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Well, good morning, everyone!
I'm up, lunches packed, having my cup of coffee. Sorta hungry, which is unusual in the a.m., so I'm frying up some eggs to eat before we leave for work (normally I have something around 8 a.m., not this early)
I was really tired yesterday afternoon 3d day in a row) but I forced myself to go to the gym. I did a 30 min. cardio and a light upper body workout, because this week's schedule is nutty, what with a class tomorrow eve. and school Open House on Wed, so I won't be able to get to the gym again until Thurs. I didn't push myself too hard, given my exhaustion, but I made sure I got some resistence training in, to help build those lean muscles.
This weird schedule this week reminds me how easy it is to have a plan and stick to it when everything is normal and in a known routine. It's when the routine DEVIATES that everyone gets a bit discombobulated and struggles to find a way through.
For me, part of the problem is that I have always had an "all or nothing" attitude toward diets and weight loss and exercise. I have to do it the same, or it's a failure. And so being slightly flexible and making changes as I go is an alien, uncomfortable notion for me - though I'm getting better.
There was certainly a time when missing 2 days of exercise would have been the beginning of the end for me. Not now. And there was certainly a time when having to pack a dinner as well as a lunch, or figure out in advance where to go for dinner one night, would have thrown me for a loop and given me a 60% chance of eating something not good. Not now.
I think it's about relaxing within the context of this woe. Not relaxing and letting everything hang out so that we flop outside of the boundaries; just relaxing WITHIN, so that we can perceive the room allowed.
Example? I need to exercise at the gym 3-4 days a week. Not every day, or every other day, though I CAN do that if I CHOOSE. But if I cannot do it every other day, I am still ok within the parameters of the exercise component of this woe.
Another? I need about 90 grams of protein a day. And I have carb limits of about 35. So, what if, in order to accomodate my schedule tonight, I only get in about 80 grams of protein? No biggie. And what if, tomorrow, I go to Souplantation for dinner and end up with 40 grams of (legal) carbs at the end of the day? Big whoop. Or what if, I do NOT go to Souplantation, even though I planned it, and only have some cottage cheese and pumpkin at dinner, and thus get LESS carbs than I intended? It's ok.
The parameters are wider than we think. It's just that those of us who have been "all or nothing" for most of our lives don't see it that way until we stop and take a good, long, relaxed look.
I'm up, lunches packed, having my cup of coffee. Sorta hungry, which is unusual in the a.m., so I'm frying up some eggs to eat before we leave for work (normally I have something around 8 a.m., not this early)
I was really tired yesterday afternoon 3d day in a row) but I forced myself to go to the gym. I did a 30 min. cardio and a light upper body workout, because this week's schedule is nutty, what with a class tomorrow eve. and school Open House on Wed, so I won't be able to get to the gym again until Thurs. I didn't push myself too hard, given my exhaustion, but I made sure I got some resistence training in, to help build those lean muscles.
This weird schedule this week reminds me how easy it is to have a plan and stick to it when everything is normal and in a known routine. It's when the routine DEVIATES that everyone gets a bit discombobulated and struggles to find a way through.
For me, part of the problem is that I have always had an "all or nothing" attitude toward diets and weight loss and exercise. I have to do it the same, or it's a failure. And so being slightly flexible and making changes as I go is an alien, uncomfortable notion for me - though I'm getting better.
There was certainly a time when missing 2 days of exercise would have been the beginning of the end for me. Not now. And there was certainly a time when having to pack a dinner as well as a lunch, or figure out in advance where to go for dinner one night, would have thrown me for a loop and given me a 60% chance of eating something not good. Not now.
I think it's about relaxing within the context of this woe. Not relaxing and letting everything hang out so that we flop outside of the boundaries; just relaxing WITHIN, so that we can perceive the room allowed.
Example? I need to exercise at the gym 3-4 days a week. Not every day, or every other day, though I CAN do that if I CHOOSE. But if I cannot do it every other day, I am still ok within the parameters of the exercise component of this woe.
Another? I need about 90 grams of protein a day. And I have carb limits of about 35. So, what if, in order to accomodate my schedule tonight, I only get in about 80 grams of protein? No biggie. And what if, tomorrow, I go to Souplantation for dinner and end up with 40 grams of (legal) carbs at the end of the day? Big whoop. Or what if, I do NOT go to Souplantation, even though I planned it, and only have some cottage cheese and pumpkin at dinner, and thus get LESS carbs than I intended? It's ok.
The parameters are wider than we think. It's just that those of us who have been "all or nothing" for most of our lives don't see it that way until we stop and take a good, long, relaxed look.
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My sister has us taking turns spending the night with my Mom in the hospital, which is just fine. But it is knocking my schedule around. Didn't get ANY gym in last week. But I managed to do a full workout last night! And plan to go Wednesday, as long as my sister can stay with Mom that night. We have three of us working a 7 day a week schedule at the hospital and it never works out perfect. 
I'm hoping the worst of the schedule upheavels are over so I should be able to make roll call and gym on a regular basis again. Hoping Mom comes home this weekend and I can go to the gym without worry and on a regular schedule again...because then she'll only be 5 miles from my house instead of 50 miles away from all of our houses (not to mention the gym)!
Thanks evermind.
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