Take You Back...

Happy Hump Day to all! This week is spring break for many college/graduate students. How am I spending my spring break you ask? Oh why I am staying in New Jersey waiting on the massive rain storms that are supposed to hit & flood the area over the next 3 days & working. I LOVE not having to drive to school, but since I can't be on a tropical island drinking really high calorie fruity drinks while getting a tan I'm just going to pretend that I'm on a beach somewhere really amazing. 

I spent most of the weekend cleaning out my computer room so that the rug could get ripped out & while doing that I stumbled upon lots of stuff that has been collecting dust on shelves and in drawers. Some of what I found was old pictures & all I could think of was, "Why did I think it was okay to go around looking like that?" In the last edition I mentioned about being a chubby kid... well here it is...

Yeah that's 4 year old Marisa...

Sometimes it's really hard to look back on how I used to be because I'd like to just kick myself for letting things get so out of control. I can't help but think maybe it wouldn't be such a challenge right now if I had started taking better care of myself younger? Grammar school & middle school were pretty bad, but those pictures are deep in the archives so this is the next best thing. Ready for another one... 

And it just kept going... me at 21

But I think all we can do as people is try to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. Maybe the constant battle is a reminder of why I don't want to repeat any of those mistakes? I have to have some kind of reason to justify all of this pain, right? Ha! 

Okay so onto the work out routine... I think Joe gets such a kick out of the "man work out" that he enjoys making modified "man work outs" now. My first exercise was climbing up onto this squat machine with shoulder rests and weights on the sides and I was up on a platform. I should've known that was a bad sign... that lead to hammer curls/shoulder presses, chest press laying down on a bench w/my feet elevated, the DREADED unassisted bench dips, assisted reverse grip pull-ups, lunges with a 10 pound weight that I had to rotate every time I took a step, finished with  supermans/bananas. If you don't know about supermans/bananas they are incredibly challenging core exercises that I'm sure some man came up with just to torture women with. When it was time to start another set, Joe kept referring to it as "going back into the gauntlet" & I couldn't help but laugh because the gauntlet is EXACTLY what it felt like! I was totally spent when I left there, but at the same time I felt really accomplished. Sure, I feel beat up all the time, but I'm proud that I can make it through these difficult work outs. 

I'm in such a different place now than I was even five years ago... I want to challenge myself & I'll deal with pain because I know it's necessary. So I'll sit with an ice pack on my shoulder like a pitcher that just threw 8 awesome innings & keep going. I'm also really focused with my food right now & that helps a lot. However, now that Lent has set in, I'm up for even more of a challenge because fish & I aren't friends & I obviously can't eat pizza/pasta THAT much. I think I'm going to have to (gasp) cook the occasional swordfish over the next 6 weeks or so. I can tolerate that, but man do I hate cooking fish! I'm gonna try not to think about it for the time being... 

Well, my bed is screaming my name right now so I'm gonna try to fall asleep before midnight. These weeks just keep flying by & they're all starting to blur together. One more picture before I go... 

26...healthier & wiser :) 

Until next time... 

Marisa