Monday I ran to the gym and Brian was lovely enough to pick me up an hour after I left the house. That gave me about 25 mins to do an upper body weight workout at the gym before he got there. Flies, presses, wrist strengthening stuff since I sit at a PC all day, curls, etc.

This morning I went to the gym with a 10-20-30-40-50 in mind, but didn’t quite do that. I warmed up on the elliptical for 10 mins and then did 50 lunges as a combo of walking lunges with 8lb med ball, and front-side-back lunges while alternating legs. Then I did squats on an upside down BOSU – 20 deep squats with 8 lb hand weights. I flipped the BOSU over and did a squat with one leg on the floor and one on the BOSU, up to a knee raise on the BOSU balancing on one leg. 10 to one side, then repeated on other side.

I did 11 pushups on the upside down BOSU and then started core work.

1. Figure 8s with 8 lb med ball. Side to side core rotations with 8 lb. med ball.

2. Oblique crunches while laying on Swiss ball with one leg on the wall. Oblique crunches while laying on my side on the Swiss ball with my feet against the wall.

3. Captains chair crunches. I finally had Brian at the gym while wearing short running shorts so he could tell me if I should be doing these or if I was showing too much to the whole world. He gave me an OK.

Then I stretched. I noticed a weird twitch in my left arm just south of elbow when fixing my bra strap, but couldn’t replicate it unless I brought my hand up to my shoulder. I guess I won’t be fixing a bra strap any time soon. Easy fix.

I’ve been very focused on whole eating this week. I bought a tomato, green pepper and can of garbanzos to chop up and eat as salad for lunch the last 2 days. I have some potato kugel I’m sure is a bit too oily that I have a square of with it. Breakfast has been a banana and some type of grain carb (toast, wasa cracker, etc) I bought a bag of frozen chopped mango to snack on at work. I usually have half an apple around 3pm too. The worst part of yesterday were the ramens in our dinner, we’ll see what tonight holds in store.

I’ve learned a lot this month so far about how bodies processes foods, stress, sleep, exercise, etc. and it always makes sense that foods easier for the body to break down will be instant energy. The new addition to my brain was that if your body is not busy breaking down crap food, then it can use that energy to regenerate  – either to recover from a workout, rebuild unhealthy cells, restore the youthful glow to your skin, etc.

The best complement I received in 2009 was when someone who had not seen me for a year asked if I was aging backwards. That’s what it’s all about for me! Stay young, feel young, have energy, smile, love life. I don’t want to run 50 miles in Mexico or be a world class triathlete. I want to be able to run in a park with my grandchildren someday without complaining about aches, pains, heart disease and chemo treatments.

What – aside from your workouts – keeps you smiling?