Setbacks

When I started working out at the beginning of February, I was confident that I was on the good and righteous path to great health. I never once thought that I could have setbacks, I went into it positive that this was the last time I was going to have to start a workout program. Working out was going to be a huge part of my life from that day forward. I breezed through level one of the 30 Day Shred, happiness and sunshine following me along. Then I go to level two, and around day three of that level, I starting feeling an ache in my knee. Just my left knee. I was concerned, but figured that all would be right after a night of resting. Unfortunately, I woke up to the dull ache the next morning and became really concerned. My husband and I pressed on with our day, making sure to get a compression sleeve for my knee. That barely helped me at all. It just ached so much.

I got home that evening and set out to do my workout. I tried the jumping jacks and high knees and walking pushups. With each move, it started to hurt more and more. Then TEARS just started streaming down my face and my husband ran to my side and scooped me up in an embrace. I couldn't hold back and I just sobbed, incoherently expressing my fears to him. You see, this year, I have HUGE plans for myself and those plans absolutely do not include knee pain. I'll elaborate more on that later, but for now I will say that I was frightened that I wouldn't be able to do the work necessary to reach this BIG goal. Not only that, but I was afraid that I was going to fail on the 30 day challenge, again. This is the FOURTH time I've attempted this, and I've never gotten this far. I've never enjoyed it this much. And the thought of it all being taken away from me scared the heck out of me. I imagined myself shooting back up to the 270s, my blood sugar reaching crazy heights, my body becoming more and more lethargic. My husband was trying to comfort me, but I was sobbing so hard and trying to push him away so I could power through the last 10 minutes. I barely skated through, and couldn't fathom doing all the exercises. But I finished it as best I could, and I went to bed sullen that night.

The next day, I woke up with a renewed sense of motivation. So my knee hurt? I could do the upper body exercises with much more ferocity, and let my lower body do modified versions of the exercises expected of them. The only problem? BOTH of my knees were aching that morning. But instead of panicking, it hit me. When I first started the Shred, my arms got really sore. I could barely bend my elbows because of the soreness. I wasn't used to lifting the weights. And in level one, I was taking it much slower and easier with the jumping jacks, butt kicks, and jump rope. My knees didn't feel too much of a difference. But when level two started, the first thing I decided was to go at it hard. I wanted to do all of the exercises and push through. And that's definitely what I did. I guess that woke my knees up and they got a little worried. Since then, my knees have gotten to feeling a little better day by day, but I've been making sure to modify each lower body move to a place that is right under where the discomfort starts. As far as my upper body exercises, well, I've been KILLING it. Seriously. I refuse to stop or put down the weights even when I feel like my arms are going to burst into flames.

Here's the thing... There is ALWAYS going to be a setback or two. No one is perfect enough to not get sick or injured at some point. But we cannot allow those setbacks to ruin the progress that we've made. We need to modify and get back to where we were as soon as we can. I refuse to let setbacks knock me down anymore. I've lived my life for too long allowing myself free passes to quit all the goals I've set because of one little mess up or hardship. I am not a weak person, but my actions up until these last few months have shown just the opposite. I'm more confident now that I can take the bad and still turn it into a positive after this little bump in my weight loss journey. I am so driven, and I WILL get to my goals, with modified exercises or not, I WILL GET THERE. And I can honestly say that I know that's the truth!

Still modifying lower half, but killing it otherwise!