Nine Days

So, there are 9 days left in the year and I really want to end the year on a very high note. It's been a positive year so far, but I know that I've been slacking a bit lately in terms of being careful with my eating. My workouts have been fine, but even they haven't been 100% on track because I've had to made do in between my travel schedule. In any case, this is no time to make excuses. It's time to get focused and make sure I do what needs to be done to feel good at the end of this year.

I was up at 4:30 a.m. and ready for my morning yoga by 5. I haven't done my morning yoga routine in a long time ... it's definitely time to get back into it. My body felt stiff but I know after a few days of practicing my poses I'll regain my flexibility.

I then headed to the gym at 6:30 a.m. Although I worked out while on vacation I still felt a bit out of sorts, especially given the exhaustion I've been feeling over the past 2 days. So, I decided that this morning would kinda be a warm-up workout - a few exercises for different parts of the body to get the ready for more intense workouts. I started with 20 minutes on the treadmill. I mainly walked, but I threw in a few 1-min jogs ... they weren't difficult, but they weren't easy either. As I said, my body has been feeling really stiff. I need to work on that because I don't want to lose all the progress I made so far with C25K.

I then did 20 minutes on the cross-trainer. This felt much better, and I was satisfyingly sweaty after the 20 minutes.

I followed this with a short weights circuit - 3 rounds, 6 reps each, empty bar (20 kg/45 lbs) - deadlifts, squats, dead rows, military press, cleans, and pull-ups on the assisted pull-up machine.

I then did 100 ab crunches & 100 oblique crunches.

I had a good cool-down stretch, including some back extensions which I don't do nearly enough of, and then went on with my day.

Although I took it easy, my body immediately responded to the exercise, which makes me feel great.

I'm hoping that I can incorporate a morning workout from now on since my teaching schedule will be changing starting in January. I really enjoy hitting the gym first thing in the morning, especially because if something happens to come up, I don't feel bad because I already got my workout done.

Part of my errands today was to buy my groceries for the week. Now my fridge is stocked with lots of fresh vegetables and fish. The only day I won't be cooking at home this coming week is Christmas, but I've already made plans as to what and where I'll be eating on that day so it should be just fine :)