I can do this.

I can do this.

I can do this.

I can do this.

I have been repeating these words to myself since my very first class this morning.  I didn’t sleep enough or stretch enough yesterday and my body is feeling it today.  Muscles are tight, I’m tired, and everything is a struggle.

But at the first sign of resistance in lower body conditioning I starting telling myself, “I can do this.”

Each time it felt too hard to keep working a muscle I repeated the thought until I made it through the set.  In kickboxing when I didn’t think I could make it through another round of jabs I repeated the thought until I hit every punch at full strength.  I can do this.  I can do this.

Normally I’m not one for mantras. But that might be a reason why I don’t push myself.  I often lose the mental game and say, “You know, you’re right body!  I am tired!  Let’s quit now before it gets too hard.”  I don’t often tell myself I can do it.  I let the sissy muscles who want to rest control my thoughts instead of letting my thoughts control the muscles.

But it turns out I do have control of my muscles.  I can tell my body what to do and even if its hard it can do it.  I can push through the struggles if I tell myself I can.  Saying “I can do this” didn’t make it the work today any easier.  Those words weren’t a magic pill to make exercise fun and easy on a day when my body was rebelling.  But they did keep me going instead of giving up.  They did push me past the point where I could have stopped.

So, yeah, I can do this.

And so can you.

We just have to remember to tell ourselves that sometimes.

Meals:

Not pictured: 1.8 oz hazelnut chocolate bar.  Yums.

Moves:

1 hour lower body conditioning class

45 minute kickboxing class

30 minutes on stationary bike

1 mile walk moderate pace

30 minute Zumba class

1 hour candlelight yoga class

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Tagged as: Green Mountain, meals, mental, workouts