Nursing a bad cold, yet bearing good news. Plus, today's work out!

As you know from my last post, I caught Jeff's cold and I have been miserable. I decided yesterday to give myself a "pajama day." I just sat around and layed around in a pair of cotton lounge pants and an old sweatshirt.

I went channel surfing and found where the previous episodes of the Biggest Loser are on demand on cable, so I watched a few of last season and the Thanksgiving special they aired-- which I had missed because we had company. I don't watch much TV and honestly didn't know I could watch prior episodes on demand.

I was hopeful that today I would get up and at least my nose would be unplugged, but no, still have to breathe through my mouth no matter what medicine I take. It is SO annoying and inconvenient.

So your amazon sat around in her extra long "jammies," smelling like Vick's Vaporub, sipping grapefruit juice, chugging Dayquill, blowing her nose and watching people on TV cry and lose weight.

So what is my good news? Well, if you follow my blog you know that I generally don't weigh myself because I can get compulsive about it. But I recently joined a 6-month women's fitness challenge that will require me to weigh, measure and post photos once a month-- so we dragged out the scale for that.

I woke up this morning feeling, A) still sicker than I wanted to be, which sucked, but B) I felt somehow "lighter," and markedly so. I HAD to know so I stepped on the scale and was shocked to see that I lost about ten pounds in the past two weeks or so since I last weighed.

I was thinking, "This can't be right. The scale must be off." So I got out the tape measure. I'll be darned! I lost an inch off my waist, an inch off my hips and half an inch off my arms. My chest stayed the same. I am in awe!

Some combination of tweaking my diet, the thyroid meds and my new exercise program caused a nice little drop! When I started that thyroid med I did nothing but wiz for about a week so I am sure that a lot of this was water weight, but STILL, this was a nice little morale booster-- especially since I am sick and feel like crap otherwise.

Today is a work out day and since I can barely breathe, I planned to skip it and just have another jammie day. But today's work out is "work out B" which is the easier of the two that I alternate and doesn't take long if you stay on task, so I decided to just push myself through it, even if it means that I do nothing else today (which I haven't).

So I pushed myself through the work out and was shocked to see strength gains in areas I didn't expect. Here's today's session with "the beast":

Warm up - A few simple yoga stretches, a few squats with BW only

Deadlift:
12/125#
12/125# (up from 105#)

DB Shoulder Press:
12/20#
12/20#

Pullover
15/30#
15/30#

Lunges:
15/bw
15/10# DBs
15/10# DBs
15/10# DBs

Crunches:
25
25
25
25
25

Leg Lifts:
15
15
15

Side-bends with 25# plate:
15
15
20
20
20
20

Preacher Curls:
12/30#
12/30#

Single-arm DB skull crusher:
12/30#
12/30#
12/30#
12/30#

Cool down: A few more stretches and old school floor exercises

I've been trying to up my bicep/preacher curls from 20 to 25#. I have a variety of DBs set up around "the beast" (my weight bench) and when I did the preacher curls today, I grabbed what I thought was a 25# DB, but I grabbed the wrong one, I grabbed the 30# one by mistake, but didn't notice until I was done. So I actually did two sets on each arm with that 30# weight.

Once I realized my mistake, I was shocked that I managed such a jump in weight on a small muscle group, especially while sick. Inspired, I tried to use the 30# DB to do the single-arm skull crushers. I DID IT. This definitely brought me to "failure" at the end of each set-- but I am thrilled, as the triceps is a trouble zone for me and it felt good to hit it with enough weight to really hammer it into submission.

I remember the day not too long ago when I thought I was hot shit for doing triceps kickbacks with 10# DBs. Those days are gone now. As DH says, "I've passed gas that weighs more than those pink Barbie DBs." LOL

Note that I also did over 100 crunches today and also increased the number of leg lifts and weighted side bends--- I was inspired by my nice little drop around the middle- my biggest trouble zone.

A few of my blogging buddies have been kind enough to give me awards. Along with my little drop in weight, it was so nice to receive such kindness and morale boosters while sick. I want to treat these with the gratitude and attention they deserve so I will wait till the weekend when I am hopefully feeling better to read about the awards and learn how to pass them along appropriately. So expect a post on that Saturday or Sunday.

Tomorrow will be reserved for my Perfect Ten update. I want to post on that when I am supposed to and not slack like I did with the Hot 100. I am going to rub some vicks on and go back to my easy chair and my remote. I am dying to get caught up on your blogs and will do so tomorrow.

Thank you all! You are amazing people and your support contributes greatly to my success. I want to return that to you with as much abundance as I can! Be good to you today!

XOXOXO
XOX
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