A new ritual

Trixie asked in her last post what new rituals we could create that would operate to empower us in our daily living. I keep trying to post comments there, but since I switched to the new blogger stuff it won't let me! (So. . . thanks, Trixie, for your comment here!) For me, something that really worked out well in the past for me was exercising in the mornings before anything else got in the way. Today, I hit the snooze a million times so I didn't get off on the right foot--but I still got up and did half of my strength exercise (the abs component). Tonight I have done the arms part. I will have to write up what I am doing for my arms and get suggestions from those of you who workout about what I could do differently. I would love to have some links to good strength training sites that you have found informative! Or your strength routine. And stretches! All I have are a 5# and 10# set of dumbbells and an exercise/stability ball. And a yoga mat.

In high school, I took weight training (instead of AP Biology--it was science fair year) and really enjoyed it--but I barely remember the exercises and I don't have that kind of equipment. That was the best class--and not just because it was the closest thing to a senior skip class we had! The last class of the day, and we had to run around the school everyday to the weight room and then did weights for 40 minutes. It was great to see how much improvement we could make. I went from being unable to bench the weighted bar to benching almost twice as much by the end of the class. The athletes had to take it, I think, but a handful of us non-athlete girls took it too. Why? Because that's what the cool kids did, and we were on the periphery of cool. No, seriously, that was the reason.

Tonight for dinner is stuffed peppers--the stuffing is polenta with onions, rosemary, corn, and white cheddar. It's completely chock full of fat, even for me--and it takes an hour to bake! I didn't read that part of the recipe before deciding to make that this week, but whatever. I will have lots of leftovers! I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow! Plus a spinach salad. Next time, I will probably put some sausage in it because it makes me want sausage tonight. That will totally lower the fat, won't it? Hee!

To update:

March BMR: 48.5
March FMR: 29.7 (I walked to the mailbox this evening and back--of course, I had no mail.)
March Strength Remaining: 8