My Journey With Health And Fitness – Back To Reality

Whenever we return from a long trip I realize how much I miss our pets. One of my cats tends to be standoffish if I have gone away for a few days but when it is weeks he wants tons of attention when we get home. The other cat, who we have only had since August, was a bit unsure of us when we got home but once he figured out who we were he just turned into a giant ball of snuggles. I mentioned the Corgi was super excited to see us and for the first 48 hours we were home she alternated between following me around the house with following my husband around the house. Now, all of them seem to have settled back down into a normal routine.

It was definitely back to reality starting yesterday. Yes, the alarm went off at 4:15am and I was at the gym for my 5:30am class. After class and a short re-hydration break I was off on a 2 hour walk. I will say it was lovely to be back to our beach again and it was such a nice (albeit a bit chilly) morning for a walk. I had to laugh at a pair of sea ducks that were playing with a sea gull. The gull would try to jump on the ducks as they went under water only to pop up a few feet away and then the game would start again. Of course at the end of the walk I had to go up a steep hill which is something I certainly didn’t have to do in Mexico as our complex there is completely flat. After the walk it was phone my seniors then off to coffee with a group of retirees I used to work with. Yes, back to the reality of my super busy life.

I should mention that my bootcamp class yesterday was a real dose of reality. While at the condo I have a choice between 6.5lb and 10lb weights. For most exercises these are lighter than what I would normally use but better using them than not working out. Of course back with access to heavier weights I felt I should be a cautious and give myself a bit of an opportunity to build up again. We were doing a round of snatches and I chose a 15lb weight which of course is 50% heavier than what I used at the beginning of the week. The trainer shouted out to me, Gwenne that weight is too light for you, get a heavier one. I complained a bit of having been using 10lb weights for this exercise for nearly 6 weeks and the response was basically too bad. And so I picked up a 20lb weights and laboured through the next few rounds. While it was hard I successfully got through it. I guess I didn’t really lose any strength while I was away.

Just a heads up, there likely will not be any posts on Tuesday or Thursday next week. I am heading out of town to facilitate a course for the week and trust me when I say I will be very busy well into the evening each day. I’ll get you all caught up next Saturday on how I found time to get at least some sort of workout in.