February 22, 2014

PinkNinjaLaura

FromHereOnOut

Okay, so, in all honesty, I'm just not feeling motivated to hit the gym today (well, yes & no). I've done housework today and am now just putting off going to the gym to the point that I don't even know if I'm going to go. I think it's t.o.m.-related, b/c I think if it weren't for that I'd be jumping up and down to get over there. ugh. I don't like it when I'm like this. It's just one day (but would be my 3rd rest day this week!), but on days like this, I never know whether to just give myself a break and start over new tomorrow, or to give myself some tough love and tell myself to "man up" and just get to it. It's like I want to workout, but I don't want to. Inertia, perhaps.

What does everyone else do when you find yourself in situations like this?

btsinmd

If I'm in the situation I think:
1) Am I interested/willing to do some other type of exercise than I originally planned. Would I rather do yoga at home then go to the gym? Would I rather just run outside? Would I rather strength train? If so, then I do that. Maybe something is bothering me just below the conscious level and I need to skip "that" exercise today. If it goes on for multiple days then I try to figure out exactly why.
2) If not, then can I do something for just 10-15 minutes and i try to do that. Sometimes it gets me doing more, sometimes not, but at least I got something in.

btsinmd

Went swimming this morning. Actually meant to go to water aerobics, but the instructor today never pushes and so her classes work if I just want to work sore muscles. However, I was feeling energetic this morning and when I'm feeling like that, I find her class boring. So I just went into another lane and swam laps for an hour.

Then, this afternoon, I went to outdoor nosework practice with my dogs. Here's something I wrote up about the sport. Colin is the dog pictured. http://www.btcoa.org/events/nosework.html So, we walked around outside for a couple of hours with me taking turns with both my dogs. They each found the 15 hides that the instructor had put down for us to find.

Now, I'm home, tired and a bit sleepy. As are the dogs.

PinkNinjaLaura

Those are great tips, Donna.

Usually I make myself start. If I'm not feeling it when I'm 10-15 minutes in, I let myself quit, but typically half the battle is getting myself started.

I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and saw a giant snow pile at the end of my driveway left by the City plow. It's just too much. The past couple days have been so stressful. I've shoveled so much snow. And now it's cold and windy so I was thinking I would have to treadmill run. I decided I'm just not going to do my run today. I had the speech I was going to give my trainer all planned out in my head. I went out and spent 30 minutes clearing the "plow snot" (as one of my friend dubbed it), which if you've never lived in a snow area is basically hard heavy chunks of compacted snow. Got warm out there, and thought "I could run in this." Got instead and read a quote on MFP from one of my friends about running and realized that feeling stressed out is exactly why I need to get out for a run. Besides, the sun was shining. So I layered up (one more layer than usual) and headed out. It was a tough run (we did just get a foot of snow yesterday) but I had on my Yaktrax and I was so happy when I got back that I had. I did a little more snow removal afterward (raked snow off my bathroom roof - back up the dang ladder) and hired my friend's husband to come over and clean off my garage roof for me tomorrow. There's a part of me that hates to pay someone to do something I can do myself, but honestly I'm just relieved to have someone else deal with it. I think for that he's going to have to get up there with a shovel and there is ZERO chance of me being willing to do that myself.

I missed yoga this morning (because I couldn't get my car out until I got my driveway cleared, and by then I didn't have time to shower & get to the gym for class) but I did run 7 miles & do about 45 minutes worth of snow removal. Good enough!

Sherry what did you end up doing?

agingwithfitness

Went to nia class again...happy to be back exercising...

FromHereOnOut

Donna, those were some really good suggestions. I do usually explore whether I'd rather just run, or maybe just go for a walk. Your swim sounds nice. I miss swimming. Cool article about nosework. Dogs are amazing. I've read that they can sense cancer in people. They experience a totally different world than what we experience.


Laura, I hate to hear you're still getting dumped with snow and those big, dirty snow rocks that come off the plows are the worst! Good job getting that run. I can't imagine running in those conditions, much less running for THAT long in those conditions!

Marla, "yay" for being back at it!



Anyway, I ended up staying home. My tummy was feeling big and weird. Time-of-month stuff and just feeling yucky. But, I did talk my husband into taking lil girl for an errand, and in those short minutes, I managed to get the floors done, the dishes done, a load of laundry in, helped my son correct some math homework, and got dinner into the oven--that was after I'd already been putting away toys and laundry and stuff earlier. I told him that if he'd just do that once per week, it'd make a huge difference for me. Just getting 2/3 of them out of the house for half an hour really helps. So, at least SOMEthing that needed to get done, got done today.