Day Forty-Three – Another Uneventful Day

Today’s Workouts:
• Yoga (1 hr)
• Bike Ride (2 hrs, only 12 miles; brutal wind)
• Cardio (1/2 hr)
• 1-on-1 Session (1 hr)
• Meeting with Nutritionist (1/2 hr)
• Gym Boot Camp (1 hr)

I STILL cannot get a good night’s sleep. Last night was my own fault though since I let myself fall asleep on the sofa. PLUS I was worried that I hadn’t mailed my tax return extension properly. I am just incapable of turning off my brain. Every time I moved to try to get into a more comfortable position, my body, especially my legs, just ached. If this is what jogging is going to do to me then I don’t want to do it! I have not been this sore the entire six weeks that I’ve been here. The soreness made all of today’s workouts very difficult. We started with yoga at the apartment’s fitness center. Generally I love yoga but my thighs were not cooperating. I was also not looking forward to the bike ride. It was COLD outside and the wind was unbearable. I got started on the north route; the wind was against me the entire time. Uuuugh! The sand was blowing against my skin, too, and that hurt! I was only able to do almost 12 of the 15 ¾ mile trip. When I turned the wind was at my back and made for a much more pleasant ride but it was soooo cold. I couldn’t wait to get back to the gym and have some hot tea, lunch, and a quick nap. After lunch I tried to warm up with some cardio as scheduled. That helped a little bit. I had a 1-on-1 session with Jason who last week had really challenged me with the heavier free weights. As I had only lost another 4 lbs, I asked Jason to not give me heavy weights (to build muscle) but rather to do a workout which burned a lot of calories. He obliged and had me do several different upper and lower body exercises which kept me in my fat-burning heart rate zone. I reduced my usual weights on the machines so that I could do more repetitions faster. I felt pretty good afterwards; some of the soreness had diminished.

Next I had a session with the nutritionist, Karen. Karen had the menu from The Cheesecake Factory. I have never been to this chain of restaurants. The menu is HUGE; it must take a patron an hour to decide what to have. The point of the exercise, anyhow, was to help me choose appies and entrees and to understand which items have the highest caloric content and how to enjoy the meals I really want (even the fattening ones) without going overboard. I believe portion control is key in these situations. I’ll just have to get in the habit of ordering an entrée, eating only half of it, and saving the rest for another day. There’s a Mexican restaurant in Danville, Virginia, where my Mom lives, and it has the best beef quesadilla that I always order. And it’s ginormous. I will definitely have to have only half of that quesadilla…but that makes for a yummy leftover the next day. And I guess I’ll have the regular margarita instead of the “grande.”

I had a final workout with Eric. It was meant to be a group boot camp in the gym but some of the others had not returned yet from their outdoor workout, thus it was just myself and Veronica up for the challenge. I actually prefer it that way and thus we go started at various “stations” in the gym. It was another good workout which kept my heart rate going. Regardless, I was still sore and couldn’t wait to head home. As I’m writing this my quadriceps, glutes, and whatever the side thigh muscles are called are tender to the touch. I think a hot bath might be in order! As tomorrow is Thursday that means Beach Walk/Run and Swimming. I’m thinking about trying to jog again…we shall see how my muscles are feeling. But first I must get to bed EARLY tonight and try to get a good eight hours of sleep.

I hope all of you had a good day and filed your tax return or extension by today if required. To my KPMG tax friends…WOOHOOO!!! Hope y’all had a good time celebrating the end of busy season. I used to love it when we’d go out after work on the 15th. To Debbie V, I hope you had a good birthday and didn’t spend any of it at the post office trying to get your taxes filed ;-)

Have a great Thursday, everyone! OH…if you watch “My Name is Earl” on NBC, trainer Jason is going to be on it Thursday night. He’ll be the buff, blond guy wearing a white t-shirt in the background somewhere when Earl is talking about working out and getting fit.