My morning was a bit tricky to work with because I have to go in for a long shift this evening, so some aspects like my journaling will have to wait, but I still managed to get some things taken care of.

I was ready to sleep early last night and got up just a little later than planned. My flock had gotten quiet again after getting chirpy at sunrise (I have a kitchen full of parakeets and they’re more effective than the roosters on the next block when the sun comes up) and I wanted to enjoy it for just 15 more minutes. I was pleasantly surprised to feel energetic and ready to get things done. The number on the scale helped give me that extra jolt, giving me assurance that the past few weeks recovery and adjustments to my schedule and nutrition are leading me in the right direction.

I re-started my strength-training program and did some upper body dumbbell and machine exercises, some pushups and isometrics. One of my best investments at the beginning of the year was a pretty basic strength-training journal I got from online that doesn’t have me try to include everything (made the mistake of getting an overly complex one that I gave up using after a couple of weeks). My current plan includes training 6 days a week for up to 30 minutes a morning. This might seem a bit much, but I’ve broken it down into 3 body zones hit twice a week so as not to be too sore or tax those muscles:

• Upper body–Monday & Thursday
• Core–Tuesday & Friday
• Lower body–Wednesday & Saturday
• makeup/rest day–Sunday

I know I’d be inclined to skip days if I did it any other way, and because I concentrate so much on those areas on those specific days, I can feel where I’m having trouble.

After strength training, I have my cross-training period (however long the program lasts). I tend to use iFit with my equipment or my tablet, or I’ll time myself if I feel really pent up and wanna put the bags to some punishment instead. My current cross-training plan is still in the works, but come June it’s gonna look more like this:

• Makeup runs/kickboxing/whatever–Monday & Thursday
• Rower machine–Tuesday & Friday
• Yoga/Total body cardio or strength programs–Wednesday & Saturday
• Rest up–Sunday

I had some growing pains with this plan because of my rowing workouts, mostly, so I swapped dates to make sure I didn’t make myself too sore.

And afterward is my scheduled run for the day. I’m doing 5 a week right now, but will up it to 6 when I get my fitness back up after weeks of not doing it. What’s been tricky is making sure to NOT schedule workouts for every single day. I have been so paranoid about missing workouts and going back to lazier habits that I felt I HAD to work out every day, but sometimes we need those days off. I have had illnesses and days when my period has been very crippling and I couldn’t work out, then it derailed my schedule and I had to rebuild it anyway.

Yeah, I learned my “overplanning” lesson there. If I feel up to working out on my “day off”, then great, I will. And if I have a sick day, I’ll use Sunday as a replacement day. It will make it far easier to keep up with and not as much pressure to get it all perfect.

And now I’m on my way to work, where I’ll journal, read, put out fires that are needed, help when I can, and walk-walk-walk so much I’ll easily go over 20K steps. And a big bottle of water to tote around (that’ll take a few calories off, too, just by default–hee hee).