And I Think to Myself, What a Wonderful World...

Or day eighteen.

As I write this I am dining on the last of my vegan burritos wrapped in whole wheat tortilla shells and crunching away on my giant salad, which includes beets, carrots, celery, black beans, salad mix, soy mozzarella and goddess dressing. Yum. See, left to my own devices, I am a pretty healthy eater.

Spent most of the day sunning by the pool (I know its bad), watching the giant cumulonimbus clouds tower into storm heads and back up over the course of the afternoon, while taking dips into the pool and reading Pox Americana*. Later on I browsed Barnes and Nobels wildlife and cooking sections, and waxed nostalgic over A Sand Country Almanac by Aldo Leopold (reminds me of my Prescott College Orientation and grandpa) and tried to convince El Mejor Pistolero to retire with me to somewhere in the South Pacific to run a Bed and Breakfast/SCUBA tour operation specializing in Coconut Pecan Pie**. In other words, bliss.

YogaX, however... you know, its challenging and all, but its also sort of boring. Much more strenuous then my regular classes but lacks utterly the poetry some of my favorite teachers brought to the practice. Which I think is fair: one of the things I enjoyed was the spiritual element, whereas with this its primarily a workout. A good work out, but just that.

Also, I lied. I skipped the abs part because I was exhausted, and because --for the second day!!!--- my leg didn't hurt. I'm going to give it a few more days to heal.

I've also been really tired lately, I think I'm just fatigued from the program and my bizarro sleep schedule hasn't helped. Though I've been waking up at a healthy seven (at least the first time), I've had a hard time getting to sleep most nights. Last night I woke up from a jarring dream at 3 am, watched Maxed Out on Netflix, which was a bad idea given my precarious financial situation (still unresolved) and also because it just wasn't that good, then finally fell asleep to another jarring dream. This one was about a molar shattering and me having to remove it with my fingers, and there was all this plastic and metal stuff attached to it like that scene in The Ring. My roommate tells me that tooth dreams are about financial anxiety, which seems about right.

*About the smallpox plagues that shaped American History.
**I think its working.

Well, I Guess That Makes This Day 11

Yoga just flat out kicked my butt. I'm glad I did it though.

I don't know what the scale is going to say come Friday, especially since my eating has been a little idiosyncratic due to my traveling/visiting, but I can tell I'm getting stronger. The Notorious EMP confirmed that I officially have muscles in my arms.

Yes, ladies and germs, after many-a-year, the bicep has returned. Yaaaayyyy!!!

I even went to models yesterday and got a pair of 5lb weights, so no more cans of beans for these two arms.

Reading about Kili helps to keep me motivated, too, though I'm not sure how feasible this trip will be, financially. I'm sort of afraid to look at the ticket prices into the two relevant airports, or how I'm going to locomote hither and tither once I'm in Africa, since the ideal is to scoot up to Ghana to do this women's business initiaitive I had my heart set on for this summer.

That way I don't agonize for the rest of my life over not doing this.

All I can do is try, right?

Breakfast: Coco Green Power Whatchamacallit Drink, banana, latte, lentil soup
Lunch: Trader Joe fiber cereal, coconut milk yogurt, apple (made it into sort of a parfait because I was sad I couldn't have the dairy-full one at the airport as I waited to make sure the cousin got on the plane)
Lunch II: 1/2 a raw snack bar...

TO BE CONTINUED.

Tippy Toes

This is exactly how yoga didn't work out for me today.

Woke up with a big ouch and lumbered through the yoga video. It was actually a little "easier" then my usual classes except for the fact that my body is pretty much on strike. I'm looking forward to Sunday's stretch/rest day.

The fact that the apartment manager kept knocking on the door to tell me to let the handy man in for repairs that I was told would happen last Tuesday didn't make it any easier.

However, instead of doing my savasana on the floor, I got to do it in a nice bed warmed by the Notorious EMP, so that was pretty great.

Also, he made an extraordinary pecan pie!

Breakfast: Cup of lentils, bagel BLT, sliver of pecan pie.
Lunch: Medium coconut soy latte, big protein bar
Dinner: Lentil-tomato soup, small slice pecan pie.

Today I ate kind of shitty, but it was because I was consumed with this final. I'm feeling it though. Tomorrow I'll eat like a healthy person. I'd better. I was falling out of poses I can usually do, like warrior three. I don't imagine tomorrow (legs/back/abs) is going to be much easier. Having done KenpoX a few months ago when I was in better shape I'm really nervous about that one, since I was sore for days afterwards.

I guess there is no use psyching myself out over it though. Unlike yesterday, I already know I can do this one.

One thing I will say though is that so far the program has moved around my body enough that no one part is in total useless agony, yet.

Another thing is that these past few days have really increased my respect for El Mejor Pistolero for having done 90 days of the usual program and is getting ready to do a round of lean. That and the really killer pecan pie he made. Also he surprised me with some protein drinks and muscle repair mix drink stuff... the sweetie knew I'd be needing it.

Tomorrow evening I'm going to NY, hopefully I'll be able to keep up on this the few days that I'm there. Maybe I can get my little sister to do Kenpo with me, she likes violence.