I did not get to many messages yesterday because one of my friend’s dogs went missing. He got lost in a large forest, so we spent about five hours searching before we finally found him. That meant: • hiking through thick brush • climbing trees to get a better view • moving up and down hills • crossing rocks • staying on the move without really stopping We eventually found him near a ravine with water. To reach him, we had to climb down a hill and cross over some rocks. Thankfully, he was okay. 🌲 A reminder of why fitness matters Obviously, I would have preferred the dog never went missing. But the experience did make me grateful for my fitness. For five hours, the goal was not: • looking fit • getting a personal record • finishing a perfect workout The goal was being able to keep moving when it mattered. That is one of the biggest reasons I believe fitness should be useful. It should help you: • hike through difficult terrain • climb when needed • keep going when you are tired • move with confidence • help someone when the situation calls for it That is real-world fitness. 💡 The workout is not always in the gym Sometimes you find out what your training has given you when life suddenly asks you to use it. Yesterday was definitely one of those days. Strength mattered. Mobility mattered. Endurance mattered. Balance and body awareness mattered. But more than anything, being used to movement made it possible to keep going for the full five hours. 🙏 Thank you for understanding I will be catching up on messages, comments, and feedback as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. And thankfully, the most important part is that the dog was found safe.

I did some squats, calf raises, 25 minutes speed walking on the treadmill, lifted 15 pound weights and held the iron cross position again for a few seconds times 3 times (I want to one day be able to do the iron cross again and want to regularly train for that even though it will be so, so long from now), I also did some incline push ups on the bench at the gym... but I wanna share what happened... I was doing my incline push ups on the bench and my right wrist had some sharp shooting pain. I stopped and was like "what was that?" Out of the push up position my wrist felt fine-completely normal. I was able to move it normally in all directions then I figured well maybe I should do some wrist mobility stretches that I know as it has been years since I stretched my wrists and they are not flexible at all. So is stretched them and went to do a few more incline push ups and again, sharp shooting pain in it pretty much immediately so I stopped again. I was like, "what?--I am not injured. My wrist is normal, this is weird--what's going on." I give it a little break and some more stretches and again I tried more incline push ups and again, my right wrist had the same sharp shooting pain--and also again (all 3 times) my wrist felt completely normal when no weight was on my wrist. That was over an hour ago and my wrist feels fine still. It was only my right wrist. I am right handed if that has anything at all to do with it. Does anyone know what that pain was? I could understand it more if I was actually Injured but it kept going away immediately which I find to be super weird. I was 337 pounds this time last week. Today I weight 335.4 pounds. I will keep sharing my weight on my weekly update until I am in a healthy weight or decide to stop. Sharing it because I wanna inspire others who are also on a weight loss journey--if I can do it, they can do it too. It's not always about the results but about the journey. See you all next week for my weekly update. Every Wednesday it looks like. Weigh in Wednesday is what I call it. I may do other posts. I will still be around. 😊

Yesterday I went to a gymnastics coaching training, and I loved it. We broke down skills on every event. On vault alone, we looked at things like: • how to properly set up a round off back tuck off vault • how to set up a Yurchenko, which is round off onto the board, back handspring onto the table, then ideally a flip after • how to build into a front handspring front tuck We talked about giants on bars, flips on beam, and a lot of high level technical work. And one thing really stood out to me. The athletes showing a lot of these examples were around 9 to 10 years old. That is already super impressive. But the most impressive part was not the skills themselves. It was how they got there. 🧠 The biggest lesson: mastery comes from fundamentals The common theme that kept showing up again and again was this: The athletes who looked the best had mastered the fundamentals. Not just kind of. Really mastered them. They understood the exact body positions, shapes, timing, and actions that made each movement work. That is the lesson. There is no master without the basics. There is no mastery without fundamentals. Even with very high level gymnastics skills, everything is still built on: • body tension • shapes • timing • positions • mind body connection • understanding exactly what each part is supposed to do The good news for us is that strength training and hybrid calisthenics are usually much less technical than a full gymnastics routine. But the same lesson still applies. If you feel stuck, especially with a skill, go back to the beginning. Go back to the fundamentals. Break down the movement. Ask yourself: • what position am I supposed to be in • what muscles am I supposed to be using • what action am I actually trying to do That is never wasted time. 📈 Some athletes rushed. Others caught up better. Another thing that stood out was that some athletes had been pushed into harder skills earlier because they were exciting and flashy. And yes, they got those skills faster.

And what is one non-fitness thing you are proud of this week? Could be something big, small, serious, random, or just a win that made you feel good. 👇 Drop it below. I’d love to hear it.

It was a great day overall. My husband set up/built my parallel bars today which I used a little to do some reps of incline pushups and inverted rows. They are set up outside and today it was like a sauna outside, so I couldn't do much outside today. Inside, some squats, leg raises, calf raises (I honestly don't know what it's called but it's standing and going on tippy toes and back down and back up etc.), a hollow hold for as long as I could, and some scissor kicks from laying on the ground. I did some mobility exercises/stretches as well. I also speed walked for 25 minutes on the treadmill. How is everyone else doing?