Pouting, Crying, Laughing, and Pouting again

When I returned to Kuwait in 2000 after living in the States, I lived at home for a while. Since my mom didn't drive, I would drive her to work in the mornings. Just before dropping her off, I would hold her hand and kind of 'whine' to her and say, 'Mom, I don't wanna go to school' - mimicking my middle school/high school days (incidentally, she's an English professor at the university as well) - and she would say, me neither.

As much as I love teaching, there are definitely some days when I don't wanna go to school! Today was one of them (most Sundays are!) ... I wasn't nearly as prepared as I had wanted to be for the week. I mean I was in terms of my lesson plans, but I wasn't in terms of preparing what to wear, packing up my gym bag, fixing my lunch etc. etc. Makes me wonder, what was I doing yesterday?!

In any case, I somehow collected myself and managed to get out the door. I didn't have time to make my omelet muffins so I improvised and boiled an egg, sliced half an avocado, and half a red bell pepper - drizzled a bit of olive oil over it and sprinkled some salt & pepper. It looked primitive, but it was going to have to do for my post-workout breakfast.

the view from the treadmill this morning - gorgeous day - Feb. 17, 2013

The first thing I did at the gym was complete the baseline workout for the Whole Life Challenge. The purpose of this workout is to complete it again at the end of the 8 weeks and measure our improvement.  The workout was 11 minutes: complete an 800m run, 50 crunches, 75 squats, and 100 push-ups, then burpees in any time remaining.

Needless to say, there was no time remaining for me. I only made it through the 56th push-up.

There's room for improvement.

After I did this workout I went down to the free weights area to start my new weights program. This one is called the Fat Burn II workout (still part of New Rules of Lifting). The program is 4 weeks long which is perfect because I leave for the States in 4 weeks. If I stick to my schedule and not skip any workouts, I should be able to complete it before I leave.

The workout wasn't bad (3 sets of 12 reps): front squats, push presses, wide grip rows, dynamic lunges, and two new exercises that I had never done before: supine hip extension with leg curl and upper body Russian twist:

supine hip extension with leg curl

upper body Russian twist

I really liked the supine hip extension - it felt great.

Here's where the pouting began
After I finished my workout, I started to feel a bit nauseous and worn out. I took 15 minutes to stretch out really well and then headed to the showers.

By the time I got ready for work, I felt really yucky. My head was all foggy and my throat started to feel sore. I was so tempted to just ditch work and go home.

However, since my students have their first big writing test on Wednesday, I really wanted to be there to make sure they got enough time to ask questions and prepare for the test. So, I went to work ... but I had to cut class a bit short because I could barely stand.

I got home, had lunch (leftovers from last night - could barely swallow) and then went to bed.

Here's where the crying began
I woke up after about an hour and felt worse - dizzy and mega sore throat. Ok, I didn't really cry, but I did tear up because I DIDN'T WANT TO BE SICK!! What the hell? I wanted to try a new workout this evening, and I knew that with the way I was feeling, it would be foolish to go. Still, I wanted to go ... I was so darn cranky. To some it may sound insane or unreasonable, but I love being at the gym. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm really putting in the effort to achieving my goals - not just wishing and hoping. I truly feel miserable (and guilty and like a slacker and lazy) when I miss/skip a workout (for whatever reason).

Here's where the laughing began
D tried to get me to be reasonable and recognize that feeling so stuffed up and dizzy to the point where driving would be dangerous is a sure sign that I should not go to workout ... "Besides you worked out for almost 2 hours this morning. Do you realize that some people don't even do that in an entire week?" I had to laugh (a little).

Here's where the pouting began again 
Ya, ya - listen to your body, rest so that you can come back stronger, blah, blah, blah.
I know.
I (kinda) agree.
I still rested, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it.

I'm still pouting, but I'm hoping that resting today and tomorrow morning will have me ready to kick ass at tomorrow night's kickboxing class.

Today's Workout
General: WLC baseline test
Weights: NROL Fat Burn II: Workout A1
Stretching: 15 minutes

Today's Food
Breakfast: Boiled egg with 1/2 avocado & 1/2 red bell pepper
Lunch: White fish with sweet potato & 2 tablespoons of hummus
Snack: 1/4 cup cashews, 2 dates, a cup of green tea

Click here for today's Whole Life Challenge VLOG & update :)