You can't take the sky from me

I've had a very quiet day. I didn't have to work, and I had no good reason to go outside, so I simply didn't. I woke up at a fairly decent hour, and was hungry immediately, so I had a very early breakfast for me for a day I'm not working. Normally I have to be awake for a couple of hours before I have an appetite for my first meal. I was happy to be hungry tho, and I was glad to get out of my warm bed and go eat. I spent the rest of the morning planning out a new exercise regime, and started it in the afternoon. I still have some things to figure out, a lot of it will depend on how my body handles what I'm doing. I've been exercising my upper body and I do so much cardio on my feet that my legs get exercise by default, but I sat down today and made note of the specific areas I've been neglecting, and researched what specific exercises I can do at home to target them. I'm mostly concerned with my core, and I found a couple of great short workout vids online that I plan to alternate, to begin with. They both tackle the core, one is more about Abs and crunches, the other has more of a pilates slant. I figure I have to alternate them because they both work the core and are similar in a lot of ways, and I don't think it would be smart to start off doing both on the same day. I also found a vid that targets the glutes, and along with that I'm going to be using some additional exercises to try and tone up my backside. Throw in some exercises for my back, my hips, my chest, and some exercises to give me additional work on my thighs, shoulders and triceps, and a new exercise regime is born! I've decided to break up the hour long session I've been doing with free weights, because with the additional shoulder and tricep, I think it is way too much to be doing at one time. I will do shoulders on a different day than biceps and triceps now, on the same day I do the new exercises for my core, and lower body. That is the day I did this afternoon. The other alternating days will be for biceps and triceps, introducing the additional tricep exercises, and also chest, I am thinking. I also think I will use those days to get in some elliptical, and I've not quite sorted out when I will do my WATP. I will start off alternating it somehow, perhaps to go up to including it every day, I'm not sure. I'm starting off slowly and am keeping flexible. I'm feeling good tonight after my efforts this afternoon, definitely sore in various places, but only so that I feel it without it hindering my movement or being distractingly painful. I will wait and see as I go along how my body will react before I make decisions about how much I should be doing. I want to work my muscles, not cripple myself constantly. Burn is one thing, pain is another. I've decided not to attempt yoga again for a while after being so sore in the days after the last time. I'm thinking maybe after spending March in this new regime. My back bothered me the worst, I'm hoping if I can make some improvement there the yoga will not be so taxing. I also need a proper mat before I can attempt it and I don't have money for it. I'm looking forward to getting a new routine down and determining how many reps of what I will be doing. Today I stuck to 10 of everything and I will go on from there. Some things I know I will increase, others I know I will keep at 10 for a while. The lunges in particualr were hard, and my left knee twinged alarmingly when I tried the first one on that leg. After my brief hiatus from exercise due to illness my left knee seemed to get better. It had bothered me a long time doing the crouches in WATP, and I was starting to wonder if it was always going to be like that. Perhaps I should wear a brace on it when I exercise, it seems weak, the stupid thing. But all that aside, I'm very happy with today, back when I started exercising lunges were entirely too difficult for me, as were the tricep exercises without the free weights. I didn't use them because I knew it would be better to wait and in time I would be able to do them. They're still really hard, but at least I'll be able to do a set, even of 10. It's nice to know I've been progressing, and I'm excited to think of toning my body up. Maybe I will start to actually see the effects on my body in time, instead of just feeling stronger. When I was in the shower I was thinking ahead to the end of the summer and squeeing at the thought of the shape I could be in by then if I stay disciplined. How incredibly awesome it woujld be to go home all buff and toned and slim!!

Earned 4 APs today: 15 min core, 40 min shoulders, 15 min lower body