Excuses and Lessons

Saturday:

I didn't go to the gym yesterday. I could give you my list of excuses (which would not stand up under scrutiny) but the real reason was that - as I planned to walk around the lake and go on to other things straight from there - I was wearing normal clothes not my exercise gear. And in my normal clothes I just didn't feel "in the mood" for exercise. I skipped the walk and was busy all morning. I was not busy in the afternoon. Various times throughout the day I told myself to get changed and go to the gym, but I never did. Too much effort.

I bought myself new hand weights, 3 kg each, and did about 15 minutes of various moves with them. So I guess that was something. But there was no reasonable reason why I didn't do a lot more. Gym, walking, dancing, a whole array of choices. I told myself I would make up for it on Saturday morning, so I would still have done four sessions this week.

My husband called me at lunchtime as he was feeling sick so I went and picked him up from his work, he spent the afternoon sleeping. He feels better today but I feel like crap. My body aches and I feel like I'm trying to swallow a golf ball. Bloody germs. Hopefully just a 24 hour thing that I will fight off.

I can turn this into a learning experience. Two lessons. Firstly, like many people I need to do my exercise first thing or it won't get done. (For me first thing is after I get the kids to school.) And I need to set myself up for exercise, not make it easy to avoid it. Get into my exercise gear when I get up in the morning! Not allowed to get changed or take off tight uncomfortable sports bra until I have exercised!

And secondly, don't assume that tomorrow will somehow be easier than today. Or even as easy. Do what you need to do when you get the chance because tomorrow might not be what you expected.

Yes I am cranky with myself for not exercising yesterday. But on the bright side I did three good sessions at the gym this week. That is a decent start.

A positive, active day

Friday:

I managed to put all my whiney feeling-sorry-for-myself behind me and just got on with it today. After walking the kids to school I bought an elastic ankle support at the chemist. I don't know if I need it or if it helps but I haven't re-injured myself today so maybe it is working. After doing some housework I went to the gym and spent an hour and a half using the weight machines. I avoided a few that seemed to put too much pressure on my ankle or my bad shoulder, but still ended up with fifteen different exercises on thirteen machines. There were a couple I only did one set of ten reps on but on the rest I did three sets of ten reps. I started with mainly the lightest possible weight, 10 kg, but was putting on a bit more by the end; and then when I had finished I went back and did another three sets of ten reps on the first five machines, but with heavier weights. So in total I did 20 exercises, 540 reps! I think I will be feeling it tomorrow.

After going home for lunch and a shower, I drove to Floriade. As usual when we go to that area I parked some distance away, a little hidden carpark further along the lake that is never full even during festivals, and then I walked briskly to Commonwealth Park and wandered among the tulips. With that and the school pick up I did a total of an hour walking today, so that is two and a half hours of exercise. Go me! And it was a really lovely sunny day, a little cool with the lake breeze but perfect once in the park.

While at Floriade I went to the exhibition stalls (pausing RunKeeper) and taste-tested everything available. I love free stuff! I tried five different flavours of fudge and then bought some of the raspberry flavour. I'm not even all that keen on fudge, I just felt obscurely guilty for trying so much. But the kids loved it and we saved some for Tim so that is ok. Also, carrying a bar of fudge around proved I was a genuine buyer not just a taster! I also had four or five kinds of exotic herbal tea -- I rather liked the Turkish green apple which tasted a lot like apple juice but it only came in a big $20 cannister -- a sour watermelon lolly which I didn't like much, some really hot chilli that left my lips burning for a while, and nuts encusted in various things like chilli/lime and toffee. Next time I am going to buy some Vienna macadamias, they were really yummy. Not sure what was on them, vanilla sugar? Despite casually wandering past the better nut stall several times (there was another one that wasn't as good), I didn't really eat that much and it was nice afternoon snack made up of a multitude of different tastes.

There were plenty of other stalls with gardening tools and handmade soaps and jewellery and silk scarves and things, sometimes I look at that stuff but not today. I really go to Floriade to look at the flowers, but I didn't look closely at those today either, I walked around briskly and got a general overview. I'll be going again, several times I hope. I haven't looked at the dresses-made-of-flowers exhibition or sat in the cafe overlooking the gardens or done the wine tasting or anything yet! And there is a petting zoo for the kids, they love that every year.

Feeling so much more positive today.

photo by sallysetsforth

Punyness exposed

Thursday:

I went to Zumba on Tuesday morning and spent an hour at the gym today while mum babysat. There is no suitable class on Thursdays until 12.30, which was too late for my purposes, so I did 20 mins on the elliptical, 25 mins lifting weights in some approximation of BodyPump moves, and 15 mins on the bike. I miss proper BodyPump, it just hasn't worked out this week.

Oh, speaking of which, I mentioned to a friend that I lift 5 kg (total), mainly restricted by my dodgy shoulders but I do find my legs trembling at the end of the squats track. And do you know how much he lifts? Guess. You'll never guess. 140 kg. OMFG. 140 kg. I don't know if that is for a whole hour, but he did mention doing squats and bench presses with that weight. I couldn't even lift that. He has been lifting weight for 15 years or something, but he is not at all bulky.

Mum then took me and the kids out to lunch, and then we went to Floriade (the patting paddock was gone but they had a reptile area which was interesting) and on a lake cruise. It was a cool grey day with intermittant rain -- luckily mostly while we were on the boat which had a roof. We had to walk back to the car in the rain, which didn't bother me at all but mum didn't like it much. Unless it is a really cold day, I would rather walk through light rain than be hot and sweaty on a summer day. Much rather! But different people hate different things. I noticed when we were in China I complained about the heat, but on the rainy days there was a huge kerfuffle about buying umbrellas (which you have to hold up constantly) and raincoats (which is like wearing your own personal sauna). I just walked in the rain, and stopped complaining about the horrible heat for a few minutes!

I am really trying to get back on track with the exercise. I admit that I feel much better when I do it.

photo by popoever