The longest 17 minutes - 75 days left

I realize that yesterday I posted that crossfit was the hardest workout ever.  However, I must now take those words back and say that today's workout at crossfit was most definitely the hardest work ever.  I am wondering if this will be a pattern?  Our WOD (workout of the day) today was sprinting.  But since I am currently "running challenged", there was a modified WOD for myself and one of the other guys.  About halfway through, the other guy looked at me and said, "I think we should have chose the sprints".  I agreed and told him that giving us a workout to kill us must be our punishment for needing the modification.

Our WOD consisted of 10 sumo dead lifts, 15 box jumps and 20 pull ups, five rounds for time.  Can I just tell you that after round two, I seriously doubted that I was going to make it through even if I had all of the time in the world?  Yet as soon as I had that thought, I realized that I needed to change my mindset or I wouldn't make it through for sure.  According to Stanford Research Institute study, success is 88% attitude.  I had heard that number before and thought about it today during my workout.  That is why I knew I had to change my attitude or not succeed.   By the end my side hurt me so very bad.  I don't remember my side hurting me like that since about the fourth grade when I had decided that I was not a runner after going on my first diet.  I was gasping for air so hard I probably sounded as though I would hyperventilate at any time.  However, I made it in 17 minutes 3 seconds.  It was the longest 17 minutes of my life!!

The most exciting news of the day was I went down a size!!  Yeah!!!  My mom and sister went and bought me a big box full of new workout clothes since my other clothes were starting to be loose.  What a blessing!  I received them in the mail today.  My mom had purchased an identical pair of pants in two different sizes.  I was about to rip the ticket of the larger sized pant and put it on, but then stopped myself as I had the thought they might be too big.  When I put the larger size on and it was too big, it was such a GREAT feeling!  I know that workout clothes aren't jeans.  However, it was a smaller size all the same.

So the grand total so far stands at:

• 17 lbs lost (that is two years worth of weight gain over the last 12 years)
• One pant size down
• A minimum of three inches off my waist as I could measure from my original workout pants that were tied with a draw string that had not come untied since I first started.
• A much better attitude and a much more pleasant person to be around.

The best part of all of this is that I am still at the very beginning.  Things will only get better from here.  How'd that song go?  The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.  And those shades are going to look great on me!!

Jeremiah 29:11 The Message - I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.