Adjusting Training to LIFE

So today, Thursday; normally I would wake up and do my cardio at home before going to train my client at the gym and I would lift tonight. My body responds better to cardio in the morning and I tend to have more energy in the evening for lifting-probably due to the glycogen stores in my muscles built up through the day. But Tim flies in tonight so I switched it up and lifted shoulders and arms this morning at 5:30 to make sure I didn't miss my workout. I can do cardio at home tonight. That has to be the hardest thing about sticking to a training schedule. You have to be adaptive. If we miss one day because something comes up, it seems to make it easier to miss the next day-and then it snowballs into 2 weeks making it harder to get on track. So planning ahead is an absolute MUST. Sometimes it's a sacrifice because it means losing a little bit of sleep. I went to bed at 11:00pm last night and woke up at 4:30 this morning. But I would rather do that than get through my day today and be disappointed in my lack of dedication by not planning ahead.

I always remind myself that there is ALWAYS something going on in life. A birthday party, visitors, holidays, business trips; whatever it is, there is always something that throws off the routine. It can be easy to give in but it is ultimately more fulfilling to stick to my guns. Not that I don't fall off sometimes-last week is proof of that. But if I can have foresight about what I will be thinking and feeling in hindsight after-the-fact; it can guide me to make the right choices like I did today. "If you fail to plan, plan to fail." So now, I feel great that I did that and I'm powering through.

Ok, my training so far today: I increase my carbs on shoulder days and need to get 25 grams in before and after my workout with my protein. So that offers a challenge getting up early enough to EAT before working out. I should have had almost no fat but I put almond butter on my toast (yes toast, this amazing Women's Bread I get from Whole Foods-check it out) For whatever reason my shoulders felt WEAK when normally they are strong. But I powered through. So many competitors say that their motivation is that-someone out there is training harder, doing one more rep, eating a little bit cleaner and I can't let them, I have to be that person-and it's true, it works, I used it this morning when I didn't want to do another rep. The first competition is about getting up there, after that, it's about improving and placing better than I did the last time. Needless to say my shoulders and arms afterward were DEAD. I love that feeling because for a while after the workout you have a constant reminder of how hard you worked and it provides extra motivation to stay on track.

So as difficult as this morning was today is already a great day for me. Getting through the hardest days always turn out to be the best days. One of the plaques Tim got for me that happens to be right in front of me now says:

"PERSEVERANCE: The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it."

So I feel glorious today! :)