First Day of ChaLEAN Extreme!

So first day is complete.  Tomorrow is a rest day according to the schedule so I won’t be getting up at 5am! Woot Woot!  But I do have fit club and we will be working out tomorrow night.

I kind of forgot sometime in the middle of the night that I needed to get up at 5am to workout today.  I think I was just putting it to the back of my mind because I didn’t want to get up at 5am but I did want to workout.  Which is more important to me?  Getting that extra hour of sleep or doing something wonderful for myself?  I chose getting up at 5am.

The alarm went off and startled me.  I was deep asleep!  I am very thankful that I had gotten everything ready the night before and had my workout gear neatly piled on the floor next to the door.  I got up and tiptoed out trying to not wake up hubby.  I got dressed in the hallway outside of my room.  Good thing the kids are sound sleepers.  I don’t think I’d want anyone walking in on that!  I tiptoed downstairs and set up my weight station.  I can’t keep the weights in the room because my daughter has a puppy that likes to carry them in her mouth.  Even the really heavy ones.  She is a freak. 

Anyways, where was I?  Oh yeah, I set up my station, logged into Wowy.  If you don’t do wowy you are missing out!  It’s free, it tracks your workouts for you and you get entered into a drawing for cool prizes everyday you log in!  Why wouldn’t you do that?  All you have to do is log into www.teambeachbody.com and set up an account.  It will ask if you have a coach and you tell them that leannwoo sent you! ;) That’s my screen name.  Or you can type in LeAnn Woodward. J Either way, then we can workout together and that is where all the fun is!

I was a little surprised when I started the workout how weak I had become recently.  First of all, I was slacking when it came to working out prior to my ankle injury.  I wasn’t doing much weight lifting which is strange because I love lifting weights.  I was jogging and doing some of the cardio Beachbody workouts.  Usually Turbo Jam, Hip Hop Abs or an occasional P90X Kenpo workout.  But I wasn’t pushing myself.

Then I got injured.  Reality check big time.  I still had my fit club and I needed to make a decision on how I was mentally going to react.  I had talked earlier in the month about focusing on your strengths and your abilities and what you can do.  It isn’t always that easy.  We get caught up in the frustration that comes from not being able to do simple things we could do just a week earlier.  I felt like I was on an emotional rollercoaster.  I’d be up and optimistic one minute and in pain and feeling sorry for myself the next.  I realize a lot of this has to do with my personality.  I am reading Personality Plus by Florence Littauer right now.  I read this book probably 15+ years ago and it helped my husband and I know our personality strengths and weaknesses.  I highly recommend couples read this book and take the test…but I digress.  One of my weaknesses is that I am a little undisciplined.  Whew, that was hard to say because in my work life I do what needs to be done and I get the job done.  At home it’s another matter, and I let this little weakness get in the way of my workouts too.

So this morning I started my first day of working out again knowing that it would have to be modified and that I wouldn’t be able to do everything the “right” way.  A lot of the workout was done from a chair but I was surprised that I was able to stand for some of it too and get a good workout on my lower body!  The ankle isn’t very strong and it is still a little swollen.  I have a brace I have to wear and I really couldn’t put full weight on it during the exercise.  But I was excited about what I could do!  It really made me think that we sell ourselves short way too much of the time.  If we push a little and see what we can do we really can surprise ourselves.  I know I did this morning!

Then Thursday morning I’ll be back up in the am for another ChaLEAN Extreme workout.  I think I’m really going to enjoy getting some muscle tone and strength back!

Thanks for reading my ramblings!  I hope everyone pushes themselves and accomplishes a little more than they thought they could today!