Day 3 of 100: Pushing Through

“These poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusions, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I’d be a damn’ fool if they weren’t.” ~ Dylan Thomas

The above quotation has nothing to do with today… except that I suddenly thought about Dylan Thomas earlier while I was writing my morning pages. I looked him up and found this quote. For personal reasons, it seemed right for me this morning.

Today is Day 3 of my First 100 Days workout program. The plan for today was a very brief, body-weight strength session. It included a five-minute warm-up and cool-down of walking, with a circuit of three exercises in the middle performed three times.

The entire workout took less than 20 minutes. I worked up a sweat, and I won’t be surprised if I feel some muscle soreness tomorrow. It’s been a while since I did three rounds of 10 push-ups. (And for the record, I do “real” push-ups… NOT the girlie kind!)

Although my goal is to stick to Amber’s program as much as possible, I am adding extra walking this week because the weather is nice. I think the good thing about the plan, however, is that I don’t feel obligated to do extra… which may be exactly why I choose to do extra.

Studies have shown (and I need to find exactly where the research results are so I can link to them here) that people often end up burning fewer calories over all when they exercise too much or too intensely because they are too tired to do their normal daily activities. They end up sitting or even sleeping more than they normally would.

As I said, I don’t recall where I read that research, but it makes sense to me. I know from personal experience that I need enough exercise to stimulate my focus and get my heart pumping. However, when I finish a workout exhausted, I am useless for both brainwork and housework for the rest of the day.

Speaking of “brainwork”, I have a bit of that to do today… So until tomorrow, have a great day!