P2X - What are you smuggling in your bag?

Waking up this morning, I suddenly remembered why I have quit P90X in the past. As I climbed out of bed, every one of my upper body muscles yelled at me to STOP moving. Shoulders, pecs, biceps, lats... I don't even know what all of those are but my sports massage therapist tsk tsk'd me while doing something evil and painful to every one of them. (Also while working on my planters fasciitis, and she will probably yell at me for doing a jump training workout tonight. Oops.)

So I woke up early, and rushed to the hospital to go to rounds. This has been explained to me as a team-wide meeting where you talk about each patient. During my orientation, my boss said "I'd like for you to come to 9am rounds every day, but at least twice a week." Great! Except I teach at the university until 9:15a. Oops again. So I tried to go today to get the gist of rounds. I arrived early (a first) and hung around until 9a. Then I asked a nurse where I should go for rounds. Her response? "Oh, we decided to have them at 7am this morning." Great.

I also picked up my fixed car, dropped off my rental car and packed for the beach which is where I am at currently and will be here until Friday morning.

I have realized that having so many summer goals makes packing a little more complicated and my bags a bit heavier. For instance, I have two 5 pound dumbbells and a yoga block and mat in my bag. A far cry from my usual stuffed bag with clothes I'll never end up wearing.

I did the Plyometrics video tonight which is some foreign language for "Devil sent to torture you and your bad knee." The host, Tony, kept saying that this was the mother of all the workouts, why there's an X in the title. So it totally makes sense to schedule me to do it on only my second day, feeling clumsy and sore from the first day. Hmm... I made it through all of the video with some modifications (except the Bonus Round because it didn't really feel like a bonus of anything good.)

I weighed myself today and that gave me the motivation to press play on this video at 10pm at the beach. I weighed in at 144 (in work clothes in the middle of the day) with a BMI of 22, and a body fat % of 22.1. The 144 is a bit of a bummer since I had gotten down to 134 from 154. But hopefully some of that is just leftover water weight from my period and not new fat from Disney Chicken Finger and Fries baskets. (yes, multiple baskets. Don't judge me.)

Hopefully, I will get to relax over the next few days. But I also have to create the syllabus and schedule for my class that starts on Monday and fix their e-learning website. Tomorrow, I get to sleep in and then have beach/pool time if the weather is nice. Then do another P90X workout... Can't wait.

Day 1 practice attempt

This morning, I hopped out of bed at 6:15am, no problem. (Surprisingly enough, after being exhausted after a long hot weekend at Disney.) Maybe I'm a closet Morning Person, but I doubt it. Watching the sunrise was beautiful, until I realized that I'd be seeing it everyday for the next 3 months.

I brewed a cup of coffee and wrote my first 3 pages of morning journal. I was at the collision center by 7:22am. And they had coffee, so I filled up my mug. Then enterprise picked me up, and enterprise had coffee too! So I filled her up again. And surprise surprise, my morning orientation at the inpatient hospital had coffee! By about 11:00am (and after 4 mugs of coffee), I was feeling that this summer is going to be a breeze and I have so much energy, and nothing can stop me! By 1:00p, I was nodding off 2 feet from a speaker discussing HIPPA and how to avoid infectious diseases.

Luckily, I was done by 2:00p and took a 2 hour nap. But I'm not going to have that luxury this summer. So I'm guessing less coffee and more natural energy.

Tonight was P90X, Day 1. Let's title it P1X. It was Chest and Back, really intense push-ups and pull-ups (I did all of them on my knees, and then had to spend 20 minutes icing my knees... This is going to suck.) Then Ab Ripper X. I can't do all 25 sets of each move so I've started at 12. Tomorrow, I'll be weighing myself and taking a BMI and body fat % so I can have starting measurements.

"Just when the caterpillar..."

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly" - Proverb.

This is the quote on my brand new journal, which currently has 200 pristine (a nicer word for empty) pages waiting to be filled over the next 12 weeks. It is one of my summer goals to work my way through a journaling book titled The Artist's Way which requires me to wake up early (I know, me?) to write 3 pages, freehand, every morning as well as complete other tasks and assignments. (I tried to start many journals in my life. The last in January. It has five pages filled. Last entry, February 16th... Apparently, dedication is not my strong suit)

And it's going to be hard to wake up earlier than the already ridiculous time of 6:45am to be on campus to teach an undergraduate course from 8:00am until 9:15a. "But Caroline," you may be thinking, "you can nap after you teach." I wish...

This summer, I am also completing my practicum for my masters marriage and family counseling program. So I'll be spending 30+ hours a week for the next 12 weeks working on an child and adolescent ward at a local inpatient psychiatric hospital.

And my last, and probably most ridiculous goal is to complete P90X in those 12 weeks. So when I get home from teaching/counseling for 10+ hours, I think that my lazy butt is going to work out for an hour to an hour and a half EVERY day. (Did I mention that I can't even remember the last time I went to the gym... or ran... or did ANYTHING remotely good for me?)

And I know the only way I will have motivation to do this is that I'm about to publish it on the internet. So it feels like a pledge of sorts.

Tomorrow will be a test. I have to drop my car off for repairs at 7:30a and be at an orientation at the hospital at 8:30a. So my plan is to wake up at 6:15ish and try the journaling. And to do the first day of P90x when I get home.

So these are my lofty goals for this summer.

1) Journal everyday and complete The Artist's Way book.
2) Complete the full P90X workout program.
3) Be an amazing teacher at 8:00a when I haven't been up that early consistently since high school.
4) Complete my practicum/first real experience with clients relatively unscathed and vastly changed.
5) Learn to cook (?. I know. I haven't fully developed this goal. I just know it is something that needs to happen.)
5) Maintain both my relationship and my sanity.

Wish me luck. Or give me advice. Or pray for me.