Shebeest blogs her excavation

I am feeling so positive about this. 5 weeks out and the weight is coming off at a good rate. Averaging a 2lb/wk loss while maintaining size is tougher than I thought. Cardio is ridiculous. This week, I am doing 50 min. of cardio 6 x/wk. Seems easier on paper. Getting in the 6th session on a Saturday is tough. I have to either stay up after working 12 hrs overnight or get up early that evening and do it before work. Whatever, it is worth it. And the posing is much more fluid, I won’t go so far as to say "natural", but it is way less awkard than it was in the beginning. This week I will pick out fabric for a posing suit. Wow! I can hardly believe this is me. One thing is for certain, the progress that my body is showing in appearance makes all of the hard work and discipline so worth it.

 Wish me luck!

Calm your mind. Quiet all of the distractions surrounding you. Concentrate on the one task at hand. Often a naysayer may cloud our minds and break our focus. What in your life distracts you? In the moment of need, silence your brain and allow yourself to stay focused. Stay in the present moment. Save your worries about tomorrow and guilt over yesterday’s failures for another time. Maybe you need to meditate, pray, or simply spend a few moments quietly gathering yourself before tackling the project at hand. Now is the time for just one thing–reaching your goal. Today, focus your energy, clear your head, and achieve!

Concentration is the ability to think of absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary.

- Ray Knight, professional athlete

So, here I am. It is a New Year. Same "me" but with a more focused and determined outlook. I am 13 weeks out from my first bodybuilding competition. I have chosen to undertake this most radical change. I am fully committed to this course no matter what comes. I believe that, despite the outcome, merely by stepping foot onto that stage with only scraps of fabric covering my 5′11" frame, I am a conqueror. I will have overcome what I had heretofore thought impossible for someone of my ilk. Never would I have dared to dream, not even a year ago, that I would embark on such a journey. But here I sit, and you bear witness, that I am competing in an NPC sanctioned event on 5 April 2008. God help me, I am going to do it. If I could get through Nursing school as a single mother with a toddler, then continue on for my bachelor’s, I can do this. Every year I have tried to push the envelope. To see what more I can accomplish. To achieve more than I believed I could the previous year. Last year, it was losing 40 lbs. Check. The year before,  it was finishing my Bachelor’s degree, check. This year, it will be the bodybuilding competition. And do you know what? It is going to be a great year!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

- Mark Twain, American writer

These words have gotten me through more tough reps and sets than I can count. But they are more than just words for me. They help me to stay plugged in, focused. I am able to channel my determination to get everything that I am working so hard towards.

For example, I worked out yesterday morning at 0900. I had just finished my weekend shift, three 12-hr nights. Then I went into the gym and finished my most intense chest & back workout. And I killed it! My head was pounding like 10 jackhammers and my heart was pumping madly. I was hurting. I was fatigued. I wanted to quit. Then I started talking to myself. "Strong Spirit. Strong Mind. Strong Body." Each time I wanted to stop, out came the positive chatter. As I was told recently, it is all mental.

I don’t recommend to anyone to do what I did, working out without sufficient sleep. Believe me, I paid for it afterward. However, I do recommend engaging in positive chatter. Let your fellow gym rats think you crazy. Especially when it hurts. When the muscle is so full, pumped, and tight that you feel you have to either stop or it will explode…let it explode! There are a few things in life that compare to that sense of invincibility you feel, however fleeting, after completing a seemingly impossible workout. All your working and supporting muscles are humming, your teeth are chattering. All you can do is grin, wipe the sweat from your face and say, "Gimme some mo’".

Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.
Herbert Otto

The year is rapidly drawing to a close. Inevitably, it causes one to reflect on all that has transpired and taken place in the preceding months. I can recall sitting in a roomful of people. It was the fourth week of January 2007. We were all talking about what we hoped to accomplish, regarding our health, in the new year. I confessed, boldly, that I was going to lose 40 pounds of fat. I had no idea that when I said those words, believing them to be true, that I was changing my life…forever. Over the following months I learned to truly see food as fuel. I could choose to fill my tank with the high-test stuff, or I could go with the regular grade. I learned to listen to my body and watch how it responded to the fuel I gave it. I learned to love sore muscles, sweating like a pig on a spit after a tough workout, chugging like a freight train after completing my first 5K…then repeating all of these activities willingly.

Over the course of this year I have been tremendously blessed in ways that surpass what I can see. Truly, I see life more clearly now. The body is a temple. It is only ours to dwell in for a short time. How long depends on how we treat and care for it.

I have pushed myself to accomplish physical changes in a body that I believed was incapable of such. I have seen muscle growth where I thought it would be impossible. I have willingly moved sore joints and muscles because I know that I have more in me to accomplish. I know that I am capable of much, much more than I would have dared to dream. Therefore, I choose to dream and pursue the impossible. I am running it down so that when I do attain it, and mark my words, I will, I can look at it and realize that impossible is nothing. All things are possible to them that believe. I look boldy forward to a new year that is ripe with the promise of greater accomplishments. I look forward to seeing you do the same. God bless you.

All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.
T.E. Lawrence

Too many people sit on the sidelines of life waiting for that one great opportunity. We seldom realize that while we are waiting, we are missing the small opportunities to make a difference that surround us in our everyday lives. For example, you could pick up the litter on a street that you travel often, help someone carry her groceries to her car, give someone a workout tip, or offer to help a child read a book. Of course, this list could go on and on. Your small action could make all the difference in the world to someone and you may never know it. Do not sit around and wait for the BIG CHANCE because you never know…one of those small opportunities might turn into the next chance of a lifetime.

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us everyday.

- Sally Koch

Action is the only way anything ever gets done. Sitting around and waiting for life to happen to you will only guarantee one thing: that you are not going to end up with a life you love. By waiting, you can react to what is tossed your way and nothing more. It is easy to take a passive approach to life without taking chances. It is easy to fall into a rut and do the same things the same way all the time. Change is sometimes hard, but it is change that will reveal all the wonders that life has to offer. You can break out of your set ways by taking action. Try doing the same thing a different way. Jump in with both feet and learn something new. Decide, right now, to no longer remain the same.

When you stand still, you reject the struggle, and you refuse to change and grow. Ultimately, you reject fulfillment, happiness, the dance for joy and everything else that is eternally good.

- Matthew Kelly, classical actor and game show host

Champion. Conqueror. Victor. Achiever. All of these adjectives basically equate to the same meaning. The person, or persons, being described is the winner. They set their goals, looked ahead to the finish, and pressed on to the mark. So, the question is, what does it take to be a champion? What does one require in order to beat out their competition and to leave them behind? Is it something intangible? Sure. Is it obtainable? Definitely! "It" requires, dare I say demands, a mental toughness that money cannot buy. "It" is built in the isolated place of hard work, focus, and determination. "It" is built up, brick upon brick, through pushing and pulling against ever-encroaching obstacles.

To be a champion, one must be willing to pay a price greater than their competition will ever pay.

Life brings with it many doubts and fears. But fear of the unknown and the untried have held more people back than any lack of ability. Most people will never reach their goals simply because they never attempted.  Each time you overcome an obstacle, a fear or a misstep, you gain confidence and wisdom. Every small victory helps you feel more certain of yourself and your direction, pushing you further and faster than you ever thought possible.

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.
Vince Lombardi

I played basketball in high school. I often heard that consistency and commitment lead to goal attainment. These were, as my coach often reminded me, the fundamentals. Doing the things that were my strengths correctly every time. So, what do you do when you have been striving for so long, yet it seems like your goal will never see the light of day? How do you deal with the fear that you are about to fail and that everything that you have worked so hard for is out of reach? Simple. Give it one more try. And then one more. Think about the sweat and time that you have already committed to this endeavour. You have come this far, how unfair would it be if you quit without a fight? Even if the odds are not stacked in your favor and you cannot see how it can possibly help, dig deep and make one more attempt. You never know what will happen.  You just may surprise yourself. Meaningful, lasting achievements do not happen when everything is going your way. The successes that really matter come to you only when you are facing adversity, you feel as if your back is against the wall, and yet you refuse to give up. Sometimes, you can find victory in the effort. Think how much sweeter the victory will be when you look back at everything that you managed to overcome in order to reach the winner’s circle.

The last dejected effort often becomes the winning stroke.

- W.J. Camero

It is so easy to stay true to our commitments when everything is falling into place. But because sometimes life happens, options run out, and things do not work out, all you can really count on to be there is your own inner strength. These low points are chances to learn what we are capable of when we refuse to concede defeat. We may not be able to choose our hardships or options. But we do have the power and the option to face the present challenges with high grit, strength, and character.

Place trust in Someone greater than ourselves and our own instincts, and greatness will step to the fore. Trust in the hard work and dedication that has consistently been put forth. Think about the last time that their was a choice… fold under pressure,  or to rise to the occasion. If door number 1 is chosen, what is the guranteed outcome?  Failure. Not an option. If door number 2, surely failure is possible. But the chance and possibility for success looms greater.

If there is room for improvement, and there always is otherwise one is a corpse, what will we choose? How will we go about tweaking, making gains, pursuing perfection? Decide what you are made of. Pursue it. Do not flinch and do not yield.

"Look at a man in the midst of doubt and danger and you will learn in his hour of adversity what he really is."

- Lucretius, Roman philosopher