The Gimp Workout

Shake shake shake. Shake shake shake. Shake that Shake Weight.

It's amazing what a little activity and a few meal tweaks will do for your energy and stress levels, not to mention your self-esteem! This is day three of my newly-devised gimp workout and I feel amazingly better already. Okay - I may be icing my knee right now, but that's besides the point.

For about a week, I've completely cut grains out of my breakfast and have been eating two hard-boiled eggs and a small bowl of fruit. Regularly consuming a Costco-sized box of cereal in one week by myself is part of my life story, so this transition is a big deal.

I've also limited my snacks to produce. I've been eating only salads, sandwiches or other vegetable-heavy meals for lunch, and for dinner- well...we're still working on dinner, but two out of three ain't bad! (Just ignore the fact that I had a burger and shake from Triple X this weekend and we'll call it good). Obviously things aren't perfect, but it feels good knowing that I'm eating healthy for most of my meals each day.

My new, gimp workout routine consists of a 30-minute walk with Bowser involving hills, coming home and doing a 10-minute arm workout with my shake weight (I think I've fallen in love), some shoulder work with my free weights, and then another 10 minutes of ab work that doesn't require too much knee bending. Of course I'm not burning the amount of calories I was when I was able to run, but I do work up a little sweat. It certainly beats sitting on the sofa and losing my mind in HGTV everyday after work (although I do love me some House Hunters).

Even if my new routine doesn't do a ton for my waistline, it's doing wonders for my stress level and that's really what I need to get under control. Work has been just a bit too psycho lately so this new routine has been quite refreshing.

In more good news, my mom gets to move home from San Francisco soon! They're hoping about another week and they can come home for good. It wasn't like I saw my folks a ton when they were nearby, but knowing they're not an hour drive away makes me miss them a ton. I'll be excited that life can get back to being somewhat normal after these last few crazy years.

In the spirit of making positive changes and celebrating happy things, I was watching HBO's Treme last night after the premier of True Blood (which btw, OMG!!! I'm off to watch the next episode online because I don't think I can contain myself) and instead of my usual sticks and stones send off, I thought I'd share some quotes I heard on the show that made me smile: I'm too blessed to be stressed. Life is short, so let's play a song!