Spring is finally here! Need proof? Mud. I actually stole the last bit off of a board somewhere on campus. But it's true. It's been raining all day today and we've moved on to snowy to muddy. Not my favorite part of spring but I did go to the gym today with no heavy jacket or outer pants so...
So much happened today in terms of everything fitness. So far today I've drunk about 3 liters of fluids (coffee and water) and still counting (I'll try to get down 3 14-oz mugs of tea before bedtime), which I've been doing all week but today I actually rigorously counted and timed my fluid intake. My diet, however, fell short by about a mile since I ate nothing but spaghettios all day (breakfast and lunch). They are homemade and they were make this morning so at least there was no preservatives and they are fresh, but in terms of nutrition... well, telling yourself it's got protein from milk and cheese and veggie from the tomato sauce can only go so far. Plus I way over ate and basically spent the whole working day today doing everything I could, short of self-induced vomiting, to get all this carb and fat out. This included standing all day, walking around as much as possible, drinking a lot of water afterwards, and even doing squats while I was in the dark room developing some film for my experiments.
The good news is, I did manage to get some of it out before going to the gym. I wasn't worried about feeling bloated or full while I run, but I just don't want to carry any extra weight if I can.
I also found these fat burning pills I bought way back when, that if you take them about an hour before your workout, they help increasing the amount of fat you burn. They got good reviews when I bought them who-knows-when, and I figured that since I had some left I might as well take them before I go running.
I think part of its mechanism is to induce water loss right before your workout, and somehow quench your thirst during the workout, and I still haven't figured out if it does anything to you afterwards. I don't feel that my belly or thighs getting extra warm or anything so I don't know if there are more fat being burnt, but the whole water loss at the beginning was unsettling. I had thought I just drank too much water during the day and therefore I had to go to the bathroom more but what happened before I had to leave for the gym was unsettling. I was afraid that I wouldn't last even a mile on the treadmill before I had to go again but thankfully somehow by the time I got on the treadmill my body went into no-i-don't-need-anymore-water-but-i-also-don't-need-to-get-rid-of-any mode.
So that was all weird, but my run today was fantastic. I still weighed more than I did yesterday when I got on the treadmill (still lots of people today and the cardio machines were dangerously full but there was one for me and that was all it mattered), but my 4-mile run felt great. The speed I usually run at felt easy and effortless, and I could just go on and on. The only thing that bothered me was my right foot as I sped up, but I managed to stay at 5 mph for about 10 minutes before I forced myself to slow down as my run was approaching an end. I really think I am getting better.
Watched an entire episode of Makers series on PBS on the women's movement. It was the first of a two-parter (I think, there may be more than 2 parts so who knows), and it ended gloomily as the Equal Rights Amendment failed to be passed in the 70s and abortion clinics suffered severe harassment till today, but the show was narrated by Meryl Streep and ended on a promising note. The second part advertised things like gay women's rights (featuring Ellen Degeneres) and some other exciting but now-forgotten topic I can't recall, so I think I'll actually go search for it on the PBS website and finish watching the two-parter. But it was a remarkable show and at various points I found myself to be very emotional and almost cried, all while running of course. It was weird. But I guess after all the LOLs while watching various cop shows and sit-coms it's time for some opposite emotions.
After I got home I buckled down and did the Day 10 beginners pop pilates workout from Blogilates. It consisted of some ab workout, bubble butt workout (which I also did on my own on Tuesday and was still feeling it), and a stretching video. I also added a new arm workout that was part of new video Monday. That video only had five moves and 1 minute each for each move, so it seemed easy (and short), but by the time I finished doing the arm circles and arm spears (which were too bad) and triangle and cobra push-ups (really really bad) I had absolutely no strength for alternating plank push-ups, as my arms started to involuntarily crashing down onto the floor. So it was only a 4-minute workout for me. My arms still hurt a lot and I had trouble pointing and clicking the right window on my computer screen afterwards.
Now I'm done. Yay and it felt really good too. Plus I'm feeling hungry as much carb-heavy lunch has finally passed through my colon. No carbs tonight. Okay maybe a little but definitely no spaghettios and no heavy dairy stuff mixed in. Maybe some soba noodles. Mmm.
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