Routine (Day 87)

I've picked up on a trend concerning my workouts today. Occasionally I have bad (as in I feel weak and exhausted) workouts. They all have been on days when my routine gets thrown off. Today was such a day. Kim was off work today so we slept in a little, had breakfast together, and just hung out around the house this morning. I didn't make it to the gym until after 12:30. My meals were kinda off as well. By 12:30 I'm usually finishing up my lunch. Today I'd just barely finished my morning snack. I began my cardio with about 17 minutes on the treadmill doing a HIIT workout. I increased my run speed up to 7.5 for the running portion of the exercise. When I finished on the treadmill I was tired. I usually do about 20 minutes (at a slightly reduced speed) without any exhaustion to speak of. I pressed on and trained back afterward. I began with 9 pull-ups (woohoo, I added a rep this week), then 3 sets of pull downs, followed by 3 sets of hammer strength pull downs, then finishing with 3 sets of T-bar rows. Normally I would have done at least 6 more sets but I was to tired to continue. I returned to the treadmill where I assumed I would grind out about 30 minutes of walking at incline 13, speed 3.9. I made it about 6 minutes. I was so exhausted that once I got home and had my lunch I went to bed for about 2 hours. This evening Kim and I did get in a two mile walk around the lake, so I did get in about 55 minutes of cardio on the day, but no where near my normal amount. So back to the trend I've noticed, I am evidently a routine freak. If my routine gets altered I don't preform well. If my meals are pushed back I feel weak. If I train later in the day I feel weak. Combine a few alterations to my routine and I might as well not even leave the house. Tomorrow my mom is scheduled to return to the gym and train arms with me. I'm gonna try to keep my routine on track and see if I'm able to have a good workout.

I had an "on" plan day, albeit a little off timing wise. Breakfast was actually the same as yesterday, oatmeal, facon, bread, and a banana. My morning snack was the same as everyday (see what I mean by routine), a cup of yogurt. Lunch was a little different toady. Since I was so exhausted I wanted to add a little more calories and protein to my lunch so along with my red beans sausage and rice I had a Morning Star Original Chick Patty (soy of course) used in place of my lunch veggies. My afternoon snack was a double chocolate almond cookie. Dinner tonight was another change using some more soy based products. I added some fake chorizo sausage and a couple of fake pieces of pepperoni to my thick crust pizza. I added a large salad to the pizza for my 2 of my veggies, letting the fake soy meats constitute the other veggie. Pizza tasted great (I did add a little sheep's cheese as my fat) and the salad was good as always. One of the things I've discovered I love on a salad is jicima (yambean). It is a Mexican veggie (taproot actually). It looks like a big root. It is mostly water, and tastes somewhat like an apple (yes, it's sweet). I love it. The only places we can find that have it are some of the small Mexican groceries in our community. Anyway, love me some yambean! Dessert this evening was a white chocolate chunk cookie along with a cup of Indian Chai tea!

Off to bed and up early to get back on my routine and have a good workout in the morning!