Rest days are the best days

March 12, 2013 by Meg | 10 Comments

Good afternoon, friends! It’s a beautiful afternoon here in Maryland. Waking up to gusts of wind and rain this morning didn’t make me feel too awesome about rolling out of bed. In fact, I kind of slithered my way out from underneath my blankets and slugged myself downstairs to grab some breakfast. It’s my day off of work today, so I made me some frickin’ pancakes! Take that, rain. I haven’t been to the gym since Saturday morning, so I knew today’s workout was gonna be fantastic. Yesterday I wanted to make it to the gym, but made it a rest day cause I was still a little sore from Saturday’s workout and was just plain exhausted. Instead of hitting the gym when I got home from work, I took a bath and lathered myself in coconut oil. I smell like a macaroon and it’s awesome. Lick me. I slept like a baby lastnight, after watching the Bachelor and tweeting my little heart out about it.

If you want some mega-moisture, or you just wanna smell good enough to bite, use this.

The more and more I really listen to my body, the more I realize that it’s extremely smart and sometimes my mind plays really stupid games with me. I still sometimes feel guilty about not making it to the gym or skipping workouts just cause I’m not really feeling it at the moment. But it all makes sense when I discover that I truly needed the day off and it was ridiculous to feel that guilt of skipping a day or two. I’m sure many of you can relate. Working out can be a slippery slope sometimes, especially with society these days being so overloaded with fitness and nutrition advice, workouts, do-this-to-get-that kind of stuff, etc. There are days, however, where I push myself to go to the gym and end up having an awesome workout. I’ve been trying to eat more around my workouts and on my rest days and it’s really paid off. I tweeted/instagrammed (is that a word? Coining it now…) a picture of my back progress – friends, I have a backcrack. No, it’s not as impressive as my buttcrack, but it’s something. It gives me confirmation that I’m on the right track. My weight has gone up a couple pounds in the past several months and that’s a good thing, although it can be a little anxiety-provoking for me and all women of course, feeling, seeing and experiencing my strength gives me such confidence and makes me want to keep training.

Yes, I did blur out my turd bun.

Between work and spending time with my family and friends, I make it to the gym to lift (still) 3-4 days a week as I usually have. On days when I don’t lift, I’ll typically go for a run (something that’s changed recently in my routine) and I really love it. It’s a great release and allows me to organize my thoughts, release some tense energy and just be free. In Florida, it was so magical to run outside near the water, the beach and just around the little towns. Spring, I’m patiently waiting for you. I’ve slowly been upping my mileage – running is something I don’t want to rush into, because I’ve never been that into it before and I wouldn’t want to injure myself or sacrifice my energy for my lifting sessions. Just mixing it up! On my straight up rest days, I try to remember to stretch it all out and I’m still getting in time on my feet at work, but nothing ever strenuous really. Rest means rest (and an extra cup of coffee.)

Anyways, God has shown me a lot in the past few weeks – but especially the constant reminder that I need to respect the body He’s blessed me with, always. If I need more rest than usual, then so be it. I’m also just getting over a nasty cold, a really nasty one. I’m so thankful I can taste my food again. A lunch that’s been on repeat for several occasions has been pan fried fish (in this picture, it’s salmon) and veggies sautéed in coconut oil, curry sauce and greens sautéed in apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and cayenne. So good. Do it.

I’m hangin’ at Starbs right now and heading to my brother’s house in a few to spend time with him, my sister in law and my niece. Joel is also meeting me there and we’re cooking dinner I’m thinking egg topped sweet potatoes with avocado? Or something along those lines, currently letting my creative juices flow for dinner. I’ll keep you updated via twitter or instagram.