OH MY STARS!!!! Can you say "ouchie!!!"???

Guess what?? I'm not catching you up anymore..........from this point forward, my posts will be in "real time." Oh, I may step back and tell a funny story or non-scale victory that pops into my mind, but it will be one that pops into my mind as I'm blogging about happenings since my last post.

My goodness my trainer continues to push and push and push. Tonight we did, among other things, three sets of threes (overhead presses, in/out running, jump shots). OH MY STARS!!!!! Doing two of the three moves with the arms overhead movement about kills me. This is the first time she’s had me doing two of the three sets of three as the arms overhead/jumping moves. I wanted to cry “uncle.” Actually, I just wanted to cry. I honestly don’t know how I survived it tonight. By the second round of sets, I felt as if I was lifting legs of lead, buns of steel and arms completed covered with metal protective gear. I wanted to cry by the time we got to the third set of three. But………….alas, I survived and was able to walk into the house when I got home, barely and not without tears, but I am in the house and preparing to call it a night. WHEW!!!!!

My most recent weigh-in was a good one. Lost another 4.4 pounds, for a total of 54.2. I’m closing in on another “landmark” number to get below—350lbs. And, it will be the first time I’ve been below that number in quite a long time, The year was 2004, I think. I got down to close to 350 in 2004, but didn’t stay there long. Sorry to say, the losses stalled and the weight came back on and on and on and on. NOT THIS TIME!!!!! I am more determined than I have ever been to squeeze this “monster” completely off my body.

Why do I feel so different this time? What is different??? Well, the difference is all about………………you got it, CHOICES!!!! I have made the choice to include exercise this time. When I say that I have never, never, never done exercise, you can take that one to the bank and count it out.

I was raised in a very sedentary home, didn’t participate in school sports, didn’t have physical education class at the high school I attended, and didn’t have a large youth group in the church I grew up in so there were little to no activities. Can you say S*E*D*E*N*T*A*R*Y childhood??!!! But, no more. I have made the choice to put aside my sedentary lifestyle and become well educated and well practiced in the lifestyle of exercise.

Choices? Yep, I’ve made the choice to EXERCISE!!! Even when my muscles are screaming and I’d truly like to just sit it out and cry………nope, not gonna make that choice. Been there, done that—time and time again. This time, I’m choosing to EXERCISE!!!! Ultimately, the choice is mine!!! And, I've made it!! WoooooooHoooooooooo!!!!!! (Cynthia shouts and celebrates without lifting her sore arms!! Sorry, Cathy.....maybe I'll be able to lift them as I celebrate later, but not tonight!)

The Short Version of February and March.....

Still filling you in on my journey thus far........some miscellaneous non-scale victories (NSVs) during the months of February and March........

February, 2010 -- Water Aerobics: Classes with my trainer continue to go quite well. I have definitely decided that I need to scratch some other things out of my monthly budget and keep this help as long as I possibly can. My trainer, who I sometimes call "Jillian," pushes me farther than I am comfortable and definitely harder than I would push myself...........but I do it. As she's pushing me and I'm really showing tiredness and exhaustion, she's constantly telling me: "don't you stop" and "you've got this!"

Here is one of our conversations one afternoon in the pool:
Cathy: “Let’s race……because we can.”
Cynthia: “I don’t race.”
Cathy: “Yes, you do.”
Cynthia: “No, I don’t.”
Cathy: “Yes, YOU DO.”
Cynthia raced. LOL!!

And another afternoon: After our workout, Cathy, as usual, gave me an assignment as she headed off to swim laps. Pretty much the same assignment as always………..jog forwards and backwards doing the breaststroke. The difference tonight was that she was in my face up and down the lane several times getting encouraging (better word here would be yelling) Jillian-style: “Harder, harder!! Higher, higher!! Those knees aren’t touching my hands! Higher, higher! Faster, faster......move it, move it, move it!!!” How she managed to keep up with me without stepping on me or me on her is a mystery to me.

March 8, 2010 --Exciting thing today: Went to a local restaurant for lunch with my co-workers. One of them told me to park at the back and there was a door there that was really close to the room where they would be seating our group. Before I got out of my van and realized it was a “no entrance” door, a co-worker had already talked them into letting me enter through that door and they'd walk around. So, I entered through the back door and walked about 40 paces to where they seated us. When we went to leave, I decided to leave through the front door. I wasn't familiar with this restaurant, so I had no idea where the front door was when I got up from the table. It's in an "L-shaped" little shopping strip and there are little shops on the end between the back door and front door. One of my co-workers offered to go get my van. I told her, no, I could make it. Mind you, for the "normal" person, it wasn't a long walk. For me, three months ago, I would have NEVER even tried it. Today, I walked it and one of my co-workers said I wasn't even winded when I got to my van. Well, I wasn't heaving trying to catch my breath.....I was breathing harder, but I could definitely still talk. HUGE VICTORY!!!!!!

CHOICES -- I continue to make the choice to head to the pool when sometimes I'd rather not. I am beginning to choose to do things that I would not have attempted three months ago. Yep, the choice continues to be mine!!