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Peak Week: An Inside View of NPC Bikini Competing- Day 3

What to do when you sleep through your cardio session 3 days out from a show: 


That's what I was planning to write about today... But as my feet pressed the pedals of the elliptical tonight, making up for my missed AM cardio, the tvs mounted in front of the cardio machines began go play a news story that shook me. 



Disturbing footage of a mother and father holding their lifeless toddler played out on the tv screen. The boy had stopped breathing and they weren't sure why. A police officer then came into the frame and began CPR on this small body of a boy. The look in the parents faces as they thought their son was dead... made me feel So. Damn. Lucky. Lucky to be on this elliptical. Lucky to be working towards my goals. Lucky to be sore, tired, and overworked at times. The desperate plea in the parents eyes for their son to have life...It gave me goosebumps and snapped me into a grateful perspective. I don't want to look at my health as a "have to" or burden. I want to feel so lucky and grateful to be alive, able to nourish my body with healthy food and exercise. 


If we interpret working towards our goals as depriving us from other things that we enjoy, we are likely to feel "unlucky" or unhappy. But if we look at goals as positives and see the work we put in as fuel propelling us toward what we are gaining, we are much more likely to continue on and feel fulfilled. 

This moment on the elliptical tonight tied in so much to how the morning went. Although this morning I can say that I never heard an alarm, we all know there are days when we do wake up to that early morning alarm and choose the snooze button instead of getting our workout in. This is the deprive-vs-gain mentality. When we hit the snooze button, we're looking at the situation as "losing sleep because we have to work out," instead of "being able to wake up and work out to make progress towards gaining health and reaching goals."  

So even if you've had a recent stumble like I did this morning, let's practice gratefulness that we are alive and healthy enough to strive toward these health and fitness goals, wherever we are at in that process 💚. 
-The Wonder Vegan 
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