First Week Review

One week down, sixteen more to go.  16 weeks seems like such a short and long time all at once.  This week has been full of successes and challenges.  I feel great after my first week completed.  Here is my review:

Challenges:

First, I have struggled with getting more than five hours of sleep most nights.  Which I know is something that I will remedy as I can't maintain my road to being healthy and fit without enough sleep at least 7 hours.  Second was my eating/nutrition.  Most of the week I did well however once Friday came my schedule was different and this was difficult for me to to adjust to, I ate horribly and then continued my free day all weekend.  This is something I will figure out this month because it is important for me to have a structured schedule for food outside of my work week.  This has been one of my constant struggles undoing what I have done during the week in one weekend.

Successes:

My main success this week was completing all my workouts.  I didn't always make it to the gym at the time I wanted but I made it!!!  This is quite an accomplishment for me.  My workouts felt great and I wasn't really sore.  During my massage tonight, my massage therapist told me she can definitely tell that my muscles are getting more toned and balanced.  This week's massage was so much less painful than my one three weeks ago, so I am definitely doing something right.  Also, this past week I haven't really experienced any patellar knee pain.  Another thing I was able to do this week was take my starting measurements and before pictures.  I can't get over how much my body has changed since our trip to Hawaii.  I feel very proud of myself for reshaping my body.  Additionally, I also emailed the contact people about entering the competition.  They emailed me back advising that the information will be posted soon on www.jaycutler.com.  I will be checking the website periodically to get registered.

Overall I count this first week as a success given that I am creating a new routine.  This second week I am going to repeat my first week with a few additions - I plan on attending one yoga class and hiking this weekend twice.  I think it will be much easier this coming weekend that it was this weekend since we had a Christmas Party.  I am also going to keep tightening up my nutrition.

I know that I will experience challenges and struggles and I welcome the opportunity to conquer whatever comes up.  I plan on maintaining some balance between pushing myself and paying attention to what my body tells me so I don't suffer an injury while I am training for the Figure Competition in April.

In talking to many of my friends about starting this blog and choosing to compete, the common theme that I have heard  is that I have a lot of courage and dedication to do this.  It is interesting since today I had some Chinese food and with that a fortune cookie.  I want to leave you with what my fortune read:

Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear