It is week two of the 12-week Better U challenge, and I am not 2 pounds lighter. I really struggled with motivation this week, and I was a bit disappointed that my month of working out hasn’t ended with better results (ie weight loss).

But I know things have improved. When I began working out a month ago, I was tired after just a few exercises. It took everything I had to finish some of the moves even if they were just a few minutes long. I sweated and the next day I ached after hardly any working out at all.

Now, I have to work harder to break into a sweat, and I am not sore the next day when completing the exercises I’ve been doing all along. It is only when I introduce a new move or exercise that my muscles ache a bit. The way my body is reacting is proof that I really am doing better after a month of working out. I just need to listen and not let all of my success or all of my failure be placed on the scale.

One cool thing — I struggled a couple of weeks ago to do a shoulder stand. I couldn’t do it at all. This week, I was able to do a shoulder stand. I admit that I wasn’t able to get into the shoulder stand position exactly like the personal trainer, but I was able to do a shoulder stand. It just wasn’t pretty watching me get into the position.

As I was reading this morning, I noticed that Cathy hadn’t recorded a weight loss either, but she did report her inches were smaller. It was a reminder that I haven’t actually measured my inches, and I need to do so.

Headless Mom and ELFF reported on their roadblocks, which Headless Mom defines as “the ‘rules’ that you break routinely when it comes to weight loss/maintenance.”

This past week, I have done a good job of adding good behavior to my regular routine like eating veggies and fruit and eating breakfast. I can do the good things without to much trouble, but it is a bigger struggle for me to end the bad behavior — my roadblocks.

• I need to stop drinking pop. I have quit doing this a few things, but I start up again and pretty soon it snowballs. I like the convenience of pop, and I have made my recent pop choices diet instead of regular, but I am still drinking too much pop. My biggest weakness is when I am out and about with the kids and we stock up on drinking material before the Little League games. I am going to make sure I always choose low-cal PowerAide instead of the Diet Coke.
• I need to stop drinking alcohol. My biggest weakness time for drinking alcohol is on the weekends although I sometimes have a drink or two during the week. I need to completely eliminate my weekday drinking, and I need to reduce my weekend drinking. In the past, I’ve been successful in replacing alcohol with (wait for it) diet pop. It isn’t the best solution, but it is better than drinking alcohol.
• I need to reduce the amount of flavored cream I use in my coffee. I wasn’t always a coffee drinker, and if it wasn’t for flavored cream, I probably wouldn’t drink it now. I need to use less flavored cream.

Have you noticed all of my bad behavior so far focuses on beverages? I really think this is one of my weakest areas as far as dieting goes.

I have been drinking again despite quitting more than once. In all fairness, I have managed to change from regular to diet pop, but I need to quit drinking pop completely.

And for my new goals, I am starting a Day One to 5K program that is meant to take you from no running to running 5K in just nine weeks. The program I am using is the Podrunner Intervals, which is a free program.