Exercise is the Star

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My last post was Sunday...today is Friday. Yep, I warned you I might be silent for a bit given all the party planning. Marek's 5th birthday party is only a couple days away and we're all very excited! This week I did some cake sampling, chocolate making and decoration making. It's a Lego themed party and I love Legos so I'm having a good time with all of it.

My next post will hopefully include pictures of the above mentioned items. I have to include a picture of the chocolates, they are so cute! All this stress and busyness has been a fine excuse to eat, well, too much of not the best stuff. Nothing crazy but just more than I need and not-so-great choices. Don't worry, I'll give a few examples of the debauchery.

And so, exercise remains the shining star of operations. Monday I hit the gym and rode 25 minutes on the upright bike followed by back/biceps/core. I'm looking at my gym-log and I wrote a big DONE! on that page. Must have been feeling good. Tuesday was a day off from exercise. I think that was the evening I almost took the kids to In-n-Out for dinner but then thought better of it.

Wednesday was back to the gym. To give you a sense of how I was feeling, here's my FB post from that afternoon.

I love my FB folks, always so supportive! So despite my dragging I managed to get myself outside for a run. I knew the treadmill would just crush any life I had left in me. I ran with my Garmin but purposefully didn't look at it, I just wanted an easy, no-pressure run. I finished and looked at my time, 28:25 for a 9:28 pace. Awe-some! That's an amazing time for a run that felt very doable, not pushing it, just running at a comfortable pace.

After the run I did chest/triceps/core. That evening I made a bunch of chocolates for the party. And I might have had a piece or seven.

Thursday was an all-day training at work. And as has happened in the past I gave in to all sorts of "bad food" urges. I had a healthy breakfast and then proceeded to eat both my morning and my afternoon snack before 10am. Lunch came and I got fried chicken and onion rings with vanilla pudding for dessert. Yep, you read that right. And the onion rings were perfectly bad. Yum! I also got a bag of "trail mix" (read: candy in parts) of m&m's, nuts, and other bits of goodness. I ate almost the whole bag (which was decidedly not a single serving, more like probably 4-5) throughout the afternoon.

Whew, glad to have that off my chest. Come gym-time I was tired and felt crappy. I'm pretty sure the food contributed to that feeling. But I hopped on the bike and rode my 25 minutes at level 8. Followed that up with legs/shoulders/core work. It feels so good to have the weight training feel mostly easy/moderate again.

Today was more chocolate sampling and a too yummy restaurant lunch of a salad and pizza with sausage, goat cheese and kale. Work ran late and I didn't have time to go to the gym. But I knew/know I needed it so I decided to go after dinner. I got there around 7:45pm and started with a treadmill run. After that lunch and my eating in general this week I was determined to run my full 3-miles on the treadmill.

I started at 6.0mph and eventually did intervals between 6.0 and 6.5mph. I ran the last tenth-of-a-mile at 7.0 just because I thought I could. And I was right. Whew, that was tough! After the run I did back/biceps/core for strength training. I was very pleased that I went, especially given that I might get no exercise this weekend because of the party.

But I'm reminding myself it's all within my reach. If I want to I can get up early Sunday morning and run. Nothing stopping me but me. So we'll see. But you know how I feel about early morning runs. Here's a hint: not good. So don't hold your breath, I'm certainly not holding mine.

Oh, before I close...I got a new haircut and had her go shorter than usual. You might not be able to tell but I also got highlights again. I have quite a bit of gray and it felt like time to do some blending. We'll see if I keep it up. I'm not a big fan of sitting in a salon chair so more time doesn't really appeal to me.

I guess I could mention my weight. It's a hair below 145. With the eating this week I might even go above that. Gasp! It's ok, I know I'll be ok. Because if I'm not, I'll make changes to get back to ok. I love that concept.

Ok, it's 11pm...off to bed!