Rituals

So I'm better. It took three days of sitting at home reading watching Pretty Little Liars and other trashy television, but I made a full recovery, and by Friday felt almost back to normal. I took a walk on Friday at lunch but other than that laid low, recovered etc etc.

Sunday I wore my gym clothes to babysitting and after buying new headphones, hit the gym for the first time in ages. I did a lot of reflection while there, and realized how much I miss that gym (I miss the one near my old work even more!). I miss my Sunday workouts that I used to treat as a ritual. I'd go to church, come home, change, and head out. I'd start with stretching, and then head into the weight room. I'd spend between 20-30 minutes in my little corner (for some reason there was rarely people in the weight room on Sundays, especially in football season). From there I would either do some mat work, work on some weight machines, or head straight into cardio. Always the same, rarely did I vary from this basic routine, and I'd always leave feeling so accomplished and happy.

Back when I was good at losing and  staying on track, I valued these workouts so much. It really was when I started to try other things, or rush through them that I stopped liking my workouts, and it became more of a hassle. I need to start getting back into that jive again. My new gym isn't as  big (it's in a community center, but right up the street so very convenient), so it's not as good for my "ritual" (there's very little space in the weight room, and no stretching area), but it's so close to my house, I can make do, you know?

Anyways, I had a great workout. It reminded me how much I love strength training and spending time with free weights. It always makes me feel so strong, and gets me in the mood to have a good cardio session afterwards. I am making a conscious effort going forward to get more strength training in, if for no other reason than it will keep me from being so sore the next day! I had one of those ease into my chair and sigh days, I was so sore!

And yet, I still managed to get out there today and not only walk, but run. Who am I? :-) It was a walk run for sure (2 minutes on, 2 minutes off), and there were a lot of hills I unabashedly walked, but it was a great workout, and I ended up burning 567 calories, which is 367 more than I had planned on :)

Tomorrow night M and I are heading to Jacob Wirth's (german food/beer bar) for dinner (and splitting some apps), and then heading to a concert  downtown. We're seeing The Hold Steady, who I've seen before and loved, it was seriously one of my favorite concerts. I'm also guessing with how sore my legs are, it will be a well deserved day off :)

Happy Monday :)