I guess a HUGE update is in order....

Thursday ended just as I had planned. The only thing that didn't go as I had expected was that I didn't get my big 100 bar. I was so excited, walked into the store, mouth ready, reached for a bar only to discover... it was EMPTY! I recovered, had a shake instead and the day went on. I did NOT use this as an excuse to go off plan and I'm SO happy about that.

Friday, it was an early day 4:00 AM (that's right I got up at 4:00AM every day last week - I'm so proud of me!) Workout was fantastic and food went as planned. No problems. After work I went out with a couple of my co-workers. They both had drinks but I stayed with a diet soda. I was just too excited about my hard work and progress to throw it off by having alcohol. Best of all one of my coworkers (male even) commented that he could tell I've been losing weight. That was cool.

The long weekend was a disaster waiting to happen. Three days in the house with food. But again I didn't let my 'old self' get the best of me. Granted things weren't as clean as a weekday, but they were great for weekend days. Of course Sunday was a free day, but kept my calories in line and skipped the alcohol once again. I'll talk more about Sunday below.

Monday was a real milestone for me. Instead of blowing off everything because 'it's a holiday'... My fiance and I got our things together and hit the gym first thing (of course first thing meant 12:00 instead of 4:00 but hey, what do you expect, it was a holiday). It sure made it feel like I accomplished something. We had picked up a book on stretching on Sunday while we were out so later in the day we sat down and went through it. After getting good and relaxed and giving my 'bad' hip some good stretches, I talked my fiance into trying to pop my back. My back has been so bad lately stiff and sore and NOT in a good way. So, I laid on my stomach and put my hands under my forehead and got my fiance to 'push' on either side of my spine. It didn't take much pressure and I was 'snap, crackle, popping' all over the place! It felt SO GOOD! Then I stood up, crossed my hands over my chest and had him pick me up and give me a squeeze and shake... Everything popped again. I tell you, I'm a new woman! I also packed all my lunches for the week, so there should be NO PROBLEM with the food for the next four days.

And the results of my first week? From 205.4 to 203.8 lbs...1.6 lbs. Not as much as I would like, but it's results. and I'll go another week with this schedule and see how it goes. If I'm not seeing a bigger loss after another week, I'll cut the calories.

This morning we were up at 4:00AM. My fiance started off a little slow last week, but as we've been really consistent he's gotten more and more excited about working out and the results he's already seeing. He says his shoulder is feeling better (he has frozen shoulder syndrome) and he's got tons more mobility out of it. He's seeing huge gains in the weight he can push with his legs already. He says he'd like to be in 'great' shape before he's 40. That's two years away. I tried to challenge him and told him I thought he could do it in six months. We'll see how it goes.

Now - about Sunday.

Sunday we went to the Scottish highland games. The booths and stuff for sale is really cool, but I go for the GAMES. Watching these strength athletes at work is absolutely amazing. It gets me motivated every time!

Two years ago when I started doing BFL I got a lot of grief from my fiance. He was concerned that I would get 'bulky', that I would turn into some hulk. Then we went to the games and we saw this woman... Shannon Hartnett. One look and my fiance turned and looked at me and said - You could do that! You could look like that! I agreed on both counts. She was amazing looking. Neither of us could get enough of this woman. Yes, there was a time when she was much 'bigger' then she is now. (she was at one time the fifth strongest woman in the world!) but at this point in her life she's 'perfect'. AND she showed my fiance that you can throw around a 60 lb telephone pole, or launch a 22 lb weight 17 feet in the air and still be a girl.

No, I didn't reach my goals to look like Shannon then. But going back and seeing her again renewed my thirst. I want to go in to the gym every day, lift and lift heavy. I want to build sexy muscles that will allow me to not just LOOK good but DO things. Yeah, I'm actually considering trying to learn to throw telephone poles and toss weights over the high jump bar. To give my muscle some sort of purpose beyond 'looking good'.

So my workouts have new purpose. I love it!

And lastly... while walking around looking at the 'stuff' for sale. My fiance picked up a tank top and exclaimed "This is YOU!" He turned it around and showed me a black tank with the words... "Viking vixen" printed on them along with a horned helmet. It thrilled me that he would think of me that way and of course I HAD to buy it!. I've considered wearing it to the gym...lol!

Pictures I took of Shannon can be see here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035824665@N01/sets/892360/