Yesterday like I said was a 3 mile walk around town lake. It was a lot of fun. here’s the chronicle of workouts from Friday.

Bench Press
Overhead Triceps
Deep Lunges
Chest Fly’s
Deadlifts
Dumbbell Rows
Abs:

Air flutter kicks
Oblique Twists
Toe Touches

Today I’m reading YOU! On a diet and doing at least a 30 minute walk. My apartment is getting cleaner step by step every day which helps make me feel more refreshed and relaxed. Having the time to focus on the little things helps destress me. And I’m enjoying that.

Sorry I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted on here. I’ve let my priorities shift out of perspective and now I’m realigning. I’ve worked out twice this week with Trainer. He’s a great inspiration.

I haven’t been as focused on this goal as I should but I’m picking things back up. Over the past few months I’ve maintained a fairly active lifestyle by mountain biking and running. I’m signing up for a couple of 5K’s soon and starting to train for a half marathon and the adventure races. I’m going to buy a mountain bike too. It’s been a very rewarding experience and I really enjoy being outdoors… just have to keep a plentiful stock of the Aloe vera jell and plenty of sunscreen.

Today was a 3 mile walk around town lake for the Mighty Dog walk. While not cardiovascular challenging it was a nice way to get out, raise money for a great cause, and catch up with friends. It was freakin hot out there but I did have a good time. Tomorrow’s it’s off to the bike shop. Wahoo.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. If you know me, you know that one of my main problems is saying yes to work (where I am highly more confident and competent) and indirectly saying no to me. This is a habit I am working on breaking but it requires me to start finding a balance between an area of my life that I feel comfortable and the areas outside my comfort zone. I’m getting there. While I haven’t been very good on my diet or exercise plan while abroad, I did go skiing for the weekend. It was a fantastic experience where I remembered what it was like to be active, feel alive, happy, and healthy. I had a great time.

 In other news I’m starting up this blog again in hopes to help me understand why I want to lose the weight, keep myself focused on the positive effects of maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle and restart my affirmations. After falling into bad habits again, i’m not crucifying myself. But I am reading more web sites with women just like me who have struggled for years with their self identity and subsequent weight as a reflection of this. You can read some of their stories here:

 http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/02/08/weightloss.lynn.bering/index.html

http://www.freewebs.com/lynnsjourney/

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/02/08/weightloss.lynn.bering/index.html

Keep the ideas coming. I am at least off caffeine which is a great burden to be off of. I keep thinking that all of these diet drinks are bad for me.. and lo and behold they are!

So I am reading a book that tells me that I need to put down 101 goals for my life. So here it is. Comment at will.

1. Write a best selling book where I can walk into B&N and find my book on the shelves.

2. Live a healthy, active lifestyle. This includes losing all of the excess weight on my current body and becoming physically fit.

3.Walk down the aisle with my Dad on my wedding day.

4. Marry a funny, hilarious, fun, smart man who is my best friend and lover.

5. Join the mile-high club.

6. Have healthy children that grow up to be themselves… loved and good people.
7. Climb a mountain.

8. Learn to play a musical instrument.

9. Be proficient/fluent in a second language.

10. become an EMT.

11. Be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.

12. Become a good listener.

13. Practice Patience.

14. Go horseback riding into the sunset.

15. Go mountain biking

16. Take a cruise.

17. Volunteer in a 3rd world country.

18. Own my own home.

19.  Achieve my goals, activate my life, and live each day to its fullest.

20. Go to a professional sporting event for every sport (except golf and basketball. bleh).

21. Photo journal this extraordinary adventure.

22. Stop Procrastinating.

23. Have a new idea every day.

24. Build good, lifelong friendships with people of all types.

25. Apologize to those I have wronged.

26.  Find balance.

27. Find peace.

28. Realize that only I can make myself happy.

29. Meet Mark Cuban.

30. Meet Dat Ngygen.

31. Dance every day.

32. Learn to tell a great joke.

33. Learn to express my ideas well.

34. Get a puppy… a cute little lab… and have a yard.

35. Run 5 10 K’s.

36. Participate in an adventure race.

37. Help my cousins live healthy, active lives full of love.
38.  Forgive those who have wronged me. Free myself from my own hurts and regrets.

39. Love myself.

40. Travel to a new destination every year.

41.  Make enough money to take a year off and be home with my family.

42. Make enough money to pay someone to take care of my organizational expenses and finances.

43. Raise over $1million for charity.

44. Have a best friend.

45. Inspire my friends to be their true selves and hope that they are always just themselves around me.

46. Meet someone new every day.

47. Be confident.

48. Greet a stranger with a smile every day.

49. Be 100% honest w/ love.

50. Love and be loved.

51. Give more than I receive.

52. Get off caffeine for good.

53. Have a drink at the Hard Rock named after me.

54. Fall in love.

55. Learn to renovate houses and use power tools (scary Wee)

56. Take cooking classes.

57. Take a wine tasting course and travel the wine country with friends.

58. Dance and martial arts training.

59. Teach a yoga class.

60. Sing in public. Scary I know!

61. Do new years in NYC one year.

62. Have someone special to kiss on New years.

63.  Have a valentine on Valentines.

64. Teach my children to love themselves and be proud of who they are.

65. Be a great mom.

66. Be an awesome friend who is always there for you.

67. Be an awesome sister/daughter.

68. See Texas A&M football team win a national title!!! WHOOP!

69. See the Dallas Stars win the Stanley cup.

70. Go to a new concert every year.

71. Become a successful CTO of a company.

72. Sit on a board of directors of a successful fortune 1000 company.

73. SCUBA in Australia and South Africa.

74. Be a successful business chick.

75. Be a successful author.

76. Build a house for habitat for humanity. (assist anyway.. yes more obsession with power tools)

77. Be a guest on oprah.

78. 100% debt free.

79. Witness a miracle. (yes taken directly from A Walk to Remember)

80. Activate my life.

81. Be a technical innovator… an idea maker… a dreamer.

82. Live without fear, regrets, and worries.

83. Stop complaining. Never again.

84. Read a new book a week.

85. Have an evening sitting on the front porch watching the sunset holding hands with someone special.

86. To have someone in my life make me feel loved/special.

87. Make the day of a child special.

88. Make a difference to someone.

89. Master a new skill in my career each year.

90. Innovate/inspire/design.

91. Go hang gliding.

92. Take a romantic getaway to a B&B with someone special.

93. See the Aztec ruins in Mexico.

94. Go dancing with him.

95. Wake up each day with a smile.

96. Live a life fulfilling God’s purpose for me.

97. Play hooky and dance in the rain.

98. Have Kenny Chesney sing You Save Me to me.

99. Spend the night dancing under the stars with someone special.
100.  Get one of my very salacious/steamy romance novels published.

101. Live like there’s no tomorrow. Love like it’s never going to hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching. Every Day.

To serenity, courage, and wisdom. This is my bucket list.  What’s yours?
Surprisingly there were more.. but those can be shared later.

So yesterday was a good start to the day. I got in a good workout. We also took the initial measurements. This is a benchmark to starting off with the workout program. I need to find a good graphing program to write all this down. But at least I have it here just in case.

Right Arm=14 in
Left Arm= 14 in
Right Th= 28.75 in
Left Th= 28.75 in
Waist- 38 in

As part of the holistic approach to improving me, I’m really learning to focus on the positive stuff. I already have an increased endurance and stability. I am already more positive and focused and really feel a difference in how I hold myself. From the diet perspective, I’ve found that I really do love steamed broccoli. I have even started searching for new recipes to make around broccoli. It’s tasty, filling, and makes me feel better. As I gradually start to incorporate new good, healthy foods into my diet, I find that I have more energy and really do enjoy the tastes. It’s a wonderful start to a new beginning. Just gotta keep it going.

Today was my first day back at the personal trainer’s. It was a good day. Unfortunately I had a lot of pent-up stress and frustration due to external influences that caused me to get really frustrated with myself during the workout. But once I really got into the groove things really picked up and I made some really good headway. Tomorrow we are going to weigh me, measure me, poke and prod me to get some ‘before’ numbers. While I’m already feeling the benefits of the workout in improved sleeping, increased energy levels, and a better positive mental attitude, these before numbers are really going to help solidify why I need to be focused on this for a while. This week before bed each night, I am picturing myself at the top of a mountain overlooking a beautiful lake and enjoying being in the outdoors. There are so many scenic areas around Texas and the world that I really want to enjoy. I can’t wait to have the energy and the stamina to really tackle those higher mountains.

It’s that time of year where everyone converges on the roads for family, fun, and friends. Keeping a workout program going while also travelling on the road with family, being surrounded by everyone drinking and eating rich, indulgent foods can be difficult to fulfill my goals of leading a healthy, active life. But it is doable. For sure. And I actually feel better and less stressed. It’s amazing.

Since none of my family members have active gym memberships, I thought the easiest way to keep up the regime was to grab a few workout dvd’s and get kicking. I started out yesterday and today with hour long Taebo workouts. When I got done I certainly felt like I had gotten a great workout in. I was sweating and my limbs were feeling the strain of the cardio kickboxing. One of the harder things for me is the mental picture. I’m so self conscious about working out in front of people. And yet at different periods, my brother, sister-in-law, and dad were all watching along. I know that they were well meant but it was really stressful seeing them in all their perfect glory watching me as I was sweating and straining. But I got through it. I’ve also got some good ideas for spring to get out doors and enjoy the weather. I can’t wait to have the energy to go hiking in Enchanted Rock. I keep picturing myself getting to the bottom of one of the bowls in Vail, exhilerated and having fun instead of sore and out of shape. That mental picture keeps me going even when I want to be lazy. I may look and feel foolish right now but at least I’m doing something to change my world.

Wow. PersonalTrainer outdid himself today! I can’t tell you the number of positive responses I’ve gotten from everyone encouraging me to do this. But it certainly helps to have found a key motivator in someone who can work with me on a daily basis to make sure that physically I give it my best. He’s awesome and always checking to make sure I don’t hurt myself (which admittedly I would probably do because of my predisposition to wanting to be better, faster, stronger than my body currently is..)

Here was today’s workout:

In the far right hand corner was a bunch of cardio. 35 Minutes to be exact. This heavy weight champ was 3 sets of 10 minutes of elliptical cardio with a 5 minute sprint at the end of the workout.

In the far left corner, our competitor in blue was the circuit training regime. Focusing on core strength, legs, and upper body, this workout was designed to motivate and stimulate each muscle group leaving no stone unturned and no muscle under worked.

Springs

Deadlifts

Overhead Triceps

Jump Lunges

Jumping Jacks

Walkins-Walkouts

Finally we have Abs… These things are yummy! I can feel my muscles working. It’s a great thing.

Abs:

Oblique Twists

Toe Taps

Leg Drops

Key take away from today is that I’m feeling amazing. When I get done with these workouts, it’s like I’m a whole new person. It’s like I become aware of just what I can accomplish… which is ANYTHING I want. It’s such an empowering feeling to be doing something so good for me. I am loving it.

I keep reading a bunch. Yes. If you know me, that’s what I do when I need to think. I read or I dance. Anyway, I digress. I keep reading about these things called affirmations. I recall while in 4-H growing up that we had to develop these goals for each thing that we did. It really taught me about how to learn to create goals for myself but they never told us we actually had to believe we could attain them. Bad 4-H bad! (admittedly my poor attention span may have missed the affirmations part of the lecture)

Regardless, I keep reading about the affirmations that are there to assist you with believing that you can achieve the goals you want. Of course I’ve always had a great support structure in my parents and my brother to help me learn what I need. But it’s really up to me to believe that I deserve what I want and that I can do it. I don’t think I have consciously done that before. So anyway, I’ve created affirmations to help me create a new positive train of thought and help visualize my world when I attain my goals. (notice I said when and not if… see … it’s working!)

Today I woke up and went to the elliptical machine for 45 minutes. I had a great little walk around the apartment complex and in this wooded area to allow me to cool down. I also got in 3 sets of ab crunches, screwups, and upper ab pulsey thingies. I need to learn to write down what those exercises are. Anyway, today was fairly cardio intenstive. We have a huge super set tomorrow and I’m energized about it. I can’t wait!

Oh and the sun is out now! It’s a beautiful day today. Makes me miss my walks with a good friend. I’ll have to start that up again.

I’ve been going through a small amount of drama lately. Some of my friendships are falling down around me. Shattered into fragments of trust that once was, I’m finding out that the only thing I can control is myself, my attitude, and most importantly my reaction to adversity. Relationships/friendships/partnerships can either be very healthy and supportive or they can be toxic to ones self image. For me, I am learning that I have a tendency to find the people in this world who are toxic to me and try to hold onto them for dear life. I think this stems from a long line of wanting to prove that I’m worthy. that I am good enough.. that I am pretty enough… that I am smart enough… that I am worthy of love/respect. Well I’m here to say that I have nothing left to prove. I am just me plain and simple. I don’t have all of the answers. And more importantly I’m learning that I don’t have to be the foremost authority on everything. Hate me if you want to. Love me if you can.

So while I’m going through these realizations, my emotional and mental attitudes during my workouts fluctuate like mad. Poor physical trainer.  I could sense today that he was just as frustrated. Unfortunately the passionate Irish girl inside of me needs to truly go through the gambit of emotions to purge out the demons. To end this on a more positive note, these workouts are saving my life. I’m on a long road to redemption and finding myself and these workouts provide a way for me to refocus my energies on my life’s purpose. It’s ironic that I look forward to 5am. It’s the happiest time of day for me.