Small Victories lead to self improvement.

"We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win." Edward Gibbon (1737 - 1794)

I came across this quote on the weekend and it spoke to me. It is very simplistic yet so very true. Everyone has there own battles that they fight on a daily basis, whether it's an addiction you are tyring to quit or perhaps something as simple as making sure you are not late for work, we all fight these battles all the time.

If I relate this to my own journey, I can see that the daily grappling with myself to go to the gym, or to wear that fitted top instead of the baggy one, or to refrain from eating that piece of cake, while minor in nature, each one is a contest. With every contest that I win, I improve myself just a tiny bit, which in turn gives me the strengh to contest more of my faults the next day, and that strength makes it that much easier to be victorious.

Falling into despair, gaining weight and having low self esteem, are things that snowball out of control, and sometimes seem like they will never be corrected, but with each small victory, we cannot help but be propelled closer and closer, no matter how slowly, to the person we want to become.

workout plan - Changing direction

There is no substitute for hard work.
Training is principally an act of faith, The athlete must believe in
its effectiveness; he must believe that through training he will become
fitter and stronger; that by constant repetition of the same movements
he will become more skillful.

The above quote was sent to me from my trainer, I am always rambling quotes as I am doing my workouts so he sent this to me on facebook because he thought I might like it. The other day I was doing a time trial on the stationary bike and my quads were burning like crazy, the sweat was running in my eyes and I blurted out part of a quote from Lance Armstrong "Pain is temporary"..... and my trainer finished with the rest of the quote "quitting is forever".... for the record I didn't quit :P

So I have been thinking about my injured knee today. I have been in pain for a while now (like 3 mos on and off). I do realize that my knees are taking a pounding carrying around this weight, especially when I run, it takes me a few days until it starts to feel a bit better. What I think that I need to do is rest it for a week to let it fully heal. I bought something called a kneed-it, which keeps your kneecap in place and stops this pain from occurring, the problem is that I need the knee to fully heal first before I can use a device to prevent the injury from happening (if that makes sense)

Tomorrow my workout is in the pool, as I haven't swam in some time and I am just starting to get the feel of the proper freestyle stroke. I think I am going to talk to my trainer and see if we can refrain from any weight bearing exercises for this week to see if I can get my knee back into good form. Perhaps do shoulder and back weights, and even cycling or rowing I think, just no lunges, squats or running as those three seem to give me the most diffculty.

In light of the change, my goal is to offset these changes with being super careful what I eat this week and then next week kicking it back into high gear. We shall see.

Gym Update

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



So today was an "extra" day, meaning I did not work with my trainer, but went in to do some cardio. I did a 20 minute interval on the treadmill- 1:1 run/walk interval which I am happy with. It is always so much harder to push myself when I don't have BJ standing beside me telling me I can do it.

My counter tells me that it is under 100 days until I do my first 5k race. This is keeping me motivated, and is also making me nervous.....

Off to work I go.......

Gym Update

Pain is temporary, quitting is forever - Lance Armstrong


So after my last post about questioning whether or not I could really get fit, I found new motivation. One of the girls who works out with my trainer BJ before me asked me if I would run a 5k race with her in September. BJ is on board too so looks like I will be running a 5k race in the Toronto Marathon on October 18.

This morning I woke up and all the previous aches and pains were gone and I felt rested and renewed and couldn't wait to get to the gym. Today was a workout on the treadmill I had to run for 45 sec, then walk for 2 mins. Then when it was not too hard, BJ upped the time to 1 minute, that is full out running (well more of a jog really- speed set at 4.5mph)for 1 min....... so I ran and when I hit the 1 min mark BJ screamed out YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS ONE MINUTE! Now normally I would have been mortified at having all the other people on the treadmills turn to look at me, but today I just muttered "Way to draw all the attention to me" We were both beaming from ear to ear. It really is nice to work with someone who gets as much joy out of my accomplishments as I do. Anyway I was on the treadmill for a total of 45 mins, I was actually running for about 18 of those minutes, I am so freaking excited by this it isn't even funny.

Tonight however, my legs are really sore and I am exhausted, but I am back in the game- and loving every second of it!

I have included a picture of me and my niece, which was taken on the weekend simply because I love the way my arms look. I have stared at this picture so many times and never seem to get tired of it. - lol (You see I have always HATED my arms and they way they look in pictures, but in this one, they are not too bad)

Hanging in

"Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be,

because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do." author unknown.

Don't have much to write about tonight. My eating is still not 100%. I started a new phase of my personal training yesterday, and today my quads are so sore I can barely walk. I am questioning whether i have it in me to become fit. I thought I could feel the athlete in me coming to the surface, but today I question whether I can take another 16 mos of this -16 months.

I do know that I have paid up until the end of September so I will not be giving up before that time.... My hope is that tomorrow I will wake up feeling good and ready to kick some more butt at the gym, but tonight, i want to just wallow in self pity*sigh*