Posts Tagged ‘Accomplishment’

There are three letters that work well here, better perhaps, than any other three letters.

O.M.G.

Okay maybe a WTF is in store too.

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I can truly say that I am grateful for my body and what it is capable of.

I can tell you, with a great sense of pride and accomplishment, that I climbed the Manitou Incline.

This may mean very little to some of you, and nothing to most of you. It really does require a proper introduction:

Length: just under 1 mile

Elevation Gain: roughly 2000 ft.

Incline: 50 degrees (at the steepest point)

Degree of Difficulty: Strenuous

Yeah, you read that right. 2000 feet of elevation gain in under a mile. Basically, it’s a mile of “stairs.” Let’s use the word “stairs” loosely here because it’s actually stairs for probably 30% of trip and then GIANT FREAKING STEPS as tall as my knee for the rest of it.

Now I can’t even say that I was blindsided by any of this. I’d gotten a small synopsis of what it was all about from Jacques’ mom and my coworkers. I had fair warning. It didn’t actually HIT me until I was standing at the base of it and went “Oh shit.”

It was 85 degrees out when we started hiking and probably well into the 90s by the time we were half way up. It took us a little over an hour to complete it (including stoppage time which we estimate was about 15-20 minutes). We ran out of water once we got to the top (oops!) and we were both super cute sweaty by the end of it. Of course, Jacques made it look easy but that’s what he does. He’s a machine. I’m just proud that I finished.

Here are the rest of the pictures from the trek up the BEAST:

Definitely not even half-way…

Getting steeper…

You turn around to see how far you’ve come, and this is what you get…

…and then it gets tricky…

This is at the top of what they call “The False Summit.” Just below this, it was so steep that you couldn’t see the “rest” so you thought you were done. Please notice that you can’t see the trail behind us because well, it was THAT STEEP. Then you turn around and see this:

Oh my god. That’s more stairs! It never ends. Ever.

Us at the summit. Yes, I know I’m a hot mess. Let’s be real. That’s a fake smile too.

View from the very top, with a look back at the whole thing.

Yes, I know that was a lot of pictures of the same thing: stairs. Now you know how I felt. Then we had to turn around and hike right back down – FOUR MILES! Yeah, I didn’t know it was that long, either. Four miles. Just to go home. So 5 miles and 3.5 hours later…

I really am very proud of my body. A year ago, I wouldn’t have made it. Probably not even close. I would have been dying AND in tears before we got to the halfway point. That was also about 50 pounds ago. It’s amazing the limits we’re capable of pushing ourselves to. It reminds me why I wanted to get back in shape in the first place. It also reminds me that I still have 35 pounds to go. However, Jacques and I figured that we burned probably somewhere around 1300 calories between both hiking up and back down again.

My favorite boy did treat me to some ice cream in Old Colorado City when we were finished. I guess that *almost* made it worth it. The thing about this is, now I just have the stupidity drive to do it again – and shoot for a better time. Less than an hour sound good? I’ll regret that later…

Much (sore) love, Pro

Ughhhh. So I cried yesterday, in public, for the first time in MONTHS (really, since the day I was “let go” from my job this past July). Making it several months in a row without crying – nevermind, crying in PUBLIC – shouldn’t be a huge accomplishment but it just goes to show how different things are for me now. Anyway, so I worked out with my mom and her trainer yesterday, much like I have done for the past 5 or 6 weeks. It started out much like it always does – we decided what muscle groups we’d be working (back and shoulders) and got started.

Sherry (bonafide badass trainer lady) told me she wanted me to start with pull-ups on the pull-up assist machine. Ummmm, FINE. I’m not gonna tell you how much weight I needed to be “assisted with” but let’s say it wasn’t just a little bit. Moving on…I got in 3 good sets of 10 which is far better than I would have done a year ago – BONUS. I was a bit frustrated but I just kept telling myself “This will get easier…this will get easier.” THEN Sherry asked me if I had ever done a “reverse push-up.” Uhhh CRAP. I knew exactly what she was referring to and OF COURSE I’d never done them. Are you KIDDING ME?! I sucked it up…told her that I’d never done them but that I was ready to try. Deep breath. Exhale.

Now, if you don’t know what a reverse push-up is (<– click here to watch – I didn’t use the towel grips…just hands on the bar), it’s this god-awful lift that could make a grown man cry. She put me on the Smith Machine gripping the bar from the underside, facing the ceiling. I was supposed to be able to then pull my self up toward the bar…however, I could only do ONE and it wasn’t pretty. Not at all. I told her I couldn’t do it and that we should move on. Seeing as how she’s a TRAINER, you can probably imagine how well “I can’t do it” went over (it didn’t) so I did 4 more with her assisting me. At this point, I was pretty annoyed, not to mention discouraged with the fact that we still had 50 more minutes until I could go home.

So my mom got in place to do her set and I walked away to go do bent over rows. As I turned my back, I felt my face go flush, my ears turned red and my eyes welled up. I was choking back my tears and telling myself “Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t you cry” but all I could think was “How is it that I’ve come THIS far…45 pounds and it feels like I’m still at point A?!” I could feel myself starting the deep, heavy breathing that is almost always followed by a flood of tears when I felt Sherry come up behind me and give me a great big hug. I buried my head in her neck and just let it all go. I was sobbing and I know people were watching…unfortunately I didn’t care about that particular detail until later. Mortified…I was mortified.

Sherry just kept telling me that I HAVE come so far and not to get discouraged…that THIS is why we’re working on it. It’ll get easier – she promised – with time. I knew all of this and I’ve known it from the beginning but it felt so good and reassuring to hear it from her. For instance, back in January when I first got serious about working out, I started out walking on a treadmill for 15-20 minutes at a time at a pretty low intensity – that used to be difficult. Now I have no problem hopping on the elliptical for 45-60 minutes at a high intensity. I KNOW that these things get easier. I think I was just so happy with how far I’ve come (see last post) that it was hard to envision having to, in a sense, start all over again.

Here’s what I’ve realized: losing weight is a challenge. It takes great determination and will-power and the challenge is – and should be – part of the fun. Somewhere along the line I forgot that. Never again.

As if my public cry-fest wasn’t awful enough…I went to weigh-in today:

Week 23 Weight Loss: -0.0 lbs (Ummmm, FML)

Total Weight Loss with WW: -37.6 lbs (STILL about 45 total)

That’s right folks. Nada. Zilch. Zero. NOTHING. On the bright side, at least it’s not a gain and there’s always next week…and the week after…and the week after…and the week after…

Much love, Pro