The Two Week Rule

Yesterday my gym partner and I tried something new with our trainer.

We tried TRX Suspension Bands which might sound a little masochistic and it is.

This system of bands helps you use your own body weight as resistance and forces you to use more of your core to balance while you do each rep.

Imagine yoga mixed with push-ups and planking, all on a rubber band.

It hurts.

A lot.

But it's fun too.  If you think pushing yourself beyond where you were yesterday is fun.

I do.

Our trainer also told us something that helps me to ease up on my need for immediate results.  She said, "We do things now that will benefit us in two weeks' time."

Two weeks?  Not tomorrow? Not even next week??

Two weeks.  Not tomorrow.  Or next week.  It's the week after that.  And not one day sooner.

What muscles we are working on at this hour will increase and show that work via strength in fourteen days.

 We all wish it happened immediately but that's impractical and impossible.  

Our bodies need time to harvest results from the work we put into it now.

It's my job not to jump into a dressing room to try on fitted shirts and dresses (we're getting there, still have a little more plump in my badonk that I'd like) on Day Three of anything. 

It's hard to wait the two weeks but I'm trying to incorporate patience as a new virtue (so new  that it's still in its cellophane).   Sometimes I want to regress to my old way of approaching fatigue but I remember four cups of coffee and skipping meals is pushing that two week goal even further down the timeline.

That said, I've used The Two Week rule as a metaphor for other things like learning to play guitar, growing older, parenting well, and eating better every day not just when my husband sees me eat.

• put in the work now
• have faith it will benefit you
• the results are worth it
• you will be stronger
• you will be better
• you will be healthier
• you will be able to do the Bm chord without borrowing Grayson's finger to bar the second fret
• you will be able to fit into skinny jeans by the time they're out of style
• sweat and tears beget transformation 
• two weeks only seems like forever when you're in the midst of the pain (or finger callouses)
• stop cussing at yourself
• don't forget to breathe

So hang in there and remember no matter how much pain is seering through your system now, in two weeks it will seem less grueling because you will be stronger and more equipped to crush it like the history it has become.