This week has been busy! So busy, in fact, that I’ve had to get up twice and go to the gym first thing in the morning. Not only that, but I’ve also had to set an alarm to make sure I was up early enough to go, get home, eat breakfast and get back out the door.

As it turns out, being a morning person only applies to my mental facilities, not my physical ones.

I spent both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings this week volunteering at the front desk of our new church here in Austin, Gateway Church. I work for our church in Minnesota, Eagle Brook Church, in the afternoons. We also had something on the calendar for both of these evenings, so really, if I was going to get to the gym at all on those days, it HAD to be first thing in the morning.

I can tell you, it really made a difference in my workouts, and not in a good way. I was far more sluggish and just didn’t feel like I had the energy to really push myself. On Tuesday, I had a Muscle Milk Light Cafe Latte on the way there. Packed with protein AND caffeine, I figured it would give me a little boost. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t, but either way, I was only able to complete 2 of my 3 circuits of strength training and 20 of 30 minutes on the elliptical.

Needless to say, when I woke up on Wednesday, I wasn’t all that jazzed up to go. But instead of the Muscle Milk, I drank a cup of iced coffee before going. That actually helped a bit, as I was able to get in my entire 45 minutes on the elliptical.

I was pretty happy this morning to wake up and NOT have to rush out the door to the gym first thing. I’ll do it if I have to, but I REALLY do not prefer it.

As for the scale this week, I’ve been pleased. So far, I’m down 1.4 lbs since Monday, leaving only 6.4 lbs to go until I’m back to my lowest SlimGenics weight. Of course, my birthday is this weekend and we have friends coming to stay with us, so back up I’ll go and start the cycle all over again!