Rice to the Rescue

This morning, my workout was NOT easy! I hit the gym at 5:45 to do back and a quickie cardio circuit. My energy was basically nonexistent because I didn’t go to sleep until midnight last night! (I know, after I just pontificated about the importance of sleep I slept for a mere 5-ish hours! Terrible!) Even though it was tough, I did push through my whole workout and even worked up a pretty decent sweat. Once my workout was completed I felt good and proud of myself for getting in there and getting it done. I was happy that I didn’t just “go through the motions”.

I think I might have over done it yesterday and made myself over tired. Yesterday morning Dan and I woke up at 6:45am and started our morning with a quick but heavy legs session. After warming up we did this routine:

                Squat Press; 3 sets, 8-10 reps

                Calf Raises; 3 sets, 35 reps

                Extensions; 3 sets, 25  reps

                Squats; 3 sets, 6-8 reps

                Split Squats; 3 sets, 6 reps each leg

                Box Jumps to failure

It was quick, but tough L I went heavy. I realized about half way through the workout that doing a heavy day of legs the day after a long run was a pretty dumb move. What I really needed yesterday was a REST day—or at least an active recovery day. I thought about taking the day off today but when I woke up I had the energy and just couldn’t lay in bed any longer so I went to the gym and just focused on my upper body. My cardio circuit consisted of some jumping jacks, burpees, push ups and mountain climbers. It pretty much served as a warm up. I was in and out in about 45 minutes.

Back to yesterday; yesterday was a really fun day! Casey’s 20^th birthday was October 22^nd, and her boyfriend, George’s 21^st was October 20^th. So yesterday my mom hosted a big birthday celebration at our house. She went all out with the food (as usual) and dinner seriously felt like Thanksgiving!! Plus just about EVERYTHING we ate was PUMPKIN flavored! LOVE! First, she served a butternut squash and pear soup that was so delicious. Then, we had salads and for the main course she made an incredible beef stew with root vegetables that she served in a BAKED PUMPKIN. I really should have taken a picture of the stew-in-the-pumpkin but I forgot! For dessert, she made chocolate cake balls and a pumpkin spice cake. I brought a fat-free, sugar-free “pumpkin cream pie” that I made (poorly) that ended up looking like a slab of goo. Everyone was kind of grossed out by it but not surprisingly Casey and I enjoyed it and continued to pick at it after we finished our slices. My mom also served pumpkin ice cream and Halloween cookies (because in our family there is no such thing as too much dessert…or food in general). I had seconds and thirds of everything, plus a glass of wine and I consistently picked on everything in between each course. At least before dessert was served Dan and I took Chewy on a walk so I got some movement in!

Babe & I waiting for dinner <3

                Dan and I got back to his apartment at around 9pm and I must have been on a sugar high from the desserts because I could not sleep for the life of me! Plus, I was seriously starting to feel that morning workout. My glutes were SCREAMING. I made myself a glass of peppermint tea and read some magazines hoping it would calm me down and make me sleepy. By 10pm, though, I was on the living room floor with the foam roller, rolling out my glutes and hips while watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey Reunion. By 10:30, I gave up and just took a melatonin. I waited and waited for it to kick in but I just could not get tired!! I finished watching the reunion show, read a little and did some journaling until finally at around 11:40pm I was tired enough to go lay down. I tossed and turned for a while and finally fell asleep. Perhaps I just wasn’t tired because I sprung out of bed before 6am this morning without an alarm. Today, I haven’t felt irritable, groggy or tired. Now I’m finally starting to unwind so hopefully I’ll have a good night of sleep tonight.

                Even though yesterday was a wonderful day full of great family bonding, there was one tiny lil downside. I dropped my phone right into Chewy’s water bowl. L Currently, I am disconnected from the world as my phone is recovering in a bag of uncooked white rice. Apparently, this process saves a submerged phone. It takes a few days. So in a few days when I take it out of the rice, I’ll let you know the verdict.