So Monday was a hot mess and I can’t honestly say that yesterday was much better. I stumbled my way through a run after work but that did little to off set my terrible mood and once I got home, I found that Will had planted himself in the office with the music on loud. I get the hint. I wouldn’t have wanted to be around me either.

Well this morning seemed to be starting out on anther wrong foot. When I turned my alarm off yesterday because I wasn’t going to be getting up at the usual time because of my new evening work out routine, I forgot to turn it back on for today. Ugh. So when my peepers shot open at 6:30 this morning, I was a little ticked off. No work out was going to be happening before work today.

I took the set back in stride, though, and enjoyed my extra half hour of sleep. What’s one day’s work out? Not really a big deal to skip it.

But I know it’s a dangerous path to go to – the skipping your work out path. Part of the reason I think I’ve been so successful with keeping off the weight I lost a few years ago is because I don’t ever use the excuse “I don’t have enough time.”

Not enough time to work out in the morning? I’ll get up an hour earlier.

Too dark to run at 6 am outside? I’ll do it after work.

So when was I going make up this morning’s missed weight session? A few months ago, a co-worker mentioned that she works out over her lunch break. As a strict shower-after-sweating type of person, this made NO sense to me. My workouts are at least an hour (and my lunch break is only half an hour!) plus I need to factor in transportation time and and the much needed shower. But she clarified that all she does is lift weights, something that doesn’t cause her to sweat too much.

So I decided to give this lunch work out idea a try. I dressed in something that could double for gym and work:

* Leggings
* Loose flowy plain shirt
* Boots over leggings for work (to be quickly swapped for gym shoes and then back to boots for the afternoon)

Of course once I arrived at work I realized I had forgotten my gym shoes. #fail

Luckily I work five minutes from home and Will was kind enough to bring them to me. Lunch work out was back on!

It’s a slow week in the office since a lot of the staff is out of town at a conference so I felt I could take a full hour. But I desperately needed gas first and I had to factor in driving time so, ultimately, my work out got pushed to about 30 minutes.

But you know what? It was a great weight set.

* Biceps
* Triceps
* Chest
* Shoulders

Super quick and it felt super effective. Since I almost always lift weights first thing in the morning, I was amazed at how much stronger I felt doing my same reps mid-day. So much so I added some weight to really get the full bang for my buck.

Back to the car for a quick change from tennis shoes…

Into the boots…

All in all a great speedy work out that left me flushed and happy! No matter how short, any work out is better than no work out in my book!

Refueling with a big salad (picture does not do it justice) and a half english muffin that was in the office kitchen.

Romaine lettuce, tomato, avocado, mushrooms, edamame – all topped with low-cal balsamic.

Okay, okay, and the second half of the english muffin was eaten as well. Gotta fill up the tank!

What do you think – is a short work out worth the effort?