Energy balance, drinking games and strength

I know, I know... you're probably rolling your eyes thinking, "Aw man... /another/ calorie in/calorie out post?!"

Well, not today, folks! I'm talking about the cosmic energy balance: work hard/play hard.

Or as was the case this weekend - work hard, be lazy!

And I did! Yesterday was the first time in a while that I got to spend a whole day with my hubby... Yes, we had Memorial weekend together, but there was much rushing around getting things done that we didn't have a lot of 'us' time. I made sure I did what I needed to on Saturday so *I* could just chill and enjoy the day since it's usually my brain nagging at me to do _something_ instead of sit on the couch and just _be_ with the hubs. And oh did we "just be" - had a nice leisurely breakfast, talked, tormented the kittens and kicked some serious monster butt!

Again, was the first time we've had to just hang out and play one of the PS2 games that we've been chomping at the bit to get a copy of. The hubby found it a while back but we haven't had time to play together till yesterday and play we did.

For _6_ hours!

After about hour 2, I invented the 'Balder's Gate Drinking Game' - every time we hit a save point (about every 10-15 minutes) we had to take a drink of water! LOL! Luckily we did take a lunch and snacky break in there too, and the drinking game helped us stretch our legs with all the bathroom trips! LOL!

It was a lot of fun (except for the Wacky Bobo Dreams of people randomly shooting arrows and fireballs at me ;) and I really enjoyed spending the time with the hubby, but I was also glad to be back to the routine this morning with walkies & weights.

Speaking of weights, I'm still in the quandary of what to do next and where I'm ultimately going.

Yes, I have certain goals - like a certain body weight and body fat%, and those are 2-fold. 1) I want to shape my body so that when I look in the mirror I can be even more proud of how I look and the hard work I put into making that happen, and 2) being on the path to help other people achieve _their_ physical & fitness goals, frankly I want to have a physical appearance that I practice what I preach. As a result, I've been thinking about and looking for examples of what 'look' I'm going for and how I want to train to get there (which is a LOT more fun than dealing with some of the reality stuff going on at the moment. ;)

As far as looks go, I don't have a specific image in my mind of what I want to look like, but the overall concept, feeling and idea that I keep coming back to is this: Strong.

I look at the ladies in Oxygen mag who work hard to build and maintain their buff physiques. There's the ladies who have competed in various body building competitions (Tosca, MizFit (of the awesome arms fame) , and several Sparkladies that I stalk...er... follow regularly like FitGirl15) and I am amazed and enthralled with the physical training and mental dedication to achieve that kind of transformation. I love that blatant look of hard built muscle popping out that lets every know I could snap them like a twig if I wanted.

Then there's the other side - having a bit of definition, but being really strong. I've been following one of the Punch Gym's trainer'sStrongman competition prep - she is strong and doing it old school - flopping huge 450# tractor tires around, hauling 160# stones and dead lifting 200+. I admire the raw strength and sheer mental power that goes into something like that. The physique that has an unassuming air of confidence that says, "you don't know it from looking at me, but I could totally snap you like a twig... or pull a burning car off of you. Your choice."

The nice thing is that instead of all this being information overload and adding to my confusion, I'm seeing myself pull bits and pieces from each that I like and leaving the rest.

Amazing! A Libra that's FINALLY understanding the concept of balance. Now to put it into practice is a whoooooole different story. ;)