Weekend Recap

In the spirit of accountability I think I should actually post something about what I did or accomplished or felt this weekend in addition to my lovely journey thru pinterest that I took last night. My weekend started out with a Friday night dinner out to Outback where I ridiculously indulged. Oops. Lots of bread, a giant, I mean GIANT frozen cocktail and a blue cheese wedge salad which is just horrible for you and then of course more bread and at least a healthy pork chop with a plain baked potato for the entrée. Oh wait, cheesecake for dessert. Ha. So whatever, it happened. It’s fine. It was delicious. Enough said.

Saturday morning I was all alone, like completely alone my entire day which is not a sad thing, it’s a good thing because this means I get to do whatever I want and you all know what I wanted to do. Yup, 9 AM turbokick at the gym. Actually, I walked in about 9:02 and class was just getting started and all the people were already in there and I come running in and my friend, the instructor was like, “There she is. I knew you were coming.” It put a big smile on my face. After an hour of turbokick I headed out to man’s land and spent a solid hour lifting weights. Alternating between different arm exercises with a few squats and back exercises thrown in. After about 2 hours I was ready to leave the gym but I really felt like running. I looked up at the treadmills and then looked outside where it just looked incredible and decided nah to the treadmills and headed out.

I did not immediately go home, instead I hit up Target because I was looking for a few things and ended up with a lot of things actually. Mainly groceries which were probably fairly needed. I spent at least an hour wandering around Target. How I love my freedom on my weekends to do as I please. Good times. I came home and put groceries away, cleaned up the house some, did a few other things. And then later in the afternoon I decided that it was too perfect of a day to not go outside for a run. I put on my armband, turned on my RunKeeper app on my phone and away I went. I have to admit that there is something really soothing about just going outside and running without a destination in mind, without a set course, just running and turning down streets as you want. It was a little chilly out so ultimately perfect running conditions. I had intended to run for an hour, at least that was the plan.

People who run, do you notice that the first mile or so is always the hardest? I have a hard time getting started but once I’m solidly 2 miles in I feel great. This is probably why I will never be a sprint/quick runner. I am definitely more a distance kind of girl. I keep a nice consistent pace for miles but probably couldn’t run a fast mile if my life depended on it. But I can run 10 of those suckers at a 6 mile per hour pace no problem. Anyway. After about 2 miles I was enjoying all the twists and turns of the outdoors. When I was around mile 5.5 I was just about back at my house, but I was not finished yet so instead I took another turn into a different neighborhood and just kept running, before I knew it the hour mark had come and gone and mile 7 was behind me. And then I heard 7.5 miles done, I was headed back towards my house at this point and I passed the 8 mile mark. As I finished up back at my house I was at 8.17 miles in a little less than 1 hour 20 minutes. I think this put my pace at about a 9:45 minute mile or so. I was pretty happy with my run and pretty much called it a day on the exercise front.

At this point, I had put in about 3 ½ hours of exercise for the day and I was ready to relax. I took a shower and then pretty much spent my evening on the couch, where I fell asleep at about 9 PM. I slept a pretty solid night thru on Saturday night. Sunday was a much different story. I woke up tired. I was still exhausted and I was slow going. I actually made Protein Pancakes for breakfast. So delicious, taste just like real pancakes but laced with extra protein. Really tasty stuff my friends. Then I put on my workout clothes despite having zero desire to workout.

I ended up going over to my mom’s house to see her and my sisters for a while. It ended up being much longer than I thought as I procrastinated the day away. I had to FORCE myself to the gym. Yes, I know I could have taken the day off, especially considering the crazy workout from Saturday but I went to the gym because of the mental aspect more than anything. I knew that mentally I would feel off if I didn’t put in a good workout. Secretly I was hoping that working out would give me my high and make me come alive. It did just that.

I got to the gym about 2:45 and wanted to get my body warmed up to do strength training so I headed up to the treadmills for a quick run. I initially thought I would just run a mile to warm my body up but then I got on the machine and honestly it was TOUGH. I did not want to run. So I told myself to push on thru and do 15 minutes. Just get thru 15 minutes and then it started to feel much better, as it always does and I was finding my groove so I bumped up the speed and ran 3.1 miles, a nice fast 5k. At this point I was feeling good, which was the whole reason I went to the gym to begin with.

I walked down to the weights where I proceeded to do a whole slew of strength training exercises that both elevated my heart rate and subsequently made me feel very nascious. I ended up doing core work on my own. I have written before about how little love I have for core work. It is not my favorite thing in the world but also very necessary for me. So I pushed myself, and I pushed myself and I kept REALLY pushing myself to the point that I physically felt like throwing up. I rarely get to that point. After about an hour and 15 minutes of weights and abs and kettle balls and feeling sick I decided enough was enough. I more than accomplished my goals for the day and was able to leave the gym, head held high. About 1 hour 45 minutes of a workout that almost didn’t happen to begin with so I was more than satisfied.

Afterwards I had to stop back at Target to pick up a few groceries I had forgotten the previous day. Of course driving in the car I suddenly felt really sick, like I really was going to puke. I took this as a sign that I really worked myself to the point of done. Great workout. And I felt proud and accomplished mostly because I did not want to work out at all but made myself and honestly felt so great afterwards that I was so glad that I did. Not shocked by that.

I came home and actually baked. I rarely bake. Like ever. But I made an awesome meatloaf. Meatloaf is one of my favorite healthy foods and it’s the bomb. So easy and so delicious and filling and protein rich. Ground turkey with Quaker oats and salsa and grilled onions and egg whites with ketchup on the top. The recipe came from pinterest. So dinner was amazing and enjoyed while watching the new TLC show, Alaskan Woman looking for love. It’s a ridiculous show but I can’t help it, I am a sucker for fish out of the water dating shows. These 6 Alaska chicks go to Miami to look for husbands. So crazy and yet so enjoyable at the same time. Culture shock for sure.

I just keep thinking that with all the exercise I do that eventually someday my body is going to have to get tighter and smaller, right? That things won’t have a choice but to tighten and firm up? That is my plan. It’s like that stonecutter quote, right? It’s something like a stonecutter hammers away at a rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing and yet on the hundred and first blow it will split in two and you know it’s not that one blow that did it, but all the ones that had gone before. That’s how I feel about it. That while things are perhaps not showing the way I think they would be showing, that underneath it all things are in fact changing and suddenly one day, on that 101st blow it will just blow itself wide open and it won’t be because of the single effort on that one day, it will be because of all the effort I’ve put in the previous 100 times. I know underneath it all is the muscle and strength and one of these days it’s just going to explode out in a full on burst of strength. I know all the effort I put in is not in vain. I am just like that stone cutter, waiting for my 101st blow. It’s funny because 10 years ago, the very first time I did weight watchers I had a more eloquently phrased version of that quote hanging in my cubicle at work. I’ve always known that it’s our combined efforts that produce the results. So I’ll just sit and wait for that 101st blow. One of these days it’s all going to be worth it in an amazing way.

Tonight is 2 half hour classes at the gym and then I have to rush out of there for Monday night therapy at 7 PM. So yup, only an hour tonight and then therapy. Such is the way of life.