Day Fifty-Six: Adventures with Yoga

There's no sugar coating the facts. I hate exercise. Given a choice between binge watching multiple seasons of Bones or jogging on my treadmill, I'll pick binge watching every time. I'm just naturally lazy. It also doesn't help that my treadmill is loud and I live in an apartment complex with thin walls and a neighbor who sleeps most of the day because he works nights. That or he's a vampire.

Not my neighbor. Thank the gods.

This hasn't helped my weight loss journey in the least bit, but I've been trying, by golly, and by trying, I mean I've been roped into doing yoga with my sister. She joined a yoga studio about a month ago and has been nagging me to try it. At first, I wasn't too enthusiastic. From what I've seen on TV, it's just a lot of weird poses, trying to balance yourself on one foot, and a bunch spiritual mumbo jumbo that I'm just not into, but I was getting desperate to find a new routine that didn't bore me to death, so I tried Yoga Krewe's 30 for 30 package (for first timers only) where you can attend unlimited classes for thirty days at thirty dollars. I figured if I didn't like it or didn't get much of a workout from it, I wouldn't have wasted that much money. And really, how hard could it be?

Yeah, turns out Yoga is a lot harder than you would think. Since starting the class, I've discovered muscles I didn't know I had. It also strengthens your core muscles, which I apparently have. I learned this when they made their presence known by letting me know how unhappy they were that I've neglected them for so many years. I've also discovered that the only way to get me to a 6 AM class is to bribe myself with a donut. Guess what one of my cheats was this month?

Two of these. The other one was in my stomach before I could take the picture.

Two early morning classes and the only way I could force myself to make it to either one was to sleep in my workout clothes the night before and bribe myself with a plain cake donut. And the only reason there wasn't glaze on that thing was because I couldn't quite bring myself to waste all the effort it took to make the class in the first place.

In spite of my early morning donut slip ups, I've kept to my calorie limit (except for one day when I went way over, ironically, when there were no donut bribes to be had), and I do enjoy the classes. Getting to them is a pain, however, especially since the studio is all the way the hell over in Gretna. Because of this, I've decided not to renew my membership there. Instead, I've signed up for a membership at East Jefferson Wellness Center. The membership fee is only $60, which isn't too shabby compared to the $99 unlimited class fee at Yoga Krewe. Not that the Krewe hasn't been wonderful. The instructors there are really nice, know what they're doing, and are patient with less than agile members such as myself, but I'll be getting more out of it since the Wellness Center offers classes other than yoga, has workout equipment, a pool, and a sauna.

Not a donut, but it'll do.

Day Forty-two: Still Alive...Barely

Believe it or not, I'm still keeping up with this fitness shit. Sort of. I haven't worked out in over a week. I haven't given up, but I have been a bit...sidetracked? At least I can say I've pretty much kept to my diet. Well, I haven't gone over my calorie limit. That's kind of hard to do when you've basically only been eating low fat chicken soup for half of the week. Motivation to exercise, however, has eluded me.

 

It started last Tuesday. I wasn't feeling well. The constant change in weather has been affecting my sinuses, and I knew I had to be coming down with something on Wednesday when I couldn't get my lazy ass off the couch the entire day. I couldn't breathe out of one nostril, I was exhausted for no good reason, and my head was killing me from yet another sinus headache. I had reserved a spot for a yoga class that night, but there was no way I was going anywhere but bed. I never work out on Thursdays because that's my game/writer's meeting night, but I figured I could catch a yoga class on Friday morning before I went into work if I was feeling better by then. Too bad I felt like poo for the next two days.

 

I couldn't call in sick Thursday because I already had clients on the book. It would be like pulling teeth to find someone to work for me. When my husband called me at work the next day to let me know he wasn't feeling too good either, I knew I couldn't come in on Friday. If I was contagious, I wouldn't be able to work on clients without making them sick too. I found a couple people to pull my shift for the next day and went home. I missed the class I reserved on Friday morning, so no exercise for me then either.

 

Saturday. Ugh. Saturday was hell. Health wise, I was feeling better, but I had made the mistake of asking my husband to drop me off and pick me up after work. There were parades due to run down Poydras that day, and I just wanted one easy day. I told him to pick me up at Baronne at the Jimmy Johns, a plan he thought was stupid because he believes there just has to be a back way to get to the Loews where I work. There is a back way. There are many. Too bad they're all blocked off two hours before the parades start. No amount of explaining this to him would convince him though. I also should have told him to wait to leave until after I called him because he left an hour before my shift ended and got there a half an hour before I got off. And because I had to wait for the authorities to allow me through the parade barricades (this can take anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour), he spent the next ten minutes after I got off driving around the block. This caused a heated argument on the ride home that ended with me going over to my sister's house to gripe. I also went riding around New Orleans trying to find this mysterious back way that will magically transport me past numerous blocked streets. Seriously. Just about every street surrounding the hotel is blocked off during a parade. I fucking hate Mardi Gras.

 

Suffice it to say, I missed the Saturday night yoga class as well. Because fuck it.

 

I'm going back tonight, though I'm not really enthusiastic about it. The temporary membership I have runs out on the 27th and the full membership rate is way too much for me to afford, but maybe if they have a walk in fee, I'll drop in twice a month. Eh.

 

This entire week has taught me two things. One, that Mardi Gras traffic is hell on a marriage, and two, motivation is really hard to find when you're too tired to go looking for it. On the positive side, I weighed myself last week and came out close to seven pounds lighter than when I began this thing. I also took measurements, but I'm not sure I trust that I did that right. There is no way I lost that many inches in such a short amount of time, even if the pants I fit in again say otherwise. Also, I have my end of the month pictures. Please feel free to enjoy my pasty whiteness. One of us should.

 

 

END OF MONTH ONE:

 

Weight: 140.4

Bust: 40

Waist: 33.5

Hips: 40