I have been pushing myself hard since January 1, 2022. I increased my weights moving up from 10 lb weights to 12 lbs. I went from 45 minutes of exercise mostly doing cardio dance to doing an average of an hour and 15 minutes changing over to cardio bootcamps and cardio strength classes. I have been seeing changing and unfortunately I tweaked my back. My back has been giving me some warning signs since late December. I sit in my work chair and when I get up its rather uncomfortable. Once I get moving around it had been working itself out until it didn’t.
I wasn’t even working out when the tweak happened, I was bent over clipping my toes nails. Arghhh. I went to get up and found myself in a lot of pain and discomfort. It took me 30 minutes to be able to get up off the couch. It was a terrible day and I didn’t want to miss the streak I had going on my mirror. I laid down and it felt better and then I figured I would attempt to do the Mirror. Restorative Yoga? Cardio dance no bouncing. Basically an active recovery day. I was able to get thru just 15 minutes of modified Dance Cardio and attempted some restorative Yoga thinking that I might be able to stretch out what ever was causing the problem. Well I got my check mark for the day but probably not the wisest move and found I was in more discomfort and in bed the remainder of Sunday.
Due to this back being tweaked my intensity level of what I had been doing has been toned down often joining beginner classes or using lighter weights. I did manage to do some activity every single day and if I couldn’t do somethings I modified my movement. When it first happened I did chair exercises. I consider that a huge win and the back is now just starting to really feel better and recently I am increasing the intensity of my workouts.
My diet and my eating has been on point although I did consciously decide to order Pizza the day I tweaked my back. I held off for a couple hours before ordering and decided I was simply going to have it and then jump right back the following day which I did.
I could have used the back as an excuse and not worked out, I could have self soothed by eating garbage and rather than do a meal do it the entire week. This was an an opportunity to take a negative and turn it into a positive. Consistency not perfection wins the race and there are times when you have to make adjustments. I continue to learn on this journey and I think my biggest take away this time around is that your attitude and how you handle obstacles plays a critical role in your success.
I read a discouraging statistic on percentage of people who actually keep weight off not long ago and I decided to forgive myself for my failures - take it as lessons learned and decided this time I will no longer be in majority of people who take off weight and regain. I quit smoking a little over 5 years ago today and I certainly can change my habits for long term and I know there truly is no finish line.
My initial goal was to hit 159.00 pounds which would be an 82.2 lb loss. Today I weighed 161.1 however I moved my goal down a little more and my goal now is 155. I would like to reach that by my 52nd birthday on April 12th but if that doesn't happen it's doesn't matter. Some time ago I changed my mindset from I CAN and I WILL to:
I WILL .....Watch Me.
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