Routines, Slippage, Treats and other randomness

Yeah, that's how my brain has been operating for the better part of this week, especially today! There's been a lot that's been rattling around by brain and what is the bestest way to release it?!

A blog of course!

The biggest thing is I feel like I've been slipping. I joined Tom Venuto's 50 day holiday challenge on Thanksgiving day. The goal of this challenge was to stay focused on healthy habits and to be in better shape at the end than you were at the beginning.

Did great at the beginning and up until my little over training issue before Christmas I was totally kickin' butt.

Then I hit wall of tired.

Then the oddness that is Christmas/New Years hit with the wonky schedule, little events thrown in here and there, leftovers galore but no set menu or food plan to speak of.

Oh then this week happened. I was soooo looking forward to re-embracing my routine.

The the not-so-great-but-not-so-bad-feeling hit (you know that feeling where you /could/ get sick, but you're not, but you don't feel great, but you're not feeling crappity either?)

Monday's workout was ok, Tuesday's ... M-E-H!, Wednesday was cruddy & sore feeling rest day, Thursday was work and body imposed rest day, Today ROCKED.

Ok, the workout rocked, body wise I still am in mediocre feeling land.

The last 2 week+ weeks I've been feeling "it" slip away... but not sure what "it" was... not my desire to get fit, to eat well, to move more, to be better...

Then it hit me: "it" was my mindset. My forward thinking, proactive not reactive, go get'em tiger attitude.

Re-reading my accountability and updates the past few days I was shocked... I... _I_ was giving excuses and (ugh) WHINING! I was falling into the indecisive, "can't schedule" trap.

This realization came when I was talking about things that were coming up - all the "special challenges". Working a bridal fair all weekend, parents coming for a visit. If I /really/ wanted to stretch, MLK day & Valentines day are around the corner too.

It occurred to me that it's a case of 'be careful what you wish for' - I commented not too long ago that maybe I'm *too* scheduled & regimented, that I need to be more flexible and learn to work my plan into any situation rather than feeling annoyed when the schedule changes and my routine doesn't.

Instead of looking at it like a crisis, time to shift back to the positive and see it as _getting_ a lot of opportunities to practice being flexible.

It's all an excuse - there's order in the most chaotic situation... the question is: do you have the energy to find it and embrace it, or do you just go with the flow?

Then this morning I got hit with another choice/reminder...

I had a total girl crush moment - a lady working out next to me was doing 135# bench presses... near as I could figure, that was at or over her body weight.

*swoon*

Told her she was a rockstar and my hero... she laughed.

I decided that it's my goal by the end of the year is to be able to do bodyweight lifts like that. It's sort of worked in there, but it was solidified in my mind this morning.

I was excited! That's the thing with making that shift from "must. lose. weight." to "improving fitness/strength" When you focus on fitness goals, the weight can fluctuate up and down and while I may not be thrilled it's not that important. It's all about doing a little better each time, improving bit by bit, not being a slave to the scale.

But then I remembered... I made my decision to have the next 11.2 weeks be about fat burning and I need to get back into that mindset.

*drat*

I'm also realizing that I'm at that "last 10-15 pounds" stage... and to blast that last bit of fat from my body is going to require even more dedication than in the past.

There's a part of me that says, "Bah! I'm good where I am! Who cares about the scale?!" The other part that sees the squishy belly bits and knows it's time.

I've so happily embraced the rather intuitive lifestyle, even with incorporating the Zone 'rules', but it's time.

Time to go back to consistent* tracking of food. Time to increase the cardio driven workouts. Time to reduce the days I put that wee scoop of hot cocoa, and to measure the honey I put in my coffee because it all adds up.

And that leads me to the treats...



These beauties have been sitting on my desk since before halloween. Anyone who's been around me for any length of time knows that I luuuubs me my peanut butter... and the KinderSurprise egg... well, they just rock in their own German/Italian/French fusion way (got these in Edmonton cuz the US is the only place you can't get them easily.)!

I mean it's light and milk (real milk!) chocolate (really, it's like they spray nummy white milk type layer on the inside part) That surrounds a plastic capsule containing a wonky silly prize. (and those of you in other areas of the world now know what to get me for by b-day. ;)



Who else but the German/Italian/French fusion folks would put silly cartoon kissy fishes over real kissy hippo's?!

Ok, I digress...

Before you think that I totally dove into the treat stash after snappin the pic, let me assure you, I didn't.

And no, I didn't toss them in the trash either.

Instead, they're sitting on my desk, much like they have for the past 90+ days. They stay there mostly as a reminder and a little bit of security. If things get really, really, /really/ rough and I truly am desperate for chocolate (or a new toy ;) it's there.

Mostly, though, I regard them the same as when I put them on my desk... Goodnight, treats. I'll most likely eat you in the morning.

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*Consistent meaning tracking a few days a week, not daily. I've learned that it's a very, very good tool at the beginning, but it can trigger all sorts of bad crazy in my brain if I do it for too long.