I've Got The Power

So today I took a day off from the gym. Last night I got home from Zumba at 7:30 & didn’t eat dinner until 8:30… finishing at 9pm. Chris and I had to go to sleep early because he had an early flight. [I am now realizing if you don’t follow my other blog you have no idea what I’m talking about. This will soon be addressed!]

Anyway, by 9pm I was still netting only about 850 calories for the day [even though I had eaten over 2000]. What can I say… Zumba is one of the best cardio workouts I get! So I was drinking a ton of water & snacking on peanut butter & almond milk until we went to sleep. Of course I wasn’t tired. My body was amped & fueled. I hated that. It was absolutely a mistake. But unavoidable I suppose at the time.

So I turned the television on & watched for an hour. But for that hour, and the half hour that followed, I got out of bed every 15 minutes to pee. The liter of water from the workout followed by all the dinner water was finally working its way out of my body.

Awesome. So instead of being well rested this morning, I was crabby & tired. I went back to sleep & decided the world would most likely not end if I did not make my Spin & Pilates class at 8:30.

I honestly only mildly regret it. It’s a gorgeous day outside. I’ll probably take my pups for a walk, go to the park, do something. Then maybe come back & stretch & do a little interval workout or start that jumping jack challenge I posted!

Tomorrow I will be back at the gym for AT LEAST Zumba at night and possibly 30 minute 6 pack abs in the morning.

I didn’t post yesterday, but since I’m maximizing my time at the gym for the next few weeks, I was very busy!

[My] Boot camp is more or less simply taking advantage of my time & the classes offered at my gym.

Day One: [ Yesterday ]

• 8:30a-9:30a : Zumba
• 9:30a - 10:30a: Spin
• Awesome benefits: I got to pretty much eat as much as I wanted because by 10:30 I had over 1100 calories of exercise under my belt, combined with a minimum of 1200 net calories I make myself eat daily. 

Day Two [Today]:

• 8:30a-9:30a: “Fit Pump” [Calisthenics… dead lifts, push ups, abs, squats, resistance strength work outs]
• 9:30a-10:30a: Spin
• I’m probably going to do bursts of Jumping Jacks [found a great challenge] or a mini video as well.
• There is a dessert party tonight at a friend’s house… homemade ice cream is the main dish… grr. I will be allowing myself to have a scoop.

So I feel so much better when I work out in the morning. I have a small protein shake, relax with my pups, and then head on out to the gym to a class. I feel like I’ve earned the amount of food for the day. Like I worked hard enough to eat my weight in protein when I come home. And on days like that I feel satisfied. And healthy. 

Yesterday my food intake looked like this:

That ladies and gentleman is 1739 calories worth of food.

But this amount of exercise [in the morning] had me net 1210 [1230 including my vitamins]for the day.

So you all may be like well, obviously do your work outs in the mornings… duh. But my dilemma is that on Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays [at least for the time being] I do Zumba at night.

And my Zumba class has me burning over 700 calories per class. Which is awesome. And I highly endorse Zumba. If you can Zumba, do it. And anyone can. So go do it.

It’s not as corny as this ad. But it’s super fun. And mine is half Latin & half hip-hop. So I love it.

The problem isn’t the amount of calories I burn. It’s how I feel. I feel like a mess until after Zumba when I’m completely sore. And I’m not eating enough before Zumba. And it’s not as easy to just sit here and eat in anticipation of burning those calories. 

And it’s almost too many calories to go to the gym [or stay home] and get a morning workout in. Because then I’ll almost never reach 1200. Although for the day I’ve eaten this:

758 calories, as you can see. Unfortunately though, that will all be wiped out by my class & I will be forced to try and reach my 1200 net-calorie goal before & after the class.

Except my class ends at 7:15 [and I have no idea what I’m doing for dinner tonight] and it’s not good to eat 1200 calories at 7:30 at night… pretty sure.

Hmpf. Dilemma.

Suggestions?