Day 43

DVD - Max Cardio Conditioning

I went to a potluck last night with an aprhodisiac food theme inspired by Valentine's Day and probably ate more than I should. My contribution was empanadas. The savory entree version was stuffed with black beans, roasted vegetables (asparagus, zucchini, poblano pepper, red bell pepper & jalapeno) & goat cheese. The smaller, "sweet" empanadas were filled with roasted butternut squash, bake plantain & goat cheese. Both used frozen puff pastry as the dough. Both were fabulous. I'm sure I drank a little too much.

If I were more of a calorie counter (as in needing to count every last calorie that goes into my stomach), I would probably be horrified - but I'd accounted for the splurge earlier in the day. Besides, when I do a diet that involves a caloric limit, I just follow a plan for a week or two until I have a good handle on the portion sizes and preparation methods, including how to make substitutions for variety that don't blow the diet away. (so long as I don't start adding lots of extras to whatever I learned to make).

In the past, I've tried using things like Fitday.com but found all of the data-entry tedious and eventually I always defaulted to the less strict monitoring I mentioned above, and would find myself recreating my meals on Fitday days later. I have overall a pretty good sense what I can and should eat, so am able to stick to this less stringent method generally - it's when I start eating out a lot or stop being even moderately vigilant that I get myself into trouble.

The potluck was the first time I've seen most of the people in attendance since New Year's or the last potluck (they are monthly on the 2nd Sunday of the month), some of whom have been following my Insanity progress via this blog. What that meant is that I got felt up a lot. Everyone wanted to feel my arms and many wanted to check my thighs.

Afterward, I spent the night at some friends' place, and as usual when I sleep over there had a wicked allergy attack come on in the middle of the night. I'd forgotten to bring my allergy meds, and had to wait until many hours later to take anything. Mixing red wines as I did last night is sometimes enough to set my sinuses to wonky. Today I found out they have a moldy wall in their rental unit - most likely the reason I *always* have an allergy attack when I sleep there. Waiting so long to take allergy meds when I have an attack of this magnitude makes me feel like I've got a cold or mild sinus infection, with all the requisite body fatigue and general malaise.

On my way home, I stopped and bought some over-the-counter allergy meds (these have always worked best for me) and popped a dose before beginning the 30 minute BART + walking journey home. By the time I arrived, I was able to breathe through my nose but was feeling a little wheezy.

I confess I was worried about my ability to do the workout this afternoon, especially because there are fewer sanctioned rest breaks in the non-interval workouts. I did it anyway. But I felt like I hit a wall at the end of the stretch section. I seriously considered turning the workout off rather than pushing myself through 30 minutes of intense cardio and then another brief stretch to cool down. 30 more minutes? Really?

I made myself do the first couple of exercises after a delayed start of a few seconds. I found myself looking at the clock to find out how long I had left after what seemed like forever. It had been about 3 minutes. 27 more minutes? Really?

I did this every few minutes until there were about 15 minutes left. At that point I'd given myself over to the idea of completing the workout and I noticed I wasn't struggling physically or feeling as tired as I had when I still had 27 minutes to go. I don't think this was all willpower, mind you. I'm pretty sure there was some adrenaline/endorphin effect in the mix, especially because when it was all over, I felt much better than I had when I'd started. Tired, sore and sweaty, yes, but no longer sickly and run-down.

I'm pretty sure what I did tonight is what Shaun is talking about when he beseeches us to "dig deeper".