Day 134: A Healthy and Active Sunday

Last night I slept 8.75 hours, getting approximately 3.5 hours of deep sleep and not waking up once. It was one of those nights where you have a dream so real that you believe it is real until you wake up. Fortunately it was a great dream instead of a nightmare.  

After waking up I fought an internal battle between wanting to go workout and relaxing for the morning knowing that we would go for a walk later in the day.  

I opened my phone and scrolled Instagram finding several motivating photos. Then, right before taking my pre-workout drink, I saw this tweet from my dear friend C.C. Chapman: 

Hated going to the gym this morning, but would have hated myself more if I hadn't.

— C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) December 21, 2014

 

Since I won’t have any physical therapy appointments this coming week (and possibly ever again), I decided to group chest and shoulders together. I performed the following lifting session in approximately 40 minutes: 

Chest

Exercise Ball Dumbbell Press - 3 X 15, 12, 10 (20 lb dumbbells) 
Seated Press - 3 X 15, 12, 10 (40 lbs) 
Exercise Ball Dumbbell Flyes - 3 X 10 (10 lb dumbbells) 

Shoulders

Dumbbell Front Raises - 3 X 10 reps (10 lb dumbbells) 
Leaning Dumbbell Side Raises -  3 X 10 reps (5 lb dumbbells) 
Dumbbell Shrugs - 3 X 10 reps (20 lb dumbbells) 

3 rounds:

Exercise Ball Situps - 25 reps
Side Raises - 25 reps per side (15 lb dumbbells) 

I was happy being able to increase the amount of weight that I was able to lift to 20 lbs dumbbells and 40 lbs on the seated press. 

It’s not easy using the community gym due to a lack of equipment but it would be far too inconvenient to ask Laura to drop me off at my old gym multiple times per week.  

It is too far away for me to walk either there or to a closer gym. When we move is right around the time when I should be getting my license back again so I will be able to start going to a full gym. 

However, while I’d like to use additional benches and machines, working out next door forces me to be creative about how I utilize equipment and build my workouts.

From the moment I was injured I have always been determined to get back to improving my body but now that we have made our decision I have additional determination to build my body as strong as possible before starting chemo in March.

Most of what was on my Christmas wish list was fitness and mobility related gear to help me towards that goal.

Laura had trouble sleeping last night so while she slept in I was able to watch a bit of NFL pre-game before she woke up.  

We ran our pre-Christmas errands including a massive grocery store run to pick up everything needed for our Christmas Eve and Christmas meals.  

It has been fun developing our own traditions since moving to California. When we lived back east we would always celebrate the holidays at my in-laws’ house. 

We headed out for a walk that was originally planned for 5 miles but ended up being 6.6 miles and nearly 13,000 steps, taking around 2 hours. 

Lifting in the morning and then going for that walk drained me so I crashed on the couch for a while, playing video games and mindlessly watching TV. 

For dinner tonight we made healthy spicy chipotle chicken burritos - one of my favorite meals that Laura cooks but that we haven’t made since before my original seizures.