A Different Kind of Workout

Monday morning our 5 am alarm went off...I got up to go to the bathroom and get dressed and ready to go on our walk. When I got into the bathroom I heard rolls of thunder, then a flash of lightning through our skylight. Uh oh. No walking for us then. So I got back in bed and curled up with Jim for another hour and a half of beloved cuddle time before work :)

That afternoon after work I had my annual eye doctor appointment at 1:30, and my plan was to come home afterwards and lift weights and do my aerobics DVD. At 1:35, I'm sitting in the waiting room and the power goes out...lovely. I sit and wait for another twenty minutes only for the receptionist to call the power company and find out it would be another hour before the power came back on. No thank you, I'm not sitting in a dark waiting room with strangers and impending heat for another hour. She tells me to call back later that afternoon to reschedule. Which (side note) is a good thing, because did you know your eye sight usually changes when you're pregnant?! Probably, it seems like everybody else knew that except for me. Apparently the pregnancy books and websites I've looked at skip that fact, or I missed that part..the second is most likely what happened...

So anyways, of course the power in ALL OF TOWN goes out on the hottest day of the year so far. Temperatures were in the middle 90's and the humidity made it feel like you were breathing through a straw. So walking outside was out of the question. I got home and did my 25 minutes of weights, but wanted to MOVE more! I had taken a rest day on Sunday of course, so my body wanted some cardio. 

I couldn't go outside, I couldn't do my aerobics DVD. I very well could have said, "forget it, I'll just be done for the day", but I'm too stubborn for that nonsense. I wanted cardio and I was going to get some cardio in.

I had seen Hungry Girl posting things about "House Walking" and so I decided I would just do that. Yes, I power walked laps from my kitchen, through the dining room, and around the living room. For thirty minutes. It actually wasn't as awful as you would think, either. Every lap I alternated what I did with my arms too, to give some variety. First lap, I just pumped my arms like a good power walker should. Next lap, I did shoulder presses (no weights, just arms). Then I did rows for the next lap around (again, no weights, just arms). Surprisingly to me, I got a really good workout in. I was sweating and I could tell my heart rate was getting up to where it normally does when I walk outside, which told me I was still moving at a brisk enough pace.

The REAL lifesaver of my sanity during this workout was TAYLOR SWIFT. Good grief I adore that woman and everything she does. I pulled her latest masterpiece, 1989, up on my phone and had it blasting throughout my workout. Singing along made me keep a check on my intensity level, if I could sing a whole sentence I knew I needed to step it up. Her music always puts me in a good mood, too, so she made my house walking actually pretty fun. 

Through this new-to-me kind of workout I learned that some days  getting a workout in is more difficult than others and you have to be flexible and make the most out of what you have. I learned that including a small bit of variety into an otherwise boring workout can make a huge difference. Also, music matters when you're doing approximately 1,258,456 laps through your house.

XOXO,
Courtney