Back to the Gym

I finally made it back to the gym tonight, for the first time since last Monday. I still don't feel totally good, but I also don't feel totally wrecked like I have been, and I really needed to get back. My beta blocker pills help control my slightly-irregular heartbeat, but not as much as regular exercise does. I am definitely feeling the effects of a week of inactivity! I also got some new exercise t-shirts from TeeFury and one of them is Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I was excited to start wearing it. Hey, I'll take my inspiration where I can get it!

Tonight was yoga class, this time with my regular instructor Ana Maria. She is a total sweetheart, and really encouraging and helpful to a yoga noob like myself. There were also about twelve people there tonight, some of them also new at yoga, so it was pretty much 1000% better than my last yoga class. After the lesson, I asked her and we worked through the side plank pose where I hurt my arm two weeks ago, and she suggested that I just not lift my hip off the ground till I've gotten my arm stronger. That makes sense to me, I think the reason I hurt it in the first place is because it's just too much weight to be putting on my shoulder. There are poses you can do at 125 pounds that are very different at 240 pounds. So tonight was sloppy poses and not concentrating at all on the breath work (no point when I can't inhale through my nose at all!), but it was still exercise, and a step back into my good routine.

Oh, and tonight's dinner! I saw on the weather that we could be dipping into the high thirties for a low this week thanks to the Arctic Chill rolling in, which would not be good for my plants. So I went out and I harvested all the best of my basil plants, then made whole wheat fusili with pesto sauce for dinner. Bug is a pesto-eating machine, he devoured two bowlfuls before karate class and didn't even complain that it wasn't his usual karate-day Lunchable! I don't really use a recipe for my pesto, it's all eyeballed, but it was a yogurt container full of basil leaves, and about a quarter-cup each of olive oil, walnuts (pine nuts are way too expensive!) and reduced-fat parmesan cheese, with a little garlic salt. I couldn't taste much of it, but I am assured it was very yummy.