Only a short(ish) reflection this evening as my body is aching more than it has done in a long time.
It seems that I am not actually the young man I thought I was. This morning I was full of vigour and adrenaline as I tackled, once again, the Team Body Project workout for 45 minutes and worked up a good sweat and a high heart rate range. I was in the fat burning zone quite a lot and I can really feel myself physically getting stronger and also stronger in a fitness aspect also. I had a yoghurt with strawberries and grapes for breakfast and then we started on the garden for the second day. This is where I realised that I am not really as young as I think I am.
After yesterday, there was a lot of weed clearing and digging to do to get the beds ready for planting, so my wife and I set about doing this early in the morning, about 9.30am. We cleared the weeds quite rapidly, although this was very tiring and, to an extent, back breaking because of all the bending over and lifting up. Nevertheless, I was enjoying it because I knew that I was burning the calories still and wanted to keep going. I then had to dig and turn the soil to make it ready for the plants. Wow.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed most of it, towards the end of the digging I was really starting to feel it in my muscles and, because it was a hot day, I could also feel myself overheating too. So I listened to my body and took regular rests and plenty of hydration. Well, that is what I would have done had I not been thinking that I was still 20. Instead I ploughed on and keep going until lunch time and was about half way finished.
I finished lunch (boiled egg, toast and a packet of crisps) and then set about starting the final hurdle of finishing the digging. There was about a 3 metre strip still to go and, by now, I was flagging. Did I listen to my body...of course I didn't. I was 20, remember. So I continued for another half an hour, my body finally shouting at me to stop and, at long last, I listened and put the spade down with about 2 metres to go. The trouble was that the bed had varying thicknesses to it and it was hard to judge how much effort I was going to have to expend in order to turn the soil. I should have listened to my body though, because now I am aching.
I am sure that there is a healthy lifestyle moral here, something about listening to your body and stopping when it tells you too rather than going all out for far too long...but my body is a lot stronger than it used to be and I know that I will be fine tomorrow morning when I wake up and go downstairs to go through the same set of exercises I normally do. I think that this is either the 3rd or 4th week I have been getting up and doing the exercises and I am loving doing them. I don't even have the dread I used to of getting up in the morning to do them; well not often, anyway.
Having a roast for dinner and walking 14,000 steps completed my day nicely and I feel that I have really accomplished something today. I have also managed to spread out my calories and eat much healthier thanI sometimes do and have left myself enough calories to give myself a nice little treat to end the day. So although I am aching and want to rest, I can rest with the knowledge that I deserve it. Therefore, today I am thankful for the increased strength I am getting from my exercises.
Before I g though...what is it with the amount of flies at the moment?
Until tomorrow, stay strong and stay safe.
Thanks for reading.
Sean.
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