Not quite 100%

Saturday, April 21, 2012
Though it was cool and a slight mist was falling, I was determined to sweat out the demon that had been plaguing my stomach for the past two days with some good old-fashioned manual labor in Mimi’s yard.  I spent six hours digging, transplanting, weeding, hauling, and putting an edge around trees, flower gardens, and the edge of the yard amounting to a little over the length of a football field.  By the time I was finished…I was finished.  My hands would hardly close around the handle of the edging spade as I tried to return it to the tool shed.  It wasn’t a weight workout or cardiovascular in any way…but I burned a bunch of calories and exhausted myself in the process.

I drove from there to the Metroparks trying to talk myself into doing something more.  I was losing this battle, though, as the mist continued to fall cold and miserable.  I climbed from the car and walked the rugby field looking for golf balls and found eight, but the combination of the yard work and my stomach continuing to nag me helped the decision to get back in the car and drive home.

I went into my office and began working on the computer…but something was looking over my shoulder and pressing the guilt…a bike on a trainer.  I finally gave in, went and suited up, dialed in Netflix and climbed aboard.  I spent the next hour and fifteen minutes watching a documentary about Buck Brannaman, the horse trainer used in the filming of ‘The Horse Whisperer’.   I knew I really needed to burn some more calories because we were headed for my sister’s place to celebrate my brother-in-laws birthday with an eating fest. 

And that’s what it was.  I had split pea soup, shrimp, a couple of pieces of chicken and some sweet potatoes…not very paleo…and not so good on an upset stomach.  I did manage to pull my self-control together long enough to refuse Dairy Queen ice cream cake, though.

Yard Work Duration: 6 hours.  Bike duration: 75 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 70-100 for yard work and 120 for the bike.
Calories burned:  1800 for yard work and 1050 for the bike.