Pickle

As expressive as I am toward most people in my life, I've never been good at that with family. But, there's one person that I've learned as I got older to trust with my emotions and to give honor to. My Pickle. That's my sister. (Well, her nickname) And I'm the Sitser. :-) Love her. My mom tells me that when we were little and we'd be together, people would walk up to give me candy and not her. And I remember as I got a little older on Halloween feeling badly because people would know who she was if she was with me because I'd be on my crutches. I got lots of attention and was always the louder one of the two of us...much more expressive and openly opinionated.

I've always had a very protective attitude about when it comes to her, cuz she's my little sister. But, I've almost always had admiration for her like she is my big sister. There aren't many people in the world that I wouldn't know what to do without them, but, she's one of them for sure. She's one of my hero's, definitely. Everything I wish I was, she is. We're super opposites, but, I always have felt that we understand each other. Together, we kinda make a whole person. :-)

Focus. Focus means To Concentrate. I read a quote recently that said "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." After a week and a half of me going off the deep end and not being very fun to be around, I finally got a chat with my sister. She said one little sentence and it completely opened up a whole new way of looking at things. (And I immediately wanted to hide in the corner because I had so completely missed the obvious.) But, things are back to normal now. I just needed to find an objective eye. It's hard to come by objectivity. But I always find it in her. She's super smart. She's had a lot more experiences with life than I have. I'm really naive, and not well-rounded. She has gone and explored and had a variety of relationships with a variety of people from a variety of countries. It's really expanded how she thinks and looks at things and really pays off when I'm stuck in one of my ruts. She's usually right. And she gets my focus right back to where it needs to be.

Focus. Focus is really important. I absolutely love training. It's my very favorite thing in life. My very favorite. On top of that, Brian has done an infinite number of things to help me and to improve my quality of life in so many ways. He looks out for me and cares as much about my goals as I do. Focus. That's what I should focus on. All the time. Outside things creep in to cloud perceptions in a very subtle way. Focus is a hard thing. But, nothing's easy. It'll just take a little practice just like everything else. And when I fall off the wagon (cuz no one is perfect) I have My Pickle to tell me that I'm off again and get me refocused.

My Pickle hasn't been home since I started training with Brian. She doesn't know him yet, which kinda makes me sad. I have always liked when the important things/people in my life were connectedto/knew each other. I can't wait till she comes back so she can come see us train. It will make her happy cuz we work really well together. And she'll be able to see a lot of stuff that isn't seen by the naked eye...cuz she's My Pickle and she takes care of me. I think she'll probably tell Brian thanks for taking care of me. And after last week, he just might say the same thing back. :-D

Today was amazing. Rows are feeling so good since Brian started kneeling down on me. I just needed the extra weight to help with my leverage. And Bench is going super great!!!!! Brian's really got me on a great program.

Bench with 3-second Pause half way up - 145 lbs., 155 lbs., 165 lbs., all for 2. Then, we (well, Brian) changed the rules of the program, cuz I was doing really well. He had me bench 175 and 180, each for a single. Felt amazing. I didn't have trouble with either lift.
Cambered Bar Rows - 85 lbs., 8. 95 lbs., 3 sets of 6.
Y&T's - 5 lbs., set of 10. 8 lbs., 2 sets of 10. (went up in weight here! Brian said I look really strong!)
Chinups - 2 sets of 8.

<3 Stretching <3

Here's a link to the song that I always give to My Pickle from me to her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-T1h7J0R-Q&feature=related