After a workout, do you take a long shower, or short? Do you bask in the warmth, enjoy the beating of the water on your tired muscles, or do you hurry up and jump in and out, ready to crash?
I'm always torn when I'm in there. I love feeling the water massage my aching shoulder, my tired back, my weary legs. I also just want to go sit down and finally eat, sometimes at 9 p.m. or later. What I end up with is some annoying hybrid, neither long enough to truly work out the kinks in my muscles, nor short enough to satisfy my need to just go sit down. I'd take a bath and solve the internal debate, but I know for a fact I'd fall asleep, only to be woken up an hour later, starving, cold and pruny. So where do you stand? Short and sweet or long and relaxing?
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I've stuck with the kickboxing, but I still feel like I need a kick in the pants. (no, not literally. Try it and see what I do! haha) I want to get on the elliptical more and get my running and endurance up, but I realized it can't all be fitness. Some of it has to be nutrition, as well. No, not the ugly D word (diet, for those of you who just got pervy) but nutrition. Fuel for my body to be able to function throughout the day and then exercise without feeling like I'm dragging a boat behind me with every step. Enter Whole 30. I shopped Saturday at Fresh Market (whoa, those prices! But - some were actually on par with Publix and Kroger - good to know!) and followed up at Kroger for some odds and ends we forgot. Sunday was prep day - I boiled eggs for salads, roasted veggies, cooked nitrate-free, organic, nearly fat-less turkey bacon that didn't remotely look like bacon, and made a beef curry. So food today - breakfast was fruit (berries, yay!), carrots, olives and that turkey bacon. I was expecting dry, gross, tasteless stuff, but it was moist, yummy, and better than the real pork bacon. Don't tell anyone, but I'm a convert, at least bacon-wise. Lunch today is going to be a salad with a homemade lemon balsamic vinaigrette. It is SO good. I tweaked a few recipes to make my own, and I'm pleased as punch at the result. (Recipe will be below) I'm also putting in some of those eggs, cucumbers, and the greens are baby bok choy leaves, organic green leafy lettuce and baby spinach. Dinner tonight is that beef curry, and I'm going to make steamed broccoli to go with it. I can't tell you how excited I am for it! I tried it last night and it was AMAZING! (Again, recipe to follow!) So this clean eating, tougher-than-Paleo Whole 30 thing is so far so good! Recipes:Lemon Balsamic Vinaigrette (makes approx 6 servings for a decent size salad)
Beef Curry (makes approx 3-4 servings)
So...yeah. Three minutes in, I was ready to say, "Nope, I was wrong! I'm a quitter!" But I didn't. I ran two and a half of the three laps. "Fast" walked the rest of the third. Considering that's the farthest I've gone, not including my elliptical, since high school, I'm pretty darn proud of myself! What in the world could have possibly been going through my head, you ask? Well, it all started with an idea for a book. That book idea involved a girl going to a personal trainer and ultimately completing some big ol' scary obstacle course run (which I'd later find out is called an OCR). So I asked my buddy, Eric, for information. BIIIIIIIIG mistake! Eric doesn't just hand out information, all willy nilly. Nooooo, Eric makes you work for it - blood, sweat and tears! He said to write about it, I'd have to experience it.
Umm, what?! I didn't get to go to Greece when I was writing Peregrine! So why do I have to experience THIS?! This isn't nearly as much fun as a vacation in lovely Santorini! (Seriously, check out Peregrine - available Friday, Feb 21st. Release party on my page Fri, Sat & Sun) So Tuesday found me at Rush MMA talking to Bubby, the owner. Bubby, while very, very nice, agreed with Eric. That makes Bubby a very mean man. Wednesday afternoon found me at Rush MMA again, talking to both Eric & Bubby, and watching Eric torture one girl in a personal training session and then a whole group of men and women. Even one of the guys looked ready to kill him. And yet, I still followed Bubby to his office and filled out the forms, gave him my debit card info, and told him I'd be there... tonight. Again, no one said I was smart. What I didn't count on was having mean friends. And yes, Eric, I'm looking at you! Not that I can complain to him, Oh, nooo...this is a guy who did the GoRuck Selection - 48 straight hours of kill-me-now torture. If no one sees or hears from me tonight or tomorrow... talk to Eric & Bubby. Somewhere, you'll find my lifeless body, albeit in slightly better shape than it was this morning. I'm doing the scariest thing I've EVER signed up to do - run a 5k. As someone with asthma (the basis for Carly's affliction), I don't really get out and exercise as much as I would like (or need to). But I want to. I dream of joining the local pool, having been on a swim team in my youth, but put it off until we quit paying for daycare for our kids. I want to walk/run in my neighborhood, but am always worried about the hills. There are always excuses of why I can't do something, but I'm ready to prove I CAN. So I signed up for the Color Run in Atlanta the day before my 32nd birthday. Maybe I should have made sure I could physically cross the finish line first, but I'm afraid that if I try to prove I can first, I won't even fill out the registration form. I went to Wal-mart (soul-sucking, by the way) last night and bought running tights, cheap white t-shirts (to get colorful during the run), cheap shoes (lest I ruin my nice - unworn - running shoes), colorful socks and hairbands & other running paraphernalia. I also bought salad fixings. Sure, I had two salads because I was starving, but the chicken on them had just enough protein to give me the motivation to begin my first workout in who-knows-how-long. I got on our elliptical (yes, we have one - it's just been buried in our "office") and alternated walking and running for 7.5 minutes, or about a mile. Parched and slightly wheezing, I got off and rejoined my husband in the living room. After two puffs on my inhaler, I was back to feeling energized for another go, but he convinced me to let that be it for tomorrow so I would still *want* to work out tomorrow (well, today, now). So I set my alarm for about 45 minutes early and let it go off a few times, getting up about 35 minutes earlier than usual. I put on my new running gear again and got on the elliptical machine. After 8.02 minutes, I'd finished a mile. I wasn't wheezing, but my legs burned, just a little. I was parched once again, only because I hadn't downed my bottle of water that had sat bedside overnight. I went back to my bedroom and sat down to check e-mail and thought, "I can actually do this! One mile was practically easy!" So now, instead of worrying that I might not survive the Color Run, I'm thinking of how quickly I can "run" the 5k. Instead of crossing the finish line sometime around dusk, I'm hoping to come in under 45 minutes, or at least an hour. Not bad, for a girl with asthma. Thirty-two isn't looking so bad, after all. ;) Greetings from NaNoWriMo...well, almost. It starts next month, and last year, I won! No big prize, except the pride of winning, and the completion of my first EVER novel, Breathless. So this year I have a conundrum: Cheat by using the novel I've already started (Sleepless) and that I've been begged to finish, asked when will it be out? (I mean, come on, Becki, it's been since APRIL since you put out a book!!!) OR I could not cheat and start on the new project I've had in my brain, a sort of romantic suspense novel, Running, that I'm really excited about, but not really sure how it's gonna go, plot-wise. What do y'all think? Sleepless or Running? I want to finish Sleepless so badly, but maybe I'm putting it off because I don't want to end Carly's & Ryan's story. Hmm... |
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