My Fitness Revival

Today was arm day… and I’m not sure whether it was a success or fail. 

For as long as I can remember, I have never had any upper body strength whatsoever. Like, nothing. Zilch. Nada. Absolutely zero. 

So naturally, arm day is a struggle for me. A while back I did have a bit more endurance as far as upper body exercises, though not much strength. Even though I have been keeping up with arms, I feel like I’ve lost all my progress. It’s quite discouraging. 

I specifically wish to target my triceps, as I have a good amount of fatty, jiggly tissue there (I desperately want to tighten that up) and my shoulders. Everything else is an added bonus! I just want to beautiful, sculpted lines that adorn many people’s arms. 

My shoulders are the weakest muscles likely in my entire body. This is not a good situation, as I love and desire strong shoulders. I try my best to follow along with shoulder workouts, but I can’t about 90% of the time. It’s bad, and I don’t know what to do since I physically am unable to continue. I’ve tried smaller weights, lesser reps, more breaks – but I’m not strong enough for many exercises.

I’m trying to increase the intensity of my arm workouts so I can build strength faster, but it is so hard. I could barely cook my own dinner (which was only making a sandwich), I was so sore. 

I’m trying my best and I know I’m giving everything I’ve got. I really want to improve on this aspect, and hopefully throughout these posts both you and I will see progress. 

Other than that, I did 100 squats today. I’d done that yesterday also, along with a lengthy glute workout I did after my post. My legs are so sore; I am walking in a fashion similar to that of a newly birthed giraffe. But I do enjoy being sore, as it gives me proof of that workout’s effectiveness. 

Today was Black Friday. I didn’t buy much, only a couple items that I’d been wanting for a while. I spent a lot of time with my family, which was so much fun. I love days like this!

Overall, I’m not feeling very confident about my upper body. I really want to get stronger and improve the appearance of my arms, though I know that won’t happen without hard work. 

Tomorrow will be better. I’m going to do abs and possibly some cardio, which would help to destroy the fat around my triceps 😉 I just have to stay motivated even through not-so-fun workouts, because I’ll never get better if I don’t try. 

I’ll let you know tomorrow how my next workout goes. I hope you’ve all had a great thanksgiving week. Today is a magnificent day to be happy!

Oh my goodness. 

Leg day was a huge success… meaning that I am in so much pain at the moment. I did about an hour and ten minutes today; one of the workouts was one I’d never tried before. It was a no equipment, 12 minute workout (sounds easy, right? Haha. Sure), and I nearky stopped it. The HIIT cycles were 45/15, so it was extremely difficult to keep going through some of the exercises for a straight 45 seconds. Definitely high intensity…

I felt greatly accomplished after working out, though. Even though several times I wanted to give up (ex. while in extreme pain, feeling slightly nauseous, and my heart rate literally at about 200 bpm), I didn’t; I was so proud of myself once finished. I wish every day while exercising I had this much energy!

Currently I’m in bed watching a Christmas movie. After all, today is thanksgiving, so it’s officially Christmas time (although there is the possibility that I’ve been listening to Christmas music since August…). We just ate dinner, which was leftover ham on biscuits and random side dishes. Quite delicious, considering that I’d been hungry for the entirety of my workout. 

Today was a great day with family and friends. Running around outside, playing kickball and frisbee, and competing in childhood board games as the best way this holiday could’ve gone. 

I’m so thankful for everyone I spent time with today, along with those whom I didn’t see today that are important in my life. I’m thankful for the food I was blessed enough to be provided. I’m thankful for my home, my family, my friends, my pets, my health, and so many more things that I normally take for granted. Days like today often cause us to stop and think about blessings that we don’t even notice normally; I would love to be more mindful of how fortunate I am on a daily basis, not just once or twice a year.

I’m very pleased with my progress today. Overall, I think Day #2 was a success! I can tell my legs are gonna be sore tomorrow (which I want!!), and that’s fine since I’m planning on doing arms tomorrow. Hopefully that is just as difficult as today’s workout!

Today is a magnificent day to be happier than yesterday. I hope you all have a great rest of your thanksgiving and I will speak to you tomorrow!

Today was my first day working towards my goal. I did a short ab HIIT workout today and a couple minutes of leg workouts, though I didn’t have much time. I felt tired but pleased afterwards.

My family and I went on a walk to a huge mud pit in our neighborhood, letting our dog run around in the cold water. It was so fun… I’ll admit, I ran around just as much as our puppy. So that was a bit more exercise, though it wasn’t any kind of strength training (just light cardio).

The weather was quite beautiful today. Sunny with stunning dotted clouds and a chilly breeze throughout the otherwise pleasant temperature made today a great day to run some errands and be outside. I love weather like this! 

After that, we filled up on thanksgiving leftovers (we had our little family thanksgiving yesterday, and our large celebration will be tomorrow). It’s hard around this time of year to eat healthy… I know today  I definitely didn’t eat the best, but I can change that soon. After thanksgiving, I will begin to prepare much healthier meals. But I’m sure you can relate; around thanksgiving and Christmas, you simply must indulge 😉 

Tomorrow I’m going to try to exercise in the evening, perhaps once back at my home and while watching the football game and/or parade. My goal will be to do leg day, as I haven’t done a really challenging leg workout in a little while. 

I’m thrilled to see where this journey leads me, and what new healthy habits I’ll develop. I will work my hardest to improve my health, for myself only. 

After all, it’s Day #1. Even though I haven’t reached my goals yet, I know I will in the future because I will work for them.

Goodbye, I’ll talk to you tomorrow! Today is a magnificent day to be happy!