PERSPECTIVE

Hey Fam!

I haven't been on here in a while for a variety of reasons. I've genuinely been busy and then there's always the debate...do I bother sharing when it's a bad day..or bad days..and then there's just needing a break, so I check (d) for all of the above!

In catching up on the blog, I was both tickled and humbled by Monique and Bea's most recent posts, as they certainly put things in perspective...something I think can be easily lost in an experience as intense as this. Like Bea, I've complained (mostly to myself) about the "lack" of progress I've made. I want a muscle here, a pound lost there...it's always something, right??? I've worked harder than I ever have and with Dre's help, have accomplished something in four months I haven't been able to do in the last 10 years!!! But it nags at you not to be where you're "supposed" to be..and since when did dropping two dress sizes become something to bitch about, anyway? I can wear clothes I'd hidden in the tomb of my closet for the occasional glance of reverence and moment of silence...

Sure, I've been the subject of jokes--"droopy drawers", folks at work leaving bags of chips and Popeye's coupons on my desk, and I've definitely struggled with feeling good about my new body and secretly fearing that, 4 months from now, I'd become one of those chicks who goes out and is afraid to eat anything or pretends she "just ate" ALL the time (yall know the type)...so as to avoid the risk of that one pound Mo was talking about...

And so I think I've been in a troubling little limbo of "the blues" for a while now because of all the mixed emotions. To get through this, you're physically, mentally and emotionally on auto-pilot. Many of us do this at work, meetings, etc. but it's a hell of a thing to have to do it any hour in between! It IS indeed a necessary evil to push personal events aside because you have to "go to the gym" and I think I've started to worry about the impact that avoidance would have on me when I'm done...

And then, last week I got troubling news which threatened to push me over the edge but I only got to the brink. Instead of breaking me, the news motivated me to take a step back and put this thing in perspective!! Although I'm confident my physical fitness will serve me well, in an odd way I'm pretty sure I have this training to thank for the mental toughness to push through the next storm!! And although it's been an incredibly rocky start to 2011, I still feel good about the year! I hope you do too! We can accomplish ANY goal we set for ourselves.

Only One Pound

Heeelllloo D3,

Don't act like you don't know me cause you know you do. I'm One Pound of Fat and I'm the happiest one pound of fat you'd ever want to meet. Let me tell you why; see no one ever wants to lose me because I'm after all only one pound.

See, everyone always wants to lose 3, 5, or 15 pounds but never just one pound so I just stick around and happily keep you fat. Then, on the low, one by one, I call my friends and you don't seem to notice until I've grown to 10 then 20 or even 50 pounds in weight. Yup, I love being only one pound because I can do as I please.

So when you weigh in, keep right on saying "Oh, man I only lost one pound" (like I'm no milestone to celebrate) When you do this it encourages others to keep me around because they think I'm not worth losing. I do so love hanging around you- your arms, your hips, your butt, your thighs and all those lovely parts in between. So go right ahead, don't mind me after all I am only one pound !

3/17/11 Are you there Bod? It’s me, Bea.

Hey Bod. I realized the other day that I often speak OF you, ABOUT you, and AGAINST you, but rarely have I ever spoken TO you. For this reason alone, I thought it’s time to write a few thoughts expressing how I truly feel – to you directly. First off, I’m sorry for staring at certain parts of yours in the mirror and doing my best to sculpt them differently. And for a host of other things such as:

- For taking your constantly beating heart, immune system, lovely glands, and strong bones for granted so many days of our life together.
- For being enraged the time I found your first cellulite dimple.
- For always wanting something other than what you gave me.
- For neglecting and abusing you for so many years by not exercising and eating right.
- For pinching you and making ugly faces and sounds at you.
- For blaming you for feeling depressed and sometimes having low self-esteem

After so many years, I’m finally realizing that I need to take good care of you and let you know just how much I appreciate you:

Thank you for my hands. You help me do everything. Type, cook, drive, wash, eat, scratch, touch, grab, carry, write, dial, text, open doors, flush, the list goes on and on.

Thank you for my feet. You take me everywhere I want to go and give me balance.

Thank you to my immune system for always having my back and being my bodyguard at all times.

Thank you for my skin. You protect me everyday.

Thank you for my stomach. Especially for my appetite and love of food.

For all of these things and many more, I thank you body. I promise to respect you and take good care of you. If it seems like I demand too much of you with all this exercising, I promise that this will be good for us in the long run. I'm so proud of you. Hang in there. Let’s do this.

D3 Fam - No matter how you currently feel about your body or what it’s been through, I urge you to write a letter to it. Apologize and then give it gratitude. We take our bodies for granted, we really do. There are so many people out there that have injuries or are very sick and physically cannot exercise. One thing I have truly come to realize during this intense training is that I appreciate my body more than ever. I owe it to myself to take care of my body while I’m physically able to. There are simply no excuses. I’m realizing that I may not reach my goal by May, but that’s ok. I look in the mirror and I like what I see and that's all that matters!!! I’m thrilled with the progress I’m making and will not take any shortcuts. All of the time and dedication is paying off - slowly YES, but surely. All good things come to those who wait (and have patience). Like I said before, IT’S JUST ME AND MY BREATH, ME AND MY BREATH :)

What do you have to say to your body today?

See you soon,
Bea

Hang on for the RIDE!!

HI D3 Family… I hope everyone is doing well!

WOW!! 8 weeks to go until “Show Time”! I still can’t believe how fast the time has gone by since we started this training in Dec.

I say this all the time but “What a Journey and Life Experience this has been for me!!”

If I can give any advice to anyone who ever wants to do a show like this it would be to have Patience, Dedication, Faith in Yourself and the MOST IMPORTANT thing (at least I think) is to make sure you surround yourself with positive people. I’ve encountered some negative people and honestly the negativity will literally suck the life out of you and it’s so not worth it! Everyone deals with situations differently and everyone goes thru different feelings, and emotions… ect!!  BUT at the end of the day when you train for a show like this you have to remember you’re doing it for YOURSELF.  You‘ll have haters and jealous people but again I’ve come to realize and after talking to some really great friends those people who are haters and jealous of you…. That's their issue not yours and they will either deal with it or they won’t, but what i've also learned is that i need to stop trying to make those haters / jealous people happy becasue you can't change people. Negative people like that will go thru life being haters and jealous of everyone and everything all the time and the only way to change is for them to change themselves. This training is hard enough on your body not only physically, mentally and emotionally so NEGATIVE PEOPLE "You're NOT WELCOME"!!... 

One little side note for us woman and MAN OH MAN you think we get emotional during that time of mth!! LOOK OUT because it’s 10 times worse when you’re training for a show like this and that time comes… HA!! GOTTA LOVE MOTHER NATURE!! :)

I know that I’ve been a “Hot Mess” more than I’ve been a “Good Mess” and boy have I had my days where I’ve  completely broke down!! Speaking of break downs!!  Last night I had one of my break downs just before class and I want to personally thank “Moe” from the bottom of my heart for being there for me last night. Sometimes you just need a hug and someone to listen to you vent and let you cry and Moe you did just that for me.  I don’t know if you realize this but if it wasn’t for you I honestly don’t think I would’ve stayed and took the class last night. I was seriously about ready to say F all of this and then that one BIG HUG you gave me made such a difference. Moe you ROCK and I want you to know how much I miss you at our training sessions. You have such a positive energy about you which makes it so much easier to get thru the painful workouts!! I always make sure to keep you in the back of my mind when I’m working out. So Thank you for being the FABULOUS WOMAN you are!!

Until next time!! Have a WONDERFUL DAY D3 Family!!

Xoxo

V

Sorry so long

What can one say, its been UNBELIEVABLE. On my last blog I said it was a part-time job, becoming FULL. Its HERE - Day in the life of a BAB. get up at 5:30am work out at D3 or gym for an hour, get home have breakfast, (protein shake, along with egg whites-) Go to work, come home either go to gym or D3 for a couple of classes or do both (why not we are training) and between all this eating every 3 hours, (protein and veggies), and lets not forget the daily 300 sit-ups, push-ups and bicycles :) and then you can try to rest. I need sleep, im hungry, im dizzy. But I swear i forget about all that when I look in the mirror and i see the increadible changes on my body :) I see a new little rip on my arms and GOD knows it makes it all worth it, and im loving my journey.

PS I LOVE MY BABS
Thank you ladies :)

In training

I'm Changing...

This whole process is changing my mindset about a lot of things, and when I say mindset - its because I definitely had a "set" mind. One of the things I did NOT do was workout in the morning. Hmmmph! You have to get up early for that. It's bad enough that my dog has an internal alarm clock that is set at 6:30am, but the earliest for any physical activity was 8am-ish(and only on weekends - why would anyone ever consider getting up earlier than necessary on a day you had to work?) . Well ever since Dre said I needed to do cardio, cardio, cardio - I was like when am I going to fit all this in if I don't do something in the mornings. Being blessed to have a treadmill at home, a few weeks ago I started getting up at 6am so I could do cardio and some of my 300s. And this week I actually went to the gym in the morning (gasp!) That means I had to get up at 5:15 so I could be there at 6am (WTF?). Well after a long day yesterday (over 4.5 hours of working out) I decided I was going to sleep in today (I'm sooo TIRED!!). I wasn't going to get on my treadmill at home, I wasn't going to go to the gym, I would sleep until 7:30 and then worry about the hour I missed this evening... Well, I really didn't enjoy my extra sleep because I felt GUILTY because I hadn't worked out this morning (who is this person, I certainly don't know her). I called my job and told them I would be in late. Why? So I could do my morning workout...usually that call is only made after that one extra martini that I knew I shouldn't have had the night before! This is a whole new concept for me...feeling GUILT as the result of skipping a workout!?! Wow! I guess this is what it feels like when a new behavior really becomes a habit. Until next time...

Robin

Hey Everyone,

Just checking in! Our routine is changing rapidly (evolving) and it's been a real exercise in fortitude to keep pace. The physical demands are unrelenting and your body does what it can...or what the mind tells it it can. And that's the challenge..the mind! All the familiar slogans--"getting your mind right", "made up mind", "mind over matter"..both bolster and infuriate you during this process. Your body wants to give up..and you can sympathize after 300 pushups AND a 3 hour workout day...but somehow you're up the next day ready for more. And I can't speak for anyone else but the ability to continue is nothing short of God! I'm thankful He's given me a spirit of resilience and determination and silliness with a smidge of crazy because without the combination, I'm sure I'd be at home justifying eating a 4 wing mild sauce, salt and pepper.

This is the hardest thing I've ever done. I have good days, not so good days and downright bad days. I'm physically tired but often don't sleep well. I'm hungry a lot but am not fulfilled by the thought of a "cheat day." It's really a trip what you go through emotionally and mentally. I've learned so much about myself during this process. This sooooo started with the desire for a better, banging body. The idea of a six-pack is seductive, no??? But now, it really is about the journey (Elena's been saying this all along:-)..And a hellava journey it's been. Can't wait to see where I end up. This is just the beginning!