Monday, April 18, 2011

brain in the way

Apparently there are variations on the burpee.  And they kick my ass.  Hard.

For the first time ever, we only managed through three different exercises.  Bicep curls, reverse lunges, and the burpees from hell.  I cried a little.  I felt like that kid in 4th grade, again.  The one who couldn't do a single pull up.  Could hardly do all the running.  Who felt awkward and pathetic.  It didn't last long, maybe five-ten minutes.  But it sucked.

I think about people who lose weight really quickly.  Like on The Biggest Loser or with surgery.  I understand the physical side of it is really tough, even though it's happening quickly.  I get it.  I get that it's probably tougher in a lot of ways than I've experienced this last year.

But what I don't understand is how they work through the emotional/psychological stuff.  My head gets in my way far more often than my body does.

It's been almost a year.  And what the hell, I'll tell you, I've gone from 252 to 195.  I started in a size 24W.  I'm easily in a size 16 (no W.)  I weigh what I weighed my senior year of high school.  I'm wearing clothes I wore as a junior.  That was over 20 years ago.

I was wearing shoes in size 9.  Often wides.  Now? 7 or 7.5 depending on the brand.

I've gone from not being able to do 20 minutes on the elliptical to doing 60.  I couldn't walk a mile without severe leg cramps.  Now I can walk-jog-run about a 5k. 

I've made huge progress.  I'm really liking what I see in the mirror.  I can even pull of this new short do I've got going on.

But I don't get all that most of the time.  Usually looking in the mirror surprises me.  Especially full-length ones.

Sometimes I will look at a pair of my jeans and can't imagine how they possibly fit me.

Then there are the other times.  When I look at my new, much smaller jeans and think they look huge.  Look at my new t-shirts (men's size medium) and think they're enormous.

I'm working through it.  I just have to keep proving these old ideas of myself wrong.  And while it's hard, it's not impossible.  I've got the time to do it.  And when I hover around a certain weight range for awhile, it tends to help.  I adjust.  I get used to it.  Then I move on.

I think if I did it Biggest Loser fast or surgery fast I'd be a fucking nutcase.

I'm going to bed now and hoping I'm able to walk tomorrow.

Oh! Found a video.  Ignore her first exercise, and then combine, yes COMBINE the last two.  Plank, then rows, then hop up, then lift.  Then down into plank again.  Ow.







1 comment: