MY FIRST WEEK
April 23, Wednesday – Day One of The Great Change (working title)
7am BodyPump at SoHo location, with Janet, and it was confusing – some sets were too easy, other sets were too light. My body was very disproportionately built, with incredibly strong chest muscles, mediocre biceps, abysmal triceps, strong, but easily-crampable calf muscles, and hardly any range in my shoulders.
Anyway, I left the class thinking, “right on. That was way too easy on me in most of the areas, so I’ll bump up the weight, no problem, and now I know that it is a very doable class.”
Then, Thursday morning, I woke up and was so sore couldn’t bend my legs, and I could barely use my biceps. I was so tender that it was scream-worthy-painful when my fluffy cat walked across my quads. YIKES!
April 29th, Tuesday – 2nd Day One of The Great Change (working title)
Two days of muscle recovery and a three-day chest cold later, I tried my second Day One of The Great Change (working title).
Morning BodyPump class with a FIERCE lesbian who kicked my ass with an encouraging smile.
A hip hop dance class that reminded me I am a stiff white girl with absolutely none of that “soul” black people talk about. While I am envious of this fact, this class taught me it doesn’t matter that I look absolutely ridiculous, because it was a lot of fun and it’ a dance class at a gym.
Then, BodyCombat (kickboxing) with that same FIERCE maybe-Lesbian. Although, secretly, I left kickboxing after a half an hour – the cardio was too harsh on my healing lungs.
April 30th, Wednesday – Day Two of The Great Change (working title)
– 10:30a BodyPump with a small human who was pouding out four times the amount of weight I was lifting. This was encouraging.
May 1st, Thursday – Day Three of The Great Change (working title)
An interesting hour of Pilates. (PIlates and Yoga were my favorite classes two years ago, last time I was fit. I was good at it. I was strong and flexible. This class was interesting because it showed me exactly how far I have to go to be able to enjoy Pilates the way I remember it. It’s worth it. I mean, come on — it’s an exercise class done entirely on your back!)
Booked it to SoHo for 30min BodyPump class, which was piggy-backed by an ab-class-meets-resistance-band-training. I did the 30-minute BodyPump and then pulled my mat to the side and stretched my abducters and back for the next 45 minutes.
May 2, Fri – Day Off
May 3, Sat – Spent two hours bent over a tub, scrubbing seven layers of caked-on baseball dirt and moving heavy furniture around an old apartment for work.
May 4, Sun – Day Four of The Great Change (working title) is 9:30a Zumba, It would be bright and early, if I’d slept last night. Instead, I parked my ass in a steel/plastic (plasteel?) chair at Midnight Express Diner on 89th st and 2nd Ave, ordered a coffee and fruit cup, and spent the evening reading about blogging. The class was terrific. Simple, easy dance moves, which allowed me to modify the movements to bring it up a level and kick my workout up a notch. One of four people in Zumba was awkward, but not as bad as I dreaded because I was doing well.
12:30p BodyPump with Janet!
Warm-Up weight: 10lbs on each end
Squats: 7.5lbs on each side!
Lunges: did 15 lunges, ish. still really hard because of my back
Chest: 12.5lbs on each side & 10lb plates for A-Lifts
Shoulder: 2.5lb plates in each hand
Triceps: 10lb plate, shared by both hands & did almost all the box-style tricep pushups
Back (rows): 7.5lb dumbbells (can’t do deadlifts)
FOOD:
Shops —
Pure Vegan on E 97th St and Madison Ave
Great Jones Spa Juice Bar on Great Jones Street and Lafayette St
Lifethyme Natural Market on 6th Ave and W 9th StCalista Superfoods (seamless.com, UES)
Sweetgreen on 27th St and Broadway (not great juices)
– Juiced (kale, celery, cucumber, spinach, wheatgrass, ginger, cayenne pepper, banana, strawberries, blueberries, goji berries, apples, lemon, agave, coconut water)
– Salads with kale, quinoa, olives, broccoli, flax seeds, nutritional yeast, extra virgin olive oil-type dressings, Tuna fish (no mayo, just the tuna), egg whites, avocado, other vegetables. — no starchy vegetables.
Oops, I Cheat:
– Movie theatre popcorn with butter (Amazing Spider-Man!)
– Cupcake brand Riesling (2 bottles)
– Pork Lo Mein, half a container
Weight Lost: -9lbs
[ i n d i g o ]
