Woven Wanderlust

Pole Dancing

Every Monday for the past month my best friend and I have been going to a pole-dancing class at Crunch. At first I thought it was super intriguing and interesting but very difficult. However, I think as I slowly ramp up on the learning curve it’s actually been a lot more fun. It takes me a little while to figure each move out but once I do it just ‘clicks’. Climbing was the hardest for me, the first class I couldn’t fathom how it was possible but managed to figure it out within three classes. Today’s class was probably the hardest workout yet, I was sweating and sore by the end of it. I keep getting bruises on my feet and knees, mostly from climbing.

I’ve also found that being ambidextrous seems to work to my advantage. Whenever I get exhausted from doing a certain move I can manage to keep going by switching arms and doing the move from the opposite direction. I’m definitely super excited to see where I’ll be within another month’s time!

April

So… basically since the beginning of the year I’ve totally been slacking on eating well and exercising. Actually, truthfully this began once I switched jobs and now work longer and more irregular hours without a gym 10 feet away from me. I knew I was gaining weight back and getting more out of shape but I thought I still had a good ‘buffer’ zone, that surely I hadn’t gained back more than four or five pounds… 

The other day I weighed myself for the first time in months and had gained back about 7-8 pounds… It took me six months to work off 15 and about six months to gain half of it back. That’s kind of scary… Thank goodness for realizations that come at the beginning of the month so I feel extra motivated to do something about it.

I’m going to New York the last week in April… and plan to eat to my heart’s desire so I want to at least lose back 5 pounds by that time. I think that’s reasonable for three-ish weeks. 

So, the goals:

• Exercise at least 4 times a week
• 1 outdoor run
• 1 gym visit
• 1 at home workout
• 1 more of the above
• No more than two drinks a night. Vodka-soda’s or white wine only.
• No more white bread! <—- This one is actually the hardest sometimes.

Photographs from my run up Bernal Heights a few weeks ago.

Strawberry Almond Smoothie

• 1/2 of 1 Banana
• 1 cup of Strawberries
• 1 tablespoon of Almond Butter
• 1/4 cup of Almond Milk (chocolate flavored, for me)
• 1/2 tablespoon of Honey

Strawberry, Kiwi & Banana Smoothie (The Prequel)

The fruits, prior to being blended into delicious slush.

Strawberry, Kiwi & Banana Smoothie

With a splash of OJ. Delicious and refreshing! Be prepared people, this is about to turn into a smoothie tumblr.

Bikram Yoga

I went to my first bikram yoga class today. Holy shit, it was intense. First of all, it took some getting used to the sheer half-nakedness of people. It’s funny because at my company’s gym, I’m the one walking around in a tank top and tiny shorts like it ain’t no thing while other, older and more discreet employees change in the bathroom stalls. However, at this place (in my neighborhood, the Mission, which is filled with all kind of hippie-hipster types) it was like, bam, swimsuits, bandeau bras and underwear, dudes in tiny speedo-like things. Lots of in-your-face nakedness in the locker room too. So, that was one thing to get used to.

When I first went into the heated room it reminded me of being back in Texas and I thought, this isn’t so bad. If I could survive Texas heat and this is similar, maybe I will have a slight advantage. The difference is in Texas you are exposed to heat for like the 2 minutes it takes you to walk from an air conditioned building to an air conditioned car. The first pose was pretty easy but I could already feel myself working. I think I felt a lot of pressure to do everything perfectly and wore myself out quickly— 15 minutes into it I felt extremely dizzy and like I might pass out.

My vision was blurred and started to see black spots. It was really surreal. I flagged the instructor and told her and she calmly suggested that I sit down and take my time and I could resume whenever I was ready. She said the only thing to not do is run outside the room because the sudden temperature change would make me pass out for sure. She also said that feeling dizzy and faint was very normal for first-timers, and really I am grateful for how much more at ease she made me feel about my first experience. I recently had a less than fantastic experience at my first excursion into the world of belly-dancing which probably made me more paranoid about having to keep up with the more experienced students. One thing I really liked about my instructor is that she didn’t come up and touch me and try to correct my form. She definitely did that in a very gentle manner to some of the more experienced students, which makes sense, but I like that I wasn’t put on the spot on my first day by having someone physically try to move me and frankly it allowed me to have a chance to soak it all in and observe. 

So I sat down and took a break through the next one and a half poses. When I resumed I simply did the best I could and gave myself a break when I needed one which really seemed to help my endurance for the rest of the class. I felt a lot better towards the end and was actually having fun. I have never sweat so much in my life. I felt really good directly afterwards.

The problem is about an hour after I got home I began to feel a little lightheaded again and a headache began to form in the back of my head. I also expected the heat and sweating to clear my sinus and allergies but after I got home I experienced a lot of sinus pressure. I spent the next 5 hours laying in bed because I just couldn’t do standing up or even concentrating on anything. That is a lot of time to waste which makes me reluctant about returning… but I did already pay $40… I think I hydrated myself pretty well, but next time I might go for coconut water instead to get some extra electrolytes. How I feel tomorrow morning will also be a huge factor in whether I continue the practice. 

My Gear

Very colorful… because if you are working out to look good, who says you can’t look good while you work-out?

Also, my running shoes finally came in! I am in love with the bangin’ color and they are so much more cushy and comfortable than my old shoes. I definitely feel a little bounce in my step when I run!

Always Wear Proper Running Shoes

Ugh, I think I may have injured my foot due to inappropriate running attire. The sneakers I had been running in were fine when I first started running and only clocked 1 - 2 miles. A few weeks ago I started running 5K’s and this Monday my foot started to ache. I ignored it and pushed on— to a dance class on Tuesday, which wasn’t so bad, and then another 5K on Wednesday in which it throbbed even at a non-challenging speed. I ordered a pair of running shoes last night from Zappos (Adidas Marathons) so hopefully they will get here soon.

I hate the idea of wasting a day of exercise so I am going to just take longer and walk a 5k today and then rest tomorrow to take it easy on my foot. I hope it will feel a little better so I can still go for a hike this weekend. 

Also, it is that time of the month and I feel like I need the exercise more than ever.

Exercise Schedule

I designed a color-coded schedule to map out my current and future exercise activities. It will become slightly modified each week, this is representative of somewhere in mid-March. I am currently doing everything on this image except Yoga, which I will be starting next week (I got a LivingSocial coupon for two months of unlimited hot yoga for $40). I printed out my new ‘calendar’ so I can have the satisfaction of X-ing off each activity after I do it!