Week 7: Staying Motivated!

Following Week 6 bad end of week and taking all weekend to pull myself out of that mental rut, working out really helped but my body refused to want to actually get up and do something.  Going into the office on Monday was tough, but work is work and there really isn’t much choice with our HUGE deadline coming up in 2 weeks. The goal this week isn’t anything fancy. Its just with one goal in mind to be able to stay motivated, keeping up the workout intensity and most importantly, no excuses, just do it!

Monday

Day 4 Core Challenge! The abs were ripping and every rep felt like super painful! I only managed to get this done though while I was waiting for dinner while my mom and her friends was making dumpling and congee and all sorts of cool food.

Tuesday

Day 5 of Core Challenge! You already know I’m in pain so I’ll spare you.  After that, I went ahead and did the Tone it Up exercise TLC Workout.  The picture under shows the routine.

I did this circuit for 2 times.  Seeing as I did the Core Challenge already and I didn’t want to overdo it. I gave myself a pass and let the Core challenge count as one set to fulfill the 3 set goal 🙂 It was tiring but felt absolutely good. I wanted to only do 1 set but then I felt bad for slacking off and cutting off overall workouts so much that I pushed myself to do one more time of the circuit!

Wednesday

I had my chiropractor appointment today.  Usually after these, I don’t like to over exert so I just did the Day 6 of my Core Challenge and left it at that! Plus, its been a tough week health-wise so I’m trying to not be too tough on my body…

Thursday

Dragonboat day! And somehow all my track pants decided to vanish on me, thank goodness I found my shorts.  Practice was awesome. it was full training in the paddling pool.  We did the same sequence the whole time over and over again, working on our technique as we swap from lower intensity (aka active rest) to high at around 95% power.  I really felt in the last practice how my training in the last (few) week have helped in building muscular endurance.  After practice, I was exhausted but I made myself do the LAST DAY of the Core Challenge! 🙂 I DID IT! YAY!

Friday

After having an intense week, I took Friday off instead to rest my core a bit.  Most of the workouts I do have to use it, so it seemed wise to let them recuperate a bit.  Plus, I had an early day with the girls on Saturday morning to find a bridesmaid dress and for the bride to be to find her evening gown.  I haven’t done such intense shopping in a long time..so lets see how it goes 🙂

Saturday

Saturday was crazy.  We met up at 9:30am to head to the Plaza St Hubert, which is a street for shopping and dresses and all that cute wedding stuff.  We spent a morning there and then ended up finishing our shopping back on the shore.  Lots of walking! BUT…both me and the bride to be found our dresses! WOOHOO! Despite being extremely burnt out, I felt bad for not working out, so I went ahead and did what I supposed to do yesterday night called Summer Slim Workout.  I repeated this workout 3 times!

Especially after this dress purchase, I cannot lose this.  My body can only slim down and not gain AT ALL! This was pretty good.  “Tipsy” had me really working hard, “Row the Boat!” was painfully hard to control the move without dropping the weights on the floor and “Ultimate Summer Move” gave my hips some bruises..or it felt that way. An alright workout I think 🙂

Sunday

This is usually my day off but seeing as I took Friday off and took it easy on Monday and Wednesday with just the Core Challenge, I had to stick in another workout.  After having doing some physical exertion from taking down the car shelter, I did this Saturday’s workout was this one called Gettin’ Slim without the Gym!

I only managed to do one set before everything started screaming in pain.  I let my body rest.  This week has been intense already with the 7 day Core Challenge and finishing that up.  I realized it was more exhausting than I had imagined.  Still one set is better than none.

Looking back, I ended up only doing one day of complete rest.  This was overworking my body more than I had imagined.  I have to take note to  take it easier when I do my next seven day challenge.  However, it felt good because it means that even through all sorts of fatigue, working out has become a routine.  It actually felt weird when I broke out of the routine and skipped the workout on Friday.  I felt bad for not doing it on Saturday so I did one and pushed through it.  At times, its even helped me to be more energetic afterwards.  Its even helped me with my sleep, which has been lacking in the past while.

Next week is going to be a tricky one, so lets see if I can find the physical energy to workout after the mental energy exerted at work… I’m sure I’ll hold on! Now I have an extra goal… to stay and tone up for the next month till my friend’s wedding 🙂