Yesterday, in case you didn't hear (and you did) was my 48th birthday.

We had a simple meal and I had a little birthday cake. After dinner, I went to the gym and rode the exercise bike, which is what I wanted to do on my birthday. I hadn't taken a spinning class for a week and a half and although I rode the AirDyne (for 30 minutes) three times in ND, I quickly realized that the combination of dinner in my stomach and that layoff had reduced my biking capacity. I really struggled on the ride to keep up with the instructor and that wasn't the case over Christmas break. It made me realize a couple of things. One, I have a long way to go to get into really good shape. Two, it is really easy to get out of shape.

I was reminded of my senior year of cross country. I wasn't really excited about being in cross country, but I resolved that I would work out hard five days a week, but not run on the weekends. Mondays were killers! Just two days off and I felt like I'd lost the advantage of all my training. By Tuesday, though, I was okay. Hopefully tonight I'll be good, but tonight, of course, is strength training and it's been a week and a half since I've done that. Saturday, anyone?

Also, the discrepancy between the ND scale and the world headquarters scale is evident. I weighed in at 210.9 this morning, which represents a 3.1 pound drop since the 15th and over half of my monthly goal. And, I will be at the world headquarters on the 15th of February, so we'll take that into account when accounting for the month's progress. Through three days (15-17), I have done 2 workouts, with at least 18 to go. Yesterday was a reminder that prolonged absence will undo all the good in a short period of time.