163. Night of the triffids

In between desperate attempts to continue exercising (and cut down on the eating which requires the exercising) I have been attempting to improve the house situation. Specifically tidy, clean, tidy, clean and then some more tidying. Because my house needs it and the previous strategy of doing all the tidying and clean in one big session has proved to be flawed (I'd rather watch TV). And because house elves remain disappointingly imaginary.

So in other exciting news I have to report that outside the house is also in need of this tidy/clean strategy. Because the triffids are back. And they're bigger... In fact, my back garden (which is a slight exaggeration, as even the estate agents referred to it as an "outside space") currently looks like a set from Jurassic Park. The triffids are not only sprouting like, erm, weeds, but their leaves are HUGE. Frankly, they're intimidating. The gardening gloves have been found, and if it ever stops raining, the triffids will have to go! Assuming that they don't eat me...

Finally, in positive news, I have now WD40-ed the hinges on all the doors downstairs and it suddenly no longer sounds like I'm living in the haunted house on the hill. You know, the one with the resident Igor. Anyway, thanks to the powers of WD40 I have moved out of said house and am now in a nice modern abode. Magic!

:o)

Today's stats
Zumba - 1 hour [wiggle, wiggle]

162. Days of future past

Well, I managed another round of Bodypump and Bodybalance today, with a bit less (to date) trauma to the muscles being forced to work themselves out. Largely due to the fact that I reduced the weights on the bar for Bodypump - although, realistically doing the class with just the bar is probably what my arms would prefer.

Thereafter I took my puny T-Rex arms out to the cinema (yes, there were an awful lot more hours in the day, but I spent them mostly snoozing) to enjoy the latest X-Men film. Which I duly did, and this is a good thing, as the trauma of X-Men: The Last Stand still resonates...

Otherwise I've done very little on the exercise front. Plenty of work, a bit of sleeping, devouring whole families of donoughts (oops!)... And then there's the peanut-butter ice cream... I rather fear that I'm busy undoing all the good work achieved during the 5x50. Plus, Boris looks slightly bored...

I have a vague plan to get back doing some regular exercise. I quite like plans of the vague variety - commitment is a big and scary thing. So I think I'll leave it there for the moment - I probably should be doing more exercise, and, hey, I've sort of got a plan for that. If it ever stops raining.

:o)

Today's stats
Bodypump - 1 hour [never mind my arms, listen to the mighty roar!]
Bodybalance - 1 hour [a lot more sitting down this week - much better than the falling down of last week!]

161. Freedom!

Boris is back in the house! And out of the box! And all put back together!! Hopefully this will make the "Free Boris" campaign members happy and allow them to move on with other, uh, productive activities...

It does appear that Boris did not fare so well being shipped back home from London last year. Apparently his mud guards were badly bent (and had to be re-shaped), his front big chain ring was badly damaged with 4 damaged and folded-over teeth (which had to be filed down so that the chain would run again), and he had lost all sorts of washers and bolts. Since any or all of this would have confused me utterly, I stand by my decision to take Boris back to the shop and have a professional reassemble him.

Boris is now battle-scarred and battle-hardened. He is new and improved, too: new orange reflectors (we sneer in the face of the old white ones); a new working bell, which I didn't even pay for!! He may look similar to the shiny new Boris who joined the household last year (original tyres re-fitted), but he's a whole new animal... In a way...

Any day now, he may even venture outside the house to try out all this restored functionality. Maybe. No promises.

The puny T-Rex arms are still complaining about Saturday's exercise-fest and so I'm applying much chocolate to assist in the healing process. This is unlikely to end well....

(^_^)


Today's stats
Absolutely nothing - arms not working is quite debilitating, it appears...

160. Balancing act

A nice 2-week break must eventually come to an end. Or it's not a break but a life of sloth and inactivity. Apparently there's a law against such things, or something.

Anyway, I decided to leap back into the exercise fray with a return to exercise classes (long overdue). Starting with back-to-back Bodypump and Bodybalance. Which, on reflection, was perhaps not the easiest way either to re-start exercising or do either of the classes. Still, if you're going to do something, do it the hard way - this is not my motto, but realistically it perhaps should be...

Bodypump - my weak and feeble T-Rex arms made it about half-way through the class before they wilted, with one of them pretty much giving up altogether. It's somewhat embarrassing in what is essentially a weight-lifting class to be incapable of lifting anything let alone weights - however, hand-held weights can hide this fact, I've discovered.

Bodybalance - having tightened up all my muscles (and rendered some of them inoperative) I then spent an hour trying to show off my non-existent flexibility and flow like the wind on one foot while twisting myself into the shape of a tree. It went about as well as it sounds: I've been away too long; I have no balance; knackering my muscles with weights just meant that I livened up the class by falling over stuck mid-pretzel. Luckily I bounced, but still.

So, obviously, I have to go to both classes more often. Starting next week. Although this does have a downside: based on today's results I can only go to Bodypump at least when I will not actually have to use my arms for the rest of the day, and in particular will not have to raise my arms above shoulder height. Because that's not currently an option on this model.

Note to self - move all critical items below shoulder-height before next Saturday.

(^_^)

Today's stats
Bodypump - 1 hour [ye Gods]
Bodybalance - 1 hour [flail, flail, oof]
Walking - 41 mins, 2.34 miles [out...]
Walking - 39 mins, 2.04 miles [and back again. By some magically shorter route...]