I do so love a weekend morning when I can sleep in...Or any morning that I can sleep in for that matter. I usually wake up with one cat sleeping by my head and the other one sleeping on me lower stomach/hip area. Granted, this is a 15 lb cat we are talking about, so having that weight sleeping on my does tend to make my back feel a bit strained, but somehow I still like it and I love being able to lay there and enjoy the snuggles rather than having to drag myself out of bed too early in the morning.
I think it is a chilly day out, but the sun is shining so it doesn't seem so bad. I will light a fire in the woodstove later, so the house will be cosy. I had a nice hot breakfast - red river cereal and 2 cups of coffee, and soon I will go out and get the grocery shopping done so I can have the rest of the day to do as I please.
I will confess here that I did eat 1 mini snickers bar while I was waiting for cereal to cook and coffee to brew (Moon has a bag of mini chocolate bars in his computer room - saw them last night and the snickers have been calling to me) but I counted the points and I will not eat any more of them today.
I'm thinking maybe pizza on whole wheat pita bread for supper tonight, with a side of raw veggies to munch on...It's been a while since I've had pizza.
Did my push-ups/sit-ups last night. That was it for exercise yesterday.
And I believe I was going to share an anecdote:
~ The Moment I Realized I Am An Exercise Junkie ~
I won't claim to be any kind of athlete. I'm not. I remember being quite stunned when an acquaintance referred to me as being athletic. I was the kid who hated phys-ed in school. It was always my worst subject. I did not like/was no good at any of the team sports - I think they require a certain amount of confidence and agressiveness that I just do not have. And running laps - how is that fun?
To be quite honest, I was not good at any of it. We used to do those Canada Fitness Tests every year in gym class and I dreaded it. I just was not good at any of it. A couple of times I did manage to scrape a bronze patch, not even sure how I did that now.
Which is not to say I never did any kind of physical activity. When I was a kid, I loved swimming at the lake. We went camping and I enjoyed hikes and bike rides. In the winter I liked to cross country ski. But I never thought of any of that as "exercise".
I did gradually discover some activities that could be classed as "exercise" that I enjoyed. To this day I still have no interest in any kind of team sports, but I have discovered that I like challenging myself at certain things. I enjoy walking, and I try a bit of jogging/running now and then. I like aerobics, pilates, yoga and weight training. I enjoy the feeling that comes from knowing that I am getting stronger, building more stamina. It's weird because when I was younger I never would have expected that.
Anyway....I should finally come to the point of this story...A few years back I developed some serious problems with my "mouse arm". That's what you get for working with computers day in and day out I guess. I was experiencing a lot of pain, it even affected my sleep.
I was discussing this with a friend, listing off my complaints about the situation and I mentioned that I couldn't do push-ups anymore. My friend responded with: "Oh I can't do push-ups, I have weak wrists."
I was speechless. I couldn't comprehend that she would just accept the fact that her wrists are weak, therefore she can't do push-ups. How could she not try to build up her strength? How could she be complacent about having weak wrists? Sure, I understand it would be hard, and she wouldn't be able to just get down and start doing full push-ups....But she could start with wall push-ups. Surely she could do that much? Then eventually she would be strong enough...
Well, you get the point. I knew that I would not be able to just accept that "I can't do push-ups". Thing is, there was certainly a period in my life where I might have made that statement. I certainly remember saying more than once "I can't run". But now I do. Not for major distances or anything, but I work away at it.
That day it hit me just how far I have come. I am one of those crazy exercise nuts. One of those people I used to think I would never become.
My recent change in jobs really cemented that. With my previous job, there was a gym in the same building and my time was pretty flexible so I was able to take an hour out of my day and hit the gym. This made sticking to an exercise routine so much easier.
But, all good things must come to an end...That job disappeared and I had to move on. Now I find myself getting up an hour earlier in the morning to get in my work out. Anyone who knows me well knows that mornings are not my friend. It is the worst time of day for me. Waking up is a painful process. But I couldn't see how else I was going to maintain my exercise routine, so I started to do the unthinkable, that which I always said I would never do...And I have been doing it for about 8 months now. When I mentioned this to my Mom, she said "Wow. You really must be addicted to exercise." I had never thought of it that way, but I guess I am.
Believe me, no one is more surprised than I am. But now that I'm here, I kind of like this whole Exercise Junkie thing.
Don't get me wrong. I still like to spend plenty of time sitting on my couch reading a novel or watching TV. But I feel so much better knowing that I got my workout in too!
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Daily Record
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BF: 1 mini snickers, Red River Cereal w/ 1/4 cup 2% milk, coffee w/cream.
Lunch: 1 egg roll, 3 chicken strips (DH made lunch)
Supper: Pizza on WW Pita bread, raw veggies
Snacks: Mini Snickers & coffee crisp
Workout: The FIRM Hard Core Fusion, 30 crunches on stablity ball + 15 oblique crunches each side. 5 Sun Salutes, 2 X boat & reverse plank, stretching.
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