Belly Up

Made a stress-relieving bubble bath bag for Chiquita, my cousin. The contents of the bag included Epsom salt infused with essential oil, lavender bubble bath and Dr. Oz's new magazine, The Good Life.

Chiquita reported back that she enjoyed her bath and I told her that she could bring the Mason jar back for a refill of salt.

This article, Massaging Your Soul, made me think about Chiquita and her bag and it made me think of myself as I get drawn deeper into massing my soul.

And massage? It gets me out of my head and hits the reset button. At the end of a massage, I often think Okay, I'm ready to be nicer, more patient, more...I can even rub the furry one ad nauseam and watch as he tilts his head back into my hand or watch him as he goes belly up.

The Little Wolf with a Bone (iPod moment)

The Other Foot

Marisa's kettlebell classes are getting more and more CrossFit-ty and, before that, they morphed into something more scientific-y.

This approach actually worked in my favor for once because my shoulder and pectoral areas are tender. I did backstroke movements and did a push-up before deciding to go to class and those felt okay but if I move my arm to an upright position, I get yucky feedback. I knew that the cleans and one-hand swings might be interesting but we actually did very little swinging tonight. We did stations for 40 seconds and paused for 20.

Stations included but not limited to:

Slam Ball
Triceps Curls on the TRX
Triceps Dips
Butt Kickers
Kettlebell Row
Agility Ladder
Double Kb Clean
Double Kb Squat
Russian Twist
Plank
Kicks, Boxing Bag
Jumping Jacks
Around the Body with a Lunge
Halo with Squat, Curl, Triceps Extension
Tactical Lunge
Speed Skater

I was able to do most stations but I definitely had to modify on the double cleans because I couldn't handle the load with one side of my upper body tweaked.

When I got to the agility ladder, I was fine hopping on my grounded right foot but, on the return trip, I couldn't move for what seemed like a very long time. My brain was not getting the message to hop on the other foot.

Notify Your Face

Try not to show discomfort on your face. That's totally something that yoga teachers say and something that Jen said yesterday during I'm not sure which pose.

Bridget from my hot yoga days loved to say that the face is soft.

If your face is not soft, you're holding your breath and, if you're holding your breath, you're not doing yoga. Got it...

I've been uncluttering which shares a weight loss core value: it didn't happen overnight.

I've been letting go of books that I thought I would never get rid of and, as I've been deciding what to donate, I've been skimming books including books of quotes that were given to me as gifts.

After yoga, I felt particularly drawn to this quote:

When you feel terrific, notify your face. *

Yoga, in general, and Jen, specifically, made me think of this next quote since she put an eye pillow in place for me after I ended up at the opposite end of the pillow and didn't realize that it was time for savasana since time had gotten away from me...

Take the gentle path. -George Herbert **

For now, I am not putting Life's Little Instruction Book or Simple Wisdom in the donation pile. Uncluttering, after all, doesn't happen overnight.


*Life's Little Instruction Book
**Simple Wisdom

As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) or CrossFit Basic Training, Round I

Group coupons can be hazardous to your third chakra or, on a milder level, hazardous to your sensibilities. In yet another group coupon tip from me, never buy two from a company before you've tried that company out once. Otherwise, you might be left with a coupon that you have no desire to use. Of course, you can always try to resell the coupon on CoupRecoup but I digressed...

When I finally hit the click button on the CrossFit deal, I reasoned that I could always not go or go to one class and if I went and it didn't work out, I didn't have to return...

Not too long after I purchased my coupon, I got a long letter from the owner of the CrossFit gym saying welcome and that she would like for me to pick out a session as soon as possible in addition to filling out an attached form to assess my fitness level. Wasn't expecting that letter so soon. And, oh yeah, Ms. Owner informed me that the facility is some industrial type situation that doesn't have air conditioning but the dock doors do provide relief. Un hunh, sure...

Whether you have been sedentary, generally active, or an elite athlete, our Basic Training session is tailored to prepare you for technical proficiency that is a prerequisite for our CrossFit group classes.

In Summary

my solar plexus is affected by nervousness

I sign yet another waiver and also find out about some disorder, Rhabdomyolysis, caused by too much muscle fiber tearing at once

also sign a waiver that CrossFit may videotape my image (ugh)

female instructor is beautifully toned (understatement)*

surprised that it's an all-female basic training class

warm up on rowing machine

I suck at jerks

my coordination takes a while to kick in

I like doing pull-ups on rings

I do five rounds of Workout of the Day (WOD) and feel as if I'm going to pass out

WOD for Newbies, AMRAP in 12 Minutes

Three Presses

Four Dip Presses

Five Jerk Presses

Eight Box Jumps

Eight Ring Pull-Ups

Eight Air Squats

Did you know that your pelvis crease should be lower than your patella when you do air squats? Un hunh...

Quadriceps take brunt of punishment

I cannot do a pull-up

Instructors, who are very good, say don't be discouraged...

*Unfair marketing advantage, for sure...

Eight Days Ago

The first thing my eyes fell on when I perused The New York Times on March 30th: David Mills, Television Writer and Producer, Dies at 48.

My gut told me that it was the David Mills that I knew of a.k.a. Undercover Black Man, a blogger that I followed. Yet, it was still hard to comprehend. Mills was someone that I never met. I never verbally spoke to him. Yet, I left comments on his blog that he sometimes responded to. In addition, there were a couple of commenters that I felt I had camaraderie with on his site.

I left a comment on UBM’s blog as did about 160 other folks upon finding out that he had died. I looked on the internet for final arrangements although I had no plans to go. I found some solace in that fact that Mills died literally doing what he loved to do – he was reviewing a scene on the set of Treme, a new HBO show that is set to debut in about a week. I also thought it was fitting that his last post was a video about the making of Treme. And, overall, Mills got a lot accomplished in his 48 years.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that Undercover Black Man’s blog had been updated with the title Blowing UBM’s Cover. Had someone else been writing for UBM all along? I certainly didn’t expect to see another update. I went to see what the update was all about and it was UBM’s nephew, Clifton Porter, giving a wonderful tribute to his uncle. Porter, in charge of his uncle’s estate, had given me what I needed – closure.

I have many journals and books (Can you say storage issue?) and I often think about burning my journals. Yet, I’m reluctant to destroy them. When I first started my fitness journey, I started by writing down what I was eating in a journal. I track what I eat online now but I still keep track of my water and exercise in a journal for some reason. Maybe I need something tangible to hold onto.

Do any of you keep offline journals? Have you thrown any journals away and is your blog password kept alongside other passwords?

And, finally, what are you dreams and are you following them?

I've always liked this quote:

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. - Henry David Thoreau

If I were a preacher, I'd start my cadence now. How did he say go? Did he say go tiptoeing? Did he say go timidly? (Hitting hand on imaginary pulpit) Did he say go lukewarm? No, he said go confidently. He said go confidently -- in the direction of your dreams...

Weekend Review

I went to get a massage on Saturday, my first one outside of a five minute bench massage that I got from Whole Foods by an advanced Rolf practitioner.

I thought that I deserved a massage after two years and five months of a rather hardcore regimen. Even as I thought that I had earned a massage, I did feel like an hour long massage was just that -- long and I even wondered why people would get a two hour massage. Boy, I was mistaken. That hour was the quickest one of my life and I was so sleepy afterwards.

Later in the day, I went swimming and managed to get in 20 laps. On Sunday, I bicycled on The St. Louis Riverfront Trail. I always think that there are no more pictures to be taken on the trail. Yet, I still take my camera and the trail did not disappoint. I saw wild bouquets and turkeys. The Arch beckoned as usual.






On another note, I saw this article, Woman's Shattered Life Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection, and I'm done with ground beef.

Jam-Packed Gym

There were a few free cardio machines when I arrived at the gym but they were soon occupied. I go to a fitness club that has quite a few locations in the STL area. I went to one of the more spacious of those gyms today and just about every elliptical trainer, stairmaster, AMT and treadmill were taken. Even the class, Drills to Make You Sweat, was jam-packed. Then, I had what Oprah calls an "aha!" moment. I had forgotten that we were in resolution month. January alone explains why the gym has been packed even on weekends.

There were so many folks in the fitness club that you could feel the heat of so many bodies in motion. I like seeing other people in the gym, though, since it inspires me to keep moving. The people run the gamut from young to old and from people with subtle muscles to muscles that look like sculptures. There are people with singular tattoos and ones with full body coverage.

You never know when something is going to jump off in the gym. I've seen people start doing jumping jacks in the middle of the weight machine rows and when I was participating in the National Body Challenge last year, this guy was doing "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" style stretching in itty bitty yellow shorts in front of, not only the mirror, but in front of the elliptical machine that I was on. It took everything in me not to explode with laughter -- especially when the woman in the row ahead of me caught sight of the guy in her peripheral vision.

The New York Times has a very insightful article, "New Year, New You? Nice Try," about why resolutions are, by and large, unsuccessful.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/fashion/01change.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&em