Return?

Okay, so on Feb 27 I went with my friend Eli to the gym and got in a 350 calorie work-out on the recumbent bicycle exerciser.  I didn't remember to blog about it, but I remembered to mentally keep track of it.  I intended to go more, but depression, illness, and the birth of a baby (my cousin's not mine - I'm not having one) got in the way.  I've been struggling with depression for a couple of months at least, but recently the flowers bloomed and my long-lasting depression lifted in some sort of cosmic alignment with the daffodils.  Now, I'd say I'm not at 100%, but I feel like the dark cloud of the winter months was scared away by all that yellow out in my front yard.  :) 
Today (read the 23rd, not the 24th) I went to the gym.  It wasn't difficult, I didn't have to force myself to do so.  I just thought, hey I've got time...  might as well get in a work out.  It was really that easy for me today.  I figured I'd better do as much as possible since I don't know how long it will be until I get back to it, so I spent 65 min on the elliptical and 45 min on the recumbent bike.  All-in-all I burned something like 760 calories.  :D 
I'm exhausted now, have been going all day.  In addition to the workout, I also had lunch with Jessica, helped my friend Eli in his garden and grow-room, helped my mom with some xeroxing, did a few hours of knitting, gave Shae a massage, and worked to rearrange/sort/purge/organize my kitchen a bit - it's been feeling unruly as of late.  I'd go so far as to say I'm on the manic end of my bipolar experience right now.  Hope I can temper it enough to not result in a huge crash/burn-out/etc.  I have a lot I need to accomplish in the next few weeks.

music makes a huge difference

So, I made it in to the gym this morning, don't know how I missed it last week...  guess that's the way of it sometimes. 
When I left to take my daughter to school this morning, I remembered to take my water bottle, wear my work-out clothes, and take my bandana so I don't drip sweat in my eyes so I would stop by the gym before returning home.  What I neglected to take was my music.  :(  I knew that if I came home I'd find some reason to not go back, but without the music it would be horrible to do a serious work-out.  Well... half an hour is better than none at all... got in just over 300 calories killed in today's workout.  It was much worse "torture" than a workout usually is.  The four out of five TVs that were on had NO closed captioning, so I had my choice of watching basketball, soccer, news, or the Price is Right... all without any sound or captioning.  Whee!  I suspect I could have managed an hour or so if I had music, but without it my experience was just draining... I noticed every creaky achy pain for the entire half hour.  With music I can often go for an hour, and sometimes even an hour and a half.  Guess I better be more careful next time to take the tunes. 

300

Yesterday, I planned on going to the gym much earlier, but after dinner and games with friends, it turned out I still hadn't made it.  I'm trying to go every other day at a minimum, and yesterday was one of the every other days I needed to go... so I traipsed over there around 10:30pm, did a half an hour workout on the elliptical machine, and got home around 11:30.  Burned aprox 300 calories.  It's something, even if it's not a whole hell of a lot.  Glad I went, don't want to fall out of my every other day plan.

600+

So, yesterday was a horrible day for me, full of weepy. 
In spite of it, I decided to head to the gym, I understand it sometimes helps with mood. 
I got in a 600+ calorie burn workout... did an "alpine climb" on the elliptical machine.
Then, I wept all the way home.  Sucks.
Bipolar disorder just takes away a day here, a day there...  but I am fortunate lately, my up and down swings seem to be a matter of days lately rather than weeks or months. 
The exercise didn't immediately help.  But, I feel like some time between 10 and 11, my mood lifted.  It was as if I was injected with helium.  I flipped to a bit too manic to sleep, and was up until after 6am this morning. 
Ended up sleeping much of today away, but woke in time to get my daughter and two of her friends from school.  I made some strawberry lemonade from scratch and some guacamole to go with the chips and salsa I picked up on the way home from school.  We had a lovely after-school snack.

One friend has been collected, the other one's staying for dinner.  We're having vegetarian BBQ riblets, mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli.
Today's better by far than yesterday.
After dinner when R's friend has been retrieved, I'll be heading over to Mike's place to watch some TV.  :D  Alcatraz!

300 calories... and I'm back

Okay, so I only had just over a half an hour for the work-out because I've got to be to the game store by 7pm or I won't get to play in the tournament tonight.  But, I did get in a 300 calorie burn in that time on the elliptical machine.  :D  Feels good.  Looking forward to squeezing in more workouts in the coming week.  Kinda wish I didn't have to do it alone.  :(

long awaited return

Okay, for whatever reason my exercise routine got completely derailed.  Today I'll return to the gym for the first time in something like 3 months.  My daughter's at a birthday party, and with the time that frees up, I feel ready to go back.  I hope it goes well. 

Re-start

Okay, so life got in the way.  I let things fall aside while I dealt with other life challenges. 
It's time to jump back in there.  Starting over at this attempt at getting in shape.  I'm going to the gym tomorrow after my daughter's parent-teacher-kid conference.  I can't do it during school because I'm helping a friend replace a sink faucet and I may not have time once I'm done with that because it's a half-day of school.  So, I will be visiting the gym around 3pm at the latest.  It has to happen.  I have to regain my health.  I have to regain my sense of comfort within my own body.  I have to get back to being me as I imagine myself in my head rather than the me that I see in the mirror.