Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Back on the Wagon

(ed note: for those of you who asked, I've included some pictures of the new "do" at the end of this post).


It's been nice getting back into a routine of consistent exercise and better eating habits. Unfortunately, I'm still not seeing the weight loss but I can't obsess about this, it will come in time. I just wish I could run, I know that's the fastest way to lose the weight. In the meantime, I was able to get in 3 bike rides, 2 elliptical days, 3 weight days and 1 day swimming last week. I was suppose to do 2 days swimming but I forgot to take my swimsuit to the gym on Sunday so I just did weights then went home and did a quick mountainbike ride while the girls napped and Pat was taking it easy. Shortly into my ride I noticed the ride seemed a little rough. I got off and checked out my rear shock, it was bottoming out anytime I sat on the bike. When I tried to ride it like that, I felt like I was riding a low-rider. Luckily I was able to lock out the rear suspension and finish the ride. It was a rough ride occasionally, totally old school!

I'm trying to up the intensity of my workouts and make each one count. My easy days are usually days I can't work out at all. Yesterday was one of those days. We usually don't go anywhere on Memorial weekend, too many crowds and the weather was bad. Seems someone turned the calendar back to February. That's also a nice advantage of the firefighter schedule, we usually plan our trips for mid-week to escape the crowds. This weekend was all about family and enjoying some quality time together.

Recently I've been really curious about Cross-Fit. Pat and I did a demo day a couple months ago with the guy who runs a shop in Grass Valley. It's really intense and has a lot of possibility but the cost is a bit high and the hours pretty limited. We just can't justify leaving our gym that has much better hours and child-care. So today I made up my own little cross-fit WOD. I did 10 minutes warm-up then 20 minutes of 10 jump pull ups, 10 squats with a 15# dumbell acting as a kettleball, and 10 incline push ups. I was able to do 11 sets in the 20 minutes and I was worked. I finished it off with 20 minutes of Pilates. Earlier I had done almost an hour on the elliptical so it was a pretty good day. And it was all on shift too (most of it after dinner).

It was nice getting back into the pool too. I'm not that great of a swimmer, very slow no matter how hard I try. If I have a day to do anything I want, swimming is usually pretty low on that list. However, I've noticed in the past that when I swim with a buoy between my thighs I swim faster. It seems strange to swim faster when I'm only using my arms but it's true. Pat said it's because I'm letting my lower body drop and it's dragging through the water, slowing me down. So now I concentrate on bending a bit at the waist, pushing my chest down into the water, tucking my chin, and push my butt into the air, out of the water. It's exaggerated right now but I do notice that I'm faster when I do this. I think it straightens out my body, brings my lower body up a bit so there's less drag. Ideally I'd like to join a class where I could learn better technique but with a full time job and 2 little kids, there's just not enough hours in the day. I do what I can and right now that's enough.

My MRI is on Friday so I'm really looking forward to that. I keep saying that if the MRI comes back negative I'm just going to start running again, despite the pain. That's probably not the smartest move but then I've never been all that smart when it comes to this kind of thing.

I should probably mention that I took your guys' advice and got my haircut and a whole new "do". I love it. It's so different and easy and fun. Thanks for the suggestion!



Hope everyone had a safe (and dry) holiday weekend.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey where is the picture of the new hair cut? Sounds like you are doing great.
Luv ya
Cuz

Sarah said...

Yeah, let's see the new doo! : ) I'm getting a pedicure next. : )

I hope you get some answers from the MRI!

Catherine said...

Yeah, I was wondering if I'd get in trouble for no picture. I'll work on that.
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hey there. I love your new hair do. I thought when I looked at the camping picture it was shorter and today I had some time to look at more of your pictures and stories. I really like it. xoxoxoxo Love you. Mom