Remix Music - Random Share

I am a fan!
Love the remix and will go very well on my running playlist!

Insanity Workout Day 23: Stubborn is my Middle Name.

I am the type of person that has to find out the answers/outcome for myself. No matter if the outcome is good or could potentially be bad I still choose to find out for myself. I have never been the girl that believes in taking the lessons of others and applying them. I am sure I could have saved myself a few scares if I would have taken the advice of those who have gone before me but then again I wouldn't be me. Having a stubborn personality is part of my charm and has served me well in my profession. What I mean by that is I don't back down from a challenge where others might have tried and didn't succeed. I believe in accessing a problem with fresh eyes and then trying to solve what has been deemed unsolvable. Don't get me wrong I don't not have hundred percent success rate in this approach but I do feel that being able to tackle a challenge is seen as a valuable asset.

Source: parenting.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Now to sprinkle a little reality onto the joys of being stubborn girl. I do have to admit that having stubborn as my middle name has not been all rainbows, butterflies and pots of gold. I have acquired some bumps and bruises along the way. My dad loves to tell the story of when I was two and wouldn't put my toys in the toy box when he asked me to clean up. When asked to pick up my toys I promptly said no followed by the head shake mirroring my response. What next was a sequence of asking me to pick up my toys, me saying no and my father applying a firm spank to my bottom. This happened about four times before I gave in and decided maybe I should pick up my toys. Long story short, I picked up a toy, tears running down my face, went and gave my father a kiss and then placed the toy in the toy box. Now you can imagine if I was that stubborn at two years old I have only learned to dig my heels in deeper as I got older.

The Insanity workout for me is just another situation where I wanted to dig my heels in and not concede; however, given that my knee is throbbing it made digging in the heels more difficult. Don't get me wrong I still tried even through I had received warnings from my parents, friends, partner that maybe I should let it rest a little longer. But somewhere in my head I didn't want to go the rest of the week without moving forward conquering the challenge I had taken on. So, after three days of resting I decided I would give the old knee a test drive by doing the cardio abs and pure cardio videos. Within the first three minutes of the cardio abs video I knew that I was not going to be able to do the jogging, jumping and/or anything cardio without causing myself pain and possibly more injury. I did work though the rest of the abs video completing all the floor work so I could at least get some of my core workout. I then decided I would give Cardio Recovery a quick spin because it didn't involve the jumping. The mistake I made during this workout is that you are required to utilize your knee when doing squats, lunges and stretches. Again, being stubborn and not wanting to have to concede I gently pushed my way to the end of the routine.  This situation I believe we go down in the history books as a bruise caused by my own stubborn nature!

Source:  Pinterest

So where does that leave me? I must make the choice to do the right thing by my health and the safety of my knee. With that being said I am going to bow out gracefully from the Insanity Challenge. That is until I get a cleared doctors note; however, not knowing how long that will take it might mean that I will need to start from day one. I have an appointment with him tomorrow to understand the fate of my workout future. Until then I will continue down the path of making healthy food choices and perhaps exploring the possibilities of adding more random thoughts on my other blog page.  http://stateofpensiveness.blogspot.com/

Insanity Workout Day 20,21 & 22: Icy HOT!

                         Source: google.com via Sarah on Pinterest

After my last post, a few hours of letting my last workout set in and the repeated practice of applying Icy Hot to my knee my positive outlook on the possibility of modifying the workout to continue going was put to bed.  I had to make the decision that the best thing would be to take a three day vacation from INSANITY to heal. Medically this was probably the smart decision but mentally I kept thinking I was suppose to be doing something. Any kind of workout because doing nothing would undo all the progress I had made. But as the expression goes, change the things you can and except the things you can not change. 

With that in mind I wrapped up my knee and wrapped my mind around the fact that I could control my diet even if I wasn't working out INSANELY.  I have said all along that this is not a diet for me but a lifestyle change so I continued to approach the weekend with that same mentality. The kicker of all of this is that this past weekend was a "girls" slumber party weekend with my mother and my sister. They were in town for the weekend to visit, watch chick flicks, eat ice cream and thin mint girl scout cookies.

I was very proud of myself for being able to serve all of these delicious treats and finding health substitutes for myself. If there wasn't a healthy substitute I granted myself permission to have a bite just for the taste and then no more.  I stayed within my calories, continued to drink water and overall was impressed with my ability to make better choices. The meals were not as difficult to navigate because I am the cook so I decide what is plated. So even though they had a weekend of snacks I did feed them healthier meals in-between.

Now it is Monday and time to get back on track with the workouts. My plan is to ease my way back into the routines by first doing the cardio abs because it is less pressure on my legs and more on my core. If my knee holds up through that workout being braced then I will move onto the Pure Cardio which is what is on the schedule for today. If I can't do all the moves I will try to substitute upper body moves to continue to build my strength and muscles without losing all momentum. If my best laid plans fail then it will be a doctor's appointment in my future.

Wish me luck!! I think I may need it! ;-)

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