Taking a Rest Day

I suppose I could've gone to the gym today. I'm not that tired or sore although I'd be lying if I said I'd gotten enough sleep or that my glutes, back and shoulders weren't the tiniest bit achy. Because they are. But I find that I spend enough time at the gym to seriously eat into my day. It's not just working out, which I enjoy immensely (and could probably do every day), but the drive there and back, and the changing and showering that adds no less than another hour to the time.

It's colder than I expect at 14F when I take the dog for his morning walk. His wart has changed in appearance yet again, and seems to be melting. Is that even possible? I'm debating whether to apply another smear of Bag Balm to the wart. Just a month shy of turning 15 (105 in dog years), the old guy's entitled to sleep most of the time, lying on his new dog bed in the chilly sunlight of the full-length storm door. He's also, as old dogs tend to be, lumpy with new bumps under his thick fur. When I leave the house, I have to close the front door and he grudgingly goes to sleep in his crate. While I'm home, I leave the front door open so he can sleep with his nose facing the driveway, ostensibly keeping half an eye open for cats and delivery people. I'll go to the gym tomorrow to whack the kickboxing machine.

Today, after my morning coffee and bathroom time, I get on the home scale just to see how much damage my inability (lately) to (strictly) adhere to the MyFitnessPal caloric guidelines has caused me. (Last night we polished off the pecan toffee for dessert and I had to guess at the calories. MFP has a large database, but "homemade" items have to be guesstimated.) Perhaps the fact that I don't add any exercise to the MFP calorie tracker helps? I'm happy to see that the scale is slowly inching downward: 109.4 lbs and 15.9% BF.

Tracking my weight and body fat every few days helps motivate me because I'm so easily distracted! It's the age of distraction between all our streaming devices, phones and other mobile devices! I don't even remember why or when I stopped using this app the last time around... I am getting annoyed though, by all the emails from Under Armour. Less than half are useful articles with one-pot recipes or "new" ways to prepare foods. The rest purport to cheer you on your fitness quest and try to encourage more activity. I don't need more activity, but I'm not about to track my workouts and everything else with them. They don't need to know so I'm not going to tell them. (That's the problem with most of these fitness sites: they're ultimately trying to sell you something. BB.com just changed their policy to now charge for access to training and diet programs, none of which I use anyway. I guess they're not making enough money by selling supplements online.)

Today, I also take my measurements with a tape. Hips and waist are easy enough, but I always have trouble with the bust, and not just because I've got a tiny one. No, the problem is that you need to hold the tape with one hand, which you can only do by bending your elbow and pulling your arm slightly forward. The measurement changes if you're standing straight with your arms to your sides! Well, at least mine does, because my back flares out slightly and the tape pulls out a good half inch. I finally put the tape end closer to my armpit so I could hold it without compression. For a small person, a half inch makes a lot of difference!

I finally ate the leftover sirloin steak and half a baked sweet potato for breakfast this morning. With coffee, and plain kefir to wash my vitamins down, I've used up 470 of my allotted 1380 calories. And no matter how hard I try, I never seem to make my protein goals. Oh well...