Insanity as a lifestyle

The week of insanity is over. As Dr. J, Aunt Gertie, and my Long Lost Cousin +1 head toward their respective homes, those of us who live in the eye of this week's storm are slowly working toward recovering a sense of normalcy. It will take me a few days to catch up on sleep and get all the chores done that got pushed aside to visit here or there.

I loved having Ninja Teddy Bear visit for the week. We caught up and had fun hanging out. A week is a good length of time for a visit. By about the 5th day I find I'm longing for the peace and quiet of my usually empty house. I still enjoyed his company, and my guess is the constant stream of activities exacerbated the feelings of claustrophobia. We've decided he'll come and visit for a week again some time relatively soon. Just not this month.

Most of us refused to make any concrete plans, preferring to go with the flow, but in the end the run-down of the week went something like this:

Sunday: The Paleontologist's 5th birthday party, which I only attended the adult portion of. I told you about this earlier in the week.

Image (and stegosaurus hat) courtesy of Mom
@ lorrieknitsandsews

Monday: Dinner at my Aunt B's, which I did not attend. I figured by the time I arrived after work, people would be starting to think about leaving. It didn't quite turn out that way, but at least my staying home meant Long Lost Cousin didn't have to meet everyone at once.

Tuesday: Dinner with Long Lost Cousin +1.

Image also courtesy of Mom
@ lorrieknitsandsews

I don't remember the last time Long Lost Cousin came into town. Rather, I remember the time frame, but I didn't remember him. It was wonderful to meet and get to know him and his friend.

Wednesday: Aunt Gertie and I met up with Long Lost Cousin +1 and Aunt B for another dinner out.This was my chance to get to know Long Lost Cousin better, as the head count was smaller. This turned out to be an adventure finding the restaurant, and then another adventure finding our way home. I think I missed every single exit I was supposed to take to get us home, which turned an hour drive into 2 hours, at least.

Thursday: Cousin K's baby shower was out at Aunt' B's. Again, because I work later in the day, it didn't make sense to drive over an hour to get there, only to stay an hour or so before turning around to drive home.

Friday: Long Lost Cousin +1(who will have a better nick name next time I talk about them), visited other relatives, so my siblings and I got together at Big Bro's. It was not the full group, and did not turn out the way I'd hoped, but still nice to catch up and visit. Sometimes it's weird hanging out with family, almost as if I didn't grow up with these people.

Dr. J, courtesy of Superman

Saturday: Nephew VMan's high school graduation party.

I have to find names for so many people now!
Cousin, Mom (in pink) Aunt B, Big Bro.

Best pic yet of Long Lost Cousin
who has a brother, so I really need to come up with a better name!

The party boy/graduate, VMan

Now that the week of insanity is over, I'm planning on adding another insanity back into my life. I ate out a lot this week, since apparently that's how my family prefers to gather. I also didn't work out at all, after a failed run attempt on Monday. Every other morning when I would be running, I was trying to catch up on sleep from staying up too late and not sleeping well in the heat. Even after I thought I caught up on sleep, I found myself exhausted and not wanting to get up in the morning. Hopefully an early bedtime today will set me straight.

I'd better get set straight, because tomorrow I start the Beachbody Insanity program again. I'm actually going to mix it up with some P90X workouts as well. The Insanity is a lot of plyometrics, which is jumping around. The P90X uses weights and is less... active? That's not the word I'm looking for. Dynamic is probably better. They both are very hard core workouts. They both are very different types of workouts.

Thanks to Energizer Bunny and Aunt Gertie, I'm obsessing. I know it didn't go well for me last time I tried Insanity, but I think I've got a better handle on what I'm capable of now. I also think a wide, varied range of workouts will help keep me from getting injured. I still don't want to give up running, so I'm working out a schedule that lets me do everything (that doesn't sound like me at all, does it?). My mileage will drop off as I get further into the Insanity, mainly because I only have so much time to dedicate to exercise. I'll figure out what to do about that later, once I see how this goes. I'm a little concerned about making my 1K goal this year, which I haven't given up on yet, but I figure I'll be able to run longer distances once I build muscle and strength with this program. We'll see how that pans out. If everything works out as planned, I'll be doing variations of this program for a long, long time.

The schedule also has one day a week dedicated solely to stretching, which I think will help tremendously to stave off injuries. In addition (because I'm nothing if not all in) Superman and I have a Groupon for 6 months of yoga (1 class per week), which we should be starting soon. I've tweaked the schedule so I can yoga on the one rest day, and have another stretching + workout day about halfway through the week.

I'll let you know how it goes.