Day 25 - Family tragedy overshadows small victories.

I've been missing from the blogs & e-mail discussions for over a week.  This was not by choice.

Early last week my stepson's father died in a tragic accident while working on a construction site.  He was only 46 years old.  The week that has passed since that day has been a cloudy blur of many memories, extreme emotions, and worries about the future.  My stepson is devastated.  My wife is simultaneously anxious & exhausted. Both my wife & I are trying to carry on our regular daily duties while also attempting to help our son pick up the pieces to his life.

I'm pretty proud of how I've held up with my training during this time.  The only day that didn't go well was Friday, which was the day of the funeral.  I managed to get my skips in for that day, and ate fairly well (except for missing breakfast), but it's the only day that I didn't do any of my exercises.  I also had two "light beers" at the reception after the funeral.

I got through my Saturday exercises in the morning, but then played two shows with my band several hours away.  One was in the afternoon sun, sweating in 96 degree (fahrenheit) temperatures.  The other was playing later that night in another town.  I drank & sweated out gallons of water that day.  On the way home I had to pull over & rest for an hour in order to drive.

After sleeping in a bit on Sunday, I struggled through all of my exercises, but was very tired.  I felt exhausted for the whole day & my body ached.  This was the toughest day by far for my exercising.

Despite all of these setbacks, I must say that I mostly do look forward to the exercising/skipping in the morning, as I do feel much better afterward (particularly after skipping rope).  It helps too that I notice (and others too) how I've lost weight.  I'm finally fitting back into pants from a couple of years ago.

I'll try to post pictures, but I seem to have lost my photographer.  That's a story for another time...

All in all, I'm in for the long haul.  In a time of crisis, I needed to cut back in some areas and my blog was the casualty.  I will try to be better about posting.  I feel tired, but definitely see noticeable changes to my body.  I'm looking forward to watching it continue to change right in front of me.