Before & After

This is what I looked and felt like BEFORE my workout this morning.

 

 

 

Yup. You read right. This MORNING. I got up at 5am (WITHOUT an alarm, I'll add! Eck!! Good thing I happened to wake up right then!) and got to the gym just in time to take the 5:30am Signature Strength class. And, I felt good! I was awake and alert and feeling good.

 

 

Class was brutal, as usual. The obligatory "warm up" was 15 good-mornings (using 15 lb-body bar), 30 alternate lunges with weights in hands (I used 10 lb) and then 30 push ups. Repeat. Again- SO NOT A WARM UP, but honestly it was better than most, so I didn't complain (not that I ever do... at least not out loud).

 

While the warm up wasn't that bad... the rest of class was. Walk out push ups, rows, clean presses, bicep curls, push ups galore, lots of sit ups/crunches/core work, overhead tricep extensions... and more. I can't even remember. All I know is that I felt like DEATH by the end. Ex-freaking-hausted. But, I told myself just to TRY for a quick run and that if I wasn't feeling it .1 mile in, I could stop.

 

 

Well, I still was definitely NOT feeling it after .1, but managed to convenience myself not to stop. I only had time for 2 miles instead my usual 2.5 because class ran over (and because I have my morning routine down to the SECOND and even just 4.5 more minutes on the TM would have made me late to work). They weren't 2 fast miles. They weren't 2 pretty miles. But, they were 2 miles. Done and done.

 

By the end of class and the quick run, this is what I felt/looked like AFTER my workout...

 

 

No, that is not a mis-print photo. I felt like a SLEEPY DOG. I was freaking BEAT and just all around WORN OUT and felt CRUMMY. Just not my workout.

 

Which leads me to a small tangent... this weekend my girlfriends and I were talking about how sometimes social media/blogs/etc. can actually be REALLY mentally draining/damaging. Seeing/reading all these other people talk about how GREAT they are and how great their lives are when our lives don't seem to measure up can be hard sometimes.

 

There are some bloggers or "friends" on facebook who always seem to have everything together. Always the perfect workout and the perfectly balanced diet (about 9 times out of 10 including something that she "swear tastes so good" but looks like ASS. Or a green smoothie. Every freaking time.). They always seem so perfect.

 

Sometimes, we can't help but compare ourselves to these people who are supposed to be out "peers". We can't help but think "She ran 10 miles on the treadmill this morning, so I should at least be able to run 10. She did!" We know better, but we still compare.

 

After we compare, we try to live up to them. We run farther than we're ready to. We ignore injuries. We eat WAY too little food because she only ate like 1,000 calories today AND she ran 8 miles, went to a spinning class and did a 45 minute strength circuit. That she made up. On a Tuesday. We end up making extremely poor life choices to try to live up to her.

 

Then, the inevitable happens. We don't live up to their impossible-to-maintain standard of perfection, we feel BAD. Really bad. We feel like failures. We feel like she's better than us. We feel like crap.

 

WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

Here's a thought... STOP READING THOSE. And, who is this she? Who is she really? We have NO idea who whoever this persons blog is REALLY is. Some blogs (or facebook profiles or whatever) don't portray very accurate images of themselves. And, even worse, some blogs do and they are EXTREMELY UNHEALTHY. If a blogger never seems to have bad days or bad workouts or never eats a single freaking cupcake (made with FLOUR not freaking black beans or something)... they are NOT healthy. EVERYONE feels like a freaking sleepy dog sometimes. I guarantee it. If a blogger isn't saying it-- they're only showing you one side of themselves. And, fine-- it's their blog. But, if you feel bad about yourself after reading a blog, DON'T READ THAT BLOG ANYMORE. Seriously. If you find yourself thinking "I should be more like XXX" too often, STOP READING THEIR BLOG.

Be you. Don't let something that you do for FUN and for a HOBBY (like reading blogs or facebooking) be a source of stress. Please believe I'm talking to myself right now as much as to you. I just deleted 5 blogs off my favorites tab and plan to tackle my facebook friends list next. Life's too short.