Part Two . . .

So I started phase 2, the Push Phase, of Chalean Extreme on Monday. It is different from the last phase because now we are really concentrating on individual muscle groups and lifting much heavier weights. I am really excited about it! I need to pick myself up some 25 pound weights for this one, which makes me feel pretty proud. Already I am able to lift a lot more and it is fun to look back over my logs and see how far I've come.

It isn't always fun and easy though. Here is a little story to demonstrate:

Last week it felt like the universe (and my baby) were all conspiring against my goal to workout. Our new (enormous) TV was delivered last Wednesday and Gary spent that evening hooking everything up. I was excited to use the new TV to do my workout because I was pretty sure that Chalean would be practically life-size and I figured that might feel like she is actually in the room with me and that would give me some extra motivation. The next day (coincidentally it happened to be Thursday, the toughest workout day, and the day I really have to psych myself up for in order to get through it) I went to start the DVD and it was like the machine couldn't see it. It kept saying "Open Tray", like it was waiting for me to insert the DVD, but it was already there. So Frustrating!! Even more so because I have played this DVD in this DVD player a bunch of times before with no problem, and two because I had gotten myself excited to do the workout and then I had this big let-down. So, unfortunately, the workout didn't happen that day. The next day I tried again, this time the DVD played just fine (of course!), but Riley woke up from his usual 2 hour nap 20 minutes after I put him down. Instead of stopping my workout and trying to get him to go down again I decided that if he wanted to be awake during "my time" then he would have to entertain himself and be a good boy. So I set him up with some new and interesting kitchen objects (wooden spoon, round cake pan, measuring spoons, spatula, etc.) for him to play with and I got to work. It worked out great! And I felt even more empowered because I had decided that I wasn't going to let anything else stand in the way of me accomplishing my goal.

Win for me!