Day Nineteen – Shopping vs Housework

Today’s Schedule:
• Housework (started at 7am, too!)
• Circuit Training (2 hrs)
• Leisure time (more housework, walking around Santa Monica, and shopping (5 hrs)
• Calories burned: 2336 (1200 of those from shopping!)

Outside it was cold, wet, and yucky, but inside, I was ready to go! Never before have I done housework at 7 in the morning! OK, I know you Moms and Dads are probably thinking “that’s normal for me” but for ME it is definitely not. For several years I have worked from home, on the internet, and have sat at the computer for no less than 12 hours at a time most days, more often than not working past 2:00am. Thus, I barely awoke before 9am to start another all-day session at the computer. Nowadays I am usually ASLEEP by 11pm and waking before 7am. I’m loving it, too. Never thought I would become a morning person, but I’ve had no choice but to do so in order to succeed at this lifestyle change that I’m making.

I decided to keep track of the calories I was burning while doing this housework as I was mostly keeping a pace that kept me in my fat-burning heart rate zone. Happily, doing laundry, putting away dishes and stuff burned off over 300 calories. That’s almost one of my whole meals. Additionally, since the sidewalks were wet, I decided to walk to the gym instead of use my bike (thus more calories burned). I have a bit of a phobia about wet streets because both of the times that I came off my bike (i.e., motorscooter for you non-Bermuda residents) the road was wet, and the second time in happened I ended up in the hospital and then an eight-inch scar on my right knee.

Our group circuit was the self-guided “50-Repetitions” all-around circuit that looks like this:

• 10-minutes cardio
• Upper Body Machines: 50 Chest Flies, 50 Lateral Pulldowns, 50 shoulder presses, 50 bicep curls, 50 tricep pushdowns
• 2-minutes cardio
• Upper body with free weights: 50 chest press, 50 back rows, 50 side raises, 50 hammer curls, 50 overhead tricep extensions
• 2-minutes cardio
• Lower Body Machines: 50 Leg presses, 50 leg extensions, 50 Leg curls, 50 inner thigh, 50 outer thigh
• 2-minutes cardio
• Lower body with free weights: 50 regular squats; 50 Duck squats; 50 lateral leg raises; 50 front leg raises; 50 back leg raises
• 2-minutes cardio
• Abdominal exercises on mat: 50 regular crunches; 50 butterfly crunches; 50 Russian twists; 50 reverse crunches; 50 “reach for the stars” crunches
• 10 final minutes of cardio

It’s a pretty good all-around workout that takes nearly two hours. If you wanted to keep it to an hour, I would suggest doing the upper body and abdominal exercises on one day and do the lower body and abdominal exercises the next day. If you’re new at a gym, please be sure to get a trainer to show you how to use the equipment and use proper form to prevent any injuries. I still have tingling and a little bit of numbness in part of my left hand because I didn’t hold my hands properly when doing bicep curls last week. It doesn’t hurt; rather, it’s just a plain nuisance.

I was excited to hurry home (thanks to a lift by Valerie) to get showered and ready to head to Santa Monica to see Shella Udoh, an “ol’” friend from Bermuda now living in L.A. for nearly two years. It was my first time since arriving here to venture away from the gym or the apartment. Shella and I had fun walking around and shopping and smelling food that I can’t eat. That was OK, but I would have loved to have had some of the wine that I saw on display. I made up for it by buying two more pairs of Crocs – really cute styles. I now have 25 pairs of Crocs (most are in storage for now)! I burned more calories per hour from shopping, walking, and giggling with Shella than I did doing housework this morning. It was also fun to put on some street clothes and makeup and see how I looked without my baboon-ass face and a sweatband. I’m pleased to say that I had to keep pulling up my pants while we were out and about (‘cause they’re too big around my waist)! I hope that this week’s weigh-in reveals more pounds and many more inches lost. I do have a little black dress in my closet which is too small now, but I want to be able to get into it before I leave. I still have just over 9 weeks to go.

Time for bed now. I could go on about a difficult and expensive cab ride which we shared to get home, but it’s done now and I’m too tired to care about it. I’m more happy about the productive and fun day that I had and especially the chance to reunite with Shella. I hope you all had a nice weekend and have a productive week ahead of you.