Finding the Balance

A friend sent me a link to this great edition of Gwyneth Paltrow's newsletter, Goop. It's all about finding the balance in your life and offers a glimpse into a day in the life of Gwyneth and a few of her friends.

I found it very interesting and enlightening to realize that they all struggle--just like I do, just like you might--to find the time to get it all done. But something that really jumped out at me, they make a point of getting workouts in (at least two of them do, the other was pregnant at the time!) no matter what's going on because they realize the benefits.

Today didn't start as planned and I was so tempted to skip my morning workout. Last night I had this mental plan that I'd be out of bed at 7am for my workout because I knew we'd be gone most of the day at a pond hockey tournament. Pond hockey is fun--lots of good hockey and socializing. I didn't want to miss it.

First, my husband and I stayed up WAY too late last night watching DVR'd shows (we love the Good Wife and Southland) and we didn't just watch one show--we watched THREE! We dragged ourselves to bed at nearly 1am, which is ridiculous. Sometimes it happens that I'm up that late working, but that's pretty rare these days now that both boys are in school and I can mostly work during the day (unless I realize almost too late that a day like Martin Luther King, Jr., day is coming and I didn't get quite enough work done of Friday to make up for it...).

Anyway, I was so tired this morning that I didn't get out of bed until about 8:40am. I had about an hour of exercise scheduled. Kids needed to be fed. My husband was putting all of the boxed up Christmas decorations away and vacuuming. Hockey gear needed to be prepared. There was just a lot going on. Finally, at 10am, I zipped downstairs and squeezed my workout in. I had a fleeting thought at one point that I would just wait until after pond hockey to exercise, but I know myself far too well at this point in life--I wouldn't have done it. I knew I'd be tired, kids would need to be fed (the dang things are always hungry), hockey gear would need to be unpacked, I'd want to mess around on Facebook and blog, etc. etc. I will make excuses quicker than anyone--trust me!

Tomorrow will be the same story. We'll see how I do getting my workout in before day two of pond hockey. Nope, let's change that. I will do it. Period.

Sorry for a lack of blog post yesterday. Before the DVR marathon I was making 1 million cookies for pond hockey. It was my cheat day. I was happy to discover I was down .6 of a pound from Monday. I'm sure I erased that during my cheat day because I ate a load of salty popcorn. But I ate minimal cookie dough. Small victories.

Yesterday's workout: Fire EZ 55. Now that I'm on the mend physically, one of my goals for next week is to perform some of the move high impact and see if that burns more calories.

Today's workouts: Core 20, Stretch 40

Food
Breakfast: Chocolate Shakeology, almond milk
Lunch: PBJ at the pond (taken from home so I could avoid the hot dogs, chips, cookies, etc.)
Snack: Pumpkin seeds
Dinner: Salad w/greens, egg, celery, tomato, cucumber, olives, feta, avocado, olive oil, lemon juice, Bragg's.
Snack: 5 cups popcorn

Total: 1569

Calories burned as of 8:13pm MST: 1869. I'll get a 500 calorie deficit in--yay!

Here's something "fun" to look forward to: sometime in early February, when I am past an upcoming magazine deadline, there is no new, good snow for me to skip out of work for, and I am caught up on my weekly work AND house stuff (sounds like it may never happen) I am going to have a Biggest Loser Day. What is that? I'm not 100 percent sure, but one of the things they talk about on Biggest Loser is that the people at the Ranch have to burn 6,000 calories a day. That's a lot! I struggle to burn 2,200 a day (midnight to midnight). So I'm curious. What does one have to do to burn 6,000 calories a day? Now, heavier, out of shape people's bodies just burn more--someone might burn 3,000 just through daily activities without even working out. But I'm still curious and I'm going to have a day where I'm exercising all day just to see what happens.

Because I'm crazy like that.