Squad Day 4: Go Big or Go Home
I never made it back to posting how many steps I got in yesterday, or how much I had to fight with Yrsa yesterday about going on multiple walks (yes, she is lazy). After I posted though, Sam let me know I don’t need to get all 10k steps in, but 5-6k would do fine. I made it to 5814 steps by 9pm last night, and promptly threw myself in bed at like 10.
Today we have Core and Balance for 25 minutes, and I’m adding the Morning Mindstilling, because it’s a practice we are meant to do daily to thoroughly train the mind to be present and alert but not ON alert, not overthinking. I’m really good at overthinking, and I’d like to not be, so I’m going to make sure I’m doing some Mindstilling daily. I think I’m going to do some yoga too, because it just feels like one of those days where I need it.
I woke up hungry again today, so I’m really glad I had some Overnight Oats in the fridge to dig into right away. Today is cranberry and apple with a tiny splash of maple syrup because I LOVE MYSELF, and because I know I wont survive long for training without some food in my belly.
Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com
People around me are beginning to notice that my body is changing. My daughter’s best friend says to me almost every day now “how do you look different every day? Like EVERY day? You look younger and smaller.” Which I’m assuming is Eleven-year-old-speak for “you look good!” My friends have spoken up the last two times I’ve seen them and told me that they can tell I’ve been consistent.
Something I’ve been struggling with lately though is late night snacking. Oh, damn you pantry and your hoard of temptation. I don’t exactly keep a ton of sugary or crappy snacks in the pantry, we tend to eat pretty “clean,” around here, but the snacks an hour before bed have gotta stop. I know it causes me sleep distress and I know it’s not great for my metabolism either. I’ve been trying to get myself to drink a ton of water or eat something virtually calorie free as a light snack instead, like pickles or cucumbers or carrots. Of course none of them are what I crave at 10:15pm.
Anyway, down to brass tax, Today’s workout:
Today’s workout had some upper body included as well as leg stability. We need a small weight, 2lbs, a looped resistance band, and an elevated surface. I workout outside, so I used the stair on my porch.
We started with some wide arm shoulder stretches to open up our shoulders and chest, which was great because I have the crappiest posture after breastfeeding and carrying around all this weight on my chest. I’ve really woken up to how tight my shoulders and chest are in the last few days.
After our shoulders were nice and warmed up we moved into some Bridge Twists, which is something I’ve never done before. DUDE, these were hard. They didn’t look hard when Sam did them in the video, but my attempts left a lot to be desired. I definitely need to work on those.
Then we moved onto my steps for our elevated workout, which was essentially an assisted side plank/kick through situation. The elevation made these way more attainable, I remember doing those kick throughs a few days ago and it was ROUGH you guys, so this elevated version was better for me.
Now arms- we looped a resistance band over our wrists, and did some Banded Shoulder Slides. Ooooooo these BURNED from the start! I loved it. I’ve always loved having strong shoulders and arms and I’ve been wanting a good burn there.
Downward Dog Knee Floats with Knee taps– these are challenging on their own, but throw in those knee taps and it’s a step up. I really had to concentrate on my breathing here.
Next we did some elevated push up and knee twist.. I moved to the side of my porch for these so I would have a good point of contact for the elevation. This move is essentially a push up, but when you hit the top of the push up, you twist- driving the opposite knee up to the elbow, twisting the oblique.
We finished the workout portion with some Side planks and then we stretched it out at the end.
Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com
But…. my endurance has leveled up since I started working out at the end of July, because by the end of the 25 minutes, I was still hungry for more. More sweat, more struggle, more of the challenge of working out. So I did it again. I started the workout over and tried doing the moves without any modifications, I used heavier weight and resistance bands and really got it good the 2nd round. I will probably regret the decision to do it twice tomorrow, but I’ve accepted those consequences. My husband is the only one who will really suffer with my whining, so it’s okay really.
I’m shaky, I’m sore, I’m sweaty. I feel like the first two days weren’t hard at first but I felt them later on, this workout was both- some parts felt like they were too easy, but as the workout progressed I was very aware of what muscles were being worked.
My smallest munchkin woke up right as I finished my workout and met me on the mat. I got her settled with some breakfast with the other two kids and got Yrsa for our walk. We powered through our mile today and then wrestled in the yard for a few minutes before we went inside for 2nd breakfast.
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