Days 9, 10, 11, and 12: Relative Fitness Goals

Thank you all so much for your nice comments, messages, emails, etc. about my pics from my last post.  Your encouragement means more than you know.  A lot of people said that I didn't have a muffin top (which is true until I put on my skinny jeans (40 bucks at Old Navy...whoop!), which are a liiiitle snug, and then the muffin top comes out a bit).  I never meant to make myself sound like one of those 900-pound women who has to be removed from her house with a crane.  Everyone's comments etc. got me thinking about fitness goals and how they are all relative to where you start and where you are trying to go, fitness-wise.

I would say that my body was/is in pretty good shape.  My diet was healthy I would say 80% of the time (it's hard for me to resist fries, ice cream, and Tostito scoop chips with warm, thick, creamy queso dip...*drool*).  Overall, I thought I was healthy and looked pretty good...if I wasn't preparing for a competition.  See, when I looked at myself in the mirror a few weeks ago I thought, "Eh, I look alright.  Could tighten things up, but I look fine."  Then...I caught a glimpse of what I would need to look like in 12 (now 11...eek!) weeks and realized I needed to get a freakin' move on it if I wanted to compete.  I started realizing that how I viewed my body and my diet was dependent on the fitness goals that lie ahead.  Because of those intense goals and the final results that need to happen, I didn't think of my body as "pretty good" or "alright."  I started thinking, "OH CRAP!  I have a long way to go!"  It's interesting how my perspective changed when I saw where I needed to be in a mere 3 months.  Let's use some visuals to show what I'm talking about.

Now, I know the fake tan is easily doable in just a few short days (I'm more worried/freaked out about this whole tanning thing than most people know, but I'll post on that another day).  But, look at her freakin' body!!  If that is where I'm trying to get to, I have a long way to go.  I'm not saying that everyone should have the same fitness goals as me (hell, a few months ago I thought these competitions were ridiculous!) but what's important is to remember: a) where you started and b) where you are going.  For me, the remembering where I started wasn't too much of an issue-- I knew I was pretty fit and had always been athletic so I expected myself to be able to compete.  But where I am going is another story.  These women are friggin' animals!  They live, breathe, and eat (well, not so much eat) exercise and diet (and lots of tanning).  I personally like this fitness goal for myself because I like to work towards things that seems almost unattainable.  I like that challenge.

I am so inspired by the people on the Biggest Loser because of exactly that.  They are taking on a huge fitness challenge that, at the beginning, seems almost unrealistic and daunting.  But as they start to see results, they remember where they came from and where they are trying to get to starts to become more reasonable.  I also pride these competitors on BL because they have made the goal to get healthy--that is where they are going...to get healthy.  Some of them start over 300 or 400 pounds and lose massive amounts of weight.  These people have to stop and look at where they started and realize that, no, they may never be the skinniest person around but they have achieved their goal.  So my point is we are all working towards something different and how we judge ourselves and our bodies is dependent on where we started and where we are trying to get to with our fitness goals.  I know that I don't have a bulging muffin top (I just LOVE that phrase though) but I do have a long way to go to reach my fitness goals.

Thanks again for all of the wonderful support all of you have given me.  Having people behind me is making this experience better than I could have imagined.  I will start posting daily again, sorry for the days off :)

Until next time!
xoxo

Pounds lost: 3.5
Food cravings of the moment: sweet potato french fries, chips and dip, Mike and Ike candy, peanut butter M&Ms, chili, and any Mexican food.