Relaxed and Powerful... not me

The quote on the side about power and relaxing, well the last 2 nights I have witnessed the physical interpretation of that quote. First was at Yoga Wednesday night. Tiffany pointed out a few times that I was fighting/resisting the pose we were working on. She was explaining that I needed to allow the pose and the form to do the work for me. I just needed to relax. There were a few poses in which I was able to do that.
I feel the reason I can’t relax is that I am so tight that I’m afraid I’m about to tear a ligament or something, seriously. It’s like my muscles are doing everything they can do to protect that from happening. I just have to learn what I’m capable of, at which point I think I’ll begin to be comfortable with it and I’ll relax more easily.

Then Thursday night as Genine and I were doing our abs workout, we were doing planks. So far this week we had only done a minute at a time. I decided to do a couple 1:30’s. Then after doing a bunch of crunches go for 2:00. I got there but it wasn’t awesome. Genine powered though to 3:00 and did not exhibit any of the issues I was having at 2:00. She looked relaxed and powerful. I’ve got to learn how to focus on different muscle groups and gain more body awareness. As I fatigue doing planks, biking, swimming… I feel that instead of digging in and staying focused on the proper form. I allow myself to start floundering in search of some other position, which might allow for some relief.

I’m feeling very positive about the “Frugal Gourmet” plan. I didn’t spend a cent in the city this week. All of my food came from home and I’m feeling like it’s got some momentum already. I’ve eaten very little meat this week and I’m finding I need to work hard to get enough protein into my diet because of that. 1% Cottage Cheese has been the answer so far this week but it’s not enough. I’ll probably be adding egg whites from hard boiled eggs next week. I’m hoping that will do the trick because it’s so easy to have those available.

Because I’ve been biking on the trainer in the morning, I’ve been able to weigh myself pre and post biking easily. This morning, I rode 45 minutes in zone 2 and drank more than half a bottle of water and ate a cliff bar. I weighed 2.5 pounds less post biking. Of course I question the accuracy of the scale but let’s say it’s off by half a pound, that still seems to be a lot. This definitely reinforces my resolve to come up with a good hydration system for this season. Not to mention finding the right balance of enduralyte capsules, unless everyone feels that Gatorade is the better way to go. I’m just not sure that it’s going to be enough.

Hope everyone is hanging in with the abs program. I’m starting to dread it less already. That’s a good sign right? Seriously tho', I know this is going to pay dividends.

Oh! Quote of the week. After masters swim, of course there was no hot water for the showers. So as we are walking out to the parking lot. Todd says, "You know that movie that's out right now? I think that's what's going on here. This Y is just not that into you."
Genine and I have been laughing about that all week.