Almost There!

Today is Wednesday.  Sunday is the start of my 10 week Ultimate Body Challenge.  I have to admit I'm kind of nervous.  I always have some anxiety when entering a new situation, and this is no different.  I've also been thinking of what kind of goals to focus on, which is also intimidating, because I'm not grossly overweight.  In fact, I'm not overweight at all any more, according to the numbers.  I'm not where I want to be though, and that's what I have to remember.  I'm not out to impress anyone but myself.  I'm doing this to take my fitness to the next level and to do it the healthy way.

I find it interesting the expectations that I put upon myself because of what I think I should want or should expect.  I could probably analyze the reasons I do this (I'm a people pleaser, I need approval, what have you), but it's far easier to focus on changing it rather than figuring out why.  What do I want?  What are my expectations for myself?  These are far easier questions to answer than "am I doing the right thing?" or "how is this going to impact others?"  When I made the decision to become a vegetarian, those were two questions I found myself asking about my family.  How am I going to feed them and me?  Should I just make them join me? Is it going to be a lot more work for me to make two separate entrees?  The answer to these questions boiled down to one thing, what I wanted to have happen.  Once I decided, I made it work.  I plan ahead a bit more, and it's only slightly more work to make a meatless entree for myself.  The bottom line is, it was what I wanted, and I feel better for it.

Obviously, there are times you don't want to merely follow your gut feeling on things, like your retirement portfolio!  But, in the matters of what's best for yourself, your instinct is always going to be right.  Like vegetarianism and this Ultimate Body Challenge.  I knew these are things I wanted for my life, and it feels right to pursue them.  The expectation is that I will be healthier and happier.  That's really all I can ask for in my life!

I signed myself up for WHAT?

The vegetarian thing has been going ok.  I'm still experimenting and figuring out what works.  Now that the kids are back in school, I'm looking forward to buckling down again.  I've been pretty lax with the vegetarianism lately, mostly because I'm out of ideas for what else to do.  I've decided that I'm going to try a new recipe every other day from my vegetarian cookbook, to help get the ball rolling on "options".  That's my biggest drawback right now, options for me while I cook something for everyone else.  I do the obvious; beans for burritos, tofu on occasion, mushrooms in spaghetti sauce.  But I'm not very good beyond that.  I hope that going through the cookbook will give me a good start, so I can branch out to be creative.

When I am actually being a "good" vegetarian, and not eating meat 3-5 times a week, I feel so much better, and notice a big difference on my waistline.  I am happy to report that I have lost and maintained a 12 pound weight loss since the beginning of the year.  The below picture is the comparison from June to the beginning of September:

Pretty good, huh?  I'm very pleased.  Regular exercise and vegetarian eating agrees with me!  I even revised my goal weight to 115lbs, since I'm getting close to my original goal of 120lbs.  I also told myself that once I got to my goal of 120, I would start strength training, so I could have definition, as well as a slimmer figure.  I am very happy to say that starting October 4, I am keeping that promise to myself.  I signed myself up for a 10 week "Ultimate Body Challenge".  So exciting!  I will be  kickboxing and doing other strength exercises, plus following a nutrition plan.  Since I love kickboxing, I thought this would give me the results I'm after, plus allow me to do something I really enjoy.  I've wanted to take an actual kickboxing class as well, so this is a win-win-win for me!

I'm not sure what all they are going to have us do, but I'm ready to challenge myself like this, and ready to see some great results.  I'm really excited to jump start my exercise routine, and maybe even become that washboard ab-ed girl in my dreams.

Maybe!