So close to the finish line... dammit.

'I Didn’t Phone It In'

I really wanted this to be the title of my post at the end of the 30 Day Shred. ‘Don’t phone it in’ is a phrase Jillian often uses when she is encouraging you not to quit.

Unfortunately, I have to report that I’ve been a bad girl and I’ve let myself down something terrible. The rational side of me is telling me to be reasonable, that 27 days in a row is not ‘phoning it in’; that I have been more committed to this program than a lot of other people ever could be, and that I have worked so hard. Up until yesterday.

Some of you who are friends with me on FaceBook may be aware that it snowed in our local area yesterday. Yes people, for the first time in many years North East Lincolnshire has received a fair amount of snowfall in November. Most people are complaining about the snow, the cold and especially the driving conditions including traffic, however yours truly was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to go out and romp around in it. My husband cheerfully joined me and Molly, saying the only thing that would have made it more fun for him was if I had been wearing only my boots and scarf whilst I made snow-angels for him. God knows I was so excited by the snow that I entertained the thought momentarily; I probably wouldn’t have noticed my nakedness, at least not for the first 20 seconds. However I’m veering off topic here, the wild and erratic path my husband’s brain leads him down is not what I set out to tell you about.

My point is this: if you put a boy and a girl out in the snow it can only lead to trouble; and it did. Andy and I couldn’t resists throwing the odd snowball or two, and naturally he couldn’t help himself and had to rub the cold stuff in my face (not that I get overly wound up about this – you don’t grow up walking to and from school in rural Nova Scotia a virgin to having your face rubbed in copious amounts of snow by stupid boys). It was during one of these moments that we lost our footing and went down. I had the misfortune to land on the bottom, taking the full weight of my beloved who happens to outweigh me by at least 50 lbs.

Ouch.

Let’s jump ahead five hours; I’d had a wee nap and had taken a few ibuprofens but was still sore with back, knee and head-ache. On top of that, it felt like I’d slightly sprained my ankle. Let’s face it readers I’m not 15 anymore. Hell I’m not even 25 anymore. My body was suffering the effects of the afternoon and because I’d stupidly not done my exercise that morning I was now facing it at 8:00 at night. We all know that I’ve done my work-out much later than 8:00 pm, I’ve been that devoted. However last night I just couldn’t do it. And for that I’m so disappointed. I desperately wanted to get the 30 days in without missing one shred. But alas, it is not to be. I thought about doing it, but modifying the moves significantly, or doing level 1, however I really couldn’t bring myself to do it, I worried that I would hurt myself even more. So there you have it, I’m a quitter. Well sort of. Rational Jody says that I am NOT a quitter. My body was strained and sore and if I had pushed it I wouldn’t have been able to jump back on the band wagon tonight. Because I will. I’m seeing this through (I’ve read about people who have completed this shred by doing it five days a week and taking a break at the weekend – and I've done even better than that). I will just work out one day extra at the end. And just so you know, once I’ve completed the 30 days I’m not giving it up completely. It will form part of my regular work-out regime, because trust me, I am seeing results – my legs have never been firmer.

It’s just so disappointing because I was almosts there. When I finished on Saturday I knew I only had three more days to go and I would have made it through and could boast to you all about completing the 30 Day Shred in 30 Days! I mean, I had finished 27 days, what’s another three? Mentally I had already crossed the finish line and drafted my final post. And now I won’t be able to publish that post.

Yet at the same time I realistically have to be proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and not berate myself for missing one day, or eating a chocolate bar or having the odd glass of wine over a 30 day stretch of time.

But its really hard not to.