Chrysalis

Wednesdays with Vlad

Tonight it was back to the class led by Vlad the Impaler.  I laughed my head off when I saw that only one other person from last week came back, but we had three others join us, so it was good.  Vlad switched the order of what we did so that this week we went from top to bottom (muscle groups; get your minds out of the gutter).  I found that a little bit easier to do.

Not that any of it was easy, but it wasn't as scary or as grim as the first one.  Also while I worked really hard, I didn't have the scary pounding heart of last week that forced me to sit out one whole circuit. 

Having such a small class meant everyone got individual attention, too, which is helpful.  Vlad knows his stuff and he is in amazing shape.  He also told me that he teaches basically this same class at other times, too, so I'm going to try to hit it at least one other time during the week. 

The class he teaches before mine is a kickboxing class and it looks like so damned much fun.  I don't think I'm quite ready for it yet, but that's my goal.  I would probably not be nearly as much of a mean girl if I was getting my yayas out by kickboxing.

Really.  I mean it.

OwOwOw

Lord have mercy, do I ache today.  Whatever those muscles are in the front of my thighs?  Ouch.  I mean, really, ouch.  I'm feeling it in my abs and in my upper arms a bit, too, but my legs, oy vey.

No gym today, but I walked a fair amount, mostly because I had to or risk permanent crippling.  I haven't been able to figure out a way to sit at my desk that doesn't make my hamstrings tighten up, so if I don't get up and move around fairly often I really pay for it.  I stretched my errands out so that I could do some walking around, too.  I would like to say it helped, but honestly I'm not sure.

I can't imagine how in the hell I'm going to walk around the lake on Saturday (3.5 miles).  The notion of it makes me want to cry.  Hopefully tomorrow I won't be quite as sore, and if the weather holds I'm going to try to get in the pool for awhile.  I think moving through the warm water in the cool evening air will be really good.

Jane Never Felt This Burn

Okay, so last week I totally went off the rails.  The shit hit the fan around here on several fronts, and the fact that I did not wind up in jail or live on the 6:00 news from the top of the Isabel Holmes bridge is a true miracle.  What time I did not spent putting out fires was spent eating like a woman with terminal PMS:  Hershey kisses, full-fat potato chips, chocolate cake, french fries.  If it was made from chocolate or potatoes, I ate it.

It was not pretty, my friends.

The one thing I did do was sign up for an 8-week course at the gym called Beach Body Blast.  It started on Monday with a class being offered every day except for Sunday,  so I figured if I could make 2-3  classes a week and walk the other days, I'd be doing well.  I have managed to get some walks in this gorgeous fall weather, but tonight is the first time I've made it to the gym.

Oh.my.gawd.  It royally kicked my overlarge middle-aged ass.  One tiny little 50-minute class, and I was practically crawling out of there on my hands and knees.  I wasn't the oldest person in the class, but I was the fattest and most out-of-shape.  Didn't matter, though, because there might have been three out of eight who could keep up.  I didn't keep up too well, but I tried really hard and I finished without dying, and for now that's going to have to be enough.   The instructor was very tough but very very kind, and if I can hang in there he's going to help me do some good things for myself. 

There is a class in the morning, then no more this week due to a big raquetball tournament at the club.  I'm going to see how I feel in the morning before I decide whether or not to go tomorrow.  And of course, Saturday I'll be walking three and a half miles in Wilmington's Walk to Cure Diabetes, and that is exercise enough for one day, I believe.

Someone please remind me that this will all be worth it.

Lazybones

Okay, I got off track a bit.  Well, a lot.  Last week I skipped the gym all week, but I did get in some walks in the beautiful fall weather.  This past week I was a total sloth.  Not without reason, but unfortunately those reasons do not reduce the size of my butt.

I was basically chained to my desk working on a job with the tightest deadline ever and I worked pretty much nonstop (with no childcare, let me add) until Thursday afternoon.  Wednesday it had started raining and it didn't stop until yesterday.  Lots of places in town were underwater, including the next street over.  The lake two blocks over even flooded over its banks, something I've never known to happen even in a hurricane.  When I left the house Thursday (for the first time all week) my transmission was misbehaving and frankly I did not want to go anywhere badly enough to risk being left on the side of the road in the rain with my kid, so we stayed at home. 

The upcoming week looks much more promising.  The weather is trying hard to clear up; we even saw the sun briefly yesterday afternoon.  Sweetie spent some time messing around with the transmission yesterday and right now it seems to be fine; to be on the safe side I'll call the fine folks at EconoTransmission tomorrow and set up a time for them to look at it.  My workload is considerably lighter this week and there's a good possibility that Liam will go to his grandparents for a couple of days; if not, he can go hang out in the kids' room at the gym.

I am a bit distressed to learn that there are no water aerobics classes scheduled for this month.  I don't know why.   The weather has not cooled off much-this week it's been incredibly humid and in the low eighties.  When I went for my assesment with the wellness director she told me about an 8-week program called Beach Body Blast and recommended I join (I have a coupon good for the cost).  I didn't go to any of the classes then because they were midway through the eight weeks and I didn't think I could keep up, but a new session starts on 10/17, and I'm going to sign up for that.  I still don't know if I can keep up, but hopefully I won't be the only one easing into it slowly if I start at the beginning of the eight weeks.

In better news, I've done fairly well with not eating too much junk and cutting out beer during the week.  I did drink one Monday night but other than that the only drinking I have done has been red wine, and not much of that.  I have continued to do my stretches-it's practically required when I spend long hours at the computer.  And I haven't lost my motivation, I just got sidetracked, as Liam puts it when he is caught still watching cartoons instead of whatever else I've asked him to do. 

Mea culpa; next week I'll do better.