What I'm Reading This Week #14

Sup y'all?  It's Friday again and you know what that means.

(tenor.com)

This week has been a learning experience on what my body will and won't allow exercise wise.  Sunday when we walked the historic district which is all uneven cobblestone sidewalks from the stones and tree roots, I felt a point where my hamstring was kind of like "I hate you.  Imma make you pay."  We got home and actually remembered to roll and stretch so I was all proud of us.  Then we did a pretty kick butt Juice and Toya strength session the next day and I was sore but not as sore as I thought I'd be.  What did I do Tuesday?  Hey, let's throw in an old school Tae Bo and this time I'm going to kick like I mean it and I'm also going to do the leg portion at the end that we usually skip.  (This leg portion is like hydrant lifts and oh hey, I found it on YouTube, it's this part.)  So I did that part as best I could which is always hard because my legs are so heavy.  So that's a lot for my butt and inner thighs to do.  I rolled really well afterward...except I forgot my inner thighs.  As we were getting up for bed, my left inner thigh decided to cramp.  I had horror flashbacks of the Great Valentine's Debacle of 2018 and remembered how the doctor told me I was probably about to have a literal stroke from the pain as so many people do.  I breathed out and grabbed The Stick which was right beside me and began rolling.  I had the Mr massage my calf.  I hopped up and got myself upstairs, slathered on the Epsom salt gel, took a Canadian ibuprofen (the good stuff) and the Mr got the heating pad going and I just tried to lay as still as possible all night.  I attacked it again the next day with some rolling and despite doing an upper body workout Wednesday, my legs were still VERY tight.  I had the heating pad on it, dug into it with my fingers as well as that little myofascial release tool I shared a few months back.  Relief would last about 45 minutes before everything tightened back up again.  If you looked on the previous Vday post, you can see I did two or three workouts where I had some kicking going and was making sure I kicked high.  Apparently, my body doesn't care for me going from kicking at 8 o'clock to 10 o'clock whilst skipping 9 o'clock.  Perhaps one day I shall learn this.  For now, I get to look like a cheetah from all of the digging.  Aces.

Now let's dig into...

Loosen Up Already: Try These 9 Glute Stretches for Tight Muscles  (My Lord I've been a tight @ss for like 2 months now so I desperately need these.)

This One Yoga Pose Releases Tight Hips and Tension in Your Pelvic Floor  (Also called "foreplay's over.")

4 Reasons You Should Brush Your Tongue and How to Clean It Properly  (It still grosses me out to think people don't brush their tongues.  It's like putting cooked chicken back in the marinade you used for raw chicken.  GROSS!  Even better, use a tongue scraper/brush in between brushes!)

Why "I Don’t Want to" Is an Acceptable Answer (No is a complete sentence.  Explaining yourself takes away your power and nothing you say is going to be good enough to the person you're explaining to unless you bend to their will.)

How to Recognize Your Partner's 'Bids for Connection' and Maybe Save Your Relationship  (These are one of the first things we learned in our marriage therapy.  It's a crucial first step in making things better.)

How to optimize your bedroom for better sleep: 4 easy Feng Shui changes to make tonight  (Sorry but I live in a shoebox and I've seen too many Criminal Minds episodes to do #2.)

Puppy dog eyes are a manipulation tactic, study shows (I don't think there's a dog owner alive that would find this news.  We never fell for it and would ignore.  Then she'd inch closer every five minutes, nudge a hand to see if we'd bite and if we didn't it was climb onto the gut for a full neck hug with her tail sucked into her butt.  Okay...forgiven.)

A woman went viral on TikTok for sharing how she told her now-husband that she hated (she didn't say that) her engagement ring (Okay, I have to speak up here as someone who almost fell into the same situation.  The Mr's mom somehow thought that she would choose the rings for all of her daughters in law to look just like hers like we were some lady mafia.  Her ring is fine...for her.  Her middle son had her go with him to pick out his girlfriend's ring and it is basically identical to his mom's.  Thick gold intricate band with a marquis cut.  That's fine but not remotely what I wanted.  When the Mr told me the story about that about a year into our dating, I was like "that is not cool and this is something she's going to have to wear for the rest of her life.  You're spending a few months salary on it to not even know if she likes it for real  Then if she confesses she doesn't, she looks like a bitch.  FYI- not to be presumptuous but I don't like your mom's ring!"  😂  He got the message and I basically designed my own ring on a post it note and when we saw it in a jewelers a year later, I had them write down the info along with size and cut for future reference.  I love it now as much as I did then and am SO glad I didn't have to get stuck with my MIL's ring even if she got her undies in a twist over me knowing what mine would look like.  So women, speak your minds on your ring preference if you have one.  I have two friends who reaaaally tried to talk up how much they loved their 'unique' rings their dudes picked and you can tell they choked on the words every time like they were trying to convince themselves in addition to others.  Thanks Mr for listening and going against your mom in your ear on that one!)

Dashed 'Dreams' and Broken Hearts: Inside the Tumultuous Making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours  (Still one of the best albums ever made)

No clue if we're doing anything this weekend.  I do know we need to get some stuff cleaned up because apparently next weekend is Easter.  I suppose I should look into some ham slices or something from the good ham place.  If not, pizza with ham and onion it is.  😄

Anything going on for you this weekend?

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