The Sisters are Awesome!

Can I just tell you that I absolutely love being a part of the Sisterhood.  Can I tell you how many times I probably would NOT have exercised because I didn’t want to but did anyway because I felt I couldn’t let my sisters down?  This number is too high to count.  Lately I’ve been feeling unmotivated about exercising, but yet I keep doing it.  And…*looks around*… can I tell you a secret?  Shhh, I have to be quiet otherwise my brain might acknowledge what I’ve been up to and start an internal revolution against my subconscious.

Hi, my name is Kirsten and I’m a closet shredder.  After hearing how sore everyone was last week with the beginning of the shredding challenge, I wanted to try it.  One of the sisters (sorry I don’t remember whose blog I saw it on) had a link to youtube which had all 3 of the circuits of level 1.  So I looked it up, watched a few minutes, and thought, heck I can do this!  So I did.  I have to be perfectly honest.  I’ve had many compliments on my dedication to my running (I use the term loosely right now) and the fact that I can more often than not run 3 miles.  Well, let me tell you, I may have endurance but I sure as hell do not have strength!  I was so incredibly sore!  Day 1 didn’t seem that hard, but then I woke up the next morning and my calves and my shins and THE TOP OF MY FEET hurt.  Getting in and out of my truck was painful.  My girls were laughing at me.  My arms have always been pretty weak, and I still hurt tremendously with the anterior raise/side lunge things.   At the end of the day after my third day of shredding, we had dinner at a friend’s house – who has stairs.  We were getting ready to leave and Sweet Pea couldn’t find her shoes.  I had to walk up and down those stairs 3 times before they finally turned up.  Damn shoes!  Friday afternoon (which was day 3 of shredding) I did get on the treadmill and run my 3 miles.  It felt so good after the first quarter mile.   It stretched out my muscles and I felt so good after I was done.

One more thing about the pain of working out.  Do you know what kept me going through all the sore muscles?  The fact that I knew I was burning the lactic acid out of my muscles.  The reason it hurts so much is because using muscles you haven’t made work in a long time releases lactic acid.  So every time you work through the pain of sore muscles? You are doing yourself wonderful favors.  Your muscles are actually thanking you for using them.

My diet hasn’t been great…especially since Easter.  I have had Cadbury eggs, jelly beans, Peeps, Hershey Kisses, cake, and Girl Scout cookies.  Not great eating.  I’m trying to get back into my routine of no snacking, an early lunch in order to be digested by the time I run, a small snack afterwards, and then dinner.

So how did everyone do?