Proof that exercise is good for the soul.

OK so I've been absent for a while - sorry bout that!
I could spin you a whole sorry tale of woes and life getting in the way of my blogging but to be honest it wouldn't be the complete truth.
The truth is I needed the break - it's as simple as that!
Don't get me wrong, I love interacting with other bloggers that are on a fitness or weight loss life change  and I've missed it heaps over the last few weeks - but I still needed that break.
You see, I think I overdid the goals I previously set myself, in fact they got seriously unrealistic. I put so much emphasis on 'I'm going to lose this much weight' or 'I'm going to train this many times' that I simply stopped enjoying it and once I'd stopped enjoying the working out I stopped enjoying the blogging. I found myself constantly picking at my faults, slaughtering myself at missing those unrealistic goals and making promise after promise to do better next time - and we all know how that goes huh!  I've spent the last 20 years going round in that particular circle and I did not want my blog to turn into a diary of such behaviour - this blog was supposed to help me change that bad habit.

So what has happened?  Well I continued with the Insanity workout but missed the last 2 weeks of the programme. My results to that point had been great in terms of strength, stamina, flexibility etc but weightloss was non existant because I didn't control the crap I ate.
After a weeks break I half heartedly started insanity from the beginning again. Insanity is not a workout that you can do with less than 100% commitment, it really isn't. So my half hearted attempt was doomed from the start - I felt a complete failure when I gave up after just a week.
For 2 weeks I despaired - literally! I couldn't understand why I wasn't motivated for Insanity when I still loved the programme. In the end I decided to set another start date and really psyche myself up for it, so that's what I did.

A little over 2 weeks ago I restarted Insanity and I love it! My mojo is back, probably even more so than first time round! I am able to complete the moves better this time round, I can keep up more and I am working harder.
The diet is still not perfect but Insanity is making me want to make those changes because the more I work with Shaun T the better I want to get and to do that I need to lose belly fat!
Believe me though getting myself this motivated was hard! I was in a serious pit clawing at the walls to get out but dirt just kept falling right back in on top of me and all the while that Black Dog was seriously defending the entrance to the pit and my only way out! . That first day was horrendously hard, just getting dressed was a major achievement never mind the knowledge that I then had to go and press play to an insane workout!

This is what I looked like that first morning:- I could have quite willingly gone back to bed and pulled those covers over my head! Every ounce of my mind and body was screaming at me in protest of pressing play!

But I forced myself to press play with the promise that if I still felt like crap after doing the workout then I could go back to bed.
I pressed play and this is what I looked like after, despite pushing my hardest and being more knackered than I care to remember:-

I didn't go back to bed!
I couldn't believe the difference I felt after that first workout. The Black Dog that had had me cowering for cover an hour earlier was nowhere to be seen or heard afterwards.
Proof positive of the power of exercise!