A Long Day, A Great Night

Today seemed to go on forever. I had plenty to do at work, but I think I left my motivation at home. I hate days like that, because they always drag on.

I also hit a major slump in the afternoon. I’ll admit it: I ate total crap all day long. Blame it on the hormones or whatever you want to blame it on, but I was reaching for chocolate, Starburst, peanut butter, anything I could get my hands on. So I have no one to blame but myself. I didn’t even enjoy the mindless munching I was doing. I just couldn’t stop.

So I wasn’t exactly surprised when my body completely crashed around 3:30 pm. I was in rough shape.

Obviously I had forgotten about last week’s battle with sugar…

Anyway. Even though the day was seemingly endless, it picked up right around 5 pm.

I left the office, Crunch-bound, and took BodyArt, which really has become one of my favorite classes.

The class starts with some deep breathing, then transitioning/rolling between Child’s Pose and a tabletop position. I love gradually feel each vertebrae being called to action (if that makes sense).

We do some slow warm-up exercises before moving into the intense deep-work portion of the class. It starts with 2 minutes and 30 seconds of mountain climbers, followed by 30 seconds holding the plank position. It’s so hard, but it’s such a good burn.

The we move into some modern dance-inspired movements, do another minute of mountain climbers then get into the stretching portion of the class.

But the best is the last minute. The instructor (Bethany Lyons—love her) turns up the music, which is soothing with a sort of techno beat in the background, and we have “quiet time” (ironic, since the room isn’t actually quiet).

Laying there makes me realize that I almost never take restful time for myself. Not even a minute. It’s so wonderful to just lay down—someone is making me do it!—and let my mind go blank.

I always leave class feeling stretched, relaxed and happy.

Usually I stay for the somewhat brutal “Glee Club” class, but tonight I was off for a dinner date!

I met up with my wonderful friend Alex, who I met running with Team Challenge. As it turned out, we had a ton in common. Not only were we both former-dancers-turned-runners, we were both training for a half-marathon to raise money for Crohn’s Disease, and we both currently work in the same industry.

Alex has remained a great friend but, as you know, life gets busy. I was so glad we made time to spend together tonight.

We had a nice long dinner at Tenzan and caught up on each others’ lives. Alex is still running with Team Challenge, which I miss dearly and am hoping to get involved with again next season, and she’s engaged! She’ll be marrying a wonderful man in May 2011 and I’m thrilled for the two of them.

And the food was delish! I recommended Tenzan because it was in a convenient location for both of us (now that I’m an East-Sider!). I always get nervous when I pick the place, because I’m afraid my “guest” won’t like it.

Luckily, Alex is easy to please, and she was happy with my restaurant choice. We split some shrimp shumai to start then split four sushi rolls: a California roll, a Dallas roll (spicy tuna, avocado and shrimp), a sweet potato roll (to die for) and a salmon avocado roll. It was the perfect amount of food and it was all so fresh. I also liked that the sushi didn’t have too much rice surrounded it.

Now I’m back at the apartment and finally have some photos to share! I’m not going to do any unpacking tonight because I’m exhausted and need a lot of sleep, so here’s where we currently stand on the bottom floor:

That’s all for tonight. My body is craving sleep. This 5:30 am wakeup is already kicking my booty.

Sweet dreams, friends!

DISCUSS: ABS is glued to the TV watching Election Day coverage. Did you vote today?