And the beat goes on...

I feel like I might be getting into a rut. I'm still staying on top of my meal plan and I'm getting in all my workouts. I'm still working pretty hard and I have plans to keep things interesting. But, I'm just a little weary right now. I'm probably going too hard at this whole Body for Life thing. I want this to be a huge success for me. My expectations are enormous. So I keep refining my program. I feel good about the whole experience, but the spector of burnout seems to be lurking around the corner. It's probably just other things in my life interfering, like a crazy day at work, a down day in the stock market, the fact that our taxes aren't done and the deadline is in two days. Well, I've been here before. I've faced more discouragement than that and I've never quit. Plus, I'm going out tonight to a karaoke bar to let loose for a little bit. Don't worry, I'm not going to blow my meal plan!

So, I thought I might catch some sun after work this week. I figured I could get home and do a half hour or so before the sun got too low. But it's been raining all week. It's sunny today, but cool and windy. Sorry, not going to happen. I would prefer to get a natural tan, but I always have the tanning salon to fall back on.

I've had some good workouts this week. I'm increasing weight on all my lifts. Today, I pushed my aerobic workout to a new level. I had the exercise bike up to resistance level seven (it only goes to eight) at the end of my workout. I haven't been able to do as much walking as I'd like because of the weather, but I feel pretty good otherwise.

I was on the bodychangers website on Sunday. It's not devoted exclusively to Body for Life, but many of the stories on the website are about BFL'ers. It also tells what supplements they use and almost all the really impressive "after" pictures, the people that were really ripped, were people that listed some thermogenic as part of their supplement regimen. So I went to GNC and asked about Phen Free. The sales person, a former BFL'er herself, said that they hadn't carried it for a few years and recommended Thermo DynamX. Well, it was on sale, so I bought some and brought it home. I researched it on the internet for awhile before deciding to ease into it and see how I felt. The first day I took it, I felt a little jittery, but I'm on the third day now and I'm feeling fine. But I'm starting to feel like a walking drug store. I'm taking creatine, glutamine, vitamin C, Cal-Mag and now Thermo DymanX, not to mention Myoplex. But I did notice that most of the people on the web site took at least that many supplements. Some took as many as a dozen.

We're supposed to weigh in and do measurements tonight. I'm pretty sure I have some solid results. I want to do pictures again at four weeks. I found out that the camera store that I have a discount membership at has lighting equipment for rent, so we might be able to do our final pictures ourselves. I was thinking about renting the equipment for the eight week pictures and seeing how that goes. We still might book a professional phtographer. We'll just have to see.

I had someone drop off six boxes of girl scout cookies at my desk yesterday. I ordered them before I even knew about Body for Life, and way before I had any idea I would actually do it. I laughed when I saw them because, under my current diet, I will take over a year to eat six boxes of cookies. I know I could give them to other people, but I feel guilty about contributing to the general unhealthiness of the people around me. I will probably save them and use them as an occasional reward.

I was in the mall on Sunday, going to GNC, and I noticed that most of the people I saw were overweight. Of course, I was inside a mall on a sunny day. Probably all the healthy people were outside enjoying the day. Anyway, maybe it's just like when you buy a car and you start seeing cars like it everywhere. Now that I'm trying to do something about my body and my fitness, I seem to notice people's bodies a lot more. Most of them are not in good shape. For some reason, even though I don't know any of them, it makes me sad. I hope I can finish this challenge and maybe influence one other person (besides Cheryl, who's already on board) to come along on this journey. I don't know if I will ever serve as an example that other people will want to follow, but I hope to. It's one of the things that keeps me going.

The other thing is that horrible picture of me in my biking shorts...