No Time for Regrets

Mondays are always hard because the weekends are soooo busy, and chock full o' endless indulgences. For instance, this past weekend contained not just Father's Day, but the end of year picnic for my son's Chinese language school. Of course we ate well. But even though the day started before 9 am on Saturday, my son needed a playdate after the picnic (which ended at roughly 5 pm) so we were off to Danbury for that and pizza and beer, and we didn't get home until after 10 pm. Thank goodness dogs can't tell time, and ours, fearsome beast that he is, sleeps most of the time.

Father's Day we went to my son's last swim class for the term, then drove several miles north to indulge at Big W's Roadside BBQ. I can never finish my brisket sandwich so that gets carefully wrapped in tinfoil while we journey west to Johnny Gelato to see what delicious treats they have freshly made. For dinner, I'd already started defrosting boneless, skinless chicken thighs some nights before so they had to be cooked. My son'd been asking for chicken noodle soup so I complied: slice and sweat garlic and onions in a tiny bit of vegetable oil, add seasoned (salt, pepper, garlic powder) chicken thighs to brown, add 2 cups of sliced "baby" carrots. Set to simmer. Put lid on until there's a nice broth at the bottom of the pot. Add 1/4 cup sherry and splash of low sodium soy. Add washed baby bok choy. Cook fresh noodles in a separate pot. Drain noodles and combine with chicken and vegetables. Delish!

Ah, but Monday rolls around and I'm not feeling the love. Actually I feel like a slug. No time to think about how much I'd rather lay in bed. I get my son on the school bus, and I'm off to the gym. I know I need the 45 min of cardio just to feel human. 4.92 miles is normal first day of the week, and I know I'll get progressively faster (more miles) as the week moves on. I feel heavier. I reason that I'm probably stronger, so what the heck. I bench 3 sets of 12 reps on the Smith at 135 lbs. It feels pretty good although that's only because I haven't thrown up on myself afterwards. Once these sets start to feel "easy" it'll be time to up the weights. But not just yet.

Delts (shoulders), cage stretch and side-kicks, torso twist, sit ups, kick outs, and decline benching all fall into order as I make my way between stations. The gym is crowded today with some extremely large-looking children. Okay, they're teenage boys who can't shave yet, and barely know how to handle their dumbbells so I stay waaaay out of their way.

I finally find the angled tricep push down bar and knock out a "burn out" set which basically means I knock out sets of 12 at 40 lbs, and when I can only get 10 reps, I immediately drop the weight to 30 lbs and knock out at least 12 reps. Or try to. Actually, this time I get 15 reps, so then I do 20 reps at 20 lbs. It's a good workout but not one you can do each session. The boys look mortified.

I stretch out, warm down and go shower. The scale reads 108. I AM heavier. But my clothes fit the same so I'm not worried. I'm only going to worry if I start to feel my new clothes are getting too tight. Then I'll have a problem. Right now I've got too many things to do today, and there's no time to waste with non-productive things. Like regret. Back tomorrow!