Oh, the Pain....

I am really suffering from Saturday's racquetball session with my friend Cindy. My serving arm is killing me, my neck hurts, my legs hurt... but it's a good hurt! The hurt of doing well in the gym. After eating indulgently on Friday and Saturday, I am back to health today. Cindy made the healthy breakfast pictured here: a spinach and mushroom omelet with a little cheddar cheese on top (in honor of my love of cheese!), some tomato slices and strawberries.

Rather than driving straight to the house when I left Cindy's this morning I stopped at the gym and put my time in on the treadmill. As usual I didn't put much thought into my warm-up, but I noticed that it took longer for the front of my ankles to start hurting, and they didn't hurt as intensely or for as long as they have in the past. I started the workout at about 2.7 mph and quickly went up to 3.0. It seems my heart rate has improved so that working out at 3.0 is well within the 117 to 144 heart rate range I'm supposed to stay at for "fat burning." I did push it to 3.1 and 3.2 mph a couple of times because I am trying to work myself up to 3.5 mph.

Cindy is trying to get me out of my self-consciousness about my appearance, so she's been giving me her clothes as she loses weight. So far she's given me a swimsuit, a pair of swim trunks and a sleeveless gym shirt. I avoided the pool this weekend but I did wear the sleeveless shirt. I hated the look but she said I looked fine. I guess that's what friends are for, huh?

As I sit here I am really sore in my upper right arm and my neck, but yesterday's racquetball session was totally worth it. I am always up for a game of racquetball. I could be in a full leg cast and I would be happy to lean against the wall in the court and hit a few balls! Between racquetball and the treadmill I should be getting fit and losing weight pretty steadily. I hope to get back to my former racquetball form so that my friend won't kick my butt so badly again!

Cindy sent me home not only with clothes but with food- she's such a caretaker. So I've got frozen turkey burgers (I totally threw out the vegetarian thing this weekend!), some swordfish, haddock and cod to try this week. She's been very helpful to me despite the fact that we are competing for who loses the most weight this month. :-) I weighed myself at her place after breakfast and found I was up several pounds. I'll have to weigh tomorrow morning for a more accurate picture, but I do expect to have gained. I'm not upset! I had too much fun and too good a workout today to worry about a few pounds this week.