My Journey With Health And Fitness – Pushing Through It

Today was one of my 3 training days this week. I realized that since I really hadn’t been doing this in a while I needed to get my head wrapped around going back to the basics. That means I once again having to focus on what had become natural before. This includes relaxing my shoulders, tucking in my butt, holding my abs strong and keeping my gate equal. I know soon it will be back to my not having to think about it but right now I need to keep all of this in mind especially on training days.

For the 2nd time this week I put in an hour of cardio. It is hard and by time I am done I am just covered in sweat. But that’s ok, I am determined to get back to peak form. However, I am finding I am back to where I was when I started training 2 years ago and I need to get my head back in the game. Now I need to be clear, what I am doing is hard but really no harder than running a 1/2 marathon. Having said that, those voices in my head that I have often talked about are back trying to convince me that if I get to a certain point in the workout then I can tone it back because I can’t do this. I am working hard at turning down that noise and focusing on the end goal but it isn’t easy especially at the beginning of the workout.

What I am finding is if I get to the 1/4 point it stops feeling like I am slogging uphill. By time I hit the 1/2 way mark I recognize I am just too committed to stop now. At the 3/4 way point I am almost done and know I can do this. I admit, I am back to chanting mantras in my head to encourage myself to just push through it. And, those mantras help to mute the noise telling me to scale back. I haven’t forgotten those mantras from 2 years ago when I wasn’t even training this hard but they work just as well.

There is one thing new that is helping to keep me from focusing on the negative noise, a TV. I noted previously that I find using the treadmill to be incredibly boring. In the past I had a stand for my iPad so that I could watch something while working out. However, I now have a big screen tv set up in the garage (thanks to my husband) that doesn’t require me to be wearing ear buds or headphones which is awesome. It also distracts me so that I am not staring at the timer obsessing about how much time I have left in the interval or the overall workout. I give my husband kudos for this as it has been a game changer.

So I am going to continue to push through it, to really challenge myself, to get to my goal. It is why I write this blog, to help keep myself accountable to what I have said I can do.