Funky

I'm in a bit of a funk. I'm feeling bored with my workout routines and I'm not quite sure how to shake them up. Last week I felt like a superstar. I worked out in some way every day from Saturday to Friday of last week and was excited and energized for each workout. I took Saturday off to have a date day, and when it came time to go to the gym on Sunday I went without much excitement, but also without any dread. I had a decent workout, and a nice walk with my girls after.

Monday I felt like the last thing in the world I wanted to do was go to the gym, but I went anyway. I did cardio, and was able to do more sprint sets than ever before. I listened to a good cardio hip hop mix from Songza. I burned more calories in 30 minutes than I have before. But I still felt dissatisfied after. Yesterday I started to have a pain in my back about an hour before I left work. I was dreading going to the gym even more than Monday. I did some web research on mixing up strength training workouts, but couldn't really find anything that motivated me there. I did 10 solid minutes on the elliptical as a warm up and tried a new method for the weight machines where I did 10 reps on a light weight, 8 on a medium weight, and then 6 on my heaviest possible weight. It was challenging only because my back was hurting, but it didn't feel as effective as the slow reps I usually do. I only spent 25 minutes on strength (I usually do 45) because I wasn't feeling it, and my back was hurting more. I got home earlier than expected so I spent 45 minutes mowing our overgrown lawn with our old school reel mower. Probably not the smartest plan because after dinner I started getting mini back spasms and had to take Aleve and ice it down.



I am still feeling the funk today. It's more than just the exercise, but that's usually my stress relief and something I look forward to at the end of a work day. I didn't bring workout clothes to change into, but I set everything up this morning to do Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30 when I get home. I hope my back won't protest too much, and that I'll scrounge up the motivation to do the workout to the best of my ability.

I don't quite know what to do to mix it up. There's a CrossFit gym and an MMA/boxing gym not too far from my house, but their class schedules aren't really convenient for me (especially for the amount of money I'd be paying). We've thought about getting bikes, but we need to research and save up and get a bike rack for my car. I know things will improve slightly when the weather's not so bad (it's either over 90 degrees or storming every afternoon!) but I'm not sure what to do in the meantime. I've thought about joining the local YMCA. It's also expensive but has a better class schedule and the pool. I'd like to go see it this weekend to see if it's worth the money. I have only done a group fitness class once in my life and it was okay. I've heard good things about the Body Pump series, and they have that at the Y. I'd welcome any suggestions on this dilemma I'm having.

Onto the good stuff: the food. At least I'm still enjoying what I'm eating, although last night I did not feel like making dinner! We had tempeh sloppy joes. We made them once before and weren't satisfied. We used the recipe we used to use for meat and they were too sweet and too saucy. This time I added a can of aduki beans to give it more body, and since I haven't gotten vegan Worcestershire sauce yet, we used some different seasonings. They were much better this time. I'm not feeling up to typing up the recipe now, but if you want it let me know!

Corn soup (with 1/2 a Field Roast chipotle sausage)

Tempeh sloppy joes with a side salad and steamed broccoli