Momentary Routine

I’ve been back in Kuwait for 5 days now … and I’ll be traveling again in 4 days. That’s not much time to get back into a proper routine. After my last trip to London, I really struggled. I let the fact that I was only around for 9 days bring me down and distract me from what I really wanted.

Not this time.

I arrived on Tuesday morning and spent the day resting. Last time, I spent the time freaking out and worrying about whether or not I would have energy to go to the gym. I exhausted myself. I didn’t workout, and I felt guilty.

Not this time.

I unpacked, did my laundry, and I SLEPT. I was so tired. I slept for 4 hours in the afternoon and then I went to bed early. I needed the sleep. I felt much better after getting all that sleep.

When I woke up on Wednesday morning (tossing and turning from 3 a.m. and finally out of bed at 4 a.m.), I was ready to go.

I had 2 eggs with some mushrooms and tomatoes. I took my time getting ready and leaving the house (after all, I am on vacation!), and I made it to the gym by 7:45 a.m.

Some cardio and a body balance session was all I had planned for the day. The cardio felt good. I felt like I hadn’t missed anything because of all the walking I did in London. Body Balance, however, was tougher. I felt quite stiff. I didn’t stretch much over the past 2 weeks and it totally showed in class. (Note to self: get back to stretching daily!!)

Thursday was great – warm-up cardio, 1 hour weight session, and then 1 hour on the cross-trainer.

I really wanted to burn some calories so I just got on the cross-trainer, set it to interval training, and just zoned out and started sweating.

The weight lifting session was interesting. On the one hand, I felt strong. I think this is because I hadn’t lifted weights for quite some time so my muscles actually felt rested. On the other hand, I felt like I lost a bit of strength, particularly in my lateral pull-downs … but then, I’ve always struggled with those. I did 2 extra sets of each exercise with lighter warm-up weights. I didn’t want to strain myself (though I think I did when I was doing 15 kg (33 lb dumbbell per hand) dumbbell incline chest presses. It wasn’t the chest press as much as it was the movement of getting my arm in position to do the chest press). Anyway. I left the gym feeling good that I could complete those sets, but also felt a bit of a muscle strain around my left shoulder blade area. Must take care of that.

I went back to my normal Friday routine – which included 2 hours of Jiujitsu and sparring practice. Again, being away from training for 2 weeks really showed on the mats. It took me a while to both mentally and physically gear up for each move we practiced.

Yesterday I did something I had not done in a long time – burpees. I’ve been avoiding them. I’m avoiding them for the same reason that I took on this challenge – I hate them. They’re tough. They leave me breathless. I suck at them. 

This is why I must practice them!!

Perhaps I was too ambitious in my goal of completing 20,130 burpees by the end of the year, but that’s not an excuse not to practice them at least every other day, if not every single day.

The only thing holding me back is my mind – I am physically able to do them. In fact, the first 50 burpees (though tough) went down a lot easier than I had thought they would be. (Note to self: Stop second-guessing yourself and just do your damn burpees!)

So basically my strategy has been to just get back into my routine without giving it much thought. Being on vacation makes it very tempting to just sit back and do nothing but watch TV or read all day … but that doesn’t mean I can’t squeeze in an hour or two of exercise. I know that once I get started, I feel good – that’s why I try to workout first thing in the morning. At least I get it out of the way.

My food has been good since I got back. Like my workouts, I just went right back on plan. Lots of salads, lean protein, and vegetables. I bought some new spice blends in London - ones you can't get here in Kuwait - so that's helped give a bit of new flavor to my cooking.  I would say that my food is 90-95% clean. At the moment, that works for me. Gotta make the most of being home while I can. In 4 days, this momentary routine is going to seem like a dream … that’s when the real work is going to kick in!

By the way, my shoulder blade muscle strain is much, much better. Whew. 

Rushing through Monday

My killer workouts on Saturday and Sunday definitely caught up to me today. I could barely get out of bed. I slept in for an extra hour (so I was up at 5:30 instead of 4:30) and that definitely helped. I also decided not to go to the gym this morning (Monday's are scheduled as my optional morning workout day) and instead did 45 minutes of really good yoga and stretching. I bought this book - Ultimate Flexibility - and started doing a few of the exercises in that book. It felt great.

Breakfast was delicious -- my omelet muffins with avocado (recipe coming soon, I promise):

Work was alright.
Acupuncture went well. I've definitely become more comfortable with the process, and I'm really relieved that the dizziness following the session has pretty much completely subsided.


I had a late lunch - 2 tuna burgers (no bun or anything, just the patty -- recipe for this to follow soon too).

After that, I was really tempted to nap, but earlier in the day I had started to do some of my Nutrition Studies reading, so I completed the section, took the quiz, and scored 100% :) Yay!

Rush, rush, rush -- dinner prep, a bit of cleaning, then out the door (cursing through traffic) to kickboxing class where I took out a lot of stress. Man it was a fabulous session. Great pad work plus some dirty elbows - love 'em ;)


Dinner was another new recipe - baked cod with dill & lemon accompanied by some veggies. I felt that the cod was a bit dry so I think the recipe needs some tweaking before I post it. However, the vegetables were yummy!!

Another busy, busy day -- now off to bed feeling satisfyingly sore :)


Today's Workouts
Stretching: 45 minutes of yoga & stretching
MMA training: 1.15 hrs. of cardio kickboxing at ClubFit
Burpees: 20

Today's Food
Breakfast: 3 omelet muffins and half an avocado
Lunch: 2 tuna patties
Dinner: baked cod with vegetables
Snacks: 1/4 cup of mixed raw nuts, 2 dates, 1 oz. of 85% dark chocolate

Morning Yoga

I've been really good at starting my day off with 15 minutes of yoga. I thought I'd share some of the basic poses I do. I don't do all of these each day; it all depends on how much time I have.

I start of with some standing deep breathing:

I then move on to the standing reed pose:

Next comes the sun salutation (which I absolutely love) [Sometimes I'll do this routine a few times in one session]:

Then I practice some balance poses:

After that I do some floor work - including cobra pose, bow pose, and camel pose:

Some of my other favorite poses are:

I also sometimes do some basic static stretching - hamstring, quads, biceps, and triceps.

Doing yoga each morning really feels great. I highly recommend it - just 15 minutes each day :)

Convenience of Carbs

Thanks for the comments on yesterday's post. I know that it doesn't seem like a big deal - it's not like I'm debating whether to have KFC or McDonalds, but more like salad with corn or without! - but there was just something about being in that situation that made me feel uncomfortable. I actually lay in bed thinking about it for at least an hour last night! Still, I think I've made my decision - we'll just have to see what it is on Friday!

I had a good day today in terms of exercise. I did my usual yoga and abs routine at 4:30 this morning. Today, as part of this week's mindfulness challenge with the WLC and just because I've been really wanting to, I focused a lot more on balance. I did quite a few poses on my tiptoes - from just standing and raising my arms above my head, to coming down into squat position, then on just one leg, etc. etc. Each time I started to shake I tried to mentally focus and talk to myself. What is going on? Why are you shaking? How can you move your body so that you can balance more (e.g. a lot of times I turn my feet outwards, but turning them inwards could help me gain more balance)? So on and so forth. I know a lot of it has to do with core strength but the other part is definitely to do with concentration. I need to find it in me to be still (in my mind and in my body). It was a good exercise; I continued this focus in my postures during Body Balance class today. My flexibility has definitely improved. I'm finally able to do the prasarita pose with my forearms and elbows plus forehead fully on the floor. Man what a stretch! It felt amazing!

Here's a picture of what it looks like (though I also had my forehead down on the floor):

source

I then had CrossFit in the evening.

Our warm-up was: 1 minute each of
- tire flips
- hanging leg raises
- burpees
- kettlebell swings
- hand-release push-ups

Just that alone had me dripping with sweat!

Then, I did snatches for the first time! I definitely need practice, but I think I did alright for my first go. I did many, many practice reps and ended up snatching a final weight of 30kg (66lbs) though I was much more comfortable at 25kg (55lbs).

Our WOD was another killer:
21 thrusters (25kg)
21 pull ups
21 deadlifts (50kg)
21 burpees

That's all that was written on the board. As we looked at the workout we were all kinda feeling intimidated. Each exercise at 21 reps - that's a lot!

That's when our Coach added two more rounds -- same exercises at 15 reps each then 9 reps each.

All of our jaws dropped. It felt impossible. It was taking a bit of time to set up all the stations and as each minute passed, the anxiety towards the workout kept building. We were all nervously looking at each other - first of all wondering how we were going to survive the first round, let alone the other two.

After a while the Coach said that me and another girl could stop after doing two rounds. It was at that moment when I thought, 'Hell no. Why shouldn't I finish the last round? If others can do it, so can I - even if it kills me.'

I'm so glad I completed the whole WOD. My hands are totally calloused; some skin has even ripped off, but I feel good. It was tough, but I tried and completed the workout. The only way I'm going to improve is if I keep on working at it. Just gotta make sure that my hesitant thoughts don't get in the way of my potential achievement.

I've also started finally started my Fitness Nutrition coursework - very interesting. So far it's all kinda the obvious stuff (eat less, move more) but they're getting into the scientific reasoning behind why it's important and how it will affect your body. I'll share what I'm learning as I go along :)

I've definitely hit my stride with my eating. I'm beginning to see that a lot of foods, namely carbs (bread, rice, pasta), were eaten because they were there and because they'd add a little something to my meal ... and most of all, because they were convenient.

For example, I was in a rush yesterday morning and I couldn't decide what to eat for breakfast. I didn't really want a big breakfast, but I didn't want to skip it either. Before, having a bowl of cereal or grabbing a slice of toast would have solved the problem. No stress. No worries. Just quickly fix and eat.  Similar issues come up with other meals too. For lunch I had smoked salmon with a few cucumber slices, and a bit of whole grain mustard. It wasn't the most fantastically delicious meal, but it was fine. I got my pure protein in as well as a few veggies. I know in the past I would have eaten that along with a slice or two of whole wheat bread. Having the bread wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world - but it was unnecessary. It is unnecessary ...

I think that's what I'm learning most through this challenge. I can do without so many of these things that before seemed like they were an essential component to my food.

Last night's dinner was grilled shrimp with bell peppers and sugar snap peas. It would have been the perfect filling for a shrimp fajita. All I needed was the tortilla wrap, maybe a bit of sour cream, and then some salsa ... but I didn't need it. The shrimp/veggie combo was enough.

Before understanding that it was enough, however, I hesitated and questioned if it would really be enough? It's this mental obstacle that has to be overcome. Not having a bit of bread or something else along with the meal wouldn't mean that I'd be starving! It wouldn't even mean that my meal was incomplete. I just didn't need it, and the food tasted absolutely fine.

This whole exercise of being aware of what you're eating, why you're eating, how you're eating, etc. has been so good so far!

Day 12 and I'm feelin' fine :)