Feel the Burn!

Credit to the original poster of the image.

Hey everyone! :)

So you might have noticed the slightly longer than normal absance and that is because it was the long weekend up here in Canada! That meant that I spent a lot of time unplugged from the internet and outside with my family to try and get some gardening started and clean up our outdoor space. I'll post some pictures of our gardens when they get more flowers in them and look nicer then a bunch of black earth heaped into a pile of rocks. Probably when the lilacs bloom I'll take some nice pictures of them with an actual camera as opposed to my phone like I have in the past. We'll have to wait and see! However, that isn't exactly what I wanted to blog about today, so let's jump into the real topic.

Working out! Woohoo! At least, that is the kind of feeling that I've been getting from it lately. I've always felt like I'm a bit bigger then I want to be and it's always been something I was self-conscious about in my life. However, I was never able to properly join a gym because I've had a lot of issues with my knees and my health that made it almost impossible to do any kind of cardio because the pain would be so intense. Now that I've gotten that sorted out and can actually run without feeling like I am going to die, I've been going to the gym on a regular basis and really loving it. I don't know what it is but I've been going early in the morning (and I mean early for me is about 9:00 am) three days a week and I just get this amazing awake feeling when I get back home. 

I go to this little gym in my small town that most people don't know about. It is usually empty or filled with people over the age of 60, so there is nothing to distract me from my work out. That was another thing I was always worried about conventional gyms, the feeling that I'd need to prove that I belong there and that I could actually keep up with it. At this gym, just walking I tend to do more cardio then 50% of the other people there. So there is really no pressure and I just feel confident in taking my time and really pushing myself to do better then myself and no one else. The one thing that I find difficult is eating healthy. 

I'm a notorious chocoholic and I find it really difficult to try and cut that out of my diet. However, I've found the perfect solution as of late and it is the chocolate protein shakes that I've started adding into my smoothies so that I don't have to loose that taste of something I love entirely. Now I'm not suggesting that people should be cutting out things that they like to loose weight but I know in my case that if I am not careful then I'll get rid of any progress that I've made by going to the gym. I'm doing this for myself and to try and be the best version of me that I can be! If you can't love yourself then how can you expect anyone else to love you either? So this is my first step to trying and increase my self-esteem and to give me the chance to say YES to more things that I would shy away from. It is my attempt to build confidence in myself and my choices and going to the gym makes me feel on top of the world. 

If that isn't for you than don't go! Don't do something that you don't like just to impress someone, or to make someone else happy. Be your own person and follow the dreams that you want. If you want to go to the gym and you enjoy it, keep going! If you don't like it, then you can stop and find something else. Maybe you're the kind of person who likes to go running outside or ride a bike. Those are just as good as going and weight lifting! 

So I think that is everything for today! I'll see you all again on Thursday! 

Cheers! x

-A (somelittlebirds)

*NOTE: As I was writing this I tweeted out a Happy Hump Day to the BBC and found out that they retweeted me as the first tweet of the day! Just thought that was a happy little note to toss in there that really made my night/day! Cheers! x