Friday, June 17, 2011

Resisting the Urge

This title refers to two different thoughts rolling around in my head. The first, which may be more significant for some, is that last night was homeschooler mom's night out. It's probably one of my favorite things to go to once a month. It's energizing, surprising, stimulating, and fun! It may not be the things other people like to talk about, but we get so excited about talking about learning styles, curriculum, field trips, current events, park days, special events, and on and on. On the other hand, it's also a time that we go to a restaurant and there are so many good things on the menu. It can be hard to resist. One year ago, I would not have had the discipline to say "no" to certain food menu items. Now, it's still tough, but I try to keep in mind the goal. So, last night I ordered Tortilla soup, (360calories), and then just ate lots of salsa fresca by itself with a spoon. I know that sounds weird, but it is sooooooo good just by itself. Honestly, if I was stranded on a desert island I definitely would take a spoon and as much salsa fresca as I possibly could pack.

Last night I didn't blog, because I got home at midnight and was too tired. However, yesterday after I finished up an afternoon school lesson with my youngest daughter, she and my husband and older daughter left the house to go out to dinner. The minute they stepped out of the house at 5pm, I hit the treadmill for 35 minutes. My homeschool friend and I wanted to meet and chat before the homeschool dinner, so I did my workout, jumped in the shower, and left the house.

I think that this example is one where making the time to just fit in the workout wherever it fits in the day is important. It always feels better to do it than not to do it, especially when I am going out to eat.

So the second thought I was having tonight downstairs while I was doing a leg workout was the fact that I've been somewhat reluctant to talk about homeschooling. I have just figured that it shouldn't be apart of my blog, because this blog is about workouts training for competition. However, I started to think more and more and I realized that this blog is about training for a competition, but also the things that keep me going, make me happy, motivate me, excite me, and drive me nuts....and whatever I go through that eventually moves me through the process of getting fitter each day.

So, there I was downstairs doing 4 sets of leg presses, 4 sets of hamstring curls, 4 sets of donkey calf raises, 4 sets of butt' blasters. In between sets I'm checking out the first homeschool yearbook we have had, since this has been my first year of homeschooling. It just made me so happy to see all the unique things the children in the homeschool did this year. The book was filled with amazing field trips to some pretty incredible places, interesting and fun science experiments, the music program performances, holiday games like wrapping a kid like a mummy, and on and on. It just made me feel so resolved of the fact that I made the right decision to homeschool.

The first 5 months was tough!!! The learning curve was steep all around, but the outcome was amazing. I saw my kids grow in ways that I had never seen before. I saw my older child just crawl out of this quiet shell from last year and become so animated, so excited and bubbly, passionate about pinnepeds,  reading, poem recitation, history, science, and being at home. And my younger daughter has just taken leaps and bounds in Kindergarten. I tried to get her to continue reading beginning readers, but she kept on picking up chapter books. By January, she started reading chapter books, which blew me away.

Obviously I can go on and on and what I mean to convey is really the fact that it feels so good to know when you are doing the right thing, giving your all, and committing to something when you don't really know the outcome. In my mind, homeschooling was taking a huge leap into a world I had no knowledge about, and I was pretty comfy cozy at the level my first daughter was at last year in public school. I had no real reason to change the situation. For all I knew, it appeared that everything was just great. What I didn't know what everything I didn't know. There were no secrets or any horrid thing that happened, there was just a circumstance that presented itself and I thought I would change the course of history.

Well, anyway, homeschooling is a lot like a fitness competition/ body transformation. You don't know if you'll get it right, you don't know if you are always doing it right, you will not know until more time has elapsed and you can gain some perspective, and you will not know how you will feel or be changed  or how others will perceive you, or anything. All you have is a goal motivated by some internal drive telling you to "stick to it."

And was the homeschooling year worth it? Not even just a little, but so much greater than I could have ever imagined. It's something that no one could have told me in any amount of words.

Is getting ready for another competition worth it? I don't know. I look at my body and think, "are you kidding?"  I'm a year older, by body is changing more each day, I don't know if it will or can look as good as it did before, and I don't know if I can do it again.

Am I willing to try? Definitely!

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

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