It's amazing. The feeling I get after I make good choices eating all day is SO MUCH better than giving into my craves, no matter how strong they are.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to sit at a table in a restaurant where everyone around you is eating this cheesy, thick crust, delicious looking pizza and order a lettuce wrap? Then to sit there through the whole meal feigning like a crackhead fighting myself every second not to give in to the desire for what I think I want, but don't need.

Eyes on the prize, that's what my trainer Kyle always says to me. Its hard to see that prize when a big peanut butter cookie is starring you in the face.

This weekend I will not be so strict on myself and eat tortilla chips in the Mexican restaurant and start drinking before noon. But in order to wear the slinky pink dress I bought and prance around wearing my bikini at the pool, I knew I had to be strong. Its all about sacrifice.

And then after it was over, and I won, I felt so good. Triumphant. Strong. I am not a slave to myself or really cheesy pizza. Not only are my muscles stronger, my will power is as well. Now if it would only STAY that way!!!

Before & After By Bryce

Before I post my official before and after pics from Bootcamp this year, here's a little preview thanks to my son's random renegade photo sessions. He is infamous at grabbing my camera off whatever perch I have placed it on and starting to take pictures. Sometimes he's actually not bad.

Even though he cut off my head in both pics (it must be difficult to always shoot subjects from such a low vantage point) I feel its a fair pictorial interpretation of my progress over the past three months.

This first picture was taken during the first week of Phase I Bootcamp in February.



And this taken three months of hard work later during the first week of Phase 4 in May.



You know you like my blender and Whey protien powder in the background! lol

COMING SOON:

The before pic from June 2009 and after from one year of hard work at Maximun Fitness coming in June 2010!!!

I lost weight on vacation.

I lost weight....on vacation.

That deserves some bold and italic font for emphasis.

A whole pound difference from my weigh in Friday morning and today, in the right direction. Usually over the course of a regular 'ol weekend I can put on a pound or five from just going out and having fun for a night. So going out of town and not losing control is a big one for me.

Its not easy being the odd man out, the one who has to make decisions and strategize ways to resist temptation before they occur. I know what going out of town usually means, especially with my family. What can I say we like to eat! Its part of the planning, part of the fun.

So an hour into the road trip we are making the first pit stop... at McDonald's. I wanted a cheese burger and iced coffee so bad, but I just kept downing water to prepare my body for the day ahead.

I won the first battle. There was no way I was going to eat McDonald's in the first place, so I knew the real test was yet to come. At the hotel I fueled myself with low sodium turkey, cheese and almonds while feeding the kids snacks from teh stash I brought from home. I had a refriderator and microwave and all the 'wierd food' from my fridge that neede dto get used up. Set up for success.

I passed on a 5-star dinner buffet and ate grilled chicken. No breakfast buffet int he mornign either. I contained my desire for mini-quish and cake at my cousin's wedding shower. At the hotel, I avoided the room where my family brought their own goodies from home, triple layer carrot cake and homemade dumplins. It was like Thankdgiving up in that bitch. I would have loved some carrot cake.

Panic set in during the debate for dinner when it became obviosu ever other member of out party was going to the buffet again and i was pushed into a corner. So I ate some snacks in the room to take the edge off, shut off my sensory smell and sat between my babies and fed them fruit, baked beans, peas, and pudding while everyone around me pigged out. I didn't want to pay $19.99 for a salad, when I knew if I took a plate up to that temptation, I would come back with more than I was willing to risk.

I was fine and the feeling of accomplishment felt better than the food coma I would have been in for the rest fo the night for gorging out on 20 different things. It paid off.

I lost weight on vacation. After that, I know anything is possible!



Feeding the girls at the buffet I did not eat!

I heart Maximum Fitness

I do not love working out.

I do not love the alarm clock going off at 4:20am three days a week. I do not love sweating, I do not love being in pain. I do not love not being able to physically do something. I do not love being off balance. I do not love not being able to breathe, or my chest hurting, or my muscles screaming when I'm holding a squat or just trying to sit down on a toilet.

I do not 'love' exercising.

What keeps me doing it, sacrificing my sleep, time, pasta and potatoes is not the pounds disappearing from my body, though that is a definite plus. What I love is how it makes me feel.

Not while I'm doing it, because of course that part sucks. It doesn't feel good at the time to push yourself when you want to quit. When thoughts intrude like, 'I can't do this' that does not feel good. When you are trying to do something that sounds easy in theory like a side plank but you can barely get your ass off the ground, that does not feel good.

What does make you smile on the way home is when its over and you did it. Another day passes where you got out of bed before the sun came up and busted your ass like a marathon trainer or mom on mission. And even if you do horrible on your diet the rest of the day, or can't get up off the couch cause you hurt so bad, none of that matters because you didn't give up and tomorrow is another day closer to Wednesday where you're gonna get up and have the chance to do it all over again.

Except this time you will be better.

It will not get easier, it gets harder Kyle says, but you get stronger and you feel even better about your self and life and before you know it, you're smiling on the way there too.

Don't get it twisted. I do not love working out. I just love how it makes me feel.

Life does not get easier, but I get stronger.