The unknown future rolls toward us.
I face it, for the first time, with a sense of hope. ~ Sarah Connor
(Or at least with the knowledge I won’t be mowing down an entire Fortino’s chicken for dinner with chocolate mint ice cream for dessert.)
~Erin Lee McBride
Just finished Jillian Michaels‘ 30-Day Shred, now starting ‘Ripped In 30.’ Four weeks, four levels. I hear Level One of Ripped is much more difficult than the same level of the Shred.
I am preparing to have my ass handed to me.
Update: Finished Day 5, Week 1 of ‘Ripped In 30.’ It’s been fine, this first week. There’s a couple of exercises I hate, but that’s par for the course. I just swear at the TV more.
I’m up between 0520-0545 every morning (except Saturday and Sunday, usually around 0700 if I’m at home). For the first month, this sucked. Then, after the haze cleared, I realized I had this beautiful time all to myself guaranteed, for every day I was willing to drag my sorry tuchus out of bed. I have anywhere from 2-2.5 hours each morning to work out and anything else I can fit in, including coming here to write. It’s an important and significant gift I give myself. I’m still generally tired all the time, but that’s my own fault; hitting the sack at a decent hour has never been my forte.
I decided at the beginning of this process that I want to be Linda Hamilton, minus the marriage to James Cameron and all the crazy. When I first laid eyes on her then-new bod in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, I was in awe. Holy crap! Those shoulders! That back! Those biceps! Those triceps! And though she’s quite obviously petite, she lacks that anorexic Lara Croft vibe (sorry, Angie). She’s a veritable Slim Jim, a compact package of sinewy awesomeness. You know that bit near the end of the movie, when Morphing Silver Guy has pierced her right shoulder, and she can still load the gun single-handedly and blow him to bits? It’s my favourite badass chick moment of all time, even beating out the gorgeous, over-the-top cheesiness of Demi Moore screaming “suck my d***!” at Viggo Mortensen in G.I. Jane.
This hasn’t been easy, and I know that some days I don’t ‘bring it’ as hard as I should. When things start getting difficult, though, I think of something Jillian says in this workout: “It is what it is.” For me, this means, you’re here, you’re not getting out of it, you may as well welcome or at least ignore the pain, because you will not stop. Also, I read a quote the other day which read, “Don’t look back – you’re not going that way.” There is only forward.
Girls can be strong. Girls can be tough. And strong, tough girls can be dead sexy.
I’ll check back in soon.
Erin's Clishmaclaver 