That Moment When....

As I'm finishing up the production run of the King and I it has definitely put a damper on my physical activity but I've managed to stick somewhat to my healthy choices though dinner time on show days can be a rush. I have however somehow begun to loose weight again. Yay! My mom has come to visit for the next 6 weeks for the holiday season so it's been fun to share my healthy cooking with her too though she doesn't seem to think it's as tasty as I do. She also keeps hoping to wake up at 5 to do yoga with me but hasn't quite happened yet.

When she arrived on Saturday I brought her home from the train station and shortly after I headed out to do a show. When I got home she was very excited to show me a surprise she had carted all the way down here in her carryon bags......tada! A scale! My initial reaction was to laugh. It's kind of like getting wrinkle cream for your 30th birthday. What are you trying to say?!?! You feel slightly offended as the reality sets in that you actually need it.  I've just been weighing myself on occasion on one of the scales at work. I'm afraid now with easy access I might be more inclined to weigh myself more often and drive myself crazy but I'll try to keep it at a minimum.

Yoga For Neck & Back Pain

It's been over a week since I've worked out because I've been burning the candle at both ends. Now that the King and I is entering it's last weekend of performances I've had one or two nights off to feel a little more caught up on sleep and recouping some energy. With that being said, I got myself up at 4:45 to do some Youtube Yoga for beginners again. I'm still not looking to get back on the road and run so that I don't reinjure my ankle...at least not until I'm done jumping on it repetitively in the show. This morning I found one video that said it was Yoga for neck and back pain. It was heavy on the squats, lunges, planks and downward facing dog positions. At one point she went from just a standard hipraise to a back bend and I was all..."What part of this is for beginners?!?!" When it was over and I was sitting on the couch drinking my coffee and snuggling with the fur-kids I suddenly started getting sharp pains in my back. Well geez! I didn't realize that "Yoga for neck and back pain" meant it would give you neck and back pain. I'm alright now but I think if I'm going to do that girl's video again, I'll start with her first and second video, this one was apparently too advanced for me.

YouTube Yoga

Another morning of YouTube Yoga. This is day 2 of yoga for me. I don't particularly enjoy this girl's videos "Yoga with Adrienne", I find she talks too much and it's not soothing but I also didn't want to spend a lot of time surfing YouTube to find the perfect free video so I deal. I'm finding that yoga incorporates some of the staple exercises from bootcamp like planks and isolated squats but with less speed requiring more control through the transitions.

The best thing about YouTube Yoga is when it buffers during child's pose. The same does not apply to when you're in a particularly difficult pose like the Lord of the Dance pose or something ridiculous like that.

I discovered another perk about working out at home, you can wear whatever you want...or don't want...like your pajamas for example thereby reducing your laundry load. I think when I finally actually catch up with my laundry I'll find a significant decrease in volume.

No Shavasana For Johanna

On the recommendation of one of my friends and readers, I tried some YouTube Yoga this morning as an alternative while my ankle heals. As I'm in these really wrist intensive poses, it all comes back to me as to why I haven't done yoga in years. I think I'll continue with yoga though because I'll never recover full strength and range of motion in my wrists if I don't keep pushing myself. It's funny, you may feel while doing yoga that you're not getting an intense workout just because you're not dripping of sweat like in aerobics type workout but I can definitely feel my muscles are sore from the "smooth" and "graceful" movements.

I will say, one of the perks of working-out at home is when you need a potty break, it's right there and since it's yours, no need to add squats to your routine. :-) The downside, if you've got a zoo like me, you can have some rude interruptions. I ended up sharing my yoga mat at one time or another with both my cats, both my dogs and the dog I'm babysitting. While I was in shavasana aka corpse pose at the end, the little dachshund I'm sitting was so concerned for me he started crying and crawled on top of me and laid across my chest...my cat however decided I had enough relaxation time and knew just how to damage my calm as she attempted to sit on my face.

New Challenges

Swollen Cankles!

Now that I've got a big a swollen cankle I'm having to adjust my routine. This wouldn't be so difficult if I was still in bootcamp, I'd just tell Sgt Laura about my injury and then she'd tell me how to modify. I know now for next week that I need to do some research and plan my workouts since just winging it proved to be more difficult. Still I did some of my own tabatas with things like pushups, sit-ups, weighted sit-ups, leg lifts, and as a recovery between each, a v-hold. The moral of the story, don't make me laugh, I don't think my abs can take it.

Furryoga

The thing with doing floor exercises at home is if you leave for just a minute somehow everyone thinks that it's time for a group yoga class. Move over kids! Momma's got some sweating to do. It's sinking in more and more how different it is working out alone. So many of our bootcamp exercises can be done alone but they were most often done with a partner. Partner high-five sit-ups just aren't the same without CEO.com. Reggie kept walking behind me when I was doing my sit-ups and stood there so I couldn't lay back down. That's when I got the idea that he could be my partner after all, I DID train him to high-five. He had the attention span for all of three high-five sit-ups before he got bored and sat in his lay-z-boy chair.

When your gym partner
needs to cut those nails

Twist And Shout

Today was the first day working out on my own while I build my sponsorship pool to be able to rejoin a gym. Reggie and I put on our bright reflective gear and headed out for a run. Instead of the .7 mile loop I've done with him in the past, I decided to try another longer route since I've got that 3.1 mile Trick or Trot next week. We were about .25 mile away from the house when I stepped on the edge of the pavement and CRACK, I was down on the ground rocking back and forth cradling my twisted ankle while still trying to hold on to my exuberant shepherd/husky mix. There were no street lamps, no light from nearby residences just Reggie and I in the darkness almost exactly across from where Kaytlyn Cooper was fatally struck by a car a year ago. As I sit there pondering my options I was glad I brought my phone which was something I never did for bootcamp. I was thankful I knew of at least one friend that was nearby and awake at this ungodly hour if I couldn't put any weight on my ankle. The initial pain and shock subsided and I pulled my self to my feet. I started taking a few steps back home when I made the decision to walk it off. By the time I reached Lakewood and Golfview I was at a slow jog and found that it actually felt better than walking. This could possibly be because I put more weight on my toes when jogging or maybe my plantar fasciitis was more distracting while running. Reggie and I took Westminster on account of it having one of the few sidewalks in this town. I think we may have startled a few bootcampers when our paths converged on Westminster. Though he made no sound, maybe he gave them the evil eye because they stopped dead in their tracks. I decided we better cross to the other side of the road in case anyone wanted to run faster than us. When we got to the corner of Lakewood and Westminster I thought it best we walked the dangerous narrow and winding shoulder until we got back to Golfview. From there I fartlekked (walk/jog) the way back while Reggie outright farted lol. We made it, the whole 2.25 miles! As long as my ankle heals I feel encouraged about completing that 5k next week. I decided the combination of the trauma and the fear of being hit by a car burned enough calories for today.

And So It Begins

I "enjoyed" a week off from working out but really I was failing to drag my ill body out of bed in time to work out on my own thanks to a weekend in NJ with my sniffling and sneezing niece and nephews. I got up and went to the Highlands YMCA Bootcamp for one final time this morning. I won't be able to afford it moving on so starting this week I'll be forever alone.....well, my dog Reggie will have to learn to enjoy running without throwing up and pooping at least. I might even give my schnauzer a shot once in a while but something tells me running with him at 5am might not work for the noise ordinance in my neighborhood. I'm worried though that I won't be ready for my first 5k on the 30th now that it's up to me to get ready but I'll do some research and find a couch to 5k strategy that might work for me.