Strong

Strong. That's exactly how I feel today. Today was our first official day of Chalean Extreme Round 1. This is not my first time doing the program; I have completed all three phases one other time about a year and a half ago. My goal is to push myself to lift heavier without overdoing it - getting out my comfort zone, but without injuring myself.  I LOVE strength training. My only problem is consistency. You know - working out for two or three weeks then not working out for two or three months. I have been consistent with something I don't exactly love (running) for over three months, so this should be a piece of cake. I will admit that I do hope to love running. In fact, I've always wanted to be a runner. (Yesterday we are able to do some speed work as part of our first 5K training!)

In the past I've tried to start everything at one time: eating right, cardio, strength. This has always lead to me going too fast, getting burnt out, sore, or injured, and finally, quitting. This time around we started with C25K and fought off the urge to jump into doing strength exercises. Our second step was tackling portion control with Weight Watchers. We already eat healthy stuff and have been for years. (You can ask our family members who  consider us child abusers for fixing vegetables, brown rice and such for our children, or ordering veggie pizzas instead of Meat Lovers and limiting their sweet treats like Kool-Aid, cakes, and cookies.)

Now after all this time we are adding in strength training with Chalean Extreme. I love it. You lift heavy slowly. Heavy doesn't necessarily mean 50 lbs either; it could be 15 lbs for you or as low as 5 lbs. At times in the past I've simply used my body weight and no additional weights.  (Today I used between 5 and 15 pounds for the various exercises and will have to increase most weights next time.)

This is me doing the Bench Press and Leg Lower of Burn Circuit 1. Of course, I'm not doing the Leg Lower - I'll add that in next week. I really love those Bowflex SelectTechs.

I love that we are making exercise a part of our daily lives. We have always known to eat and drink to live. Now we know to exercise to live. Of course, it's not enough to know that something is right, the right thing must be done.

This is Fred doing the Lunge with Core Rotation of Burn Circuit 1. He sweats so much! See Chalean on the TV?

Happy Independence Day!