ow ow ow ow ow ow

Today's circuit:

10 burpees
10 each side single-leg squat (beginner's kind, sitting down to a chair)
10 shoulder pushups (knees on back of couch, pushup sort of vertical-like... ideally this is a handstand pushup, but I'm not there yet)
10 each side lunges (these started out as weighted lunges until there was a painful pop sort of thing in my inner thigh)
20 crunches

OMG that was painful. I hurt now. There is ibuprofen in my future. Oh, and I made it through the circuit only 4 times. I guess there's a lot of room for improvement there!

In other news, am having a lot of difficulty controlling my eating, to the point that I have actually, what with the slacking over the last couple weeks, put on 6 lbs. Uuugghhh. I may eat largely healthy food but I don't have healthy eating habits. I eat too much, generally, and I deal with stress or procrastinating by eating AND doing something else at the same time, I think in order to overload my brain with fun things so it doesn't have time to remind me that I really ought to be cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom, folding the laundry, writing an article, phoning someone, putting Rowan's toys away, culling my book collection, making crackers, or whatever. I have never been particularly good at self-management, and being an effective domestic engineer is ALL about the self-management. I keep everyone well-fed, to be sure - I have no problem planning and executing days-long food prep tasks like bread or whatever - but cleaning? laundry? not so much. There are a lot of factors behind that, but let's just sum up with a simple "I don't like cleaning very much." Eating helps me avoid cleaning, because obviously it's far more important for me to have a snack at any given time than pick up a few toys, or wipe the kitchen counters.

I suck. I KNOW I shouldn't do it, but I do anyway. Right now I really, really need to clean the kitchen - but here I am, finishing off the rest of the morning smoothie and blogging. And I HAVE sort of eaten lunch, although not very much of it. And that wasn't even a good lunch, I finished off Rowan's croissant and ham sandwiches. It's a vicious circle, too, because the more I procrastinate on housework and stuff, the more stressed I get, and the more I want to stuff my face and occupy my brain with unimportant things. And also, when I get stressed, I feel I deserve treats. Really, I do NOT deserve treats, yet somehow my brain manages to convince me otherwise. Sigh.

Well, I guess I just have to work on it. If anyone has any tips for dealing with this kind of eating, let me know.

Ummm... maybe I should start a food journal? An online one... but that would be seriously boring as hell. I'll put it in tiny print so if you don't want to read it, you don't have to.

Oh and the other thing? I think my coffee is sabotaging me... but I looooove my coffee. More sighing.

Food journal (will update later with the rest of the day)
- coffee with half & half
- smoothie: pint of kefir, 2 raw eggs, banana, 1/2 cup frozen fruit
- 1/2 croissant with butter & ham
- 1/4 ham sandwich on homemade bread (no crusts)
- apple
- 2 slices pizza (eating on the run to a meeting)
- bowl of ham & bean soup and a slice of bread

20 minutes, what can you do?

I've been slacking for the past few weeks. Bit of jogging here and there, the odd pushup day, but no real exercise. And I don't feel so hot. So, back on the wagon.

Yesterday I booted it on Bikey over to Sue's house, which is about a 20-25 min ride each way. It was fun, I like pushing hard on the bike because I can get my heart rate up and sustain it and the terrain - mostly flat with a few short intense hills - is good for the leg muscles. I would like to do more with Bikey but the child is averse to going fast. So Bikey, while slightly faster than walking, is actually less exercise than pushing the stroller when the child is involved. This summer's project: turn the child into a speed demon. And just try to use Bikey more generally.

Today I started my 3-times-weekly-honest-for-real bodyweight/LDC circuits. Basically, I give myself 20 minutes to do as many times through a 5-exercise circuit as I can. I've made up 3 circuits, each with different exercises. After 4 weeks, I will make new circuits.

Today:
- 10 x pushup
- 10 x 25lb LDC squat
- 10 x leg-raise ab thingies (lie on the floor, abs tight to support back, use abs to pull legs from parallel to feet over head, repeat)
- 2 x 10 x arm circles, both directions (40 arm circles total, use full range of shoulder motion)
- 10 x shoulder bridge with leg raise, both sides. (Shoulder bridge using one leg, other leg goes up and down 10 times)

I got through 5 reps of the circuit. Hey, that's 50 pushups! (Well, some of them kinda sucked a little.)

On Wednesday I will post my next circuit.

Originally I had planned headstand leg raises on this circuit. I clearly remember, circa age 12 or so, doing lots of headstands. However, I was probably 40 lbs lighter and in considerably better shape, and now it seems my neck will not permit this. I'll keep trying but it seems like a bad idea now.