When I exercise...

When I exercise there's a lot that goes on. I am reminded of how far I've come physically and mentally, and what I still need to work on.

Physically, I am reminded that I'm an active being, but I also have my weaknesses that I need to work with. I feel how far I've come, I've learned how I can push myself to squeak out that last few minutes of a particularly difficult interval, or I know when to ease up to let my body rest so I can get back to working even harder. Last night, with my trainer, I was reminded of how strong I am getting (hello! Did 45 push ups at a 30% incline! ::happy dance::) and how I can continually push to do my personal best, even if it's adding a pound or two of resistance, or finishing the set of 15 rather than leaving it at 12.

Mentally I have grown a lot - 90% of the time I look at food as fuel for my activity and I have made peace with the 10% of the time that what I consume is just for the pleasure and fun of it. I recognize that I'm in competition with myself, but enjoy the motivation I get from people who are doing just a bit better than me. I look for ways to be active, but also appreciate and (attempt) to acknowledge my body's need for rest.

Oh, and an interesting but unexpected measure of my success: having to print off a new chart with the LOWER body fat/caliper measurements. Yay! I realized that I was almost at the lowest measurements on the chart I had been using. Go me.

Technorati : clutter, goals, health, motivation, sparkpeople, update, weight