DAY 15 - OWWWW

Today, I went to a hot yoga class, and REALLY understood how much work still has yet to be done. In plain terms, the class kicked my butt.

I consider myself fairly flexible with a standard degree of strength. I clued into how wrong I was when the 50 year old lady next to me was able to do a full side plank in a 90+ degree room and I was having a hard time doing the modified version.

Although the class was painful on a multitude of levels (it ranked pretty high for both physical pain and humiliation), I did finally tap into something that has been bothering me for awhile. This whole "getting in shape" thing isn't going to be easy at all: it's going to be very difficult, hard to maintain, and involve a lot of pain and exertion. I still have to do so much to change my diet, I need to change my pre-existing spending patterns, and I have to start doing things more often that help me destress. This entire class I was mulling over my finances, instead of actually enjoying the moment. What good did the mulling do? Absolutely nothing. If anything, it detracted from my actual practice.

It occurs to me that it's not just going to be my body that's getting a makeover, but also my mental state. I'm really not as happy, grounded, or centred as I'd like to be right now, and I do really need to change that. I have started by eating a heck of a lot healthier; more fruits, vegetables, and lots of vitamins in the morning...but there's still a ways to go until I see the results. If anything, I am now more determined than ever to make it happen.

DAYS 9-14

Okay, so I fell off the exercise bandwagon a little, but it is Christmas, season of guiltless carbs and excess fats that can enter your system through pure mitosis. 'Tis the season for gorging and such, but after days and days of glutting myself on a smorgasbord of calorie-ridden heaven, I have decided to seriously up things this week and work REALLY hard on getting back in shape.

To start:

So, as you can see, I am learning a Tai Chi Fan dance! I picked up the set tonight from Indigo, and it's actually very challenging. It came with a 2 lb steel fan, which makes this thing a huge workout. My living room is TINY however, so it isn't exactly in great shape yet...however, this beautiful fan dance is also deadly. Speed it up, and you've got a martial arts machine!!!! I love it!

Tomorrow: Gentle yoga practice in the morning, followed by an intense workout when I return home...Britney's ab routine, followed by squats and some cardio :D

DAY 8

Went to the gym today for an hour and a half. I attempted to do Britney's ab routine, and did 10 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes on the bike. After that, I did the abs workout, stretched, and then did some strength training. I feel frigging fantastic.

My superhero of the week is coming tomorrow, and it has to do with a certain action movie celebrity who has a movie coming out Christmas Day...

DAY 6 & 7

Although again, I didn't get up to too much this week, I did do Britney's ab routine again, and got a fantastic Canadian cardio workout by trucking through at least 10 cm of snow in the middle of a blizzard. It reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon:



Bill Watterson's analysis of winter fun always seems to be spot on.

DAYS 4 & 5

Day 4 - Nothing eventful happened today, as I was writing a paper. On something top secret.

Day 5 - Today was a full day of work, and when I got home I had no energy to go out again to exercise, so I googled "Britney Spears' workout" and got this fantastic abs routine that I did while watching HGTV. Although Britney does 50 reps of each exercise, I was pretty good after only 25. However, this is one of the best ab routines I have ever done, so I am posting it here:

50 crunches (not sit-ups), not allowing the shoulders to touch the ground the entire time.

50 side crunches (25 on each side), not allowing the shoulders to touch the ground.

50 opposite-toe-touches: lying on the back, stick both legs straight up into the air. Lifting the head, neck, and shoulders off the ground, touch the left fingertips to the right foot, and then the right fingertips to the left foot. Repeat, while keeping head, neck and shoulders off the ground.

50 reverse crunches: Lying on the back, stick the legs up in the air at a 90 degree angle from the floor, and lower to the ground, not allowing the feet to touch the floor. Lift back to original position, repeat.

No wonder she's the princess of pop with this kind of routine.

DAY 2 - Remarkably uneventful

Today's rhythm was a little thrown off by the fact that the lovely agent code name "Mom" was in town visiting. Since my tummy is now filled with delicious pasta, it didn't feel like exercising. However, after watching a Britney Spears music video, I got motivated again and did 30 sit ups and 30 pushups. Back to the grind tomorrow though!!!

DAY 1

In an effort to improve my cardio, flexibility and agility, I attended both "BodyJam" and "BodyFlow." Even though this is just day 1, I am quite exhausted, although very proud of the fact that I was able to do 2 hours of classes.

Ow.

Okay. Going to sleep in order to recuperate my muscles.