It Was a Full Day (Even Though I Lost Something Important)

WOW!

Yesterday was an incredibly full day.

IN THE MORNING

Some of you may know that I've been taking part in an exercise program called Team Body Project. I started with Team Body Project by accident. I had been running several miles a day when the spring winds started kicking my ass.

I have allergies and asthma triggered by allergies. With spring comes pollen. With spring comes serious winds. Pollen + wind = Jonica staying indoors. But, I've just quit smoking and really want to not get fatter than I already am.

My Fitbit program informed me that cardio such as one gets while doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is the best fat-burning tool out there. So, in lieu of running, I searched YouTube for some videos.

On the first day, I found a very intense HIIT video. It was tough, but I made it through to the end. The only problem was I could barely manage to sit down for the next few days. So, the day after that I looked for something a little more apt for beginners.

I found something called the Real Start Intervals. It is an all-standing, low-impact, interval workout. I did it and I liked it a lot! I scrolled down below the video to find the pinned section. It had a link that took me to the Team Body Project website.

Turns out membership is absolutely free. Which is good because we all know I'm broke AF! I immediately joined and took the fitness test. I scored a 25, which is a lot higher than I expected to score. They recommended I start with the 2-week Real Start program.

I did! I completed the first week. On the second to last day of the first week, the trainer, Alex, mentioned that the types of exercises in that video were going to be more of what we could expect in the next week. That workout was too intense! I did finish it, but I was unhappy to the point of not wanting that same intensity for right now. In addition, the free membership includes the first week only of any program.

I debated joining the premium program. It is much cheaper than a gym membership. Not that there's a gym where I live. I would also like the at-home aspect of working out. I imagine my insecurities would keep me from going to the gym no matter how much it cost. I worried that if I bought the premium program I would not use it every day.

Since I had been running and exercising every day for a month or so, I decided to go ahead and buy the premium program. I paid for one year because I saved the most money that way. Let's hear it for credit cards!

After I finished week 1 of Real Start, I decided I might just do it over again. I did a couple more days when my husband pointed out it might be a good idea to take a rest day. I tried! I really tried. But, I thought, I need to be disciplined. I worried I would not be able to form a solid habit if I just sat around in my chair all day. So, I decided to take an "active rest day."

I searched through the Team Body Project app to find an easy, gentle, exercise. I found one that said it was good for an active rest day and it was level 1. It was called Cardio Breeze. Yeah. It wasn't easy at all!

Now we come to yesterday. I still wanted an active rest day. I thought, "I need something easier. Maybe just abdominals." I looked again and found a lot of abs exercises and programs run by trainer Alex. She is a BEAST! She is so fit. Her workouts are not at all easy. I thought I would try to go with her husband, trainer Daniel. I found one that was low impact, all standing, resistance, and targeting abs.

Develop was 49 minutes ( I missed that part before I pressed play), difficulty level 1, total body focus ( I thought it was just going to be abs), using dumbbells, low impact, standing circuit.

I thought it would be easy peasy lemon squeazy. It was fairly easy. But I sure was sweating by the time I finished.

I wrote a Facebook post all about it and posted it to the private Facebook Team Body Project group.

See below.

I am really glad I was home alone today! I had been debating about taking a complete rest day, a moving rest, or just do abs. I came across the Develop workout. I decided to not put on all my workout gear ( sports bra, leggings, socks, shoes). Mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I hate doing laundry (because I'm lazy) (I've heard there are people who actually love doing laundry - I think they are either lying or lying!). So, I thought, ok, low impact, standing abs, a little resistance. I can manage barefoot in my shorts and tank. This one, surely, will be easy. Ok. So the first thing that happened took me completely by surprise. Doing the star jumps, my shorts 🩳 fell completely down around my knee. Damn that Daniel telling me to keep my core engaged! I am completely alone so I said screw it and kicked those shorts out of the way and just kept going. I have a window air conditioning unit blowing RIGHT ON ME set at 75°F (23.89°C). So, about halfway through, I was sweating so much I had to hit pause to run into my bedroom and get my sticky gloves. There were a few times I thought I would drop my dumbbell! I ran back as fast as I could, kept my legs moving side to side, and tried to get those inside-out sticky gloves over my hand. I didn't want to miss anything so I quickly pressed play again. Only to find out there were no more weights in the routine! Oh well. I finished, wearing nothing but my tank top, my sticky gloves, and my granny panties.

Now you see what I lost in the morning! Well, you didn't see it, you just read it. And I'm very glad for THAT!

FOR LUNCH

After my workout, I was starving!

I feel I'm always starving these days. I know some of it is because I'm burning more calories than usual. Also, some of it is because I try to eat healthier foods and smaller portions of those healthy foods. As a result, I do get a bit hungrier than before I quit smoking.

Yesterday, I first spent time in the kitchen cleaning up Saturday's mess. I'm not very good about cleaning while I'm cooking or washing up immediately after a meal. So, before I started fixing myself something to eat, I had to clean.

I really very strongly dislike doing dishes. I so strongly dislike it, I might even say I HATE doing dishes. To distract myself from my hatred, I listen to audiobooks while I clean. I'm currently listening to Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb, part two of the Farseer Trilogy. If you like sword and sorcery fantasy novels, I highly recommend these books.

I cooked up some brown rice and diced some sweet potato, green squash, broccoli, baby portobello mushrooms, and green onions. I sauteed all of the veggies in olive oil and seasoned them with lemon pepper, lemon juice, and celery salt. So delicious! I had some leftovers (which I'm eating as I type this) to put in the fridge.

AFTER LUNCH

After I ate, I played a few video games on my phone and tablet. I play with a company that gives me points to convert into Amazon cards. The company is called Mistplay. If you want to give it a try, feel free to use my affiliate link. Or not. I wouldn't want to encourage anyone to play games instead of doing what they are supposed to be doing.

What I was supposed to be doing was writing.

I don't just write for read.cash, I also write for Medium, and I'm working on a novel. But I haven't really been focused on working on the novel. I've been focused on earning immediate money. Also, I figured out that I find it more difficult to write fiction on the computer. I seem to need to hadwrite the most powerful stuff. I didn't have any notebooks! So, I wasn't writing longhand or even typing.

Yesterday I did.

I wrote, by hand, in some notebooks an anonymous Facebook elf sent to me. Very generous!

THE JUNK DRAWER

After I wrote, I put my earbuds back in and did some packing.

I don't know about you, but just about every family whom I have visited has a junk drawer or two. Its a drawer or cabinet where all the junk that isn't trash, but isn't useful for every day goes. Things like receipts, safety pins, change, broken jewelry yet to be fixed, bills yet to be paid, or bills that have been paid but didn't get filed properly all go in the junk drawer. Maybe it's electronics. Maybe it's old loveletters, or drawings done by children now grown.

We have a few junk drawers. Yesterday it was time to empty those drawers and throw out whatever we (I) didn't want to keep. I found all of the above listed items, but also loose photos, 2 chapters of a book my youngest daughter started, a short play my eldest daughter wrote, drawing my son wrote, part of my middle daughter's belly dancing costume, a bible, a deck of Uno cards, a whistle, some drawings a friend did for me, and a letter from The White House.

Yes, the White House. The home of the sitting president of the United States of America. The letter was addressed to me. It was written in response to a letter I wrote to President Jimmy Carter when I was a little girl.

I was very concerned, you see.

I thought it was great that there was a Mother's Day and a Father's Day. But I was sad, too. Because there was not a Children's day. So I wrote a letter to President Carter asking that he declare a holiday for Children! The White House responded that the current administration was striving to make every day children's day.

Which is about as cheesy a response they could've given. But to me, it was everything. I saved that letter for over 40 years. And then one day, I just couldn't find it. I thought it was lost. It wasn't!!!

I finished sorting through the rest of the junk in that drawer and managed to pack it and seal it in a box.

It was a very full day. I lost something important (my shorts) and found something I thought I had lost.

Lead image: Envelope addressed to me from THE WHITE HOUSE

Thanks for reading my story. I hope you laughed as much while you were reading as I did while I was writing.

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