsession with food. Nobody should have to live that way. It's not an existence, it's a prison. I know there's a chance I can go back there, so I never ever want to forget where I started my journey. But, I'm hoping that the positive experiences continue to motivate and energize me, so that I am truly living in a fitness lifestyle and not just going through the motions.... not to mention, I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing, "Woooowwww" when people see me now, for the first time since before I started my weight-loss journey." I still have a way to go, but it sure feels good to be healthier and on the right track more often than being off of it!

So, what's next on the agenda? Lots of travel...

This weekend, lots of Cali city visits, starting with the parents' house, then heading to San Francisco to see Cara Canepa Garcia, her hubby Ryan, and Betty Will.

After that, I'm headed to San Mateo, then I'm off to see Meg in Utah for the Vigor 5K and her birthday! We have all decided that we're going to wear crazy hats! Hers is so cute! A birthday cake with candles! I bought three hats and I'm thinking I might go with the leopard one... I feel like it's the most fitting for my personality :)

Excited to see friends and family!

See you on the fit side!
-Heather