I woke up feeling like ass today. Sinus headache with nausea from the intensity of the pain that led to revisiting my breakfast and calling in sick to the office. A few hours more of sleep and the nausea subsided enough for me to keep down the allergy meds to make the sinus congestion and pain go away as well as eat a little something. Another lengthy nap and I woke up starving with only the merest tinge of sinus discomfort and a whole lot of sneezing. After sneezing my way through a meal, I took another dose of allergy medication, and waited.
By 5:00 pm, I was feeling relatively normal physically, if not mentally. I mean, I'd have to be crazy to even *think* about wanting to workout given my earlier day, right?
Well, is is Insanity after all.
By 6:00 pm I'd talked myself into it. The conversation went something like this:
Me: I can do it!
Saner Me: Give it a rest, you didn't feel good today.
Me: But I don't want to throw off my schedule!
Saner Me: You're crazy!
Me: I know!
Marginally Saner Me: Well, I suppose you can try it and if it feels like you can't get through it, stop.
Me: Perfect!
So I got suited up and went at it. Saner Me kept (crazy)Me from giving the "warm up" my all. Concentrating on how I felt physically as a whole gave me something to focus on other than my ankle. The ankle started to nag at me eventually about half way through the "pure cardio" section of Pure Cardio - that 18 minute strech of 1 minute drills - but not like it had been hurting. I only had to modify the moves slightly. The other modification I made was to monitor my pace rather than try to push through as hard and fast as I could until I hit cardio walls. Shaun stresses "form" over "speed", so that if you can't keep up the cardio pace he demands of you and maintain proper form, you are expected to either slow your pace or take a break. In other words, I tried to stay at aerobic or anaerobic levels rather than in the Red Line Zone .
Thanks to my modifications I made it through without feeling the need to quit, and afterward I felt even better than I had when I'd started - just a little more body-tired and sweaty.
Tomorrow I'm adding a Green Tea extract supplement to my routine. I never know whether to trust these fad herbal things or not, but there seem to be some reputable studies backing up at least some of the claims used to market green tea products, ie: increased energy and a slightly elevated body fat loss rate when combined with diet and exercise (up to 17% more, primarily fat around your core). Some of the other, non-scientifically studied claims include: increased cognitive function, increased metabolism and reduced levels of LDL (the bad cholesterol. ) Even if none of it is scientifically true, perhaps the psychological desire for it to be so will have a positive effect. If I think it's giving me more energy, maybe my brain will fool my body into thinking that is true. There's a lot to be said for thinking "Yes I can!"
No comments:
Post a Comment