Hi! I'm RodeoGirl. I am 15 years old, soon to be 16!! I love to ride horses and participate in rodeo, (duh). I just started taking a martial arts class and I've fallen in love with it! Most of my poetry is spiritual, but I do have many other kinds of poetry and one-shots. I am a firm believer in Christ and nothing is going to change that. God Bless, and please enjoy!

I am taking a challenge. I want to get in shape before school, and I have a few exercise tapes at home. I am going to rotate between the 30 day shred and kickboxing for the 26 days I have remaining of summer vacation. Since stories can't be used as blogs, my profile will be.

August 5

Today was my first day. I decided to do the Cardio Kickboxing dvd by Jillian Michaels. That was the hardest workout of me life! This is no joke, in the first 2 minutes of the warm up, I was drenched in sweat. It was the hardest 20 minutes of my life! We just got this one and I love it! I probably sweated enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket! If I do this along with the 30 day shred dvd I should be fit in no time! I think I'll rotate between the two every other day.

August 6

Day number 2. It was rough forcing myself to get up and exercise this morning. I was a little sore and lazy. I know I said I was going to rotate between Kickboxing and the thirty day shred, but I decided to do the kickboxing again because I had fun doing it yesterday. The workout was surprisingly, not as hard. I doubt it's me getting in shape already, I think it's the fact that I actually wore shoes. My ankles don't hurt either because of them. WEAR SHOES WHEN EXERCISING!!

I heard somewhere if you exercise without food in your body, your body might burn muscles instead of fat. So, I ate 4 crackers before my workout. BAD IDEA!! I felt like I was going to puke my guts out! Once I finished the workout, I was feeling better, so I decided to do a 10 minute Pilates workout to cool down. I don't really see how Pilates works you out, it's a good stretch though! A friend asked to borrow the 30 day shred until Monday, so I will have to rotate between Pilates and Kickboxing until then. Tomorrow I will do 30 minutes of pilates so I won't overdo the kickboxing.

August 7

I am no longer going to make my plans for the next day because something always changes. I thought today I was going to do pilates since my friend would have the thirty day shred and I've done kickboxing the last few days, but that didn't happen. My friend said that she would be too busy this weekend to use the dvd. So, I was going to do that until my mom wanted to kick box with me. I just figure I'd tell all of my nonexistant readers what was going on.

Even though this is only my 3rd time kickboxing, I am noticing that I am getting better. My moves are getting more fluent. It helped today too that my mom worked out with me, gave me an extra motive not to quit. I was really proud of myself because I was outdoing my mom, (a newly certified personal trainer), until I found out that the only reason she wasn't giving it her all was because she was having pains in her ankle bone. She has always had problems with stress fractures. But, it was a good workout today. I might take tomorrow off, or just do pilates.

August 8

Today, I went to the gym with my mom and did 2 classes with her. First I did Step Blast. It was all cardio and using a step. It was hard, but no where near as bad as kickboxing with Jillian. It was a half hour long. Right after that I did Body Pump. It was the longest hour of my life, I hated it! It was all lifting weights, (which I'm no good at). It was very hard and very boring. BLAH! Then after the gym I went school clothes shopping and walked around the mall for a few hours. Lots of exercise today!

August 9

Today, I was sore and it was the hottest day of the year. I did nothing except sit around.

August 10

Ok, I was really lazy today, but I did not want to upset my nonexistent readers, so I decided to suck it up and do kickboxing and pilates. I was originally relying on swimming with my friend today, but all we did was work on our tan and chat, so I knew I could not take another day off.

I am so not a evening workout person. Here, it is about 7:30pm and I will never workout in the evening again. I had no energy. I was having a hard time pushing myself. I am a morning person, I get up super early and go to bed super early. I know that is not a typical teenager schedule, but that is just how I am. Weird... Anyway, I did not do as good because I am use to this time of night being my relaxing boring time, not intense workout time.

My mom said that me doing Pilates after every workout is really good for my muscles. Stretching after a workout is VERY important.

Tomorrow for sure is going to be a killer. 1 hour at the gym doing Body Combat and than my friend and I are going to do the thirty day shred together. I am going to be sore.

August 11

Ok, today was the hardest workout day of my life. I know I say stuff like that a lot, but this time i am serious. Body combat is extremely hard, to anyone looking for a HARD workout, I highly recommend this. It is painful and fun all at the same time. Once I was finished I worked out on the bike, (slowly) as I waited for my mom to finish with her first client. It took one hour, but at least I got to workout out some more.

When I got to my friends house, we did the thirty day shred. It was tough. It works your muscles more than cardio. I am not very good at muscle stuff. I am more of a cardio person. But, I know it is important to variety up your workout. Anyways, finally after 2 hours and 20 minutes of exercise, I crashed. I was too tired to move. I left her house and walked down the street to my grandma's to rest. Thankfully she took me to get something to eat and I felt SO much better. I refused to eat fast food, so I ate at Giant Eagle's little restaurant thing. It was expensive, but had healthier choices than fast food. I had a huge fruit bowl to start and then grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. I will admit though that they had this barbecue fried chicken, and I had to try a few pieces. It wasn't worth it though. The sauce was a little too spicy for me. Overall, great workout day.

Oh yeah, tomorrow is weigh in day... I'm nervous, but my mom said I am already looking slimmer. Tomorrow I am trying a free martial arts class. I am so excited! The only bad thing is that it is in the evening... BLAH!! It should be fun though!

August 12

I hate this. I only lost 1lb. After all of the hard work I've done... 1lb!! It's 7:51am here so I haven't done my martial arts class yet. I'll write about it when I'm done. I mean I guess if I look at it this way, before this blog I for a week I worked on my diet and lost 2lbs. I guess my diet is the problem. I like junk food, a lot. I am going to limit myself to one junk food or greasy food a day.

Oh my gosh, I loved the martial arts class!! I signed up and I am going to be there 2-3 times a week. I'm getting my very own boxing gloves!! The teacher said that I was a natural! :) I learned some kicks and lots of punches. I only REALLY screwed up twice, first I kicked the teacher in the side and then I punched another in the face. Oops... :)

Also, today I did a little actual swimming.

From tomorrow until Sunday I will be at my dad's practicing for my upcoming rodeo. There is no computer access there, but I will keep my daily exercise on paper so I can type it in Sunday night or Monday morning. Say a prayer for me and the rodeo. Please... :)

August 13

Ok readers, I decided to just now weigh my self before my dad gets here, and guess what, I've lost another pound!! :) I am so happy!! I love this. I praise the lord for blessing me with enthuasim to workout and lose weight, and for my gift at martial arts!! YEAH!! My workout summary will have to wait until Monday probably, unless today I have a chance to stop by my grandma's. Today my mom starts training her first client!! Before it was just evaluations. Say a prayer and wish her luck!

I am learning to slowly learning to change my diet. Like, I am learning to deal with fresh greenbeans rather than the canned. (I've never like fresh greenbeans). I am also completely done eating crackers. I use to beable to eat anywhere from half a pack to a full pack at one sitting!

I had time to write about today! I did the kickboxing tape. It was kind of hard. I am getting shape now and each time is getting easier! I cannot wait for my martial arts lesson on Monday!!

August 14

I know some people don't consider this much of an excerise, (I don't either), but I rode my horse because I hurt my knee and was too sore to do much else.

August 15

I was at the rodeo all day.

August 16

Again, I was at the rodeo all day. I ate like a pig.

August 17

Back to my normal schedule!! Today I started eating right again and I did my martial arts class. It was a killer!! I am REALLY sore! The teacher really worked me out hard. I learned a 2 new punches, the teacher said soon he is going to go in depth with each move so I learn how to properly do everything.

August 18

I don't know if I mentioned this, but on my first Martial Arts class, twisted my knee, twisted it again the next day and was unable to practice for my rodeo. Then, at the rodeo while goat tying I banged it REALLY hard. I wore knee pads for the Sunday rodeo and it was better. Then on Monday, my friend's brother tripped and his head whacked my knee. It was actually feeling really good today and I decided even though it was the day before my weigh in to give my knee a rest so it wouldn't hurt for martial arts tomorrow.

By the way, I weighed myself early and I gained a pound. I am not upset though, because I thought because of the rodeo I would have gained more.

August 19

Today was horrible! I couldn't do anything right at martial arts. It was a killer though. To be honest, after class I cried because I felt stupid. I couldn't do anything like anybody else. See, I'm the only girl in the class and everyone else is like 25 year old men who have been doing this for years. Bad day.

August 20

Today was great! Nothing like yesterday! I had a blast at Martial arts. I did really good too. I learned a new kick. I cannot remember what it is called. I am working on my crosses because I don't do them right. My jabs are pretty good though! I know today wasn't a weigh in day, but I just had a feeling to step on the scale, I lost 2 pounds!! Horray for me!

I have a real challenge ahead of me, tomorrow I am leaving for Lake Erie and I will be gone until Sunday. In walking distance there is an AMAZING candy store, and the BEST icecream shop in the world. I am nervous that I am going to pig out. I am limiting my self to this. One SMALL bag of chocolate covered popcorn one day. Another day I will have one SMALL cone of Birthday Cake icecream and that will be it snack wise. I know I shouldn't even have that, but hey, I'm on vacation.

I want to tell all of you something. You can do whatever you put your mind too. I lost 5lbs in 16 days. I never thought I could do it, but I did. I don't care what it is, but if you're passionate about something, it's possible. My goal is to lose 5lbs every 16 days until I lose 20lbs. (That is how much I am guessing I need to lose in total. It might end up more or less). With even the smallest bit faith, you can move mountains.

Here is a tip, when people do lunges sometimes they let their front knee go past the toe. That is bad! I could never figure out how not to do so until my mom told me, just focus on the back leg. It really works!!

August 21

I'm in Lake Erie! I love it up here. Today, exercise wise, I didn't do much except for a short bike ride. Tomorrow I plan on doing more. (A long bike ride, or if it rains, my kickboxing tape). I love it here it is so much fun. I picked blackberries with my brother and his friend. It was fun! The people we are staying with said that they will take me to the store to get the ingredients I need to make a pie! I don't think that they will follow through on the offer though. I am so glad that they have Internet access!

August 22

Well, my readers, you will be slightly proud of me! I rode my bike to the candy store, went in and then walked out without any candy!! But then I had some ice cream and cookies at home. Oops.. Exercise wise I rode my bike and did some kayaking. It was fun!

August 23

Today I ate pretty bad. I went to the candy store again andboutgt some chocolate covered popcorn and later baked a blackberry and blueberry pie and ate a piece of both with icecream. Bad eating day. The weather did not permit any kayaking, but I did ride the bike a little.

August 24

It is good to be back home!! I decided to punish myself by stepping on the scale to see how much I gained, and guess what... I lost two pounds!! I cannot wait until Wednesday, (my actual weigh in). It is still morning, so I haven't exercised yet but I have my martial arts class tonight. Maybe I can lose another pound or two before Wednesday!! I am so excited!!

Class tonight went great! My boxing gloves finally came in and I didn't have to use the stinky old ones anymore! Yay!! It was a tough class. I learned a couple new things. A punch, a kick, and a hold. It was awesome! I am so excited now that I have my own gloves!.

August 25

Today since I didn't have class I decided to do kickboxing. It's been forever since I did that. It wasn't as hard as it use to be. I still sweated, but I was not dead afterwards. I felt pretty good. I am really starting to get into shape now and I love it! My clothes are fitting better and I have more energy. From doing this blog like thing my typing speed has definitely increased! I also learned to spell exercise correctly without the little red line popping up! This is so much fun! I have 5 more days to workout until school starts and my goal is tomorrow to still have the two pound loss and then by Tuesday (the first day of school) I want to be down another 2 pounds. I know that that is a BIG goal, but I think that I can do it. I workout enough, I just need to eat right. Wish me luck!!

August 26

Well readers, I stepped on the scale today and I was unable to keep the 2lbs off. I kept one off though. Oh well, at least it is still some weight loss. I made a BIG mistake today though, I baked sugar cookies. My VORITE cookies in the whole world. I am not even going to say how many I ate. Ok, 12... They were small, but loaded with my homemade buttery icing... I love to bake if you didn't know that about me. To make things worse, class was not a killer. We were setting up this fighting pen or cage thing. I could barely help either. I could carry the 60lb bars that held it up, but the side panels, were WAY too heavy for me. I had to just work on punching and kicking the bag by my self all class. I didn't feel stupid though, because no one thought that me, (the only girl) could even carry the bars.

August 27

I didn't eat great today either. I do not know what my problem is lately... I'm really upset at myself. It's not like I starve myself from anything except for crackers. But class was a killer!! Our teacher made up do a ton of punching and kicking combos ALL class long. I was literally dripping in sweat and I am one of the people who don't exactly sweat I more get like a shiny look to my face. I think I worked off all of the cookies from yesterday doing the 3 minute jab, cross, hook, roundhouse kick, and sprawl combo.

August 28

Today I did nothing but eat.

August 29

Today, I ate roast, corn, and mashed potatoes. For exercise I did half of my kickboxing dvd. This is a bad weekend.

August 30

Today I ate more roast, but did level 2 for the first time on the thirty day shred. It was HARD!! I think I burned enough calories to make up for this weekend LOL!

August 31

Today was my final day before school. I ate a lot of junk, but I worked HARD in my class. It ws really tough. I did a lot of combinations over and over. I don't know what my eating problem is, it's getting better though. I have really enjoyed this. I probably won't do this anymore, though I want to. I will try. At least I will defnitely, keep on Wednesdays tell you how much I lost. I want to thank God for giving me the strength to do this, and I encourage ALL of you to do everything you can to reach your goals!

Since it's been ages since I've really done much on here, so I decided to clear my favorite Author list and I'm going to do the same to most of my favorite stories. I haven't read anybody's stuff lately and well, let's face it I have no regular readers anymore. I don't see the point of a favorites list. I am going to reread my favorite stories eventually though and keep a few. Also, I am going to delete some of my bad writings. Basically I'm doing a late Spring cleaning.