Cover Girls and Bicep Curls

There I was …standing innocently in the grocery store line…waiting to get home after a long day… when suddenly, there they were rising up around me….

Christie Brinkley on the cover of People in a bathing suit at 60!

Oprah on the cover of OPRAH in a tight little cocktail dress at 60!

Marie Osmond on the cover of some unknown magazine holding her first grandson looking like she did when she was a little bit country!

Diane Sawyer on the cover of Ladies Home Journal, still with no wrinkles, at 68!

They jumped at me off the racks swirling around my cart in horror-show fashion and screaming as they spotted a box of cookies traveling down the belt toward the checker…will she never learn?

Mark Twain had something to say about comparisons: “Comparison is the death of joy.”  Pretty strong word….death…but I believe it to be true.  In the flash of one magazine, my joy was shelved.

Last week, I left the gym really discouraged.  The three ladies I work out with are all slightly younger and definitely thinner than this 60-year-old.  I was feeling a little cocky about my progress going in, but on that day, I could not lift near what they were lifting and I was panting much harder.  I felt a little inflated and humbled.  Then I stopped at the grocery store…mistake.

How do I get out of a comparison-funk?  I go back to where I was just seven months ago:

1. My exercise routine at that time consisted of getting up from my desk four times a day and shopping.
2. I could not do one pull up, sit up, push up, or any up….and I secretly scoffed at people who went to the gym more than twice a week.
3. It took a lot of patience for my trainer, BZ, to get me to lift ten pounds.
4. I could not do a squat, lunge, or bicep curl.
5. For the first month, I almost passed out at least once a week.  Also, for the first month, when BZ would tell me what I was going to do that day, I would look at him as if he said I was to go outside and jump off the building…it seemed the same.

I wish I could tell you I have lost a lot of weight….I have not.  (I guess it’s the cookies!) But, what I can tell you is:

1. At this writing, I can deadlift 145 pounds.
2. I can do modified push-ups, pull ups and I can sit up with a ten pound medicine ball.
3. I can squat, lunge, bicep curl, bench press…ok…I cannot do burpees…but hopefully that is in my future….I do hate them, though.
4. I am officially a gym rat…I know the employees, I go 5-7 times a week, and I know more than one of the trainers.  I have been in the saunas and on the machines.
5. My body is stronger and getting more toned all the time.
6. My knees do not creak like they did and my back has not hurt in a long time.  I no longer avoid stairs.

Hopefully, the weight will go faster at some point…it is still slow progress…but at least there is progress.  Focusing on the positives, helps me so much on days when it is hard.  The difficult part about weight training is just when you think you have mastered something, the trainer gradually takes you to another level and it feels like you accomplished nothing.

However, there has got to be a COVER SHOT in my future somewhere!  Look out Christie, Oprah, Marie, and Diane…you are going to know who I am!

Thanks for stopping by the Joy Boutique. What we take away today is AVOID COMPARISONS OR YOU LOSE YOUR JOY!

See you next week, ladies.