Progress

As I've said before, I can't see the physical changes in myself. I'm afraid I never will. This problem sends me deep into the comparison trap. I constantly get sucked into Instagram and blogs of fitness models and runners and think, "wow, that person is fitter than me," or "that person is faster than me." And then I get totally frustrated with myself and obsess about what I could be doing differently to get to that point.

Showing off my baby bicep for the boyfriend.  He loves it.......

It's so hard for me to step out of that trap I get myself into and realize that I am ME and not someone else. I am doing the best that I can do. And each person is different and each person is doing the best that they can do. Their best is different than my best and someone will always be fitter than me and faster than me, and that's okay.  As long as I spend each day being the best me that I can be, that's all that matters.  And I think that's how everyone should live, being the best person that THEY can be.

This is the face I use when I need my students to listen to me.

Today I decided to do some HIIT at the gym. I started out with doing sprints on the treadmill. I warmed up for 5 minutes and then did 10 sprints for 30 seconds each at a 5:30 pace and then slowed back down to my easy 7:30 pace for a minute. It actually felt really good to sprint, even if I sounded like an elephant stampede.

Then I stepped WAY out of my comfort zone and decided to do some intervals on the stair stepper. Let me tell you how much I HATE the stairs. Any stairs. And a machine that makes you climb stairs and get nowhere frustrates me. But I wanted to shock my body. Let me just say it was the worst decision I've ever made hard. And I only lasted 7 minutes. But that's longer than I thought I would last! So that felt good.

Then I moved to the weight room to do some tabatas. I have a tabata timer on my phone and it was the best thing I have ever downloaded. Tabatas are 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off for 8 rounds. It's a total of 4 minutes of work and they are really hard. I did kettlebell swings, sit-ups with a medicine ball, squats with a kettlebell, and v-sit-ups. I was dripping in sweat by the end of it. Everything burned.

At the end, I decided to take a progress picture. I don't take them often enough because I am afraid I won't see any progress. I know I am physically stronger and I am much faster, but I don't feel like it will show on the camera. Well, this is what happens after 8 months of hard work.

I could not believe how big my quads have gotten. And my shorts are much bigger on me. This was when I realized that things are working. I may not look like a fitness model and I may not win races, but I am becoming the best version of me, and that's what matters. I am slowly but surely learning to love myself and I have fitness to thank for that.  So, go out and do something that makes you the best version of YOU every single day.