Skipped workout

For the first time since I started, I skipped a workout last night. When I got home, I just did not feel like doing yoga. I needed to work on a manuscript for an article I'm working on - but it turned out that there weren't that many edits. But I just did not want to workout. So today I will be doing yoga.

Working Out at Mom & Dad's

Halfway through my workout this morning, Mom cooked bacon.  I think she was trying to taunt me.  She says she was trying to inspire me to get through it and be done.

So, we are up at Mom & Dad's house this weekend.  It's the first time I've done a workout not at home.  In fact, I did TWO workouts -- Recovery & Mobility and Chest + Back + Balance & Ab Ripper.

I meant to bring our pull-up bar up with us.  I brought the resistance bands and foam roller, and completely forgot the pull-up bar.  This meant I had to figure out how to do my modified pull-ups.  I tried attaching the resistance bands to the treadmill -- that didn't work.  I tried to have John hold the resistance bands -- that didn't work, especially since he was sitting in a comfortable reclining/rocking chair.  Mom said, "You might have to go outside."  Dad said, "Yeah, and hook your bands on the fence."

So I went outside.  John told me it was 30 degrees, and I was pretty sure I was going to freeze because I wasn't going to go put on a shirt.  However, the sun was shining, and for the 45 - 60 seconds I was out there doing my pull-ups, I was okay!

I was a tiny bit better on the Superman Banana X with a little more room, but only a tiny bit.

The whole thing was a good test of modifying the workouts to the location I was in.  It was also good to find out that the cheating I did the day before didn't wreck my workout.  I didn't feel sluggish at all.  I guess that's what happens when you go to bed at 10 PM and get up at 8 AM.  

Recovery & Mobility
Calories Burned = 275
Average Heart Rate = 92
Peak Heart Rate = 132

Chest + Back + Balance & Ab Ripper

Calories Burned = 765
Average Heart Rate = 124
Peak Heart Rate = 168

Beginning the New Phase

As I begin this new phase of exercising (Strength) and eating (Energy Booster), there are a few lessons I learned from the last phase that I am implementing.

1. Watching the DVDs BEFORE I start the workouts -- probably in fast forward -- just to get a sense of what I'm supposed to do and how to modify.

2. Limit cheats to not more than 1 per week.  A cheat is defined as having something that I've specifically given up -- such as sweets, alcohol, or caffeine. (The idea of 5 total cheats over the whole time is just not doable!)

3. Don't stress out about cheating, but don't get complacent.   Keep tracking the cheats. 

4. Even on the days when it's just Recovery and Mobility workout, have a protein shake -- my body needs the calories and protein!  (I've been skipping the protein shake in the first phase if the workout wasn't "hard enough" and then not having as much energy... hmmm...)

5. Practice pull-ups each week, even if I decide to modify the exercise.  I tried doing a pull-up on February 12, and although I wasn't there yet, I was closer!

6. Update my heart rate monitor as appropriate (John says if my weight swings by 5 pounds) to get the most accurate reading on calories burned.

7. Do more foam rolling in the week, especially if I am just hanging out watching TV.

Cheating

I should have better defined what "cheating" meant before I started; perhaps then John wouldn't be subjected to a barrage of questions as I ate bread and olive oil or homemade mini chocolate cupcakes last night at Will & Colin's house.  Thankfully, Will made this delicious lentil soup, so I felt good about the main course.

Why didn't I bring a sensible tasty dessert -- something with fruit in it perhaps?  Instead, I looked for a recipe with chocolate in it.  Enter Low Fat Mini Chocolate Cupcakes.  I had two, at 74 calories each.  Is this a cheat?  Maybe half a cheat?  Well, add the slice and a half of french bread, and call it a cheat.

I guess I did define the cheats early on as diet oriented.  A fitness cheat would be not doing all the exercises I'm supposed to do in a week.

On the plus side, I did the Balance & Power Workout today -- LOTS of room for improvement, especially related to my push-ups, plyo push-ups, and not collapsing into my hips when standing on one leg (surprisingly, there's a lot of one-leg movements in Balance & Power...coincidence?).  My hips are the least flexible part of my whole body, the most tight when stretching, the most in need of work.

Calories Burned = 777
Average Heart Rate = 142
Peak Heart Rate = 178