Last night was a crazy one. Probably the craziest since I started on this journey. It all started in the evening. As part of my strategy to not go out for dinner, I've been eating a good sized meal a couple of hours before I head to the gym. This prevents me from feeling too hungry before, during and after my workout. I've only been doing this for a few days now, but it has been working pretty well. I was eager to get back to the gym since I hadn't worked out all weekend. I wanted to get in there and sweat the guilt out of me.So there I was eating my chicken soup, around 4PM, as a pre-workout meal. The soup cup wasn't too big, but I could tell it was loaded with chicken. As I was getting to the bottom of the cup, I realized I'm getting pretty full. Almost too full for a pre-workout meal. I was worried. What if it doesn't digest enough for me to do cardio in a couple of hours? What if I end up using this as an excuse to skip the gym, again?
While I was at the beginning stages of this paranoia, I had bright idea. Oh, I'll just take a break and go for a short walk in the parking lot now. It will help me digest faster. Brilliant. I swear, as soon as that thought entered my head, it started pouring down outside. I looked out the window, up at the sky and said, "Oh yeah? Is that how you want to play it? Nice try, but you can't stop me". I got up and started walking inside the office. We have 6 floors in our building, with stairs on each end of the floor. So I walked each floor, end to end, up and down. 20 minutes later, I was back at my desk, at 5PM feeling good. I could tell I wasn't nearly as full as before, and should be ok to do cardio at the gym in another hour. I won, or so I thought.
When I got out of work, it was still raining. It was one of those dark and gloomy evenings. Such a downer. No matter, I said to myself. I'm still going to the gym. I ran to my car, gettingt partially soaked on the way, drove to the gym, grabbed my gym bag and ran again, now fully soaked. Once I got inside the gym, I just stood there for a second and said to myself, "I can't believe I made it". Usually a little drizzle would have made me give up on the workout. But today, I overcame the chicken soup, the rain and the gloomy weather. Yay me!
As I was headed to the men's locker room to change out of my work clothes and into my gym clothes, it hit me. Seeing all those people running reminded me, I FORGOT MY GYM SHOES!!!! There I was, soaking wet in the middle of the locker room, and feeling like someone had just punched me in the gut. I almost dropped on my knees in despair. I was trying to come up with alternatives, but soon I realized, I didn't have any choice but to go home. So back to the car again, only this time I didn't run. I didn't care. I was already devastated to make it all this way, and having to go back without working out. A little more rain was the least of my concerns.
I was driving home, feeling deflated. I started getting frustrated, upset and angry. I could not let another day go by feeling guilty for not working out. I said to myself, its ok. I can still workout when I get home. It wasn't my initial plan, but it would have to do. Just as I was getting out of the hole, I hit another wall. TRAFFIC!! It was raining so bad now, that the freeway looked like a parking lot. The cars we crawling by. It soon became obvious that I'm going to get home late. Really late.
My usually commute time of 40 minutes turned into 1.5 hours. It was 8PM by the time I was home. I was exhausted, and hungry. I had lost all my will power. I had nothing more left. Once again, the excuses started building up. The lazy voice started saying, its ok, you had rough day, you are too tired now. You are too hungry. Its too late to workout. You can just have a light dinner and skip the workout. You are under your calorie amount for the day anyway, so just change into something comfortable and sit on that cozy couch.
I was almost ready to give up, when my wonderful saw what was happening. She realized where I was headed and quickly snapped me out of my downward spiral. She encouraged me to not give up and made me realize that I still had the power to conquer the day. So off I went to change into workout clothes and got on the elliptical. An hour later, I was soaking wet again. Only this time, it was in my own sweat. As disgusting as that may sound, it was the most wonderful feeling I had experienced that day. Proud and guilt free, all thanks to my wife. Once again I looked out the window and up at the sky and said "Nice try, but you can't stop me".
Here is the update for Jun 5th 2012:
1. Wake up early - I woke up 30 minutes earlier than usual. A step in the right direction - 1 point.
2. Eat breakfast - Had an egg white veggie and cheese sandwich on wheat. I looked up a few more breakfast ideas. Hopefully I won't be eating egg whites again tomorrow - 1 point
3. Eat healthy snacks - Green beans and Tuna salad with Italian vinaigrette. - 1 point
4. Drink more water - Had almost 100oz. - 1 point.
5. Spend 1 hour everyday being active - Hell yeah! I need to give myself 10 points just for making this happen - 1 points.
6. Eat a healthy dinner - Protein shake - 1 point.
7. Watch less TV and sleep early - By the time I was done with workout, shower and dinner it was 10PM. So I choose to fail this on purpose. - 0 points
8. Plan my day/week - Decided to post my blog updates in the afternoon. - 1 point.
9. Blog everyday - Done - 1 point.
Total score: 8/10 - 80% but feels like 200%
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