Today is a very special day. I am going to Dallas (about 3.5 hours away by car) with my niece Gracie, her mom Laura, and my mom, Carol Lee, to attend an event at the America Girl doll store. This is Gracie's birthday present, and I am very flattered that she invited her Aunt Cindy to come along.
What it means for Aunt Cindy, besides getting to spend quality time with her brilliant and beautiful niece, is getting up at 5:45 a.m. on a Sunday to get the last P90X workout of the week done. Fortunately, it was Kenpo, which is a lot of fun. You can totally get your aggression out, pretending to kick and punch Those Who Need Their A$$es Kicked.
So, I got my Kenpo done before 8 a.m. One of the advantages of working out first thing is that the last thing you want to do is eat afterwards --- but you do need a recovery drink after working out hard. I made a delicious shake with a scoop of protein powder, a cup of nonfat yogurt, a cup of chocoalte almond milk, and a cup of frozen cherries.
My challege today is to eat right. We are traveling. The plan is to stop off for lunch in Waco, probably at Jason's Deli --- a salad bar, but they also have free soft serve yogurt and lots of dangerous goodies on the salad bar. My plan is to have a huge salad with some lean protein (probably a hard-boiled egg and some chickpeas) and fill up on that. There is party food of some sort being served at the store event, and being that it's for little girls, my guess is it will be completely unhealthy, so I will do my best to skip that. We will probably stop for some sort of meal on the way home and my guess is it will be another chain-type place. Caution, caution Will Robinson! My game plan for the day: eat simply. (Also, I am packing my own snacks, just in case: a Think Thin protein bar and some rice cakes).
Yesterday, Eric and I put together what he has dubbed The Tower of Pain. It looks like this:
It has a pull-up bar, among other goodies, and so during yesterday's workout I attempted my first pull-ups. I used a chair, holding onto the bar, and placed just the tips of my toes on the seat. Then I used my back muscles to pull myself up as far as I could, which wasn't very far --- but they certainly were working. I was able to do 5 or 6 reps each time they came up in the workout (about 5 times). It's a start. I am now fantasizing about having beautiful back muscles, like a ballet dancer. :)
So, this is our "home gym". It's in our bedroom, which I'm not crazy about, but it's the only place in the house where it works. Until we are independently wealthy and can afford a dedicated room, here it stays. We bought some inexpensive but very good mats at Sam's Club --- you can piece them together and they give good padding, which saves both your joints and the carpet. We have some free weights, some push-up handles, a couple of yoga mats, and some resistance bands, along with the Tower of Pain and the (not very good) bike. These, along with our collection of workout DVDs, work pretty well. When I travel, the resistance bands, DVDs, and a yoga mat go with me. (Actually, half the time I end up buying a new, cheap yoga mat at someplace like TJ Max, as I go through them fairly quickly). You can get a lot done with very little!
What I've got is working pretty well for me. The tower is specifically for doing pullups, though you can use it for other things. I do like the resistance bands, and use them when I travel, but for home use I prefer free weights.
Posted by: Cindy | June 06, 2011 at 07:59 AM
If you are planning to opt for a home gym then do look out for the simpler and effective gym equipments such as ab wheel, power rings, resistance bands, etc. as that may help you to get better results within a short span of time.
Posted by: Gilberto | June 05, 2011 at 11:54 PM