Day 44+ and 45+ Half Way - Day of Caring and Platelets

Yesterday was the anual Day of Caring, where companies all over Western NY get volunteers together and go work on community projects throughout the region and help clean things up or accompany kids to the park or train unemployeed people how to act in an interview. Depending what your skill set is, and what you sign up for, it's a great opportunity to reach out to the community. It's also a great way to take a day off work! So yesterday I spent my whole morning cleaning up Gallagher Beach, picking out trash from the rocks and raking up sea weed (interesting side note: what are the rules with sea-weed? If it's from a lake... is it still SEA weed? or is it LAKE weed?) It was physically demanding, it wasn't P90X, but I'm going to consider it as a workout day, only because I would have otherwise been sitting on my butt for 8hrs at work, not getting any exercise.

Immediately following my Day of Caring activities, I went to the red cross to donate platelets - I racked up some big points on the charity scale yesterday. So workout out really wasn't an option anyway. They're offering "A netbook-a-day" for platelet donors. The staff at the clinic already told me "Enter on a Sunday... that way you have the best chances of winning." Hopefully they haven't been telling everyone else that... it would be neat to win something!

Today will be another P90X at the gym day. My schedule is a little messed up since I did the trainer's exercises so perhaps today I'll take it easy and do shoulders/arms. Who knows, I guess I'll do whatever feels good when I arrive at the gym.

My weight has been around 151 recently. This morning I was 152.5lbs, but yesterday I was 150.0lbs. Being off the chemicals, I've noticed that I'm less EXCITED about going to the gym. But that's probably all plaecebo effets, I can't imagine creatine making me want to work out, more than the fact I'm taking creatine so in my mind I SHOULD work out... or maybe it's the Hulk Drink, who knows. Either way, it's a difference.

Day 18: Red-CrossX

Well, yesterday I was a bit fried. I don't know why. Towards the end of work, I was hungry, tired, shaky, sleepy, and zoned out. I scarfed down an apple went outside for a brief moment, and I got a bit better. I decided to stay away from the gym after work, no jogging for me.

Today, I will also skip the gym, but for an entirely different reason. I'm scheduled to donate platelets. (For anyone unaware of the process, it's like giving blood except it takes like 2 hours and they stick both arms. They centrifuge the blood and return the red blood cells back via a process called Apheresis. See image below)

*******This isn't me - it was just a generic picture I found online of a guy giving platelets********

They suggest 24hours rest before any heavy lifting - and I have legs & back the morning after. It'll be just over 10hours... We'll see how it goes. I'd hate to think that I'd have to stop giving blood because I'm on a diet/exercise program. That's not cool.