Hi Gram
Well, today was my first day back on the ole workout/ fitness horse, and boy are my arms tired! I learned that when you workout A LOT for two months, then spend the next 8-9 months only working out a little bit, the first day back is tough. I woke begrudgingly to my alarm barking at me and forced myself to climb out of bed and get to walking. I’ve missed my morning walks here. I’ve been walking almost every day since I left, but it has usually been a couple of miles on flat ground. This morning, I did my usual walk from last year which was a total of 4.5 miles with a hill, then a steep set of stairs, then back to the hotel. The whole thing had me smiling. The cooler morning weather, waving at the early morning vendors selling breakfast along the side of the road, seeing little old ladies sweeping the sidewalk in front of their house or shop, reaching the beach and seeing the boats grounded, the low tide having pulled the water fifty feet past their grounded place on the beach, climbing the stairs, then a hill, then more stairs, then another hill past monkeys grooming each other, to the final set of stairs up to the temple with a grand view over the city… the whole experience just made me grateful to be back.
On my return trip, I realized that I’d gotten a late start and was cutting it short myself short on time before Klausfit, the body weight exercise class that was set to start at 8:30. I rushed as best I could, stopping at my apartment to grab my water bottle and sandals, luckily getting there a couple minutes before class started.
Oh, and the class. Every morning starts with the same set of stretches and warm-ups to get the blood flowing. When I left here in January, I could have led the rest of the class in what to do, barely breaking a sweat. Like I said before, though, 8 months does a number on the stamina. My shoulders were burning about halfway through the upper body warmup and I had to take a break a couple of times to let the burn go away before I continued. My flexibility has also gone downhill, so I’m going to start an intro to yoga class tomorrow to try to rebuild what I lost. While this has all made me realize that I need to do more consistent weight bearing, flexibility, and balance exercises, it felt so good to be back at it.
After class, I went back to the apartment to have some breakfast and take a shower (which felt SO GOOD after sweating all morning), then got some computer work done before lunch. Lunch wasn’t great – venison that was tougher than leather with some veggies that were pretty good – but it gave me a chance to chat with Klaus a little and catch up on what’s been happening since I left. He’s upgraded some of his signage, got some new equipment, and added some more classes to the Muy Thai offerings. I always like seeing people succeed and grow. I headed back to the apartment to apply for a couple of visas that I’ll need in the next few months, then read for a little bit before heading back to the gym for my initial weigh-in and body scan. I’m proud to say that while I’ve lost some muscle mass, my fat ratio is also down (so I didn’t gain fat as I lost muscle – I just lost a little of both) and I hit a goal that I’ve had for a while of 150 lbs! When I got here last year, I started at 74kg (163lbs) and left at 70kg (154lbs). I’ve been eating healthy all year and staying active, so I was really pleased to see that the downward trend continued. My hope now is that over the next 3 weeks, I’ll keep the weight and add some muscle. I’ll report back!
After my testing, I decided to go get a couple of items at the mall. I rode the Songteau (green pickup truck/ bus) down to the larger of the two malls, sure they’d have what I needed. The first store that I walked into had everything I was looking for and I almost felt disappointed that I’d gone all that way for 5 minutes of shopping. I walked around a little, seeing which shops had changed, then headed back to the apartment to unload my purchases and prepare for tomorrow.