True story

Someone asked me how I lost all my weight. What program I was on, what gym, was I seeing a personal trainer, was I taking thermogenics (!^*&@#!^@&*@^), and doing any cleanses.

I told her this: I did (and still do) hard work. No pill. No magic juice. No starving. No shakes. Trainer I saw weekly, yes. I go to a locally own no chain gym. I know them and they know me.

I worked out when I could. I ate as best as I could and as often. In fact, the more I ate, the more I lost. Funny, eh? I ate 1200 calories and didn't lose a damn pound. Jumped it up to 1600-1900 and I started dropping. I ate when I was hungry, even before bed time. Tuna sandwich right before hitting the hey? Hell yes. Did I balloon out like so many people thought? No. I worked out my huge redwood size legs even though I was repeatedly told not to because working them out would make them bigger. No. They're getting smaller (ever so slowly).

I drank water, tea, coffee. Nothing added. Nothing special. I ate my veggies. I ate my protein. I ate often. I worked out often. I rested when I needed to. It's taken me awhile to get to where I am now, but I guarantee this will last till the end of my days.

So stop looking for a fast and easy way. BECAUSE IT DOES NOT EXIST. Anything worth having, is worth working hard towards.

Tough times don't last, tough people do.

I'm STILL waiting on a med waiver. Backup and such? Whatever it maybe it certainly has me down. I panic silently to myself keeping cool front and assure to others, but mainly to myself, that the paperwork will get approved.
It is a bit hard to see people enlist and ship soon after. Pooles come and go. Some drop out of DEP from injury, some sort of bad behavior, or somehow lost the cajones to go through it all. It's the people who have a problem with their IST, ones who don't do their research, their knowledge reading, or who lack integrity that go through boot camp and come back as Marines. Here I am maxing out on strength with a passable run, 11 General Orders and JJ DID TIE BUCKLE down, you name it.

But anything worth having is worth fighting for, right?

Of course I go through these valleys of weakness thinking I'll never get through and I'm an "old" lady according to recruit standards and immediately afterwards I'm on a motivation high. Tomorrow is a new day. I'll run further, lift heavier, etc. And that is where the silver lining is, the more time I have as a civilian the more time I have to improve on my weaknesses. I can be thankful for that.

Now finishing up school, well, that's a toughie. This autumn semester, if I don't leave before October, I'll be cramming five fifteen week classes into seven just so I can ship out this year. No pressure right?

Stats

Today I am definitely feeling my workout from the previous day(s). I'm sitting on a heating pad with a pillow propped up behind me. Some arnica and ibuprofen and in a few hours I should be feeling decent.

I'm sure you're all very curious about my recent IST stats, as of last month:

Run: 13:34
Crunches: 128
FAH: 82

My goal is to get my run down in the 10 minute range, up my crunches to 140 or more, and my FAH to 120 seconds (that's 2 minutes folks).

Still waiting on the damn med waiver to clear and drop more pounds. And both are going snail's pace. What can you do? Run, run, pump some iron, read some knowledge and find someone to finish all my math homework.

Any takers? Any? Bueller? Bueller?

Stay tune for Part Two of the Leadership series! Rah!