Time for an update.
I was up and working out 4 days last week. I was starting to feel a little bit under the weather and I was up late Thursday night with my EMBA dinner, so I slept in Friday. Then Saturday was a full day. Sunday I didn’t do any organized exercise, but I did play quartet handbells and full handbells so I got in some activity.
I’m still doing a good job of getting up at 5am, too. It is working out well to get the Egoscue and work out done so early and then have time to do some reading or writing before starting work. But when I finally start trying to wake the others up at 8am it’s hard not to be a bit high handed since I’ve been up for 3 hours and have been so productive. 🙂
Eating habits haven’t been quite as good and I need to pay more attention there. As usual, what is in the house is pretty healthy, but it is too easy to eat too much during the day.
I went shopping for new jeans (the ones I have are just too tight and won’t fit again, it’s time to admit that). If I lose more around my waist, then I can buy another pair. It is fun to wear a comfortable pair of jeans.
I also feel the need to remind myself why I do what I do. It gets so hard some days and I just want to stay in bed longer and laze around without making myself sweat and push. But I need to take the long-term view and know that in addition to being good for me now, this will be good for me for many years to come. Putting it off won’t make it easier.
First, Egoscue. I do this to increase my flexibility and improve my posture. It really works. I started it to see if my sore rotator cuff would heal faster. Anthony started because his knee was hurting. He realized after starting the e-cises that his lower back stopped hurting. It adds another 20 to 30 minutes to my morning, so I have discovered audio books. Christianaudio.com has a free resource each month. In January, while doing my Egoscue e-cises I would listen to the Oswald Chambers biography. This month it is Not For Sale about the modern-day slave trade. The e-cises look easy but they can actually be a bit challenging, since they are trying to get my body to change. I enjoy seeing how much easier a position gets as the days pass.
Also for flexibility, I do power yoga. I started yoga when I was in New York, when I found that Beryl Bender Birch taught classes a few nights a week. I went fairly regularly and saw the potential, even though I saw little progress since I have so little flexibility. Since this is something I need so much, it becomes a lot of hard work and is the one thing I am most liable to want to skip. I also groan and grumble the most when doing my yoga. Which is not the mindfulness and attitude I should have. I have spent some time each year trying again, but this is the longest I’ve stayed pretty consistent with yoga. I started last summer (before I hurt my rotator cuff) and have done yoga almost every week since then. Currently I do yoga 2 or 3 times a week, with another form of cardio and strength training the other days.
Other strength/cardio workouts. We have an elliptical, a Bowflex, and PowerBlocks. I have done individual workouts, but find it hard to keep myself going hard enough to get a real cardio workout and find it hard to fit in both cardio and strength training, since I am already doing the Egoscue and yoga. So, right now I use videos. I have been working out with the Slim series by Debbie Siebers that I bought from BeachBody a few years ago. I enjoy her style and the exercises that we do. I have also done some Tony Horton workouts, also from BeachBody. In the next week I will be starting something new. I read this review on Health.com and I admit the comment about being able to charge up stairs without panting is exactly what I want. I know my breath support needs help. The actual PowerStrike website looks very interesting. I’m starting with an older DVD that I won on eBay yesterday. As soon as it arrives in the mail I’ll be trying it out.
