January 18

The Good: I challenged myself big time today. I walked a total of 11653 steps today (7018 steps were aerobic), 3.2 miles (getting ready for the 5K), and worked out twice today (before work and early evening). I feel so successful! I told myself last night that no matter how I felt this morning, I was going to walk. I told myself even if it was just for a short period of time, I was going to do it and I did. I feel that keeping this attitude gave me a chance to be successful instead of saying to myself, "well if I am not tired when I wake up then I will go walk." I have told myself that 100 times before and I never get out of bed, I only hit the snooze button. It really did help my day start out on a positive note. I definitely feel that cardio helps relieve stress! I also noticed I had more energy today which was great! My goal this week it is work out twice a day every day. This is what Dr. H on Biggest Loser suggests is the best way to drop pounds because you are giving your metabolism twice the boost in one day.


The Bad: Shawn and I cannot keep up with the dirty dishes. This has been a big adjustment for us. In the past, we ate out almost every meal so we never had dirty dishes. We would have occasional dirty dishes when we ate cereal in the morning or cooked dinner but it was only 2-3 times a week. Since we have only been cooking at home, we have piled the dishes high! It is a great change but it adds one more thing I have to do when I get home, but it is WORTH IT! :)


The Ugly: This morning when I was running/walking, I was trying to push myself to run for 3 minutes straight so I dropped down and pushed it out. When I reached three minutes, I popped up really fast and suddenly felt severe pain. I ended up being in tears for 30 minutes because my neck/shoulder hurt so bad I couldn't hardly move my upper body without feeling major pain. I have had pain in my neck area the past 2 days but this morning I really felt it. Shawn was an awesome husband and got up and helped me get dressed and cook breakfast. What a champ! I finally went to see my chiroprator, Jason, and he looked at it and said it was probably some pulled muscles. He helped it and told me to keep an ice pack on it 10 minutes on, 30 minutes off. It is feeling slightly better tonight but it still hurts. I was proud of myself for not giving into the pain and quitting on my weekly goal this week. As hard as it was, I decided to jump back on the treadmill tonight and finish what I started this morning. I pushed through the pain and it was the greatest feeling of accomplishment in the world! I broke through a wall that I had put up for so many years! I was able to turn an "ugly" into an "awesome!"

I also got some roll-on Biofreeze to help with the pain. I highly suggest it!!