Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The 'After' Blues, Dragon Boat Festival and a Workout!

I've been suffering from the post event blues. 

You know this feeling (maybe?). The day after...your big race, the wedding, big holiday...you get the idea. After six weeks of following the carb cycling and intermittent fasting program, I was so excited about the results. I rode that high for a couple of days and enjoyed the break. Between the program ending, the rain, and the humidity, I fell into a bit of a funk until this weekend.

Dragon Boat Festival came on Thursday. This Chinese holiday's origin (so I'm told) has something to do with villagers rowing their boats up and down a river and tossing zongzi into the river to prevent fish from eating the corpse of a very popular poet.

The resulting traditions celebrated these days include: watching dragon boat races and eating zongzi. Since we didn't know of any local races (only the preparations we saw at Discovery Bay), we enjoyed having our first taste of zongzi.

Zongzi is a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings (ours were meat only) and wrapped in bamboo, reed, or other large flat leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling. Besides being pretty, they were very tasty.


We also enjoyed a full plate sharing meal with friends. This is by far the best way to try new foods in a foreign country. No guilt if you don't like a dish, just move on to the next.


During our meal we were entertained by lots of good music. The band members were very interactive with the customers, even dancing with them at times, and with people who just came in to watch and listen.


After a very rainy weekend, I finally got out for Mountain Monday. It was crazy humid (85 degrees but felt like 106!), but the view and breeze at the top are worth it.


The crazy fierce summer hikers.


I've been enjoying a lot of popsicles and smoothies. 


Today I did a lower body Tabata workout from Fitness Bender. The Tabata workout: 3 minute cardio warmup followed by two 14 minute rounds of 20 on 10 off. Each exercise was repeated 4 times.


There were 7 exercises: pulse lunges on each side (I modify with the stability ball to make pulsing easier on my knee), plank tucks and extensions, side lunges and jumps, flutter kick pulse squats, bridge kicks, and jack squats.



This workout got me nice and sweaty. I'm hoping my legs aren't too sore the next couple of days!

Do you ever get the post (fill in the blank) blues?








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