Day 20: EPIC!

Today I spent all day with Andrea from Thick2Thin, Nick and Cory from Altamira Film Co, and 7 other gorgeous ladies shooting a video for Thick2Thin's upcoming Kickstarter to revolutionize fitness clothing as we know it. It was EPIC and I had the time of my life.

Instead of writing about it, I will leave you with some behind the scenes photo's from our totally amaze balls day of filming. Enjoy!

 

 

Day 19: With a Little Help From My Friends

Man, today started out awesome. I had Pilates with Vicki, which is certainly my most looked forward to class of every week. We have excellent music, excellent instruction, and excellent results. I got some really awesome stretching in. I felt limber, awake and happy, and then my mental shit hit the fan.

I really wish I could wear a shirt all the time that says "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe". I would mostly use it as a reminder for the other me to stop being such a buzz kill when I am having a fabulous day.... but I would also hope that other people would see it and think to themselves "Maybe I shouldn't be such a dick" or maybe they would magically become aware of the shittastic energy they are putting out in the world... but it's whatev's. People are assholes, they have their own shit, I get that. You can't be happy all the time.

Anyway, so in a two hour time span, I went from being relaxed and happy to tense and pissed off, or on, whichever way you want to look at it, and I took that attitude into what was supposed to be the best training session of the week. Q had set up for me and Lena to do a partner workout on Lena's last day at Gold's. Unfortunately, the first thing we did was get on my sworn enemy, the stair climber. Look, I am not even going to pretend like I was having a good time. I most certainly was not. At one point I was damn serious, I was about to quit the challenge. As the words came out of my mouth, Q yells "I don't train quitters"... which she doesn't. So I didn't quit. I sucked up my pissyness and kept stepping. I made it through the time on the stupid thing, but not without a lot of misery, huffing and puffing. The next twenty minutes I was still pretty grumbly, but then something weird happened and the happy me came back out of the blue. After we finished the 2nd round of inchworms, we stood up and interrupted our workout to dance it out on the turf. We are kind of awesome like that.

The rest of the workout was as fun as it should have be to begin with. Q took some pictures, check it:

Once we were finished, we wandered over to the smoothie bar, grabbed a drink and chatted with Morgan. I even met Joeys new competition, Dominic. Dude has the potential to be a beast. Joey better step his game up! Needless to say, I ended up sitting there until 4pm. The rest of the day went off without a hitch, I wrote, I stayed in my happy place. Lets aim to stay in our happy place next week, okay? On that note, I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Day 18: BEST. DAY. EVER.

Okay, so first thing before I get into my SUPER exciting news… YAY, I did Crossfit again and it was awesome. Josh instructed, and he is dope. We learned how to do Clean and Jerks and I had way too much fun dropping the weights on the floor. I was like a really awesome bull in a china shop. I’m glad we had a good time because it was the last time I will get to morning WOD with Lena; she is leaving me to go influence young minds and going back to teaching. I will miss her at the gym VERY much…. But I will still get to see her because she loves me, so Yay.

Now on to the most exciting news in my world. Wednesday I got a sweet message from a friend of mine, Julie, who has been reading the blog and wanted to introduce me to her friend Andrea who is kicking ass on this same journey. What I didn’t know at the time is what a badass this woman was. I did a little bit of internet stalking and quickly realized that I had just met someone who is a constant inspiration to THOUSANDS of women who are all on this journey with us. So OF COURSE what else was I to do but message her and spark up a conversation. I couldn’t have made a better decision.

Andrea is the owner, operator, blogger extraordinaire from Thick to Thin, a clothing company that started as a blog in 2011. Her “rants” chronicle her struggle from size 18 to size 6. The blog morphed into a clothing company shortly after when she realized that all workout clothing is made to be geared towards your typically sized athlete. With how much I have read about this company and this woman, I could tell you, but I will let her do it instead:

Thick2Thin // About Us from Altamira Film Co. on Vimeo.

 
My initial message informed Andrea that she was awesome and I am awesome, so naturally we should get awesome coffee sometime soon.  What came next took me by complete surprise and I have been on cloud 9 ever since. Andrea tells me that she has read my blog and thinks I am hilarious and would love it if I could guest blog for them sometime. This in itself almost put me in tears because I could not believe that she, of all people, took the time to read my little ole blog…. But that wasn’t it. She then asked me if I would consider being in their video shoot this weekend for their new Kickstarter campaign to gather funding and awareness to bring affordable and fashionable athletic gear to every woman, no matter her shape and size because #weareallathletes

I may still be in shock that I get to be a part of something this monumental. This particular subject is incredibly close to my heart; not only am I a size 18, but I am also 6 ft tall. I can’t find a decent pair of workout clothes to save my life. So off I will go Saturday morning to meet 7 other beautiful women to tell our stories and hopefully begin to change the world of fitness clothing as we know it. I am so blessed and completely overjoyed.  I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Day 17: Work That Pole Girl

Today was SUPER fun! Q surprised me earlier this week with a playlist she was putting together for a private S Factor Pole class for one of our training sessions. This afternoon we got to put that bad boy on and she taught me how to perfect some integral moves. We threw on the red light, cranked up the bass, and I have never had more fun in my life in a personal training session.

Let’s get one thing strait, pole is incredibly difficult. It requires a shitload of upper body strength and trust in yourself that you aren’t going to completely bust your ass. I am a big girl, there is no way around that. I have taken this group class several times, and while I loved it, I wasn’t able to do a lot of the things the others girls could do. LO AND BEHOLD, today I did awesome. Like, really awesome. Like, I don’t even know who this girl was or how she developed enough upper body strength to spin her big ass around the pole as many times as she did.

Q taught me how to perfect a couple of spins which are the firefly, firefly with extended leg, and firefly with leg tucked behind me. She also got me to pole climb with the prance down MULTIPLE TIMES! I have NEVER been able to do this, no matter how many times I’ve tried. So needless to say, I am pretty damn proud of myself. Check me out, this is the pole hold, prior to prance:

 

I am so sore I can barely lift my arms. I’ve got bruises coming up on my feet and legs, my back is throbbing, and I STILL feel like a rock star.  Pole class will beat the hell out of you (if you couldn’t tell), but what it does for your inner goddess is just indescribable. You will just have to take a class yourself and find out. It is amazing and only yours. You don’t have to share it with anyone if you don’t want to.

Even with all this upper body work during pole, I wasn’t about to give up my two-a- days or the opportunity to work with Caesare in Kettlebell. I really do love his class... So, I went back at 6 and rocked it out. We did 2 rounds of double squats with arm press, swings, plank rows, curls, soccer kicks, lunge pass throughs, butterfly kicks and leg lifts.  I am going to have to switch it up next week though. Currently I am only using the 17.5 pound kettle bell, but next Wednesday I think I am going to step up my game to the 26 pound. After all, Caes says: “Train the same, remain the same. Do different things, get different results… TurnUp!!!”

So I am going to TurnUp again tomorrow. Crossfit with my Lena comes early. We have Josh again, so this should be “fun” and by fun I mean awful...or awesome, I don't know... the Crossfit Kool-Aid has a way with distorting your emotions. I look forward to letting you know how it goes. Talk to you tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

Day 16: It's Official, I've Drank the Koolaid

I never saw this coming.... Today I woke up in full on beast mode, ready to take over the world. Apparently I have drank the Crossfit Kool-Aid and didn't even know it happened.

Last night around midnight I decided to wake up early and head to my once dreaded, now excited for, 9am Crossfit session. Maybe it is the fact this is the last week I get to workout with Lena and I am trying to marinate in her presence... or maybe it's the fact that I feel like a total badass throwing weight around the gym like a dude. Either way, I'll take it. Crossfit, two thumbs up.

This morning we worked with Josh. He also happens to be Joeys new trainer for this challenge. Joey always comes home looking like he has punched in the stomach and now I know why. Dude has no sympathy and I love it. This morning our skill was dead lifts and cleans. Then followed by the 10 minute AMRAP with 10 deadlifts, 10 cleans, and 5 burpees. Check us out:

 

 

 

Look, I am slow, but I own it. I only got through three rounds, but man, I wanted to die after the first four minutes. Weight lifting is hard! 

To put the cherry on top, once we were done with AMRAP, Josh sees we technically have 15 minutes of class left and sends us over to the turf for abs. I don't know if you have ever heard of a Turkish getup, but seriously, fuck that. They suck. I hate it less than burpees, but it is a very close second. Anyway, we ended after those and we went over to the treadmill where I found Q looking at me as if I were crazy...And I actually might be.
 

The fact I did Crossfit in itself wasn't the crazy part. What made it nuts is the fact I had a training session with Q two hours later. I am used to this two a day situation, but it is usually one weight session and one strait cardio session. A good 6 hours apart... Not two hardcore training sessions back to back. 

I brought this on myself, as such, don't think for one second that the fact I did Crossfit in the morning made Q go any easier on me than she normally would. She didn't. We went hard with high reps. I did single leg presses 25 reps each, medicine ball throws, patty cake planks, bicycle crunches, 60 sumo squats with escalating weight, and some kind of torture where I sit down and hop up like a bunny 25 times. She made me do three rounds of these and I loved every second of it. 

I am either turning into a meat head or have completely lost my marbles. Either way I'm cool. The endorphins that I get when training are like nothing I have ever experienced. My favorite part of the day is working my ass off in this gym. 

Wait, who the hell is this and what has she done with Nicole?! I think the other Nicole is back in the basement painting, channeling all this new found energy with a glass of wine... Simultaneously talking to her best friend about the awesome afternoon she had creating art with her friend. So, I don't know who your going to talk to, but one of us will talk to you tomorrow. 

Day 15: You want me to do WHAT with that tire?

Ugh writers block is not fun. I would love nothing more than to sit here and write a hilarious diatribe about today’s fitness adventure, but I’m not feeling it. I need a creative reset. So, here are the highlights:

1. I managed to pull out 15 real pushups (and 30 “girly” pushups)

2. My legs are shaping back up into what they once were nicely. Pretty excited. I need a tan.
3. I have lost 7.2 pounds in 14 days… WOO RESULTS!
4. 2-A-Days continue, 1pm training session, 7pm Barre Fit class
5. Barre Fit is Hard, Barre Fit is Awesome, Barre Fit fixes jacked up backs.
6. Q made me flip a freaking tire so I wrote this Haiku about it:

Rubber touches my fingers

Arms hurt uncontrollably

The pain welcomes me

 

 

 

Now I am going to go to sleep…. or continue watching Fight Club, or start working on a canvas, or clean my kitchen. Who knows, it’s snowing. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Day 14: Shop the Perimeter, Check!

When I first joined ETC, I learned about this fancy idea called “perimeter shopping”. The idea is to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, where fresh foods like fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, and fish are located and avoid the center aisles where junk foods live. I put this in action Sunday as Joey and I roamed around Costco. I picked up delicious fresh salmon, chicken, ground turkey, roast, grapes, blueberry’s, raspberry’s, kale, peas, 5 pounds of nuts, and 7 grain bread.  Eating healthy is a lot less challenging this go round. Probably because I am learning to look at food as fuel for its nutritional value instead of a pleasure source. A side effect to this is that I am learning how delicious truly fresh and non-processed foods are. Overall, I’d say I am winning. One step closer to being even more fabulous! ;-)

Day 13: Gym, What Gym?

I woke up this morning to one of my favorite things, a house full of people. (I'm quite serious, I love company. We have an open door policy, everyone is always welcome.) See, we have a fully stocked bar in our basement and one rule, if you are drinking here, you are staying here too. Friends don’t let friends drink and drive. So needless to say, I woke up and cooked breakfast for everyone.

Ugh, let’s just talk about trying to cook a healthy version of a regularly fattening and delicious breakfast pastime.

One of my most favorite breakfast food objects is french toast casserole in all of its fattening glory. Mmmmm butter, whipping cream, white bread, maple syrup. Yes. PURE deliciousness. This whack adventure consisted of wheat bread, sugar free syrup, skim milk, and cooking spray. Ugh it tasted like cardboard. Thank God for cinnamon and nutmeg, otherwise there would have been no flavor at all. I do have the best friends a gal could have though, they were all so kind to pretend to like it, even though I told them they didn’t have to eat it. Note to self: come up with better healthy recipes for groups.

Needless to say, I had big plans for the day, but it all went to hell as soon as we sat down and started watching Kevin Hart stand-up. He is so hilarious, it just sucks me in. I finally got up about 3pm and headed out for work. I worked until 8ish then headed home.

I wish I could say I went to the gym today, but I didn’t. I did, however, walk around IKEA for an hour dodging horrible people and small children coming at me from every direction... but at least I still ate healthy, it’s the small victories that get me through.

 

 

 

Day 12: Welcome Back Flexibility, I’ve Missed You

I don’t have much to say about today other than I LOVE Pilates and holy crap I almost did a split. Last week when I did Pilates for the first time in many years, I left a little disheartened because I could no longer fold my body in the ways I once could. (Note: Many moons ago, I did Yoga/Pilates 5 days a week and was super flexible; I had since lost all flexibility and could barely touch my toes.)  

I am not sure what happened between last Friday and today, but I was killing it. During one set, Vicki had me keep moving my foot further away as I was going down, to the point I was almost in a complete split. I felt the stretch, but I was still in disbelief, so I asked her after class. Sure enough, she said she was so excited because I was in fact, almost in a full split. Next time, she is taking a photo for proof.

Now I am off to enjoy my weekend. We have friends coming over for game night. Yay! Here is to celebrating life and a week well done.

Day 11: Those Burpees are Fun… Said No One Ever.

Well, today started out great. I was all excited for my workout... I just knew it was going to be awesome, just like yesterday, right? But the dream died as soon as I walked through the door and saw Q standing in the Crossfit pit. Next words out of her mouth were “I got bad news, today you’re doing Crossfit again”. I, for the LIFE of me cannot figure out why this has caught on the way it has. I get going hard, but this is just ridiculous. Regular burpees suck, but Crossfit burpees are just plain hell. Why would anyone want to throw themselves on the floor and jump up and clap repeatedly? Ugh. I HATE Crossfit.

I may hate Crossfit, but there are certainly some aspects of it that I enjoy. Like doing front squats with the barbell. I had a 25 pound bar with a total of 55 pounds. I know that’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but when doing 50 of these bitches during the skills lab, that little bit of weight starts to feel like 500 pounds. I felt like a beast. 

The other thing I enjoyed was how hard Q pushed me. If she wouldn’t have been screaming at me to give her at least three rounds, I wouldn’t have. I would have quit. No doubt about it. But I didn’t and as such, I can feel my arms gaining strength, I notice it with every movement and every shirt I put on. This feeling is addicting... So does that mean I just contradicted my declaration of deep hatred for Crossfit? I think it does.

Apparently I didn't hate my life too bad because I did go right back there tonight for Krank and Moi Class. I think Krank may be creeping up to be my favorite class. The craziest part is that it is HARD. You sweat like a pig and the music kind of sucks, but the high you get when you are Kranking is immense. I somehow transport myself into another dimension and just role with it. It was over and I didn’t even know it. I just kept going until I realized I was the only one moving. If I was to sit back and diagnose why I love this class, I think it is because it reminds me a lot of basic training with Steven instructing. This dude missed his calling as a drill instructor, no joke. At some point during the first leg of the class, someone said they were bored. This was the WRONG thing to say. Next thing you know everyone is out of their saddle doing lunges and squats. I was like damn, yo, this kind of behavior could cause a mutiny, girlfriend need to stay quiet... BUT AGAIN, that is still part of its sick and twisted charm. I still love it. Can’t you tell by the smile on our faces?

On that note, I must be on my way. I have to get my beauty rest for the best day of the week, Pilate’s Rehabilitation Friday! So cheers to pushing boundaries friends, I’ll talk with you tomorrow.

Day 10: I am a Hufflepuff

If we wanted to get technical, according to Pottermore,  I am actually a Ravenclaw, but in today’s fitness journey, I am definitely a Hufflepuff… or better yet a huff-n-puff.

I was up so late last night. I was on a writing roll and ended up going down a blog rabbit hole (similar to a Wikipedia rabbit hole… you know when one minute you are reading about the history of kettlebells and somehow end up learning the in depth components of the human digestive system… yeah that). Needless to say, I didn’t make it to bed until 3am. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop me from waking up at 7am.  

I love this man of mine. Ryan is the best. He was working from home today, so I woke up to him standing over me staring sweetly looking at me, offering to cook me breakfast… well Of COURSE I am going to let him cook for me!... but only after giving him a list of certain demands. 2 eggs, No butter, PAM only, no bread, turkey bacon only, and PLEASE cut up an orange. Once I smelled the bacon, I finally got up to wobble down stairs. It was perfect and delicious.  He even PEELED the orange for me. It was so delicious that as soon as I finished eating I went right back upstairs and crawled back into bed. Then my bed proceeded to eat my soul and did not want to let me go.

As I laid there and thought about all the reasons I could call and give Q to get me out of the training session, I got a text from my bestie Abby that told me to "conquer the world today". I love her so much. This is why she is my favorite. So ultimately I groaned, peeled myself back out of bed, put on workout clothes, and headed out the door to meet Q at 12.

Man, am I glad I did. I can’t believe I am about to say this, but I actually had a good time doing this particular workout. Q had me do something she developed 15 years ago called “Cryin’ Ryan’s”. This was a modified version with less weight and reps than the original, but it still about killed me. I am probably going to miss a sequence or two, but from what I can remember it consisted of 2 front squats, 2 back squats, 2 side squats, shoulder press, drop into pushup, hold plank, right arm row, left arm row, right arm lift to ceiling, left arm lift to ceiling, pop up and start again. This is all happening while holding 12 pound weights. I went through each set 5 times then walked over to the treadmill, jacked the incline up to 12 and walked it out for 3 to 5 minutes, then headed back to the turf and did it all over again. This went on for 3 rounds. It was hard, but I honestly enjoyed it. I mean, I know it sounds crazy, it may even be possible that I was slipped a hallucinogen and all this is just a really vivid trip, but I ( the girl who hates exercise), actually enjoyed something really physically challenging. Praise be! Progress is being made.

I enjoyed it so much, I decided to go back tonight for round 2. Kettlebell with Caesare. Check it out:

Tonight’s class consisted of 2 rounds in “1 minute” increments of the following: jumping rope, leg lifts, flutter kicks, Russian twists, double squats with shoulder press, around the world, in and outs (not sure if that’s the right name), kettlebell swings, and burpees. Caes says these are all “1 minute” blocks, but those are the longest damn minutes of my life. I swear he just says it's "1 minute" to trick us into keeping the momentum going. 

Other than his time manipulation, Caes is a king. He knows everyone’s name in class and as we are all grunting, huffing, puffing, and screaming out in pain, he walks around offering individual encouragement and forces you to be better. Making you get your legs down, correcting your form, making sure you’re not about to pass out. He does all of the things that make you strive to be better and stronger than you were the day before. He makes you “Go T.U.F.F.”. Apparently I went so tuff tonight that I actually did a real pushup... like back strait, arms parallel and everything. He swears to it! This is the king in his natural habitat, reminding us we are team no excuses:

After class, Joey and I walked over to chat with Q and Caesare about food. Earlier in the evening we decided that we needed a steak tonight, so we were going to outback after we left the gym. Now, considering that I am clearly trying to go hard at this challenge, I am not about to put anything in my mouth that I don’t run by Q first. (I bring this woman labels if it is something that is not already on my approved list of foods for her to make sure I can eat it, I am being kind of intense right now.) She gave me the approved items and off we went to enjoy our dinner.

I have to tell you, I was nervous at first to give our waiter all of my “demands”, but it turned out to be a really good experience. I ordered the Ahi with no sauce for the app, the filet grilled, no added butter - cooking spray only, a sweet potato with cinnamon only, and a salad with fat free tomato vinaigrette on the side. Our waiter was so understanding. I forgot to say no cheese, but he stopped to ask before he put it in just in case. He was so sweet and wasn’t irritated (like I thought he would be) at all. This was my first official attempt at eating healthy out and it went really well. He told me he even watched them make my sweet potato to make sure they didn’t put any butter on it. It turned out to be one of the better dinners out I have had in a while. Who knew that when you ask them not to load it down with so much shit, it actually tastes like real food?!

Today I may have started out feeling like a Hufflepuff, but as I sit here this evening with all my small victories, I feel like I really earned my right to be a Ravenclaw. On that note friends, I am taking my behind to sleep. 9am with my favorite trainer comes early! Talk with you tomorrow.



 

Day 9: Everything is Awesome

Everything is cool when you're part of a team
Everything is awesome
When we're living our dream

Today is one of those days I am totally humming “Everything is Awesome”…. Because everything is AWESOME. Crossfit sucks, but Crossfit is even awesome when your class consists of 1 instructor and 1 of your friends. Now I do have to say, this particular Crossfit is like Crossfit for beginners. It is called Crossfit Element’s. This teaches you how to do the move correctly in order to get you ready for “mother crossfit”. This is everything we did today:

It was a 9am class and my first time ever doing Crossfit. The very first sentence out of my mouth to the instructor, Marci was: “Hi, I’m Nicole, and I am terrified of Crossfit”. She smiled and assured me it was not scary. I still had my doubts... but now that I have Q as my trainer, I can assure you Crossfit is not so scary.  However, I repeat, It does suck. Thankfully it was just me, Lena and Marci who as people do not suck.

I love working out with Lena because she makes me laugh. I really love people who make me laugh, it is my most favorite thing to do. So when Marci says “make sure your chest hits the floor before your stomach” during the WOD pushups, and Lena shoots a look to Marci with her big doe eyes and says “But I can’t, my stomach is bigger than my chest!” (Which it is really, really not) I started laughing because she didn’t miss a beat. In addition to Lena’s quick sense of humor, she has been doing Crossfit for a little bit now and it made me push myself further than I probably would have otherwise. I tried my best to keep up with her, but that last set of wall balls did me in.  I really want to be friends with that damn medicine ball, but he sure is making it hard! Enjoy this picture of our relationship struggle:

After we finished up Lena and I walked over to the smoothie bar to refuel and started chatting with my favorite bartender Shep.  This guy has honestly become one of my favorite people in the entire world. He is an incredibly talented artist and one of the nicest and most humble people you will ever meet. He brings a smile to my face every time I talk to him. Today was no exception. He, along with other talented local artists are working on massive installations for the new Clearbrook Center for the Arts in Tackett’s Mill.  As we were talking, he started drawing and behold with only a marker I watched him bring form and motion to life with his hands. I was completely hypnotized. Next thing you know, he hands me the marker and tells me to “add a line”. I was so nervous, I felt like I was just given a piece of gold from King Midas and I was a lonely popper who didn’t know what to do with it. He gave me a lesson on how to Zentangle and I ended up sitting there for the next 2 and a half hours drawing and painting with an incredible artist who I am proud to call my friend. This is the master in action:

That’s right, at our gym we foster healthy bodies and healthy minds. I did Crossfit and then got an art lesson from one of the most talented people I have ever met. What do you do at your gym?  

After I got out of my art bubble and realized what time it was, I left and ran over to Ikea to buy more stuff for a client. The rest of the day flew. I went to Arlington to drop off my clients items, came home, cooked dinner, started writing tonight’s entry, and then headed back to the Gym for Zumba. Lena even decided to stick around for class tonight too! So together we danced our butts off with Frank. It was a wonderful day. EVERYTHING was AWESOME!

To end, I shall leave you with some of Shep’s pieces I hijacked off his Instagram. If you love art and want to be inspired, follow him. His name is Shepherd Norman and handle is “___evol_” (that is three underscores, evol, one underscore). He has so many mediums, it is incredible. Enjoy!

 

 

Day 8: Medicine Ball – Friend of Foe, Jury’s Still Out

Whew, I am EXHAUSTED! I have been nonstop today. 9am on the road to de-stage a home that sold (I swear I must have gone up 40 flights of stairs after that was over), 11am back at the warehouse to unpack, 12:30 PT with Q.

This week we (and by we I mean Q) will be killing me with full body workouts for every training session and continuing on with the two-a-days. I swear Q must be a cyborg. She was walking backwards on the stair climber while I was contemplating the meaning of life, but I will get to that.

This afternoons workout consisted of a treadmill warm-up, 2 rounds of the following: squats with a barbell on my shoulders, lat pulldowns, some other arm press thing, deadlifts, TRX Abs that turned into planking after a mini panic attack, and slamming the medicine ball on the ground while simultaneously doing squats. To end she made me do 10 minutes on what may be the most evil and hateful cardio machine known to man. The stair climber.

So back to one of my nemeses, the TRX strap. Apparently I really hate those things and I am not even sure why. She had me doing abs where your feet are in the straps, and you tuck your knees into your chest. I did this particular move the other night without much issue, but today I only made it through the first 8 and started to go into a panic attack. I tried several times to get back into position, but I couldn’t catch my breath and I could NOT make myself do it. I think Q saw the panic on my face, so she let me hold planks until I collapsed… the moral of this story is, if you have any ideas why this would have happened. Please leave in comments because I am at a complete loss.

Now for the stair climber. As we were ending the second set, Q looks over at the clock and sees we have 15 minutes left. She then informs me that I will be getting on that God forsaken machine…. You remember… I said I climbed 40 sets of stairs this morning, right? Yeah, she knew that and didn’t care. It was the goal for me to remain on this beast for 10 minutes…. And as it turns out, I surprised the shit out of myself and did it. I am fairly certain there are 3 reasons why: 1. Q is next to me walking backwards on the damn thing like it aint nothing (that’s right, I said aint. It was on purpose) so I certainly couldn’t collapse with THAT happening beside me. 2. She was doing me an amazing favor by talking to me about random things to keep my mind off what I was actually doing… perfume, we were talking mostly about perfume and it was awesome. Don’t judge me. 3. She let me go at a turtles pace which still sucked, but sucked a hell of a lot less than it could have.

After she let me off, Q glided while I stumbled over to the counter to look at the schedule for tomorrow where I was informed I will be doing Crossfit at 9am. Holy titties I am crapping my pants. Crossfit scares the hell out of me, but apparently, she thinks I can do it, so that is what I am going to do.

Now I am off to have a delicious home cooked meal with some friends. I will leave you with a letter to my friend/foe the medicine ball.

Dear Medicine Ball,

Why are you so deceiving? You look like you want to be my friend. You are pretty colors, soft, and huggable. Why do you turn into a 400 pound boulder 20 reps in and make me reevaluate everything I believe in? I need you to get it together and remain manageable.

Love Always,

Nicole

Day 7: A Day of Rest

Blessed be to God, I am off today! Well off from the Gym anyway. As such, I am going to take a break from exploring my inner demons as well and go enjoy some football and a movie. Happy Sunday Friends, I will talk to you tomorrow.