You know what's depressing?

Taking 'before' photos and measurements. If you're anything like me - and I prefer to think anyone with a ridiculously unfair mix of genius intellect, humor, natural good looks, common sense and of course humility is just like me - you hate having measurements taken. And photos. Especially photos like the ones I took. Sports bra and snug workout shorts. Nowhere to hide. No nice v-neck babydoll top to accentuate the hooters but float over the gut. (Who did I think I was kidding anyway? It just looked like I was trying to hide a pregnancy.)

And... wow. You think you know yourself, but you really don't know yourself until pictures like that are in front of your face. But honestly, that's probably good for my reverse body image issue. If I can bear the thought of the people at the photo processing plant seeing these images, I really should get some prints made and post them on the fridge and bathroom mirror. Maybe on my alarm clock too, for those mornings I'm feeling too lazy to lose an hour of sleep to work out. I could go nuts! Pictures of my thunder thighs and big ol' love handles everywhere!

Just so long as the Michelin Man doesn't see them. I am spoken for, after all.

This morning was one of those that I was too lazy to get out of bed early and workout before work. I have historically had a tough time finding the motivation to work out after putting in 12+ hours at work, then coming home and taking care of Old Girl, putting uniforms in the laundry, etc. Days when I have found the motivation, the workouts have required, it seems, twice as much effort, and were downright painful at times. Tonight's run was no exception. I am back up to 20 minute runs again, but I felt very cloddish and out of sorts for about 16 minutes of that.

Then I took my first crack at my new 10 Minute Trainer dvds. The premise of these are the 10 minute 'stacked' workouts. One is all you [air quotes] have to [/air quotes] do per day, however they give you two other options to 'maximize results'. Duh! Nobody ever got a beach body on just ten minutes a day! Today I was supposed to do primarily the Cardio dvd, then the two optionals were Lower Body and Abs. Had I known just how intense the Lower Body workout would be, I may not have opted to run 20 minutes beforehand. But I had already done it, and I counted it as cardio.

All I can say about these workouts, having only done one, is DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN. It was intense. I blasted my legs for ten minutes straight with isometric moves that required no more equipment than an elastic resistance band. Even that could have been optional and my legs would still have been shaking just as much when I finished.

Tomorrow morning before work I have Total Body to do, with Cardio and Lower Body being the optional two. I'm thinking I will do Total Body and then do another 20 minute run if I have time and am feeling it. If I don't run, I will do at least the Cardio dvd, either before or after work.
Notice those 'before' pictures aren't posted. I can hardly bear to look at them myself. so the thought of putting them out in public domain is truthfully rather nauseating to me. I'm hoping within 90 days or so that there will be changes significant enough that I will actually be proud to show you the amazing transformation.

For now, though, you'll just have to use your imagination.