Pie-layts

That's what I my husband calls pilates, and that's the DVD I did today. Upper body workout, to be precise. It's one I've done before, but this time I didn't have any weights to use, so it wasn't as good of a workout as it could/should have been. If I do it again before our stuff gets here, I'll round up some water bottles or something to use.

And a helpful hint: Don't do pilates in any form with a belly full of oatmeal. Um. Uncomfortable. Just sayin'.

For cardio I relied on a little something Holly taught me. A few years ago, Holly--who has a really long, narrow living room--trained for a 5K by running in her living room. She called it Living Room Running, and since my dh's family has a penchant for turning everything into an acronym, I shortened it to LRR. Well, it dawned on me that my apartment--which is also really long--has a pretty straight shot from the living room (in the front of the apartment) to my bedroom (in the back). So today I spent 45 minutes walking and running back and forth the length of my apartment. I'm not sure what this would be called--Whole Apartment Walking and Running? WAWaR doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? For now I'll just stick to calling it useful.

Also, it occurred to me that I needed to clarify something from yesterday's post. It is very true that I neither own a lot of DVDs nor do I enjoy them very much, so it's probably a little crazy to challenge myself to do them for 6 weeks. While I have never claimed to be fully on the sane side of the line, I also know that a lot of my distaste for them comes from my unfamiliarity with the choreography and my resulting frustration when I mess up the steps. So hopefully this next 6 weeks will resolve a lot of that. DVDs are the best way for me to get a varied workout right now, so I'm trying to make the most of it. I'm actually pretty excited to make the most of this. Plus, it gave me the excuse to buy a few more DVDs, just to help infuse a little new life into my current supply. And also because I like buying new things.

P.S. Re: today's image, I didn't think it was necessarily the nicest thing to do to add an image of pie to a diet/health/fitness blog (says the co-blogger on a site named "Diet Cake"), so I went with a pie chart. Nothing tempting about that, right?

Rock *Your* Body

Day One success!

The DVD I tried today is called Rock Your Body by Jamie King. And guess what?! I didn't hate it! In fact, I sorta liked it--despite the fact that I'm white, 33, white, and a mom! (Dancing? Not my strong suit.)

The entire workout is a little over an hour, but I only made it about 45 minutes. Jamie breaks the routine down (yo) a section at a time and the entire routine into two halves. Then he puts both halves together for a "Dress Rehearsal" and then the "Performance." I made it through both halves, but wasn't even close to having it down enough to string it all together.

The amazing points are as follows:
1) I didn't feel like checking my watch every few minutes to see how much longer until it was over. I'm bored easily. Attention-span-of-a-gnat easily. And this is exacerbated when I'm uncomfortable (exercising = uncomfortable). But pitiful dancing abilities aside, this held both my attention and interest the whole time, despite the discomfort of working hard (I was dripping sweat by the end).
b) I am also annoyed easily. You know that saying, "Stuck in my craw?" Holly and I often joke about me and my seemingly overstuffed craw. Lots o' stuff in there, I tell ya. And near the top of the things that fill my craw? Aerobics instructors! But Jamie is not obnoxious! Go figure! I mean, sure there's a "I'm a young, cool, hip-hop dude" vibe going on, but he wears it well. And his style of instruction is pretty gentle and encouraging. I'm a fan of making fun of the people on screen that are only trying to lead me to good health, but this guy didn't make me feel even a little but derisive! (How's that for a compliment?!)
III) I'm looking forward to doing it again. Please note this day on your calendars, friends. We should probably make a National Holiday out of it. I'm not sure this has ever happened before, but I'm actually planning on doing this one again soon. Sure I've done other videos more than once, but it was always with more of a "I'm only doing this because it's good for me" attitude.

All told, I'll be back for more. I'm thinking once I get the whole dance routine down maybe I could put on a show for the neighborhood kids! Ha! That's an idea that should be filed under "How to Make People Feel Derisive."

Can't wait to hear Holly's report!

P.S. That image at the top? That's exactly what I looked like.