Yes, I know it's been 4 days...

...and yes, I've been a slacker.  But, let me try and explain.

The last time I was here, which was Thursday, I told you I missed my gym time because my sister locked herself out of her house.  Well, the next morning, as I was walking out to head to the gym, she called me again.  This time, it was because she had a flat tire!  I immediately went to get her, and then I had to take her to run some errands that HAD to be done that day.  Then, we ended up going shopping.  Clothes shopping.  Those of you who have been around awhile know that I'd rather have a root canal than go shopping for clothes!  Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil right now, as I have NOTHING in my closet that fits me.  And, Friday night, my dad's work threw him a surprise dinner, and I needed something to wear!  By the time we finished shopping, and I drove my sister back home, I barely had enough time to get home and get dressed myself.

The dinner was nice, my dad was very surprised.  However, the dinner was held at a restaurant near his work, which means it was not close.  By the time we got home, it was very late.  I let myself sleep in on Saturday, and yes, I missed my window of opportunity to get to the gym.  By the time I got up and dressed and drove my lazy self there, the place was PACKED!!  I didn't even go in.  I drove back home, but not before deciding that I WOULD be working out.

I pulled out my trusty Tae Bo Advanced tape, and got to work.  Man, oh man, that tape kicks my ass!  I seriously almost pulled out my phone to take a picture of the puddles of sweat on my floor, but then I came to my senses and realized how repulsive that is, and NOBODY needs to see that!

I was SPENT when that hour was over, let me tell you.  While I was doing the last exercise, which involves squats, I was thinking that I wished I knew where the hell my step aerobic tape was.  I REALLY loved that tape!  I stepped my way to an 80lb weight loss back in the day, right before my sister's wedding.  I have my step, but I can't find the damn tape.  I've even tried going online and finding it, but so far, I haven't had any luck.

While I was thinking about all this, I remembered another form of exercise I really enjoyed in the past.  My Wii Fit!  If you've been around my little part of the Blogosphere for any length of time, you might remember when I got that.  You might also remember how I spent that 6-week summer break walking and Wii Fitting my way to a 25+lb weight loss.

Well, after getting a cool, refreshing drink of water, I took my happy self down to the basement, and pulled out my Wii Fit board, and found the disk.  Then, I spent the next hour and a half working out!  The actual minutes of exercise (which the game tracks) was more like an hour, since some of that time was spent trying to remember what the hell I was supposed to be doing!  Plus, I did the "body test" which weighs you and tests your balance, etc.  I was SHOCKED to see that since the last time I had stepped on the board, I had lost 27.8 pounds.  WTF?!  I then went back through the calendar (in the game) to see exactly when it was that I last used the Wii Fit.  Imagine my surprise (and, yes, disgust!) to see it was August 2009!  That was the summer I got it, and when I lost that weight.  I think I need to add my Wii Fit into my exercise rotation.  I had so much fun, it doesn't feel like exercise.  Well, the rhythmic boxing felt like exercise, and left me sweaty as hell, but I loved it!  That was always my favorite exercise/game.

Ok, so, now we're on to Sunday.  Let me tell you, when I woke up, I could hardly move!  My legs and rear were SCREAMING.  Man, I love Tae Bo!  I was even more sore than I was the first time I did the advanced tape a couple weeks ago.  I think it's because, like I said before, now that I can actually DO it, I can focus on form, and actually squeeze those muscles, etc.  And, my arms were sore, too, from the boxing on the Wii Fit.  I was just a hot mess!

Still, I had every intention of going to the gym, and just going easy.  Well, wouldn't you know it, as I was leaving the house, Magnum called to see if I could drive his mom to church.  Her car was dead, and he was trying to get it started.  So, I had to go back in the house, and get dressed (in "street clothes" as opposed to my icky gym clothes) and then went to in-laws' house.  They were having some sort of function at church after the services, so my mother-in-law needed to go shopping before church to pick up some desserts.  We picked up some cookies and cupcakes from the bakery of the local grocery store, and headed to church.  I planned to drop her off, then go back home, change back into my gym clothes, and get to the gym.  Yeah, well, you know what happened, right?  My sister called as I was leaving the church, and long story already too long, I ended up picking her and my niece up, and going back to my house to make the centerpieces for my dad's party.

Next thing I knew, it was dinner time, and Magnum and Stud were waiting for me to go to dinner with them.  So, there you go.  No workout on Sunday.

That brings us to today.  I MADE IT TO THE GYM!  And, I made it earlier than I've been going lately (but not as early as when I first started going, which was 5:30-6am) so it was pretty much empty.  Sadly, my legs were even more sore today than they were yesterday, so I still went kinda easy on the elliptical.  The first few minutes were ROUGH!  I seriously almost got off the elliptical, thinking I would just do the machines.  But, as my muscles warmed up, it got a little easier, so I did my full 65 minutes.

My sore arms came into play when I got to the machines.  I'm going to have to keep doing the Wii Fit boxing just for the effect it had on my arms!  It did more in 10 minutes than those machines have done in weeks.  Well, ok, I'm sure the Tae Bo had something to do with it, since there's a lot of boxing in that, too, so I guess I'd better keep doing both!

So, here's today's numbers:

Elliptical
643 calories
5.67 miles
65 minutes

Ab crunches 2x30@60
Straight arm abs 2x30@70
Inner thigh 2x30@90
Outer thigh 2x30@90
Chest Press 6x30@10
Shoulder Press 8x15@10
Pull Down 4x30@30
Obliques 2x30@80 (I upped this weight today.  I definitely felt it!)

2013 Elliptical Totals
25,746 calories
202.94 miles

Hey!  You're still here?!  Well, as a little reward for sticking it out through this LONG and rambling post about nothing, I have a surprise.  Many of you have been hounding me to post some photos.  Well, I'm going to share just one for now.  It's from my dad's party Friday night.  It's actually a really crappy picture of me and my cute sister.  My niece took it, and it's at such a weird angle, we look like bobble head dolls!!  But, I promise, I will post some of the pictures from my dad's party Sunday.  We're having a professional photographer take pictures, so hopefully they won't look as goofy as this one!

I suppose you need a "before" picture to make a comparison, huh?  Here are a couple, not so great, ones.

I will eventually post some that I have from my Italy trip, which are true "before" photos.  I started this journey the day we got home.