3 More Days of Daylights

And then I get four wonderous! beautious! fabulous! weeks of night shift. Three, actually, and a week of vacation. Even better.

I love working nights. Everyone goes where they're supposed to go, does what they're supposed to do. No Monkey Wrench screwing up the works. And, outside of work, I get stuff done. I feel almost like I have a full day off, then go to work. House gets cleaned. Dogs get walked. Shopping gets done. Tasks get crossed off to-do lists that have sat and gathered dust for four weeks while I shuffled zombie-like through daylights.. eating, sleeping, working, but barely much else. I am planning to get a few good hikes in with the Little Girlie, as I haven't gotten to do that yet this summer. Hiking and camping are summer must-dos.


Working out: I did the Cardio and Abds dvds the other day but did not get to the Yoga Flex. I'm ok with that. The first two together were a hell of a workout; there were moves in the Abds workout I couldn't do as fast or as well as the buff dvd chick, but I get a second crack at Abds tonight, and I'm sure today I will show improvement. Yesterday I did Total Body and Lower Body. I'm already noticing that some of the moves I couldn't complete the first time, I could do with no trouble this time around. And I'm feeling a pleasant soreness in my core muscles today, so I know it's doing its thing. Today's schedule calls for Yoga Flex, then Cardio and Abds as optional. I am thinking I will try and get all three in after work tonight. I need to figure out a schedule for before/after work exercising that I can fit in a short run in addition to these dvds, and I think the run and the dvds need to be at separate times, since the 10 minute trainer is so intense. So far I've stuck to the schedule and haven't missed a 10 minute trainer day. I've done the bare minimum some days, but I've done something every day, and that's been a goal of mine.

Had a session yesterday and figured out some things that I probably already knew. (That's why talking to someone impartial is good - they have no problem pointing stuff out to you that you may be denying to yourself). Among the revelations we came up with yesterday:

• I'm not doing to great on portion control, but at least I am eating healthy for the most part, so I need to get back my mindfulness when eating.
• I am a competetive little shit. Hence the sudden landing of my butt back on the treadmill because of an upcoming stress test I have to take with other people. So it would probably benefit me to find some sort of club/group for a regularly scheduled athletic pursuit.
• I need to be going back over and reinforcing the info in all the written exercises I did in the earlier sessions, and be mindful that this journey should be more about my health than my weight.
• I need to be doing more reading that is relevant to my food issues to keep my head in the game.

These are all infinitely do-able, and I left yesterday's session feeling pretty good about the plan and how I'd improved over the past month.

And my personal to-do list for the upcoming weeks:

• figure out how to balance a run at least every other day with these dvds
• hike
• camp
• bike
• clean carpets
• put away laundry, forGodssakes. Folded in a laundry basket does not = put away.

This...

... is what DONE looks like.








Tonight, after finishing a 12 hour shift, my 10 minute trainer schedule informed me that my only obligation for today was Yoga Flex. And that was fine and dandy with me. I had blown off working out again this morning, having tried to reset my alarm in my sleep - don't try that, it never works out for the good - and barely made it to work on time.

Yesterday, my 10 minute workout schedule was Total Body (mandatory), Cardio and Lower Body (optional). The plan had been to do the mandatory one in the morning before work and do another dvd, or run on the treadmill, when I got home. All I ended up doing was the Total Body, before work in the morning. Which had some moves that I felt like I was trying to do through a coating of molasses, and the dvd chick seemed to be doing while hopped up on amphetamines and anabolic steroids and on fast forward. But I am definitely feeling it all over, so I must have indeed gotten the total body workout.

Yoga Flex was a really nice break. It's not a total walk in the park, and it reminded me that I have a really long way to go regarding flexibility. However, I would really benefit from doing this particular workout every day. There are lots of really deep hip and glute opening stretches that you hold for 30 seconds at a time - these and my pyriformis were always problem areas with muscle tightness and knots.

Also got a 20 minute run in on treadmill. I wanted to quit really badly after 10, but I kept thinking about that stress test coming up in about 9 weeks, and about how badly I want to show everyone else up.. and I kept going. Go me.

Tomorrow's menu:

• Cardio dvd - mandatory
• Abds dvd - optional
• Yoga Flex dvd - optional

I'm going to try to get all 3 in, since it's a day off.