Random Musings & Thoughts 7/27/16

I managed to get a couple really good nights of sleep last week in between working overtime and only getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep on my overtime days.  The days in between I got 6.5 hours and 7 hours, respectively.  And I didn’t even have to take a sleeping pill!  Both times I slept straight through and didn’t wake up once, not even to go to the bathroom!  Because of the sleeping in until 7:30am on those 2 days last week to make sure I did get a little more sleep, I didn’t get as many strength training sessions as I wanted.  I got a whopping ONE, in fact.  Normally I like to do 2-3 sessions per week.  Now, I did go to the gym 3 times, but one time all I did was do my swim (that was Sunday and I just wasn’t feeling it) and the other time I just had time to do my run as my time management skills leave a little to be desired at times.

All 3 shifts of overtime I worked last week, I walked and walked and walked and did my body weight exercises.  One day I did leg lifts, another day I did Bavarian split squats (one legged squats with your other foot behind you on a chair or some other elevated surface…makes it hit the hamstrings better) and the 3^rd time I did tricep dips on the bench.

I got this YOR (that’s the brand name) Super Greens supplement from one of my coworkers.  They’re a little pricey.  The first day I took them, I felt pretty good.  I was tired before I took them and after they kicked in, I felt perked up and energized.  You can mix them with anything, but the package recommends cold water.  I mixed mine that first day with my coffee and it was actually quite tasty.  The coffee was caramel macchiato flavored (the coffee, not the creamer…I don’t do flavored creamers…they have sugar and are loaded with unnecessary calories) and when I added the Super Greens, it gave it a kind of sweet, herbal taste.  I really liked it!  Later in the first day, I mixed it with just plain water…wanted to give myself a little bit of natural energy while I worked the late night shift at work.  The second day, I mixed them with my glutamine and BCAA’s in water.  It was pretty tasty!  Couldn’t even really taste them over the flavor of the BCAA’s.

Last week, a LOT of people really started pointing out that they noticed I have lost a significant amount of weight and that it is definitely obvious.  I said a sincere and chipper “thank you” to soooooo many people because they all told me how great I was looking and congratulated me on my weight loss.  Then I told them that I’ve lost 30-something pounds since the beginning of May and they’re just flabbergasted.  Like, seriously, their jaws dropped open and their eyes almost popped out of their heads!  I have to say, I was pretty astounded myself when I turned a certain way and my oblique ab muscle just popped right out and said “HELLO!”  I was just like wow!  I really wish I had pictures from when I was training for bodybuilding (I never made it beyond like 4 months into the training…I just couldn’t stick to the super strict and bland diet…I bet I could now!  But I don’t want to do that.  That was what I wanted 11 years ago.  Now I’m a runner).  Actually, I just wish I had pictures from my 20’s and earlier 30’s.  I just don’t have many pictures of myself from beyond a few years ago when I first started trying to be serious about losing weight. 

One of my favorite races (last year was the inaugural event), the South Padre Island Marathon just posted their A and B options for this year’s medal.  People can vote on it and they’ll then pick a winner.  I love both designs and would be very happy with either one.  One has one sandcastle on it that’s a little cartoonish (but like a bronze color, like last year’s medal was bronzey) and the other has 2 sand castles that look semi-professional-like (also bronze).  I’m so excited for this race!

I decided this past week to up a couple of my FitBit daily goals.  I changed my 10K steps a day to 15K steps a day and, while I didn’t hit that every day, I did hit it MOST days.  I also changed my floors of stairs goal from 10 floors to 20!  I do love stairs.  Also, I really wish FitBit would make it so that you could manually add floors of stairs like you can steps, miles, kilometers, swimming workouts, and such.  It’s upsetting to me that you can’t add floors of stairs because FitBit doesn’t recognize that you’ve gone up any floors at all when you’re on a stair climber machine. 

I think it’s high time to replace my Garmin GPS watch again.  It doesn’t seem to hold onto charges (or maybe I’m an idiot that occasionally forgets to turn it off?).  But, it does say it has a low battery and dies when it still has between 12-22% battery left.  And there is the 920XT that has a race predictor that will help me stay on pace in races because it will show me in what approximate time I will finish the race based on my pace thus far and my pace at the moment that I check it.  I had this feature on the Polar M400 and that was pretty much the only thing I liked about the Polar.  So, I’m going to see if I have the money available on my next paycheck to buy it.  I will probably have to scrimp on a few things, but I think I can afford it.

I got my new vacuum this past weekend.  I assembled it and used it and I love it.  It’s actually not super loud.  I can still hear the TV over it!  I used both the floor head and the tube by itself and both worked fantastic.  I bought the Shark Navigator Lift Away Deluxe.

So, being a fitness fanatic and a FitBit fanatic.  And since I recently upped my daily step goal, I’m always looking for ways to hit that step goal and just keep myself moving, moving, moving as much as possible.  A body in motion stays at motion and I don’t want to be that body at rest that stays at rest because, to me, that’s just boring.  Not saying I don’t take my times to chill and relax, just saying, I like to stay busy.  Anyway, off topic there.  I like to walk and run and do anything that gets me more steps.  WALK ALL THE STEPS!!!  So, that leads into…yes, I play Pokemon Go.  Not all seriously or anything and I’m very inept at it, but I do enjoy finding new and fancy Pokemons and now that I’ve learned what Pokestops are and how to use them, it’s a little more fun for me as I ran out of balls the other day.

I’ve also decided that while I’m on vacation I will consume as little caffeine as possible.  So, I went and bought decaf coffee and some caffeine free diet coke.  I can’t be sure if how I felt on Sunday had anything to do with caffeine withdrawals, but I’m pretty sure it was mostly due to dehydration and having 2 alcoholic drinks when I usually have none.  So, I’m sure there was a tiny bit of caffeine withdrawal, but not much.  I decided to do this because I believe my body has become completely desensitized to caffeine and I needed to take a step back from it for a little bit and this was the perfect time to do it.  usually when I go on a vacation where I stay home, I at least cut back on caffeine if not completely stop consuming it.

This week in food, we have green waffles (spinach & banana...you seriously can't taste the spinach), salmon burgers,  watermelon, and lots of water!

I wanted to post some of the fitness and inspiration memes that really impacted me this past week.  I might make this a regular part of this post.  Nothing like ending a post with some positive memes, right?!?!