Day #2 of "Life with Satan"

Before I start bitching about Satan, I thought I would show you a picture I took this past Sunday when I realized that our tulips were in bloom



I *think* winter just may be over. But I don't want to say it too loud.

After work today was my second session with Satan. When I got up this morning, I was surprised that I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be. I worked from home, so I got up a bit earlier so I could stop working a bit earlier, thus get my work out over with earlier.

Today, he decided we had done enough strength training yesterday and that my muscles needed a day of rest in between, so today was all cardio. A 5 minute warm-up on the elliptical, 35 minutes of treadmill starting at a 15% incline and then decreasing that by 5% every 5 minutes...15 second on the treadmill, 15 second off...interval training at it's best. The philosophy if I understood it correctly is it is to trick your body into burning calories much more efficiently. When you walk at a steady clip whether it be outside or on a treadmill, after about 8 minutes your body stops utilizing fat for energy and heads to protein because your body gets used to the increased heart rate. You'll burn calories and will continue to burn calories for a couple of hours. With interval training, your heart rate is going up and down, which tricks your body on staying with burning fat for energy and not protein. You may not burn quite as many calories right up front, but your body will continue to burn calories for 24-36 hours afterward instead of just a couple of hours.

Let me tell you, I was sweating like a bitch and panting like a dog! Satan tells me that the thought of the day is "It's okay to be out of breath"....I'm not going to get much sympathy from him.