Homesickness and a Free Figure 4 Class!

Sometimes it can be really tough for me to be away from home all the time. I get jealous of my friends at home who are able to to do the little things, like cook dinner or meet up on a weeknight. Last night, it hit me particularly hard – I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before (was up stressing about a bunch of things), and when we wrapped up work around 7:30pm, all I wanted to do was go back to the hotel, have a protein bar or two as a quick dinner, and immediately go to bed. Instead, I was at the mercy of my coworkers with whom I share a rental car – which meant a sit down dinner out.

I did a decent job making healthy choices at dinner (this project is turning out to be the kind of thing where I need to actively focus on that), and got home around 9pm. As I headed up the elevator, I debated – should I work out? I knew that what I should do was go right to sleep. After all, many studies have shown that missing out on sleep can be far more detrimental to your body than missing a workout. And yet… I was wide awake. Fearing another night like Sunday (tossing and turning for hours with my mind racing a million miles a minute about all the stressors on my mind), I decided to hit the gym for my planned pullup routine. To save time, I skipped the deadlifts and split squats I normally tack on to the Monday workout – I’ll do those on Wednesday instead – and focused only on my arms. I’m really lucky right now to be at a hotel with a pretty awesome gym, with free weights and cable pulleys and even pullup bars, so the workout was pretty easy to do without adaptations. As a bonus, my 25 minutes at the gym did a perfect job of getting me tired enough to go to bed as soon as I got back up to my room.

Today I feel a lot more rested than I did yesterday (though still requiring caffeinated coffee instead of my usual decaf), and my back-to-back meetings are so far going pretty well. But when my mind starts to wander, I find it drifting back to New York City, and wishing that I didn’t have to be away quite so much. To alleviate the “what-if” thinking, I usually throw myself into planning what I’m going to do on the weekend (which is how I end up with those crazy weekend schedules I often write about). This time, my weekend is already totally full – so I’m scheduling out future weekends. (Hey, whatever keeps me sane, right?) And I have a cool opportunity for any of you living in New York!

A while ago, I won a free Figure 4 class at Pure Yoga, from Well and Good. Between my crazy schedule and the studio’s popularity, it took a long time to coordinate – but I’ve finally set a date. On Sunday May 13, you’re invited to join me for a free workout at 3:30pm… and perhaps a trip to 16 Handles after (since what fitness blogger event would be complete without treats?). Please RSVP to me at laura at 50by25 dot com if you think you might be able to come – the more, the merrier!