At Home - Day 21: Zumba? Please and Thank You!

A summary of my Sunday, January 8, 2012:

I'm very proud of that number today! It could have been much worse considering how bloated I feel! My body responded fairly well today to working out hard, so I have a good feeling this number will be going down over the next several days!

Finally making a little progress! I'm sure it was even more, but my Garmin foot pod stopped working just before we got to the Zumba class this morning! I transferred the data to my computer to find I had burned 1813 Calories without taking one step! I'll have to figure out what happened there.

  

Approximately 1396 Calories

Approximately 1813 calories

• 1/4 mile "jog in place" while cooking breakfast
• 1 mile at 11.5 incline on treadmill at 3.0
• 2.5 miles on elliptical at Level 5
• 1 hour of Zumba
• 1.25 miles on treadmill at 5.5 mph
• Foam rolling for 15 minutes

  Personal Score:  A
(I turned it around, kicked its arse and slapped it silly!)

I didn't fall asleep until almost 3:30 AM this morning. Sudden bouts of insomnia really affect me the next day. I was so scared that I wouldn't work out, yet again due to the lack of sleep, that my nerves were keeping me awake! Silliness! I decided that I would have Siri cancel all my alarms and I would let my body wake up naturally, no matter how late, in the hopes that I would be rested without interruption.

I was pleasantly surprised that my body automatically woke up around 9 AM. I didn't waste nearly the amount of morning that I had anticipated. At first, I felt an urge to get out of bed and start moving, but then I saw that Arthur made a move on Words With Friends, so I stayed in bed a little longer to play a devil word as retaliation for his play, which I still contest is a totally made-up word! Haha!... then I got a little lazy.

Still laying there, cozily wrapped in my fluffy blankets like a fabric burrito, I started to check FaceBook, Twitter, all of my email, and do a little shopping on the Internet. Before I knew it, it was 9:45 AM! I read Amanda's FaceBook post and it mentioned that she had already completed 5 miles today. Wow! And here I am, my lazy butt still in bed, and no workouts to speak of over the last two days. GET UP! Amanda's already got her entire burn in for the day! AND she looks amazing! You need to work on looking amazing too! GET UP!!!!! So, I did!

I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and the first thing I saw was the collage I made yesterday! I actually stood there and read each inspirational quote to see if one in particular would light a fire in me today. The one that hit me right between the eyes was,

"The pain of being overweight is far worse than the pain of working out!"

How easily do I forget that very statement? How easily have I forgotten how much pain I used to be in those first few weeks at Biggest Loser Resort? Why have I blocked out all the tears, the agony, the painful rehab sessions with Dr. Ray?! I NEED to remember that every single day! I'm not in that kind of pain anymore because aside from my fabulous sessions with Dr. Ray, I was doing an excellent job at taking care of my body and keeping my core strong! Why would I even CONSIDER skipping a workout when I'm perfectly capable? If my core weakens the slightest bit, my discs will no longer be supported and in one micro-movement, I could be debilitated once again - unable to walk properly and maybe even bed-ridden for weeks. That's just crazy!

Over the last ten years, when I was experiencing the pain, there were times I would have done anything to make it stop. Now that I have this gift of an almost-pain-free existence, why do I so easily forget how it came to be and what it takes to hold onto it? I think I need to make myself a reminder list of where I was and why I don't want to go back there ever again. Having had this taste of freedom and happiness, I don't ever want to go back to feeling my body was like a torturous prison that I couldn't wait to escape. Ever.

A flood of anger came over me... anger toward myself, and a little shame. I was squandering something away that I begged to have for more than a decade. Stupid! I texted my friend, Ben and asked him if I could pick him up for a Zumba class at 11:15 AM. He obliged and I got dressed for the gym.

As I was putting on my Garmin for what would be my first "real" workout since it was delivered, I noticed that the foot pod still needed to be calibrated! There wasn't enough time! I barely had enough time to make myself some oatmeal and peel a Clementine Cutie Orange before I had to head out the door! ... hmmm... I wonder if jogging in place would work? It did! While I was cooking, I jogged in place as continuously as possible! After 20 minutes, my Garmin said I had "traveled" 1/4 mile! I broke a pretty good sweat for doing simple "kitchen calisthenics!" Cool! AND, what do you know? I got a little warm-up in before Zumba!

The other mini-discovery I had this morning was that oatmeal cooked in almond milk tastes phenomenal! I'm so thrilled that I can still use a milk substance to cook oatmeal and not have to worry about the added fat, calories and sugar. (Have you SEEN the amount of sugar in milk?!?! It's almost as bad as soda!) I had my Bob Harper breakfast: oatmeal and fruit. Very filling and satisfying! Wouldn't it be great if we could get someone else to clean up the mess afterward?!

Zumba WAS A BLAST!!! I am soooo uncoordinated when it comes to dancing, but I absolutely LOVED this class! Ben and I had so much fun shaking our booties and my Garmin was registering over 150 bmp and up to 179bpm for most of the class! What an awesome and fun workout! I'm hooked! I wish I could shake my thang like the lady in front of me! Daaaaammmn! Something to aspire to achieve!

After Zumba, I went straight to the gym and worked out until it was time to meet Marisa for lunch. We went to a new little Indian place and the food was fantastic! Chicken Tikka Masala, no rice, and half of a round of naan bread. YUM!!!! This was definitely part of my 10% and worth it! I kept the portion size small so as not to consume too many bad calories. I'm very happy with how I've chosen to spend my 10% recently! No guilt and no regrets!

Once I got home, I hit the foam roll like I should have been doing all week. Better late than never, right?

I'd like to close out today by saying how grateful I am for my BLR family. I can't imagine having a better support system on this journey! Any successes I've had would not have occurred if not for most of you! I love you all and if you ever need anything, please ask! You've already given me so much! I'm looking so forward to May, when we get to reunite!



(PS: Has ANYONE heard from Shelene??? She's not answering calls or texts and she's disappeared from FaceBook.)

I just may get to bed at a decent hour tonight! Wish me luck! If you have time, please officially "follow" my blog (on the right hand side of the page) so that I know who to thank for reading this stuff! :)

See you on the fit side!

-Heather