Wednesday, January 20, 2010

what's in you wednesday

Yesterday, I had to drive up to Newport Beach for a meeting.

Newport Beach is in Orange County which is a lovely spot just south of Los Angeles and just north of San Diego which many people might never have heard of if not for a show about some "Real" Housewives that live there. Here's a picture of one...

The Real Housewives of Orange County

Yeah, that's pretty much what I look like on most days.

So as I'm driving to this meeting - which took me around two hours from San Diego - I was reflecting on the exercise I've done over the past week and sadly, it hasn't been very much. I did go to the gym once and I took the kids to a local field where we spent over an hour sprinting up and down a huge grassy hill. But aside from that, I've been making great plans that haven't been fulfilled for one pathetic reason or another.

I turn on the radio and tune in to a Disco station. As I'm tapping my fingers to the beat, I'm struck with the idea of doing some simple stretches while I'm driving. I start with a shoulder shrug. Pulling my shoulders up to my ears and then lowering them down.

Pushing up. Hold. Hold. Pushing down.

Then I do a few shoulder rolls. Five forward. Five back. Five forward. Five back. Followed by a few more shoulder shrugs. Then I decide that since the traffic is light and I have a good grasp on the traffic flow around me, I lift my right arm up and do a few rotations. Then a few curls. Then a few rotations. Curls. Rotations.

I'm feeling a little heat.

I'm getting a workout.

In my car.

On the way to a meeting.

This is multi-tasking at it's finest!

It was a little more difficult to do rotations and curls with the left arm, seeing as the window was there, but I improvised enough that within a few minutes, my muscles felt a bit sore.

Then I switched my vehicular exercise routine to my lower half. Putting the car on cruise control, I lifted each foot and did 100 foot rotations. Then I did knee lifts, while keeping my knees bent. And then, once I sensed that traffic was picking up, I took the car off of cruise control and started working on a gluteal squeeze. First my left side. Then my right. Then my left and right, together.

"Celebration" is on the radio and I can feel the endorphins pumping through me.

There's a party going on right here, a celebration to last throughout the year. So bring your good times and your laughter too, we're goin' celebrate your party with you! Come on now CELEBRATION!! We gonna celebrate and have a GOOD time! Come on now! CELEBRATION!!"
I'm watching traffic and adjusting my speed, accordingly. I'm very aware of the cars around me, the music on the radio, and the beat that I'm trying to keep.

Right squeeze. Left squeeze.

RIGHT LEFT TOGETHER SQUEEZE.

I'm only slightly aware that as I'm doing these exercises my entire body is rising up. And down. And up. And down. Just about then, I hit a patch of congestion as Interstate 5 merges with the 405 but I keep on squeezing, while thinking of the outstanding possibilities for enhancing my physical fitness as I drive to the multitude of projects I manage throughout southern California in San Diego, Riverside and Los Angeles counties.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

Those Real Housewives ain't gonna have nothing on me.

That's when I see out of the corner of my eye a car has been hanging in my left blind spot for an extended period of time and as the car pulls alongside my vehicle, I sense that someone is watching me. I turn to look and a man in a Prius is smiling and nodding. My eyes fly forward as I immediately stop my gluteal squeezes and pretend like I dropped something on the floor.

A few minutes pass and the traffic slows to a stop. As I take a sip of water, I casually glance over at the car next to me where I see that Mister Prius is still there. Smirking. We make eye contact for the briefest moment and he winks.

The dude WINKED at me.

My Kool and the Gang rock out session promptly ended. I tuned in to NPR and spent the rest of my drive listening to Morning Edition while trying to shake the embarrassment.

Thirty six hours later and my face is still a little pink.

******
(I think I share way too much with you guys. So please share with me what you've done for yourself this week. Did you fly off a treadmill? Wear your bicycle helmet running? Come on. Don't leave me hanging. Surely you've had a doofus moment. Or three...)

18 comments:

  1. That's great! thanks for the chuckle.

    I wonder what the 'real house wife' looks without any makeup or hair done...

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  2. I have a teenager so everything I do is extremely embarassing and humiliating to him....I'll admit...I even do it on purpose just cuz I know he'll complain. I get the kids (6 and 4) going with me and he at times is ready to crawl under the nearest rock.

    Too bad you were in the car by yourself...you totally could have gotten away with it otherwise!

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  3. My kids asked me if I wet my pants from the sweat marks on my butt from my workout.....does that count?

    Excuse me --- being in the OC requires contacting me so we can attempt to meet up!

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  4. I regularly fly off the treadmill. Luckily it's in my bedroom so noone sees it.

    I've just had my second run in a week - after no excercise for 5 weeks (other than walking and skiing with family on holidays). I barely made it up the stairs at work today (not quite on my hands and knees, but in some serious pain).

    You don't look so hot in your tight bod when you are stuggling with every step.

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  5. No exericse embarassments as of late, but recently a family friend, who was at our place to watch a playoff game, received a call from his soon-to-be-ex-wife. She had caught her hair in the beater-bar of her vacuum. The kids were no help and unable to untangle herself, called him for help.
    I know, as you ask yourself how on earth do you do that? And why on earth would you let anyone know that you have done that?!


    Michelle M

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  6. Bahahahahaha!! This is the exact reason why I have tinted windows!! I am VERY prone to embarassing myself.

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  7. Good thing I wasn't drinking any coffee, or I would have spewed it on the computer!

    I have done nothing for myself. Unless you count spending 2 hours on classmates.com. Or eating a whole bag of Dove dark chocolate chunks with almonds. Come to think of it, that may not have been *good* for me, but it definitely made me happy!

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  8. I swim laps and the other day I tried to carry the kick board with me to the bathroom. Not quite as good as yours. Oh, but wait. What about the time cute life guard boy saw the large amount of thick snot coming out of my nose as I took a breath. I'm going to be anonymous today.

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  9. I always wear shorts under my wind pants to the gym... ALWAYS! But on the one day this week that I did not, my sister decided to yank down my pants as a joke. It would not have been that embarassing if I would have not been going commando!

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  10. I commute almost an hour each way, and I totally do ab contractions. And gluteal contractions. It's Austin. We're weird.

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  11. I have done nothing near this good... but it is too funny. :)

    http://asthefarmturns.wordpress.com/

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  12. I got nothing, of course I am laughing to hard to even think!

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  13. Okay! This too funny...I remember being with your mother when she would do things like this ~

    TWO THINGS:

    1.)These are the days I understand my mother more and more.

    2.) ARE we turning into our mothers???

    Love,

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  14. My most embarrassing workout doofus moment: being thrown from the treadmill about 5 feet and landing in front of one of the cutest guys in my gym, while he's doing squats in the weight area. While I didn't make a very good first impression, he always remembered me after that. LOL!

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  15. Oh this is CLASSIC! I love it ;) I try to block out all of my most embarrasing moments....

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  16. This really gives me a good laugh!!!

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  17. This week in the mail I received the new Cardio kickboxing work out set that I ordered off the tv. I watched the infommercial for at least an hour a couple of Saturday mornings ago, when I was laid out flat on my back from a bad back "flare-up," and was inspired by the tight bods that were flashing across my screen.

    I used to take cardio kickboxing classes at a little studio in my area...back in my college days. Let me just say, I closed my blinds in my bedroom because I would be TOTALLY embarrassed if any one of my neighbors saw me trying to relearn the kicks and punches while also trying to heal a bad back and sore legs!!!!!

    Silly-looking or not, the program says that you burn upwards of 1000 calories each workout.

    I'm willing to look funny for that!!!!

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  18. That was hysterical, especially the wink from Mr. Prius : )

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