Perseverence, Spiral Pins & Five AM

As usual, I kept in contact with Dani throughout the week - giving her daily workout plans, talking about food choices, and even talking through the occasional tough emotional patch.  Dani had a rough week, emotionally speaking, that is.  We won't go into all the details, but let's just say some folks at public gyms are cruel. 

It is important to remember that there is a human inside every body that you see.  As humans, we all have feelings and are sensitive to different things.  We share this earth experience with everyone else inhabiting it.  Therefore, we should all help each other in the best way possible to get through this life as unscathed as possible.  While I don't know what those rude people experienced in their lives to cause them to feel the need to inflict emotional harm on strangers, I do know that they made a choice to be rude.  So Dani, too, had a choice.  She could have believed their hurtful remarks, allowed it to crush her spirits, and leave the gym in tears.  But not Dani.  She recognized that although their remarks were hurtful, they did not truly reflect DANI.  Dani, in fact, was motivated to work even harder in spite of their comments. 

I could not be more proud.  Perseverence is required for someone who wants to compete.  Prepping for a contest challenges the body, the mind, and the spirit.  When you are the most physically depleted, you still have to put forth a week of workouts to keep the muscles taut.  When you think you can no longer go without carbs, or complete the last set, you must be able to convince yourself to continue.  Pushing your limits results in the greatest reward: Accomplishment.  Even if you don't win a trophy, you DID it. 

Dani DID it.

Dani's appointment this week was moved around a bit, and it turned out that the time that worked out best for both of us was 5:00 on Thursday morning.  So the gal that I feared was chronically late had the earliest appointment possible.  But truely, I had no doubts she would make it -- especially considering last week!

Sure enough, at 4:40 AM, Dani walked in the door with her hair down.  And she has a LOT of hair!  I thought it would take at least 10 minutes to tame it the way I normally see it.  But in a matter of mere seconds, she twisted 2 little spiral pins into her hair and ended up with a tight little bun.  I have a lot of naturally curly/kinky hair myself (nowhere near what Dani has) and I have never gotten my hair into such a perfect bun!  I asked her if those were "secret black girl pins."  She laughed and assured me they are not.  She found them at CVS!  I made a mental note to locate them later.

We measured:
WEIGHT: 182.2 (-1# from Day 1)
WAIST: 32" (-1" from Day 1)

We got through a Chest / Biceps workout in which she burned 760 calories in the hour!  She has kept up with homework workouts all week.  One day she could not muster the gumption to lift weights, but she still did cardio for an hour! 

I am very happy with Dani's dedication and have no doubts she will continue this favorable trend!  Now I have to go plan her Big Workout Sunday.