This Week in Being a Jock

I don't know if it's my short hair or what, but I think of myself as all sporty now. I've become one of those women who wears her workout clothes all day. No kidding. As I write this, I am swathed in various performance fabrics. In the morning I go work out in my neighbor's basement, and then I just stay spandexed. This started because, back in January when I began the 30 Day Shred again, I would get home from exercising and think that I couldn't make it to the second floor of my house to change. I was sure that halfway up the stairs, my strained quadriceps would snap loose and roll up like window shades.

I got over that feeling, but by then I'd begun to appreciate the benefits of staying in workout apparel for long periods of time. Besides the obvious benefit of advertising to anyone you see that not only are you an active and virtuous person, you are a member of the suburban leisure class, i.e., you are a person who doesn't have to work outside your home and you have time to spend improving yourself in various ways. THAT is the semiotics of the yoga-pants-in-Starbucks-at-10am situation, I'm convinced.  It is not that all of these women have just rushed in from their bikram class.

Yes, so for me, the benefit of the workout clothes all day, beyond their value in class signaling, is that it really makes me more active throughout the day. Have you heard of NEAT? Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis? Sure you have! NEAT is the idea that all of the movement and activity you engage in daily life, whether it's pacing while you're on the phone or picking up toys, adds up and makes a significant difference in your health and fitness. The latest news is that even if you are someone who goes to the gym three times a week (yay you!), all the sitting we tend to do the rest of the time is killing us. So increasing your NEAT is an antidote to this. It has a good acronym, so it must be right. When I'm still in workout clothes and Hank asks me to jump on the trampoline with him, I say yes. And I'm more likely to jog to the mailbox rather than send a child. I just feel more ready to move.

Sporty hair.

Pretty Neighbor and I were very dedicated shredders, but this week we started a new workout. It's Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30.  So being shredded wasn't enough, I guess? Now we have to get ripped? It's the new and improved shred, apparently.  We have been doing level 1 and I really like it. Even if after the first workout, I came home and my red face caused Matt to say, "Whoa."

My face gets red. I once had a spin instructor ask, "Is this normal for you?" She wanted to know whether to finish dialing the ambulance.

I also played tennis this week. We lost and I got a sunburn. But Matt came to watch me play, the food was good, we looked cute, and one of the girls I played against knows NeNe from the Real Housewives of Atlanta. (We were playing her neighborhood's team, they are right down the road.) So a good day.

I'm a little bummed because all this working out is going to come to a temporary halt next week. On Wednesday I'm having my last reconstructive surgery, to take out my temporary implant and put in a real implant. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this. It's an outpatient thing and I don't think the recovery will involve surgical drains and swearing like last year, but I know I'll have to take a couple of weeks off. I'm worried that I'll become completely unripped and unshredded during that time and have to start shredding, ripping, and tearing all over again.

I guess I should go now. Being such a jock all day long does leave time for blogging, but not much time for folding laundry or picking up clutter. Funny how that works.  We are going up to Chattanooga for the weekend and I need to get four people and a dog ready. xoxox