Mornings are Best

It seems that it is easiest for me to exercise in the mornings. I am getting to the point where I'm dreading exercising throughout the day. What's the point? I want to have a perfect body and feel 1000% better and have perfect health instantly. I get bored when I don't see instant results. If I exercise first thing in the morning, I avoid most of this process. If I exercise after work, I think about it and dread it half the day.

I don't think that any exercise DVDs will hold my interest long term. I am definitely going to finish the 30-Day Shred and then use that and other DVDs on days I don't want to get outside, but I think that a variety of exercises, particularly outside exercises like running and biking will hold my interest better in the long run. But the problem with outdoor exercises is that I hate the heat and the cold. So that leaves about 4 weeks out of the year where the temperature is just right :-)

I did Day 8 of the Shred yesterday morning. Today we left the house at 6:30 a.m., so I put off exercising until later. I thought about doing it all day kept putting it off and didn't see any way I would ever get through the workout, if I even got started. I got about 5 hours sleep last night and I was beyond exhausted. Finally it got late and I started Shredding at 8:45. Suddenly everything was great! I made it through the workout just fine.

I realized that I am having trouble with my pushups because I am doing them way too slow. I went faster this time and was able to do 18 for the first set and 12 for the second. They are still the modified (on knees) pushups. I might be able to switch to real pushups but only do a few.

Today was Shred Day 9 and Calendar Day 14. That makes it sound like I've skipped a lot of days. I skip Sundays no matter what. The first and second weeks I skipped a day and did no other exercise, and then there was 1 day that I did other exercise.

I wasn't sure if I would be ready to go to Shred Level 2 after 10 days, but I think I will try it. I would still like to MASTER Level 1 though. I want to get to a point where I can do all the exercises easily. I guess there is no point to doing that more than once though -- if it's easy, it's not going to be doing much for me.

I have heard some people say the Shred is hard on the knees and shins. I haven't noticed that at all until today. The outer left side of my knee is a tiny bit tender. I'll keep an eye on it.

Tomorrow we will be leaving early for the 4th of July parade, and I don't want to Shred in the morning since I just Shredded tonight. So I'll have to psych myself up to do it tomorrow afternoon or evening. Maybe it will be a nice pre-fireworks activity :-)

Food yesterday: 10 strawberries, 2 cups green smoothie, 1 Kashi cracker with cream cheese (from co-worker), 1/2 orange roll with frosting (from a different co-worker), a little curry soup (from a third co-worker), 1/2 Quizno's Honey Bacon Club, 1 almond cocoa ball, tortilla + cream cheese, rotisserie chicken and lots of extra skin, peas, rice, about 2 T M&Ms. Well, obviously I got plenty of calories, but still tacked all the treats on top. Sugar fail. Well, actually, Sugar Win. It's Getting Off Of Sugar Fail.

Food today: 3 C green smoothie, McDonald's Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit, 1/2 C orange juice, bits of tortillas with cream cheese, Snickers, chicken/rice/peas/cream cheese, 2.5 slices pizza. Unless I forgot something, I did better on sugar today. But the McDonald's and the pizza more than makes up for that.

I don't think I am going to track calories at this point. I think it will start making me crazy. But if I input my food into FitDay, it automatically calculates the calories. The main problem is the sugar. But I am not ready to release my grip on it. When I'm exercising, I feel really powerful, and I want to give up sugar. But when I'm done, I start thinking about all my favorite treats - oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, dark chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, brownies, ice cream, M&Ms, Nestlé Crunch Crisp, Twix PB, . . . OK, I'll stop there!