50 Shades of Sore

First off I have something very important to say.  I'd like to thank Ace of Base for hitting up my shuffle tonight during my workout.  Instant flashback to the 90s when I used to steal my sister's Walkman to walk around the block listening to her Ace of Base cassette tape.  Good stuff.

I have used the term "the dark side," now on this blog referring to being on the hard part of getting back into shape.  I'm still there.  It's pretty dark over here, but it has shifted from pitch black of last week to charcoal grey this week.  What in the hell am I talking about.  I'M SORE.  My joints are still sore as they were last week (when they were shocked into the realization that I started moving my body again).  IN ADDITION to sore joints my muscles are starting to cry.  My favorite part of exercising is stretching.  It's such a rewarding feeling after working so hard ....but tonight I was laugh/crying during my stretch.  OUCH.  This my friends, is muscle shock.  So so so shocking.  I did an hour on my elliptical on "Hill Program," mode.  Some lovely intervals of low to high resistance over the course of 60 minutes.  I traveled approximately 3 miles and the machine told me I burned 700 calories.  I forgot to put on my heart rate monitor tonight and could have stopped to get it, but right now I'm anti-gadget.  I don't really want to wear my heart rate monitor or my Fitbit.  I love stats, don't get me wrong, but I just feel like doing this by what feels right (at the moment).

I have a milestone to share with you, and you may look at this photo and scratch your head.  Allow me to explain.  This obscure photo is our calendar that is on our fridge that we use for the kids' school, appts, etc.  The little dots and number in the circle represent my exercise.  The dots are how many intervals of abdominal exercise I've done in the day.  The number represents how long of a workout I had.  THAT BEING SAID!  I did three intervals of ab work today.  WHOO HOOOO!  I did one hour of exercise.  WHOO HOO!!

As a result of carrying two children I have had the joy of experiencing Diastisis Recti.  The splitting of the abdominal muscles.  In attempts to close the muscles back to as close as I possibly can, I do special exercises that protect my diastisis from splitting further while at the same time strengthening and bringing everything back to where they're supposed to be.  These exercises have fallen off the wayside over the course of the last year, so in addition to getting a hot ass again, I'm adamant on getting my stomach back.  Thus!  I strive to do three sets of ab work throughout the day to engage my transverse abdominus.

INSERT MOTIVATIONAL PHOTO.  I used to have a killer stomach.  I know it's not realistic to get it back the exact way it was before, but this my dear friends is my motivation:  (Me, circa 2002)

The end for today <3  Thank you for reading!