Part II, Day 3: The Hobbler

You may call me the Hobbler today. Every muscle in my gluts area hurts. And the side of my body. I feel old, but a little energized, but exhausted. I have no idea how one could possibly feel all of those things together, but I do. What a crazy ride this boot camp thing is going to be on my body. I am off boot camp until tomorrow night and I am desperately not trying to think about the agony I will be experiencing on Friday while attempting to leap and dance in class. This week, grace is not my goal, but rather not falling over. Small goal, perhaps I can actually attain it.

I thought I would be fine today, seeing as I made it through all day yesterday with only a twinge. As dusk descended upon our house, so too did pain and stiffness. How could I have barely any pain all day to only bet writhing in pain at bedtime? Either my body is just aging or this too shall pass. I hope for the this too shall pass bit.

One exciting thing about myself that I have totally realized, is that I think I can manage the next 9 classes of this hell. And then I will be conquering my next exercise fear: spinning! I have always wanted to do spinning, but have been so afraid of not being able to do it.

Where does this deep sense of fear come that is rooted in the belly of my soul? I think it can be traced back to grammar school when I was often picked last or next to last because I was not athletically inclined. I remember telling a friend in college that these legs are not made for running. While it is true I have never been a fast runner, I can run when I want to. That I found out while doing Karate in college and ran home one night, and did not even realize that I was running until I arrived at the door in record speed from the origination point.

Anyway, today it is all about optimism and seeing that I can do things. Maybe not fast, but can definitely do them. So, here's to living life in technicolor and not in black and white, siezing the day and really living.

Day 1 of Part II of the Happiness Project: The Shape Up!

Now that I have dusted off the happiness feelings and am starting to feel like myself for longer periods of time, the next phase of the happiness project is ready to begin. My goal for the first part of this project was to increase my happiness level to get my creative juices running for my writing projects.

Though I have made a huge headway in the happiness factor, I am still not back in the good place for my writing. So this project will be rolled out over the next year to include different parts.

Part I: Was working on general happiness and working on specific projects. Those projects will continue, but the focus will shift majorly to kicking the exercise part up significantly.

Part II: This part is starting today and will include at least three intensive workouts a week and more seeing the silver lining.

Future Parts will be introduced at the end of each phase.

For my first long term goal, I will begin training my body to run my second Walt Disney Half Marathon in January 2013. I know that seems a long time away, but my husband and I are planning to run it with his sister and we all need lead time to both train and already have other plans with their father during the 2012 race. In addition to just running the race, I want to shave time off of my first race time of 3:08. I am sure that is possible. The first race was just about finishing it. The next one is about finishing it in less than 2:45! (I am the world's sllllooowwweeesstt runner so we shall see!!!

So, here is to the first day of the new phase. This phase will include my return to clean eating - I am convinced the fuel we ingest has a huge impact on our outlook. This phase will last for 35 days