journey to a thinner me

2003-12-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

post-holiday weigh in

lost one pound! woohoo!

2003-12-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

ballet 201

so, i started my ballet 201 video last night and, let me just say, oh. my. god. very difficult. and it raises your heart rate like mad!

you start off at the barre and go through the barre work that you learned in ballet 101 with the addition of a couple of new moves. all exercises are done on both legs to keep things even. petit allégro i'm fine with. i can do eight jumps in first, eight in second, and eight in fifth. the changement is even okay. échappé is where things get a little hairy. i keep wanting to bounce too much. even that, though, is okay. four changements followed by two échappés done four times in a row is when my heart rate just jumps.

the dance in ballet 101 is like this:

pas marché, bourrée, arabesque, arabesque, glissade, pas de chat, pas de chat, pas de chat.

the dance in ballet 201 is like this:

glissade, changement, changement, changement, glissade, changement, changement, changement, arabesque, tombé, pas de bourrée, glissade, pas de chat, pas de chat, pas de chat.

the dance from ballet 201 is guaranteed to raise your heart rate.

and i love every second of it!

2003-12-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

yay

weighed in and lost two pounds! yay! this also means, however, that i am at a lower points target on weight watchers (22 instead of 24). we'll see how it goes.

2003-12-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

workout schedule

i want to start doing yoga twice a week. sunday and thursday. and i'll be doing ballet every other day. and three times a week i'll be doing a video from the firm. i need to get some cardio in there, too.

so...

monday: the firm, ballet
tuesday: cardio
wednesday: the firm, ballet
thursday: yoga, cardio
friday: ballet
saturday: the firm, cardio
sunday: yoga, ballet

monday: the firm, cardio
tuesday: ballet, cardio
wednesday: the firm
thursday: yoga, ballet
friday: cardio
saturday: the firm, ballet
sunday: yoga

this, of course, is subject to change.

2003-12-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

stretching

i can now nearly lay my upper body on the floor in front of me when doing one of those inner thigh stretches with my legs straddled. how awesome is that?

that's what i thought.

pretty damn awesome.

2003-12-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

rethinking running

okay, it's not like i want to be a prima ballerina. i know that i'm starting about twenty years too late in life for that, but... every dancer i've talked to has said that running and dancing don't mix. dancing results in loose hips that don't work well in running. also, the constant pounding of running breaks down the tendons that a dancer needs in order to dance.

i was talking to my mom last night and she asked me, quite simply, would you rather dance or run?

my immediate reply? dance. period. no questions asked.

so maybe i'll just be sticking with dance, kickboxing, strength training, aerobics, and yoga. i mean, it's not as if i'll lack cardiovascular fitness if i don't run. and i would much rather dance. i love it.

love it.

2003-12-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

lack of running

i've made an huge decision. i'm not going to be running again until i've lost enough weight that it won't hurt my knees. so, probably when i get to 150 pounds i'll take a mile jog and see how it feels. if it feels okay, i'll start incorporating running into my routine again. and then i'll get my fs-1 pro watch from fitsense.

2003-12-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

this week's weigh in

i'm down two and a half! i now weigh 176 pounds. this also means that i'm over halfway to my goal of 115 pounds. 52% of the *weigh* there, so to speak.

2003-12-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

ballet, again

well, i did my ballet 101 tape last night. it was terrific! the arabesque's were really hard, though. my shoulders kept wanting to turn, and my hips didn't want to hold the turnout. but it was great fun!

i'm going to try to do the video three to four times a week until i have it down perfectly and gracefully. then, i'll move onto ballet 201. i'm so excited! after ballet 201 will come ballet 101 & 201, combinations 1. and then ballet 101 & 201, combinations 2. what after that? depending on how long it takes, that will bring me to an actual ballet class! very much exciting.

my hips hurt today from the turnouts. i guess that's good, though, because it means i'm doing it correctly. if my knees hurt, that would be bad. the turnout comes from the hips.

at the end of the tape, you put together everything you've learned thus far into a short little dance. i was so proud of myself that i made my husband come watch me. he, of course, said that i was weird, but he did agree that i learned that bit rather quickly... and, given time, i could develop into a talented dancer. that made me happy.

2003-12-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

six days since my last entry?

how can that be?

anyway.

i got two ballet videos (ballet 101 and ballet 201). i'm going to take a peek at 101 tonight, though at first glance it looked a bit remedial. hopefully, the further you get into it, the more they teach you. i was surprised to know that you could burn about two hundred calories in half an hour of ballet. basically, though, two hundred calories isn't much. take the stairs a few times and you're there.

2003-12-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

ballet, and my husband thinks i'm nuts

for whatever reason, he seems to think that, because i'm interested in taking ballet lessons, i want to be a prima ballerina in the royal ballet. uhm, no. i just want to be en pointe someday because i've dreamt about it my whole life... and i've never done anything about it. there's too much of that going on in my life, so i've decided to go after my dreams... what's wrong in that? not a damn thing.

i've decided that, if i'm going to practice at home for a while before i take actual classes, i'm going to need the proper equipment. this means that i'm going to need a practice barre (free standing), a large mirror, and portable dance flooring (since my entire apartment is carpeted). i could get a portable floor for about $300.00. the mirror shouldn't be much over $50.00. the barre will be around $200.00. so... for a home practice studio it would cost me about $600.00. although... i've found this place online where i can get the entire studio for about $500.00. now all i have to do is find someone to loan me $500.00. any takers?

hmmm... i wonder what my mom's doing? ha. if i'm doing this, i should do it myself. first, i'll get the ballet videos that i want and go from there. i may not need the other things for a while. except the barre, of course, but i can be creative on that one for now.

2003-12-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

maintained again.

still, better than a gain, i suppose. i'm finally off of the antibiotics, though, so my body should jump back into gear again. hopefully, i'll have a loss to post next week.

2003-12-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

dreadmill

i just can't do it anymore. i hatehatehate running on the treadmill. here's what i propose: i wait until i've received my fs-1. then, beginning january 5th, 2004, i will begin my running program again. since i won't have to use the treadmill i will be okay. until then, though, i'm still going to workout, of course. what do you think i am?

2003-12-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

antibiotics are the devil

and they make your tummy icky. and they make you eat when you're not hungry simply so you won't throw up and have to call your doctor and tell her that you're throwing up your antibiotics and she'll have to give you more days of them.

i had brownies yesterday. they weren't as good as my homemade brownies. that being said, they didn't take as much energy to prepare as my homemade brownies, either. and they were still okay. they got hard fast, though, and that was bad.

i really need to get to work.

2003-12-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

ballet

i've made a decision. i have a running schedule that will take me nearly to the end of october 2004, and that will have me running about twenty-four miles a week. pretty darn good. i should be at or damn close to my goal weight by the time i start school in the fall of 2004. i'm going to get some beginning ballet videos and start working on my moves. my reward for losing fifty pounds will be to start taking actual ballet lessons! i think i may have worked out a reward system.

20 pounds - subscription to an mp3 download site
30 pounds - manicure and pedicure
40 pounds - massage and pedicure (runners have to take care of their tootsies! none of my toenails will fall off!)
50 pounds - actual ballet classes (complete with vegan ballet slippers and a unitard!)
60 pounds - at-home ballet practice equipment (portable barre and flooring)
70 pounds - day of pampering (maybe my mom could come out for this one!)
80 pounds - makeover (hair, make-up, style consultant)
goal weight - new wardrobe (drawing on things learned from consultant)

i think that sounds lovely. pedicures need to become a normal part of my health care procedure when i increase mileage, so after the first two they're not going to be considered rewards.

2003-11-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

working out

i did forty minutes of kickboxing this morning. great fun. i need something to shake up my workout routine. i'm currently running, kickboxing, strength training, and throwing in the occasional circuit workout. i really want to start doing ballet again. i say again, but i haven't really had a ballet class in eighteen or so years. what i was thinking, though, is ballet class videos.

collage video has some pretty good choices. six of the videos and dvds on their website are now on my *may i please have this?* list. the most commercialized *holiday* of the year is coming up, so we'll see what happens. i'm thinking that once i get my body back into decent shape i'm going to start taking actualy ballet/dance classes. watching *save the last dance* isn't good for me, i think. it makes me want to be a ballerina. shuh. well, a girl can dream, can't she?

2003-11-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

maintaining

well, i've maintained this week. pretty good for a girl who's taking antibiotics and who just started taking birth control again. i also had too much sodium yesterday. pizza. yum.

on the one hand i wish i could've lost at least half a pound. on the other hand, though, i'm happy that i didn't gain. woohoo!

2003-11-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

what holiday?

i've been sick lately, so my running has really been funky lately. this morning i ran three miles, but i had to run it in a devious way. i ran half a mile, stopped and took a few deep breaths, ran another half a mile, stopped again and took a few more deep breaths, and so on and so on.

hopefully, by the time saturday rolls around i'll be feeling better and able to run three miles straight again.

today, my husband and i had pizza for *thanksgiving dinner.* neither one of us is really big on thanksgiving, anyway... and there's no way in hell that my vegetarian ass if ever going to cook a turkey. so there.