(L): BOOM!  I am on a roll!  I completed my second week of working out and I haven’t wimped out.  This week I have managed to do yoga 5 mornings.  My hubby and my pups are doing it as well.  I don’t mind the hubs sharing my space, but these pups are not making life easy.  They really like the yoga mats.  On Sunday, I couldn’t get Samson off of mine.  I even poked him in the belly only to have him roll over on his back into what one could only assume was corpse pose.  Stevie lives in that position in hopes of getting her belly rubbed at all times.

I will say there is nothing like getting out of bed and going straight to your yoga mat to really feel everything that is going on in your body.  It takes me a full 30 minutes to feel like a human being and when I say human being I mean someone who can walk without moaning and groaning.  I am looking forward to how we progress over the next month because right now it’s hard.  I think it’s especially difficult because we went from doing NOTHING over the holidays to full on bootcamp.  Maybe by February our bodies will start to thank us.

I also did weights for 3 days and I am happy to report that I can now go to the bathroom without assistance as my legs are adapting to the fact that I have officially started over.  I am still feeling it in my upper body, but it’s manageable. My shoulder/arm is still giving me some trouble and ironically after my steroid shot in the fall, the pain seems to be more in my arm.  I have no idea what that could be, but I am going to take the wait-and-see approach.  I am going to continue to really work it out, strengthen it, and if it continues to be annoying or painful I guess I will have to go visit my friendly orthopedic surgeon again.

I also ran 3 days this week.  I am just doing some interval training, not really going for any mileage right now, thankfully.  My current goal is purely dropping some of my holiday pounds and staying on the fitness wagon.  As you know, I have jumped and been thrown off that wagon many times over the last couple of years.  In fact, my theme for this year is…well, you’ll just have to wait until next week to find out!

Until then, stay on the wagon!

(G): It’s always a little scary when you realize you’re psychic. Wait, maybe that’s psycho. We may have to sort this out one thing at a time.
I think I am psychic because last week I said this new workout regimen may break me first.
Broken?
Check!
I am a little psycho because I agreed to and set myself up on this plan without any help from others. It was totally and completely self-inflicted.

Psycho?
Check!This is how all good plans go awry. I get all pumped up. I commit to serious goals. Then I begin and soon realize it’s so much harder actually doing what I said I would than when I sit on the sofa thinking about these things.
Then I get knee-deep in and reach the point of no return. The point where you have already invested too much. It’s like being halfway through a perm and deciding, no… I really like straight hair.
It’s just way too late.That’s me. I am half-permed, half in-shape, and fully nuts.But enough of the stuff you already knew.

Jason Koop, whose sage advice I have been painstakingly following for the last 9 days, says “you will get worse before you get better.”

I read that phrase earlier and it didn’t resonate all that much. While revisiting his book this weekend after getting several workouts in, it resonated quite a bit — or maybe that was the constant ache in my hamstrings that I am mistaking for resonance but we’ll go with it.

Since our last little chat, I have done 3 running interval sessions, 2 recovery runs (which aren’t as awesome as they sound), and a 2-hour endurance run. That last little gem had the appearance on paper like a helpless little kitten but it packed the power of a tiger, I assure you.

You can see from the photographic proof below, it looks worse and worse as the days added up.

 

And with all of that, the burpee bandwagon continues. I am up to 17 today. I can say that I am getting stronger but I can’t say I like them any more than I did on December 1.

But the real camel back-breaking straw this week came in the form of an exercise that I loathe more than burpees. It’s something I, honestly, never do unless I am under extreme duress. I only do it when there are no options left and that moment arrived with the cold silence that can only be accompanied by stepping on the scale.

That’s right, folks, I am logging my food.

It’s a tedious, somewhat humiliating task, to have to log your weaknesses made manifest in food form. This darn little app chastises me for too much sodium or too much sugar when I haven’t had a chip or a piece of candy in days. I can sense it’s judging me and I think it’s somehow synced itself with Netflix because when it asks me if I am “still watching” I know it’s really My Fitness Pal app just snarking me for sitting too long. What kind of pal is that, I ask you?

The state of affairs at a mere 17 days in is that my legs feel like lead but look something more akin to JELL-O.
I may have a sixth sense, you know being psychic, and possibly a seventh if you count my psychosis.
My burpees continue to be the boss of me.
And lastly, I am tracking my food like a socialite on the hot trail of a vintage Givenchy gown.

Yep, it’s glamorous here but apparently now that it’s gotten worse it’s about to get better.

Fingers crossed.