NO FEAR WEEK!!!

I have been thinking a lot about fear when it comes to health and fitness since Shauna's last post. I want to declare this week: No Fear Week. Are you in?? I just realized that there really are a lot of things that scare me about working out and eating right. It seems weird, but it's true. Mostly, the fears come from being scared to fail. I've struggled my whole life with not trying new things simply because I'm afraid I won't be able to succeed or even finish what I've started. (This is also the reason I boycott making New Year's Resolutions. Oh dear!) So, I decided I needed to feel the freedom of conquering at least one of my fears. I HATE doing any kind of ab workout. Anytime abdominal work was even suggested in my high school gym classes or more recently, in "exercise group", I groan and feel the tension in my body start to increase. I really am nervous about doing crunches and supermans and all of that stuff because I have never had any strength in my stomach and I'm afraid of that feeling of embarrassment in groups when I wimp out after the first two reps. I am scared of trying them even at home alone because I dread the feeling of "uh, I am so out of shape" after starting the exercises, followed by the feeling of "I am such a quitter" after I give up. I always figured, it's just easier to not worry about those kind of things and focus on things I like better. But, that just keeps me in the same place forever, never knowing what I might feel like if I actually was successful. I know it seems like a dumb goal, but I am going to do 10 minutes of my old school ab video at least three times this week. I hope it will inspire you to tackle something you're fearful of. Maybe it's exercise in general. Maybe it's fear of failing to eat more vegetables and less sugar or salt. I don't know. I have plenty of fear of failure about trying to eat better too, but I am just tackling one thing at a time. We'll see how it works. I hope you'll join in and maybe we can all support each other by sharing our triumphs in conquering the fear that keeps us down. Let's do it!! Good luck!!

Jacobs Ladder

Did you guys see Biggest Loser this week? The winner of the challenge spent 2 and 1/2 hours on a Jacobs Ladder. There is a Jacobs Ladder at the gym I go to. I've actually mentioned to my husband before about how I wanted to try it. I never did because I didn't know how to use it, and I thought I would look dumb trying to figure it out all by myself. After this week's Biggest Loser episode, I decided that I would do it. Last night, I did!

It was actually pretty good. (Maybe cause I only did it for 10 minutes, not 150 minutes!) I had to explore and figure out how it worked. The waist belt that you strap on yourself, helps control the speed. The lower you are on the ladder, the less resistance. The higher up you are, the more resistance, which increases the speed. I thought it actually was a great workout. It will definitely help with my problem area thighs. I will definitely do it again, longer next time. I just have to find a way to not get bored! And I decided that I'm not going to be afraid of trying new things in fear of 'looking dumb'. We're all at the gym for a reason. You'll never experience those other things unless you try.