I ended up doing shots last night-- Dead Nazis (Jaeger &
Rumpleminze). It was with good intent and fitting in context, so I'm
pretty happy. I ended up going to bed after catching the last half of
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which made much more sense in my addled
state than it usually does.
And this morning I woke up early, without even a hint of a hangover. And
I actually made it to work early.
I'm in a good mood. Almost but not quite glowy. I suspect that getting
back in the gym is at least partially responsible, being all
endorphin-y. Tonight I'll be back on the bike for more cardio after
having been off of it for more than a week. I suspect it might be tough.
But I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, and I noticed some
changes. I'm still not happy with everything-- I have a lot of saggy and
droopy bits yet-- but my general shape is improving. I have noticeable
shoulders now, and I have a faint definition line down the center of my
abdomen. My thighs are actually looking like real thighs. It's not so
much of a size change as an increase in definition. It's better.
And ding-dang-doodly, that's okay by me.
I want to change up my workout a bit. I currently have a routine that
I'm altering slightly each time with number of reps/sets or weight, but
I always get in a core set of stations. It's pretty heavily upper body,
which is where I need the most work, but I've also started a bit of
walking on the treadmill as part of the warmup. So far I'm hitting only
5 minutes at 3 MPH before my back hurts too much to continue. It's my
lower back, right at the top of my butt, which I don't think is an easy
muscle group to hit. The back/crunch machine can target different muscle
groups depending on the position, but I don't think it hits these very
well. I'm wondering if I just need to burn through the pain and keep
extending the time a little bit each week.
And I need more fat-burning. The creatine really does help keep the
lactose burn down and allows me to do more in a workout session. It
doesn't eliminate it entirely, but it's a noticeable difference. And I'm
thinking I should maybe bring it to work and drink it before I go to
maximize the impact during the workout. It usually takes 30 minutes for
it to get into the bloodstream, but yesterday it was almost 45 minutes
before I got to the gym, and I think it was better. If I drink it before
5:00, I'll be able to hit the gym almost immediately after getting home
rather than having to wait, and I can be more efficient with my time.
I'm also considering going back to doing the bike every day rather than
alternating. That would put me at three days a week with both a cardio
and a weight workout. I'm hesitant because the cardio workout is pretty
tough, and I'm not exactly strong afterwards. Usually I'm a little
shaky. I might try a 20 minute burn rather than the full 30.
Read through Bagdude last night. More of a refresher than
anything, though a couple of the shots are coming into focus (pardon the
pun). I need to do storyboards.
And I stopped at Home Depot yesterday to look at materials for building
lighting and grip equipment. I found rolls of black fiberglass window
screen six feet wide, which solves one problem. And I found some
aluminum angle stock which solves another. I still need to figure out
some mounting solutions. And probably storage as well. Some of these
things will be ten feet long, collapsed.
Still, it's a good thing.