Progress, On Many Fronts

Yesterday I decided to go to the gym. My ankle was feeling the best it had in a week, and I figured I could perform things that involved hanging from the pull-up bar, sit-ups, push-ups (on my knees), and maybe some kettlebell movements? It turned out to be a "skills" day, so basically I could do whatever I wanted. There was a workout on Friday that involved overhead squats, push-ups and sit-ups. I modified it by doing knees to elbows (hanging from the pull-up bar) instead of the overhead squats. It worked great! I performed 5 rounds of: 5 knees to elbows, 10 push-ups, 10 ab-mat sit-ups. It was quick, intense, and just what I needed.

I noticed my knees to elbows are improving considerably, I was able to perform all rounds unbroken until the last round. It wasn't that long ago that I could only do 3 in a row, maximum. Today, my abs are feeling it for sure! My ankle feels even better today, glad to know I didn't over do it!

As I mentioned before, this injury really pushed me into focusing on my diet. I was teetering on the cliff edge that I am all too familiar with. Sometimes I fall off and it takes me weeks or months to find my way out of the canyon, and sometimes something throws a rope around my waist and pulls me back. This injury threw me a rope and pulled me back. Now rather then the uphill climb, I'm enjoying the view.

This morning I got a text inviting me to one of my favorite breakfast spots in Seattle. I immediately said "Yes!" Then I started thinking about what I was going to eat. I thought about how good I currently felt, and how much progress I could feel my ankle making each day. I knew I could not go to that breakfast place and not eat everything I wanted (which would include grains and sugar). I thought about how I didn't want to feel crappy. I thought about how hard I fought the past week to rid my body of the crappy feeling, and I didn't want to lose that. I texted back and declined.

For so long, so many of my actions and events have been motivated by food. Oh, I can go to place X because then I can eat this... Today I realized I initially said "yes" out of habit, not because that is what I wanted to do. It was a huge moment of progress not only to decline and break my familiar pattern, but to decline because I didn't want to FEEL crappy. In the past I might have declined in a moment of restriction, motivated by how it would not be consistent with my goals of how I wanted to LOOK.

See that difference? Making a decision on how it would make me feel, versus how it might make me look. This, is real change. A true paradigm shift that makes me realize what my true goals are. The reason why I eat Paleo is because I like the way I feel when I'm eating that way. I go to the gym because I like seeing progress in the things I'm able to do, and for how I feel afterwards. With positive reinforcement like that, how could I NOT continue to eat Paleo and workout?