Sometimes it's hard to get started unless you have a workout buddy and what better workout buddy can you find than your canine soulmate?
I love this story, it shows how much our four-legged companions influence our lives - not just in the number of shoes eaten, or the cuddles, but also how they can motivate us to move and care for ourselves! If you're in need of some motivation to move this Monday (or an excuse to find a canine partner!) watch this video....be prepared for an ugly cry ;)
Link to original video post: https://www.facebook.com/SFGate/videos/10156605140745594/
People look at me now and they assume I've always looked this way. I'm not "fat", I'm not overtly huge and I am obviously an active person. I speak fitness, live fitness and love fitness. People assume that that has always been the case. Most of you will know that I'm on a weight loss journey. My journey started over two years ago, it's been a long time and it's easy to forget where we came from. Most of the people in my life now have never seen me larger than a UK size 10-12. In fact, I hid away for a long time because of what I'd done to my body. I could never accept it, the way it looked or felt. The way I sweated when I walked for even the shortest time. The way I was unhappy every time I caught a glimpse of myself in a reflective surface. I came out of hiding when I made the decision to change my life. It was hard. People mocked me - people in cars passing me by would shout out at me running along the road. Usually it was something along the lines of "run fatty". Sometimes though, it was "keep going". Which goes to show - people come in all varieties. That was something I never accepted for myself. I've talked about the times I locked myself away, I hid and was miserable - waiting for a magical existence to sweep me away. Or for my miserable existence to end. This isn't that. This is a celebration of everything I have achieved. You see me now and you assume that I'm happy with my body. A few months ago, someone said to me "but you'd never understand, you're not fat". Ah, the beauty of appearances. The willful acceptance of the mind to assume what it can see. I haven't always looked the way I look now and today I've decided to do something I've been terrified to do. I'm sharing that journey. I take progress photos regularly, but my last were taken in July and I've held off sharing them until now. There are few photos of me at my largest of 200Ibs. The one below was the first photo I took when I began to take back control of my life - I was 175Ibs and finally starting to accept what I saw and know I could change it. I've waited for months, waiting to meet goals, waiting to meet my ultimate weight goal but you know what? I'm proud of what I've achieved and I started to lose sight of that. So, here is my "Transformation Tuesday" offering. For those new friends who never suspected where I was before, or for the ones who have heard the tales but have never seen the evidence. This is my journey so far.... January 2012: 175Ibs 45.3% body fat UK size 16-18 July 2014: 154Ibs 24% body fat (approx) UK size 10-12 Scuse the silly faces, they're the best I can manage :p I still have a way to go - ideally I'd like to sit 130-140Ibs range with 17-18% body fat and this is a reminder to me of that commitment I made all that time ago. Do you have a #transformation Tuesday story to share? Where did you start? Where are you now? Are you still "travelling" (as it were)? And if you are - how far do you still have to go? If you'd like to be featured for #transformationtuesday email me at [email protected] - include two photos and your story!! Today is Monday. Anyone else notice that? Well, at about 10:00am my day got considerably better - Tom asked if I wanted to go to the pole barn. Did I want to go to the pole barn - what sort of question is that anyway? ;) So, after school (a long school day I might add) off we went. Since my shoulder is still a bit dodgy my left side is becoming much more dominant. Good in lots of ways, now I even ache in a uniform manner :p Anyway, the spinning poles made my day....so much fun xD I may have left my stomach behind about 10 seconds into this, and I didn't get it back for a good hour after the session, but it was totally worth it - my first improv felt amazing. I had a load of fun, and it reminded me that our lives are only what we make of them. My choice to have a "Monday feeling" was MY choice. I made it happen. People are their circumstances - we make them good, or we accept them as bad. Fight those bad feelings guys - be happy and CREATE your circumstances! Go out and have an AWESOME week! It's Monday right. I mean, from the moment I opened my eyes, I knew it was Monday. Getting to the bathroom I tripped over my own feet, I managed to unroll my yoga mat into my face, I did my whole yoga practice with my shorts on backwards (I sort of wondered about the wedgie) and I trailed the cat's wet, slimy, gnawed upon balloon Wilma through the living room whilst trying to do a sort of sideways dance, kicking my feet out and shaking my legs to try and get it off. Yep. Monday was here (and just FYI, that balloon is GRIM). I got through the day. Sort of. I complained at the kids that it was their fault it was Monday. I got so excited about talking about brains that my lesson ran into the next lesson, which of course made me late. I lost my keys - which had my extremely valuable USB stick on. I even forgot my lunch. Woah. I could have starved to death RIGHT. THERE. By 4pm, I sort of felt like this.... It's true. I even added someone to my high-five list.... When I thought about writing a #mondaymotivation blog, I groaned inwardly. How am I supposed to encourage people to go out and work towards their dreams when I don't even feel like walking to the kitchen to feed myself? And then I remembered a quote. When I first saw it many months ago, I thought "yeah, looks good but a bit cliché.....right?" This quote though, even though it didn't appeal to me at the time, speaks volumes to me today. Right, so I feel deflated. Ok. Well, that happens but the most important thing you can do in ANY one day is to motivate and encourage someone else. Why? Whether you motivate them to go for a run, or to finish that housework, to say something nice to someone else - even if you encourage them so that they feel happier, it's all balancing out the negativity of feeling purposeless. So ok, maybe I felt like an asthmatic walrus this morning in my yoga practice, but what did I do today that I feel achieved some greater purpose? I made my classes smile. Maybe they went out and smiled at someone else. Maybe that smile is still being passed around the world. I encouraged my students and told them they could do anything they put their mind to. Maybe one of them will take me up on that. I praised someone on their weight loss - even though THEY felt it was no achievement. I offered to help a colleague and I gave a friend some advice on social media. I got up and I did it. Even though I didn't feel like doing it. You know what though? Even though initially I didn't feel it myself, I wrote this blog - maybe people will look at it and think "well, sucks to be you today". Maybe I'll catch that one person though, who thinks "actually, you know - I DID do something good today". So, are YOU my one person? What good did YOU put into the world today my friends? More stuff to keep you entertained :) If you liked this, check out my most popular blog posts here: 10 most popular blog posts Or, if you're looking for something slightly different, there's a range of fitness funny memes, fitspo and cool crafts - check them out here: most popular links Also: Don't forget to swing by my Facebook page or say hey on Twitter!! A few months ago I came across a meme that perfectly fits how I feel today... It really did. I took its sparkly high heels and bright red lipstick, grabbed its lightweight cashmere jumper and didn't let the door hit it on its way out. I never thought I'd see my get-up and go again. I'll have to add that the three and a half hours of sleep I managed last night didn't really help the issue, it was like the relationship was beyond fixing. Even yoga was only a temporary plaster holding everything together. Nothing could get me in the mood to move. And then I opened Windows Media Player (WMP). I listlessly scrolled through songs, rejecting a lot of my usual favourites. Alanis Morrisette got skipped past. Coldplay. Maroon 5. AWOLNATION. Disturbed. All flicked through. You know that feeling - there's something not quite right. Well I had THAT. Feeling. I couldn't quite settle on anything. Then I decided to try something a little more aggressive and less on my "usual" lists. I tried 50 cent. I decided I was sick of all of the skinny women wearing almost nothing in the video. I went for some Jay-Z and got tired of his assertions that a lady-friend wasn't one of HIS issues. Well. His assertions of not having a lady-friend were one of MY issues at that point in time. Yuck yuck yuck yuck. Then I remembered a song from what seems like a million years ago. It always made me feel good. Peaceful. So off I trotted to try and find it. After an internet search involving lots of crumbs I found a video uploaded on YouTube. Allow me to share my piece of peace from this afternoon. I've no idea particularly why this song settled me, but it did and it got me to thinking. How often has music got me up and going when I didn't want to be? And what songs fuelled the forward surge? There are loads of studies that support a link between mood and music (e.g. Bruner, Husain etc), not to mention the feeling that you get depending on the type of music you're listening to - so it is a natural step into creating playlists to suit what you're doing! Anyway, given it's Monday and we could all do with a bit of a boost I decided to compile a list and share it as my Monday Motivation - hopefully one of these songs will get YOU up and going!! Running: 1. AWOLNATION - Sail. Every time. Awesome song :D 2. Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage 3. Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up 4. Drowning Pool - Bodies 5. Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger. Or If I Never See Your Face Again. Both good for the purpose xD Lifting: 1. Jessie J -Do It Like a Dude 2. Lily Allen - Hard Out Here 3. Disturbed - Almost anything by them actually, but Want works well! 4. David Guetta (ft Nicky Minaj/Sia) - Turn Me On/Titanium 5. Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - also the Kanye West song of the same name works here xD Walking: 1. Pentatonix - Daft Punk 2. Daft Punk - Harder Better Stronger Faster 3. Katy Perry - Dark Horse/This Is How We Do 4. Mika - Relax 5. Bastille - Of the Night Pole: 1. Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear (The Reaper) 2. Lady Gaga - Scheisse/Judas/Government Hooker. Ah Gaga just gets me in the mood whatever song :p 3. Pendulum - Track 15 4. Nickleback - Shakin' Hands 5. Godsmack - I Stand Alone So what are your favourite songs to work out to? Do you have different tastes depending on activity? Hi all!! I thought I'd stop by just to thank everyone who has popped over to see me at Diary of a Pole Addict on Facebook! I've just passed 100 likes and I'm super excited! I would get up and dance, but today was legs day. Nuff said right... ;) Remember, you can always come and say hi on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. I love it when people stop by - do it. And bring a funny picture. Or an interesting fact. You know what I'll even put you in my hall of fame ;) Now I'm constantly being reminded that I have followers by Twitter via email. This is very handy, although a little on the over-done side, I mean, if I didn't have followers would they send me emails reminding me that I didn't have followers? Because that's sort of harsh. Anyway - hi everyone who follows me on Twitter, you're not forgotten! Today I had a sort of grumpy day. You know the sort. When you had a rest day and then ate too much. You *think* you don't want to work out - but that's a lie. So, I put on my arse-kicking vest top and got myself to the gym. Whilst we're (sort of) on topic - I also want to share the exciting news that I've lost another 1.4Ibs this week! I'm still not past the pre-bulk weight but I'd like to think some of that remaining weight is ACTUALLY muscle.... (just nod and agree, it'll make me feel super-hero :p) So. Having spewed all of my good news on you, I'm now going to eat pizza. Mmmmm. Laters all!! Happy Sunday evening!! Tonight is pole night. Well, this week anyway. I know, I know - it's confusing when things get moved around! My whole week has been extended as I measure the week by "pole night" these days ;) Anyway, as I'm sure you can trust, I'm going to tell you ALL about pole - but not this evening. This evening, I'm going to nurse my bruises and eat FOOOOOOD. You know why? Because I don't have a poorly tummy any more (I am currently crossing my fingers) xD Whoooo! Anyway, I thought I'd leave you with this.... I know it's self-inflicted but I still like showing them off :p
And this.... I came across this on my Facebook page (come and say hey - gimme a like, whatever xD) the other day and I thought just how apt it was for so many people in my life right now. Remember, we only have the moment - everything else comes with it! Make the most of your moments xD |
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