Evening, friends! Today begins my rest week, so no workout to speak of today.
First things first–I impulse bought these teeny boxes of raisins to snack on in the morning. How cute are they? They look like something a hamster would pose with in a dollhouse. They remind me of my kindergarten lunch box–pink and soft with ballerina teddy bears. I always wanted one of the hard lunch boxes with the big sticker on it, but my mom said no. Sigh. Love these, anyway.
Also, new yogurt. I love Fage with side fruit thingys on it, but, again, hard to find and expensive. But, oh so good…
I ❤ Greek yogurt. I’ll eat it anywhere, anytime, any brand. (Except plain. Straight plain Greek yogurt is a little too sour for me.) Nom.
Anyway, back to the whole rest week thing. The New Rules of Lifting for Women, which is basically my fitness Bible even though I’m not on the program anymore, recommends taking full weeks off any exercise every 6-10 weeks-ish. The author of the book talks about how you should just kind of organically let these happen to coincide with your normal life schedule, and I have. Here’s a rough estimation of the time off the gym I’ve taken in 2009:
- March 15-21, one week taken off due to a spring break trip to house hunt
- May 10-23, two weeks taken off due to graduation and moving to Kansas City
- July 26-August 8, two weeks off due to the bar exam and our vacation to the Outer Banks
- October 18-24, one week off due to starting new job
- December 21-26, one week off due to Christmas
So, I’ve worked out all but 7 weeks this year. That means I’ve worked out about 86% of weeks of the year, which I feel really good about! Not only do weeks away from the gym help my body recover, but they’re good for me mentally. I like knowing that it’s totally okay to be a bum and not stress about working out when I’m legitimately too busy or have higher priorities. I’ve never experienced any significant weight gain during these weeks, and often I’ve seen the scale drop during them. I’m going to enjoy time with my family this week and not worry about it! 86% of the time is a hell of a lot better than 0% of the time, which was pretty much my M.O. in for half of 2008 and before.
In 2010, yes, I’d like to bump that up a little bit…but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I anticipate taking a little time off after my half marathon, and time for the wedding and honeymoon and Christmas, but 2010 is shaping up to be WAY lower stress than 2009. (Law school, graduation, long distance move, bar exam, unemployment, new job, new dog…phew!)
I do like to get a little bit of fun activity in so I don’t go from sitting at desk directly to couch, so I took Milhouse for an extra long walk. Nothing extreme, probably about a mile or so, but he enjoyed it and so did I. Walking is nice! I wish I actually got my heart rate up enough for it to be considered exercise. But, alas–the perils of being in shape.
What foods are a throwback to your childhood?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: lunch, raisins, rest, snack, walking, yogurt |
The Fit Bride 
I still buy those little boxes of raisins!! They make a noise if you blow into them too. It’s incredibly irritating and fun 😉
86% is damn good Brie!! Definitely something to be proud of! I really like how NROL says rest weeks should sort of line up with your life schedule, rather than writing them in stone. I took one not that long ago when I got burnt out and sick. I felt SO good after!!
Oh, and childhood food = meat. Seriously. I started eating a vegetarian-like diet when i was 12, and didn’t start eating all meat again until this past summer at 23! I think I’m completely obsessed with hamburgers now because they remind me of summer days on my porch with my dad on the bbq 🙂
I bought those boxes of raisins for my daughter the other day 😉 She loves them! PB&J with Jiff and Smuckers. I haven’t had one of those in such a loooong time. Also mac-n-cheese.
That’s a great amount of time exercised. I agree with you that sometimes it is good to have other priorities for a short period of time.
I think peanut butter and jelly reminds me of my childhood hehe.
Great job this year! I have a question – are the weeks off weeks off from strength training or ALL exercise? I definitely had weeks that fit both descriptions. I hope to start a log for the new year to keep track of my workouts a lot better! I already post a weekly recap on my blog on Sundays, but didn’t do that all year round.
Hmm, flashback to my childhood – definitely those Little Debby Nutty Bars (http://www.littledebbie.com/products/NuttyBars.asp) I didn’t eat a lot of them, but remember there was always a box on top of the fridge for my dad. And I wanted to eat all of them!
All exercise. I lay on the couch and just veg. Even cardio can tear up your muscles and put stress on your bones!
Did it take you a while to get used to the exercises in the New Rules of Lifting for Women? I read the book and love the premise but I am slightly intimidated by some of the moves. I just don’t want to do something with improper form and hurt myself.
A throwback food would have to be keebler club crackers (the green box) with cheddar cheese and mustard on top. Weird, I know, but it was one of the few things I would eat.
It’s intimidating and you get VERY sore at the beginning of each stage! But the exercises do start out simple and get more complicated. In Stage 1, you start out with basic exercises, squats–but as you move on in later levels it just gets tweaked to be a little more complicated each time, to things like split squats or overhead weights, etc. It’s really very manageable–you learn the basics and then the rest is basically variations on a theme!
Mac and cheese, all day long! My mom used to make it for us when my dad would go out of town (apparently he doesn’t like mac and cheese…?) Also, lemonade since I used to make it homemade every day until I figured out how much sugar I was putting in it!