Pushing myself HARD

I feel like I've died, or I'm pretty close to it. The more weight I lose, the more I feel like I can do ANYTHING! At least I will try anything. It might hurt afterwards… It DID hurt afterwards. It still DOES hurt. But it's a good kind of hurt… I think.

I've been feeling so good doing weights and cardio and even the periodic water aerobics class, that I thought I would try my hand at a Spin class. Several well-meaning friends thought me crazy, but just like I can see myself running in a marathon (a girl can dream, can't she) I thought I wanted to test myself in a spin class.

Right now, I'm not sure whether I was brave, determined, or crazy. Saying that this class was "cycling on steroids" is an understatement. I hurt. I could hardly walk after the class was over. And I wasn't able to do everything that the rest of the class was doing. However, I was able to continue spinning for the entire 45 minutes.

I talked with the instructor after class and learned some exercises that I could do to strengthen my core making the cycling while standing up a little easier (meaning doable).

Now the old me would have come home, lie on the couch for the rest of the day and watch television – but not this new me. I came home, had lunch, and rested for an hour. Then….

Off to the pool with Nathan, where we played for a couple of hours, mostly throwing a water football back and forth, back and forth. But I made good use of the time in the water and added kicks and jumping jacks to my play time (waiting on the ball to come back from Nathan).

Lastly, lest you be bored with all of this exercise talk, let me tell you what I did that I would NEVER have done this time last year.

I went down the water slide. Not once, but TWICE!!! Yes, halfway down the first time I was thinking that I might have made a mistake. But as soon as I hit the water, I wanted to do it AGAIN. It was amazing!!

I'm losing weight. I'm getting healthier. And I'm having a BLAST! "Making Memories" is what my mom would call it.