Always Pushing Up The Hill, Searching For The Thrill Of It

:grouphug: Oh doll!! How I know where you are!!! The only difference, being that I've been in worse shoes than you. I am even in worse shoes than you now. Life is a journey, and no one said it was going to be easy!!

In fact, have you ever noticed, that the BEST things in life, have been the HARDEST to aquire and achieve. Yet, it's that same HARD work that makes it all worthwhile. I can GUARANTEE that you have more pride in your efforts than any of your friends who have no idea what it is to WORK for it!!!

Sarah, you are SO SPECIAL! You are gorgeous!! You care about yourself, or else you wouldn't give a rat's ass about what goes in your mouth or if you workout!!! The people who impress me all the time, are the people that are BORN naturally skinny with great metabolisms who STILL WORK HARD for being healthy!! They are inspirational. They care.

Let me tell you, those skinny non working people are no one to envy, because this period in your life is defining the limits that not only you can push yourself to, but it's the defining moments of your character~!

We all take steps backwards, but it's the glimpse of what we have done, and who we can become because we know how to work hard that will give you the slight edge throughout time! That's the truth. Just because there are people who now are skinny, you better believe that TIME will catch up with them down the road. They will be unhealthy and unsatisfied. I've seen skinny unhealthy people all the time. They come into my office all the time for sessions. They all say the same thing, "I don't know what happened. I would always be able to eat anything without working out. I'm so unhappy. I don't even know how to workout."

...And they come in hoping for a miracle! The truth is that,...learning this at a young age is the miracle! It's at those moments, that I would much rather know how far I could push myself now at a young age, versus just having to START to figure it out years down the line, when my health has diminished along with my agility.

Girl! CHIN UP!! Breath. And know, you are creating a BALANCE. It takes tweeking, but you are getting it and maintaining it. That's key. I commend you! Your journey has been so short, Sarah! My journey has been for 22 years that I remember battling this. SO CHIN UP, my dear!!!

"People with a high self esteem
have it because
they have overcome their failures.

They have been put to
the test of life,
overcome their problems
and grown.

David Jansen


"No soul that aspires
can ever fail to rise;
no heart that loves
can ever be abandoned.

Difficulties exist only
that in overcoming them
we may grow strong,
and they only who
have suffered
are able to save."

Annie Besant Some Difficulties of the Inner Life


Love you, Alta :beating:
 
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Lisa and Alta - Thank you both so much for your continued support. I'm very lucky to have friends like you on this forum. Sometimes I wish I could just do this the easy way, but that would get me no where. It is going to be a long fight but you're right, I can't fail if I never give up... so I've GOT to keep on pushing! Thank you girls <3

_____

Alrighty. So yesterday... I was a little more hungover than I thought, so after waking up around 8AM I went back to sleep around 10AM and woke up an hour and a half later. There was just no way I would be making it to group strength by noon because I was still out of it. I drank water like you couldn't believe yesterday! I didn't eat too much because nothing looked good to me. I did buy myself a yummy fruit salad though :)

So since I skipped the class at the gym, I figured I would make it a late night gym session. I still had to write a 7-9 page paper that is due this morning at 9:30 and I only had 1 page written at 7PM last night. As I'm writing this paper, my roommate is just getting home. I feel the sudden urge to pee... but I have to wait because she got in the shower at the same time. I waited a while then finally got up to go. The lights in our kitchen are burnt out so as I was walking I couldn't really see anything. I wasn't sure if she was still in the bathroom, I THOUGHT the door was closed but as I reached to open it.. WACK! --- I WALKED STRAIGHT INTO THE EDGE OF THE DOOR AND SMASHED MY FACE! ---- :conehead: I instantly got a HUGE bump on my forehead and almost threw up. So I got a mild concussion and was DEFINITELY not going to the gym at that point. Go ahead and laugh at me... it was actually pretty funny (and I'll attach a picture of my bump).

I finished my paper at 1:30AM so now that it's done, and my bump has gone down a lot, and it's the weekend... I am in MUCH better spirits today and and making it to the gym, dammit! I'm going to core complete and step and I will NOT wimp out! :cuss:
 
:smilielol5: that is pretty funny! Even funnier that you attached a picture showing the bump!! Love it!
Start fresh today and don't look back on the week again! I'm doing the same! Moving forward...
Have a great gym session and stay away from the beer tonight!!
 
Hahaha I posted this picture on my facebook and I got like 15 comments on it of my friends laughing at me. How ridiculous that I walked right into the door... it would have made a great youtube video, that's for sure!

Okay... so I'm feeling SO much better today. I have been eating healthy, I DID get a little snacky after lunch (pretzels with hummus, banana, granola bar, a few more pretzels with cream cheese) BUT it was time to go to the gym so thankfully the snacking ended and I got in about 2 hours tonight!

- 1 hour step class
- 1 mile run on treadmill @ 6.8 mph incline 1
- 20 minutes treadmill walking @ 3.8 mph, increasing the incline by 0.5 every minute (started at 1 ended at 10.5) and cool down = 1.4 miles
- 40 regular crunches, 10 bicycles, 40 left side crunches, 10 bicycles, 40 right side crunches, 10 bicycles, 1 minute plank
- Stretch

I feel sooooo good. I've been so lazy this week so I'm just pumped right now lol. For dinner I am going to cook up some chicken, kidney beans, and brown rice. No going out tonight! I might weigh in tomorrow morning depending on how I feel but I'm not expecting a loss from last week. I AM expecting a loss when I weigh in on Wednesday, though. I set my goal to get back down to 140 by February 23rd... this is very doable! Spring break is just a little over a month away... gotta get down to business!!!
 
Awesome work at the gym last night Sarah!! Don't you wish you had a HRM so you could see how many calories you burned? When is your birthday? Maybe you could ask for one then.
I'm so glad you are feeling better - me too. I'm ready to have another great week - let's do it!!! Enjoy the weekend and drink lots of water!!
 
Awesome work at the gym last night Sarah!! Don't you wish you had a HRM so you could see how many calories you burned? When is your birthday? Maybe you could ask for one then.
I'm so glad you are feeling better - me too. I'm ready to have another great week - let's do it!!! Enjoy the weekend and drink lots of water!!

Thanks! I really do want a HRM for the gym now... I am always so shocked how many you burn at the gym with yours it makes me curious to see if I'm working that hard too! Birthday is in 3 months... I totally want to ask for one! Maybe I can save up and get one sooner.

Much better attitude :D :D Keep it up woman! That bump is awesome!

Thanks! Yeah it was pretty gnarly hahaha it still hurts a little bit but it isn't noticeable! My coworker left me a box of lightbulbs at work so that I can change the lights and not worry about running into doors anymore :D lol

_____

Friday - Yesterday I worked all day and as soon as I got off I packed up and went home to see the parents for the night. We went out for dinner at the bar we always go to... I had 3 Bud Select beers, a buffalo chicken wrap (naked - minus the wrap) with fries. I ate ALL the fries... oh jeez. At least I cut out a lot of extra calories by eliminating the wrap! I know the ones that we use at work are 425 calories alone... yes people.. this is what you're getting in a wrap when you go out to eat! You might think they are healthy but you are WRONG! Eeeek :willy_nilly:

Saturday - I woke up and weighed myself just out of curiosity... scale said 143.6 so that was good to see considering the beer and french fries from the night before. So I think I can definitely see a loss this week. I worked again and snacked quite a bit while I was there (gosh, I hate working around food) but I tried my best to stay good. I WANTED to eat a chocolate chip cookie because I've been craving chocolate sooo bad but I went with a Ghiardelli 60% cocoa dark chocolate square instead. That satisfied me and was only around 60 calories compared to the cookie which was probably 150! After work I went to the gym! Here is what I did:

- 1 mile run on treadmill @ 6.5 mph incline 1 % (increased speed to 7.5 mph for the last .10 miles)
- 20 minutes intervals on treadmill (1 min walk @ 4.0 mph / 1 min run @ 7.5 mph)
= 3 miles total on the treadmill

- lunge squats w/biceps curls (5 lb dumbbell, 3 sets of 8)
- side bends with dumbbell (2 sets of 10 with 10 lb dumbbell, 2 sets of 10 with 12.5 lb dumbbell)
- 3 way dumbbell raise (5 lb dumbbell, 2 sets of 5 = 30 total dumbbell raises)

- 40 crunches regular, 10 bicycles, 40 crunches legs @ 90 degree angle, 10 bicycles, 40 crunches regular

- stretch

So I spent an hour at the gym. After that I went to the grocery store and stocked up on lots of healthy food. I was lazy to make dinner tonight so I just had a small salad. For dessert I had a strawberry cheesecake skinny cow ice cream cup! So yummy for 150 calories 1 gram fat and 4 grams of fiber... 4 grams protein too! I took a pic of the cup :) I also took a pic from before I went out with my parents the other night... lol I was checking out my guns -- I'm starting to get some definition again, I was loosing it for a while!

Going to bed early tonight, gotta wake up early tomorrow morning. Hope everyone's having a nice healthy weekend :D I probably won't be back til Tuesday, I have to work at 7AM Monday morning until 2PM, then I have class right after that. I'll come back with good news though :waving:

OOH and I really think I need to start back up with the 5K training and the push ups program again. Now that the shin splints have passed... no excuse not to! Come on Sarah you've done it before you can do it again! SPRING BREAK - 5 WEEKS AWAY - GO GO GO!!
 
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Alright I have some time to update before I have to study my life away! Today at work I ate a pumpkin bar (basically a piece of pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting... eek) and then I felt really guilty. Luckily I was in high spirits today and excited to work out because the weather was great! Sunny and we hit the 40's... the snow is melting so fast! So after work I got ready and went for a run - to the gym!

When I got to the gym I did "day 1" of the 5K training program. So, 30 minutes of intervals (2 minutes walking @ 4.0 mph / 1 minute running @ 6.8 mph) and then ran back home when I was done! The treadmill workout ended up being 2.5 miles and the run to and from the gym was 2.5 miles as well. So all in all, I did 5 miles :)

Tomorrow I plan to go to Bosu at night. Ready to kick major ass this week! Buh bye :seeya:
 
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Overall a good day. Here's how it went:

Breakfast: Oatmeal w/blueberry craisins and walnuts
Snacks: Small chai tea latte, trail mix granola bar, banana, a few taste of white chicken chili (we made it at work and the girl i was working with is vegan so i was the taste tester!)
Lunch: Wrap (60 cal flat bread, 2 slices turkey, onion, tomato, mustard, lettuce), two large strawberries
Snacks: Pretzels w/hummus, 1 dark chocolate coconut covered strawberry (the roomie got a box of edible arrangements from her boyfriend filled with different kinds of dipped strawberries and apples), small handful almonds
Exercise: 60 minutes Bosu class
Dinner: Salad w/a few cherry tomatoes, onion, croutons, and thousand island dressing, small piece of pizza (thin crust, pepperoni, 3x3 inches in diameter.. once again, from the ROOMIE!!! is she trying to sabotage me!?)
Dessert: Skinny cow ice cream cup

I wrote on the white board in my room the countdown for spring break. 33 days away! I look at it and think about it when I try talking myself out of exercising or want to eat something bad. So far it's working!

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's day! Wish I had a Valentine to spend it with :(
 
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Hey there!

Thank you for the great messages about my friends! It meant a lot, and certainly gave me motivation to say something :)

Glad to see you're starting the 5k program- I'm going to have to restart that myself!!

You're doing so great! And your picture proves it! You look great (love your hair btw!! I wish I could get mine to curl like that!)

You have a lot of determination and motivation- and it's contagious!!!

I hope you had a fabulous Valentines day :)
 
Great work Sarah!! I'm lovin the biceps too!
That's so cool you ran to the gym and then ran some more! It's warming up here too but I hate all the slush and wetness that comes from it.
Time is going by so quick so we really have to make our workouts count and resist those temptations in time for holidays! We can do it!! I'm ready to work hard - and it always helps when you are on board too!! Keep it up!!
 
Loving the pics!!! Your guns are HOT!! :D! :reddevil: Now I know who to call when I need to Blast Somebody! ...Pow! Down! :boxing:!!
 
Thanks girls!

Weigh in this morning =143.8 --> 0.2 lbs up from 2 weeks ago. Yes, it's easy to look at it as "wow, 2 whole weeks and all I've done is gained weight" but I'm not going to look at it that way. I'm just going to say that I need to work harder, that's all there is to it. However, it was nice to find out that my stomach has gone down from 35 inches to 33.75 so obviously I'm doing SOMETHING right.

I have a long day ahead of me of laundry, working out, and studying for two exams tomorrow. Gotta get to it! Have a great day, everyone!
 
It's been a really productive day so far and I'm feeling great!

After I got up, I had breakfast, started laundry, studied, washed dishes, folded and put laundry away, got my shoes on, ran to the gym, did 30 minutes intervals on the treadmill, ran home, rotated more laundry, and now I have to hop in the shower and get ready for work. And the weather is GORGEOUS today... sunny skies, almost up to about 50 degrees. LOVIN' IT!
:party:
 
I'm just going to say that I need to work harder, that's all there is to it.

I think you're doing great- but you know what, it's AWESOME that you want to push yourself!!!

I think to some extent, we all think we should be working harder! I know I say that to myself sometimes...but I mean, your inches lost on your stomach- WOW!! You're workin' hard, and it's paying off! That's a fantastic loss!!!!

Grats!!! And you're kickin' pa'tootie girl!
 
Thanks, Tik! I love your encouragement :)

_____

It's been a good week! I've been eating healthy still and I've worked out every day since Saturday (except for Tuesday) and feeling good about that.

Today at step I was NOT into it - I was really bothered because the instructor kept messing up the routine and forgetting what to do next. We got way behind and couldn't even finish the last set because we didn't have time since we wasted so much trying to get back on track! I was irritated to the point that I wasn't even giving it my all. Regardless, I got my body moving for an hour and got some sweat out.

After step, I thought about how I wanted pizza for dinner. I was mad about step class, irritated that I was going to come home just to sit around and be alone (since my roommates always leave on the weekends and I stay here for work) so I just felt like having a pizza night and watching TV. I got home, ate an apple in an attempt to curb the urge to get pizza but I caved in and went and bought myself a slice of pan style pizza with mushroom, onion, green pepper, and sausage.

And you know what? I don't even regret it. Why? Because I've been craving pizza a lot lately and when I don't give in to my cravings, I find other things to eat and end up eating more than I would have if I just satisfied the craving. It was DELICIOUS pizza and now I'm super full, but I'm not going to sit here and eat ice cream or drink beer and ruin the whole day just because of one bad choice. No, I will look at it as a treat to myself, and in the morning, I will hit the gym before work and sweat it all out :D

I am DETERMINED to see a loss on Wednesday, though... so NO MORE PIZZA for me this week!!

Also, I'm going to change my March 16th goal to 139 instead of 137. I haven't been in the 130's for several months now, and I'm not sure I am capable of losing 6 pounds in the next month (6 pounds that are supposed to STAY off). My weight has been at a stand still for a while but hopefully this week will be different! :)
 
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YAY for March 16th!!! We're going to meet our goals girlie!!! :)

And never EVER feel guilty about treating yourself (in moderation!) ...you're totally right! If you deprive yourself, you sometimes end up eating twice as much as your would have if you just gave in! Plus, when you work hard, like you have been doing, you need to treat yourself :)

You're doing so good with eating healthy and sticking to the gym! Your hard work is going to pay off- especially when we look at that scale on March 16th, and we've reached our mini goal :)

I can't believe the week is almost over!!! *twirl*

Any exciting weekend plans? :)
 
One slice?! LOL!! You were tripping on ONE slice!?! Ohhh, Sarah! You sweet little buttercup!! :D!! Shit girl, you tell me you hogged down 1/2 a pizza or a whole one and then, I'll WHUP U!!! :smilielol5:!! But for 1 slice?!! ....hahaha. :D!

Oh baby Jesus, girl!! ;)!!! :D!! Ahhh,... I know how it is though! Good you satisfied that craving because it does end up worse if we don't!!! :D! Loving your motivation right now!! I think you are setting reasonable goals. You can do it!!
 
Any exciting weekend plans? :)

Unfortunately, no :( So far my plans are to wake up early tomorrow, hit the gym, work 9AM-3:30PM, head 45 minutes back home to babysit for the night. Saturday morning I plan to work out and maybe do a little shopping for spring break if I have time before I have to come back out to school so I can work 1PM-5PM. Other than that, I'm just hanging out and taking it easy! :)

One slice?! LOL!! You were tripping on ONE slice!?! Ohhh, Sarah! You sweet little buttercup!! :D!! Shit girl, you tell me you hogged down 1/2 a pizza or a whole one and then, I'll WHUP U!!! :smilielol5:!! But for 1 slice?!! ....hahaha. :D!

Hahahha Thank you Alta but it wasn't just ONE slice... it was one BIG slice (I guess the "slice of the day" at Rocky Rococo's only comes in the "super slice" size so it was pretty big! a square slice 5x6 inches I'm guessing!) BUT I originally wanted a Myza (personal pizza) from toppers which is equivalent to 4 slices of pizza. So at least I still took some effort because I know I can down a Myza pizza like no one's business! lol :D
 
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