Overcoming Mental Exercise Blocks with Baby Steps

WOW, what a week it has been! I don’t know about Rebecca and Jeanae, but I had an awesome week – chatting with the girls and getting to know what we’re doing during the bootcamp was both a whirlwind and totally fun at the same time. Now that we’re a week in on our fitness plan and working on learning our meal plans (more on those next week!), it seems like we’re starting to get used to what’s ahead for the next month and a half, maybe. Of course, the three of us can’t possibly be serious for a whole week (or day), so we also had a great time joking, laughing, and we even made codenames for each other. This week we’re talking about our fitness plan and how it went the first week, and bringing everyone up to speed on our codenames so you can be in on it too!

During the past week, we’ve been working hard on our fitness plan, which was given to us by the superb Mark (aka @MrBookieboo). We are working out six days a week with a rest day on Sunday (yay, rest!) for recuperation. That leaves three days a week for our Burn It! workout where we bust out footfires, burpees, alternating (or walking) lunges, squats, and kick & lunges. That workout has 4 sets and BOY does it burn. We also have 3 days of Build It! which is all about the arms with increasing numbers of pushups, shoulder presses, tricep pushups (OW), dumbbell curls, and crunches. I was super thankful when I saw that one only had 3 sets, jelly arms totally follow! We’re also allowed to do additional cardio, so I’ve been keeping up on the Couch 2 5k program that I had started in December.

The hardest part for me on the workouts is pushing through it. I’m still new to really working out, with serious effort and determination, so sometimes I think that I can’t do that – I can’t do regular pushups or I can’t go all the way down on tricep pushups, I can’t jog for long, or I can’t push through the burn on footfires. But when I applied to be a Mamavation Mom, I made a commitment to myself and the Sistahood – I will push through those mental blocks, and I will bring it every. single. workout. I’m proud to let you know, that this week, I did bring it. I’ve been using baby steps to push through my mental blocks – I’m adding one more regular pushup (to each set, I’m up to 6 at a time!) each workout, going down further and further on my tricep pushups, spending 60 minutes walking and jogging on the treadmill (I’m up to 3 minutes straight of jogging!), and not taking breaks on my footfires. I’m amazed at myself, so proud of what my body can do, and so grateful for this opportunity to knock your socks off – MacGyver-style!

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Are you wondering what MacGyver-style is now? Well! Let me tell you! Jeanae and Rebecca bestowed upon me the nickname MacGyver after they heard about the DIY walking treadmill that I made with stuff I had laying around the house. See, for a while I’ve been wanting a walking treadmill, but the retail ones are a little pricey and I have the instructions for a “real” DIY one with a trip to the hardware store and everything, but I haven’t made it yet. While I was trying to fit in my 10,000 steps a day in between blogging and everything else, I decided a walking desk was necessary. So I cobbled together this super awesome “desk” with a tabletop ironing board, a mop, a broom, and duct tape. Once they heard about it, my name was chosen! Just wait – they will be sharing their codenames this week too! REALLY – do not try this at home, I do NOT want to be responsible if your computer or treadmill breaks! We’re having people over, so my treadmill was banished from our living room

So after all that, how was my week? Well, in a word, AWESOME. I had a little bit of trouble getting enough sleep in and adjusting my schedule to fit what we were doing this week, but I think it’s under control now. I also wasn’t getting enough water in, but I’m working on that too. We received our official pedometers and scales this week, so I’m using my new scale. I was hoping that maybe my old scale was way off (it wasn’t), but it turned out to work anyway – because I totally lost this week! Here’s my weight and measurements for the week: