February 24: Strength & Pride

Does he mope? Does he moan?

Does he sulk? Does he sigh?

(How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen)

 

        This morning, I was all about Jane Yolen's words.  I'd gotten on the scale (what was I thinking?) and found the number to be up!  For the past two weeks, the number on the scale has been bouncing around: The Cursed Plateau.  Ordinarily, while plateaus are annoying, as a natural part of weight loss, they don't usually cause me too much angst.  Coming just before a newspaper-related weigh-in though, this plateau is cruel.

 

        I wanted to mope and moan and sulk and sigh; I wanted to skip my trip to the Y.  But skipping workouts is not the way to blast through plateaus, so to the Y went I.  The machines I wanted to use were already occupied, and I was left with two choices: the recumbent bike (which doesn't do much for me) or the Stairmaster (which I'd never spent much time on).  Naturally I chose the Stairmaster and spent the next fifteen minutes huffing, puffing, and working up an awesome sweat (not that anyone else could tell).  Only fifteen minutes because this was my warm-up for WOW.

 

        It turned out that I was the only one to attend today's WOW class.  Do you know what happens when there's one trainer and one student?  If that one student is me, she works extra hard; and if the trainer is David, he pushes your limits.  It was great!  I worked till I didn't think I could do more, and then I did more.  David still hasn't mastered the science of counting, but I hung in there for as long as it took him to get to fifteen.  J 

 

        When I started WOW class several months ago, David told me I had "potential for great strength."  This past Tuesday I leg-pressed the stack: 395 pounds.  Today, not only did I overcome low morale, but I stomped on low morale until it turned into a trampoline and launched me into high morale.  I'm high-five, fist-pump proud of my workout today and for overcoming the temptation to not even bother showing up.  I feel (expletive) great!

 

        Yes, the weigh-in is this Saturday.  Yes, I'll probably have a lousy number.  Aside from drastically unhealthy measures (which I want no part of), there's nothing I can do about it.  All I can do is keep getting stronger and leaner.   Sooner or later the scale will catch up with me, but I can't sit around to wait for it.

 

~Karin