It's my first "STATurday" of T25 and the results are good. I've lost 2 pounds, and half an inch off my hips. Here's what I've been doing this week, exercise-wise. Again, all workouts are 25 minutes, and Friday is "double day" meaning you do two workouts.
Monday: Cardio, a progressive cardio workout.
High knees, heart pumping, sweat dripping.
Tuesday: Speed 1.0, fast-paced cardio featuring stretching, stability, and some fancy feet.
This one's my favorite! It's reminiscent of hip hop!
Wednesday: Total Body Circuit, killer cardio-based strength workout.
You lunge, you squat, and you sweat (duh).
Thursday: Ab Intervals, an interval-based fat-burning routine.
Works the core both on and off the floor.
Friday: Lower focus, strengthening and sculpting of the legs.
And the Cardio workout again, as on Monday.
I barely made it though 4 out of 6 of these workouts. Took a sip of water, or followed the modifier for few minutes. I still felt my heart racing through the mini breaks I took, so I don't feel like I sacrificed too much by going at my own pace a bit this first week. It's amazing how the first 5 or 10 minutes feel so long when you're doing it, but at the end of the workout (even though they're really hard) you feel like, hey, 25 minutes, I got that done pretty fast. I started to feel muscle soreness (in a good way) after the second day, and my whole body seems firmer to me, so I'm feeling good overall and happy with the 2 pound weight loss toward my (approx) 10 pound goal.
One challenge: my wrist has been hurting. Some teen thug ice skated backwards into me at Frog Pond last December (8 months ago). I had a cast on my wrist briefly, which may or may not have come off too soon. I dunno. But it had only been hurting very occasionally before this week. Burpees, pushups, planks, and other moves where you get down onto the hands seem to be aggravating my wrist, but I intend to keep pushing. In the end, my wrist injury was diagnosed as deep bone bruising, which hurt a whole lot, but I don't think these activities should re-injure it. I would think only smacking it against something and re-bruising it would do that. Just the same, I should probably call the good doctor and see what he thinks.
Maybe this is a good time to talk about why I'm doing this. I don't think anyone would necessarily prioritize a Total Body Happiness initiative without having any unhappiness within the mind or body. (Although maybe there isn't anyone without some level of unhappiness within the mind or body!!) I have some perfectionist-type tendencies, and want to be my best self, yes. But I'm also sick of feeling like my emotions control me. I don't want my emotions to be the primary lens through which I evaluate my life experience anymore.
Emotions are so constantly fluctuating, even when life stays roughly the same. I want to feel a greater sense of that stability day to day, so that I don't have as many stressful episodes where I lose track of the big picture. I want to appreciate my good fortune and know that everything is okay no matter what happens, as frequently as I possibly can. I've also been having chronic stomach pain since I was 20, so there's that. I've been tested for everything that could cause it, and there's nothing physically wrong, so I guess I have to deduce that it's caused by stress. I do not want to carry that into my 30s if at all possible. I've tried many solutions for it, but perhaps not everything at once. Now I'm pulling out the big guns.
I can be healthier, and more comfortable in my body. I can be calmer, less reactive, and more flexible toward other people, as well as my own emotions. I want to feel many more moments of calm and serenity in each and every day. I want to be the kind of person who can identify a problem in myself, and put my mind to improving it. I'm not stuck with my problems: I won't defensively excuse them, or self-identify with them. (Ex. "I'm just an anxious person." No, I reject that, because that's not who I want to be.) I don't have to bring my problems with me into each new chapter of my life. I'm done with this decade's problems. I've carried them for long enough and I want to release them. So, the experiment in learning how to do that continues.
No comments:
Post a Comment