A Wrinkle in Time

As of yesterday, I did the 30 Day Shred 7 days in a row! And by day 5 I was feeling pretty cocky about the ease with which I was completing Shred 1. (I even upgraded from Campbell's Soup to 3 pound hand weights!)

So on day 6 I decided to move up to Shred 2. Proverbs 11:2 that says "When pride comes,then comes disgrace..."

And let me tell you, there was a whole lot of disgrace going on in Shred 2.

I figured I could easily handle it. And boy was I wrong. I had trouble keeping up with half of the exercises. I was sweating like a pig. (Do pigs really sweat? I'm not sure but if they do, I was sweating like one.)

I was fumbling and bumbling and muttering unpleasantries under my breath through the whole workout. And thank goodness it's only 20 minutes because I don't think I could have taken any more.

But for me the worst part of the whole workout had nothing to do with actually doing it. It was what I saw while I was doing it that has plagued me ever since.

There is an exercise on Shred 2 called a plank jack. And the plank jack is evil.

E.V.I.L.

Evil.

A plank jack is completed by doing a jumping jack with your legs while your hands are stretched out in front of you on the ground. This exercise works out your whole body at once.

But the worst part of the plank jack wasn't the sweating and groaning and aching, it was what I saw during the plank jack.

The whole time I was doing (or trying to do) the plank jack, I was looking down at the floor and my legs because basically I was too weak to hold my head up.

And it's during this time that I saw it. Not my flabby thighs. They don't bother me so much because I see those on a regular basis.

It was the wrinkly skin covering my flabby thighs that shocked me. I have spent so much time analyzing the wrinkles on my face that I didn't even think that there might be wrinkly skin on the rest of my body!

Have you ever seen the occasional segments on the nightly news where they are heralding a man or woman in their 80's that just completed a marathon or a triathlon? And they show a picture of this person in their bathing suit or in their running shorts and you think to yourself, "Good for them! They are so healthy!" and then the very next thought running through your head is "Oh dear Lord! Look at all that wrinkly skin! It's everywhere!"

That's the way my thigh skin looked as I was heaving and hoeing during my plank jacks.

Old wrinkly leg skin.

And on Day 7 I went back to Shred 1. I tried to tell myself my muscles were too sore and they needed to rest. But I really just think it was so I wouldn't have to stare at that skin again.

The second part of Proverbs 11:2 says "...and with humility comes wisdom." I guess I've wised up a little because today is Day 8 and I'm going to give Shred 2 another chance. I'm just going to keep my eyes closed during the plank jacks!