Take An Exercise Vacation

You probably think I am the LAST person to promote this - and you're right. But, I have been so sluggish lately, and a friend of mine has had foot surgery, so we're both taking some time off - starting tomorrow, haha! It is hard to back off from working out when you have been successful in losing weight, changing your shape and getting stronger; you're afraid you'll get fat IMMEDIATELY and lose all that muscle tone you worked so hard for. The fact of the matter is you are able to take a week off, and even TWO weeks, from exercising, and lose very little of your fitness. You'll come back stronger, more enthusiastic, and free of that muscle soreness that creeps up after too many days, weeks, or months of working out with no rest. When you exercise, your muscle breaks down - a little to a lot, depending on your intensity. The remainder of the day your body spends it's time repairing and rebuilding muscle tissue, and replenishing your stores of glycogen (energy) in the muscle. If your workouts are too strenuous, or too often, your body never has the chance to totally repair itself, resulting in injury, burnout and a general feeling of fatigue that stays with you, which only leads to decreased performance, no matter how hard you push yourself. It's not the workout that makes you stronger - it's the rest, so that your body has time to adapt to the stress on your muscles and make you stronger so you can do it all over again. It may take a couple of days to be okay with taking off, but you and I will do fine; sleep in, drink coffee and read the paper, go for a walk with your dog and enjoy a relaxing morning. Don't worry about getting fat - you can't go crazy, obviously, but you're body will continue to burn calories repairing and replenishing, and you may even notice some leaning out - WOW! Melissa