March 2013

Good day everyone!

Long time no talk, I know.

March was not the best month for me on a number of levels.  I feel like it never really happened because I never slowed down enough to get the chance to enjoy it.  My frazzled life pace has affected me on several levels.  I have dark circles under my eyes like I have never seen before and my skin is equally dry, flaky and pimply.  I have hives from my hotel stay in Ottawa and they itch like a mofo.  I have put on a few pounds and any last bit of muscle tone that I had a few weeks ago is gone, as is my general motivation to actually work out or eat healthfully. My body is aches–though I’m not sure if that is from stress, muscle atrophy, being cramped up on too many airplanes or forcing myself into heels for 16 hour days.

So yeah….I am in rough shape as this month comes to a close…but I am looking forward to a fresh start with this crazy month ending.  Since returning from Ottawa I have been able to take some much-needed Leesah time.  I slept ten hours last night and around 8 the night before.  I am slowly converting back to healthy eating as I catch up on my sleep.  I even made it back to the gym today and started my laundry.

As I reflect on the craziness of the last month, I also know there were some wonderful times in the midst of the crazy. Like getting to celebrate my friend T’s upcoming nuptials on several occasions and in two different cities.  I loved giving my friend B her belated birthday presents from Walt Disney World and motivating about a dozen people to come out and give blood with my Pint for a Pint Challenge.  I felt immense joy upon learning that my dad has a gall bladder problem and nothing worse after his stay in the Emergency Room at the beginning of this month.  I enjoyed spending time with my friends R&K in Ottawa–much more time than I normally spend with them.  I loved having Good Friday Driveway Beers with some pizza and a fire pit and good people last night.  I enjoyed the experience of flirting with someone in a coffee shoppe and enjoyed the feeling of noticing that someone was flirting with me in said coffee shoppe. Learning that my hotels had the AMC channel so that I could watch each episode of Walking Dead and not fall behind.

Needless to say that, despite the frantic, frazzling pace of the month of March, it still turned out pretty darn well.  I look forward to spending the last day of March doing whatever I please–which, I will be honest, will likely include the following: sleeping, laundry, watching The Walking Dead, a gym visit and imbibing a green smoothie. I can’t wait to get it started already!

Much Luv,

Leesah

 

 

Satisfied sore

Morning!

So I feel a bit like a rock star today….though alot of it stems from last night’s workouts.  Yes.  Plural.  WorkoutS.  To make up for the fact that I probably wouldn’t get a workout in tonight, I did a double workout consisting of a 6 mile run and a cross fit class that was a total body workout.  And oh do I feel those workouts this morning.  Slightly sore, satisfied, fatigued….I feel as though I earned my day off from the gym today.  I also feel pretty glad that I decided to wash my hair last night–not sure if that would’ve happened this morning. lol.

So yeah….rockstarness aside, it was an interesting night in terms of motivation while fatigue sets in.  As I was running, I was feeling pretty good, watching classic music videos from the 1990′s when started to feel tired at about 2.5 miles.  This was not encouraging given my six-mile goal–especially since I also had a rather intense crossfit class after the run. 

I talked myself down from the proverbial ledge and re-assessed my running goals into chunks.  and how these extra miles contributed to my larger goals of a PR in Disney.   At that 2.5 mile mark, I made my goal 4 miles, followed by a reassessment.  Run another .25 while you reassess and see how you feel.  If you feel like stopping, you can stop.  If you want to go the extra .75, then keep going to round out the 5.  I did that a few times to get to my total of 6 miles.   For whatever reason, breaking it down into those smaller pieces just made it all the more achievable and it helped me keep focused on my goal. 

Ironically, the same thing happened at cross fit during my 50 (assisted) pull ups.  My instructor saw me struggling and that I had worked to fatigue/failure…so he basically had me do one pull up reps til I finished.  He also informed me that he wasn’t letting me quit, so I should break down my attempts to what is achievable–which for me at that moment, was one rep at a time.  Doing them one at a time, though frustrating, really was the key to getting it done as it allowed me to manage my fatigue and complete my last 12 pull ups.  I know…I was shocked too.  lol.

What was even more amazing, however, and this is something I have never really experienced in a fitness class before, is the amount of support, encouragement, etc. that I received from the instructor but also other classmates.  It was almost uncomfortable to me, because I’m not used to getting that kind of praise and encouragement when I work out.  I’m used to working out on my own, with nobody to watch but myself…so the only person who sees the triumphs and the failures is me.  Now I feel like I have a bit of a spotlight on my workouts, when at cross fit, and I think it might end up being a good thing–once I get over the discomfort in having people in the class telling me I did well. I’m very intrigued to see what kind of effect this will have on my workouts in the future.

How do you motivate yourself to keep going?  What games do you play when your body wants to call it quits?  Do you like getting cheered on during your workouts?

Much luv,

Leesah