Fitness blah-g

[threadwalker]

Fitness Log

Slug-o-rama since 8/30 + Big food weekend = sweat and exhaustion Tuesday night

9/4/07
Summary: 35 min on Treadmill, then 20 min stationary bike, then 90 minute dance class with Jill Parker.
9/5/07
Today’s weigh-in: Below goal weight and down 1.0 lb from last week.

Details:
Treadmill
Total: 35 min, 400+ cal, +3.3 mi
Strategy: run for 3 mi; speed up and prepare to sprint from 3.0-3.1 mi; sprint 3.1-3.2 mi.
Overall sense: pretty good. I am experiencing pain on my left leg, between knee and ankle. It’s on the inside of the leg and it does not feel like the calf or the shin. It’s very persistent.

Treadmill Breakdown:
Min 1 - 29: 3.2 mi, avg 6.6-6.8 mph;
Min 28-29: 8.5 mph/sprint until reach 3.2 mi
Min 29-30: 6.6 mph
Min 30-35: 3.6 mph/walking

Stationary Bike:
20 min; 260+ cal, 6+ mi
Overall goal: keep pedaling for 20 min after doing treadmill for 35. Goal met. Very sweaty.

Dance
Jill taught, yay!
We did pilates/yoga, drilled and then broke up into small groups. I’ve been skipping the class for the last 4-6 weeks because Jill was traveling and then the kids had swim lessons. I’ve been drilling 1-2 times a week by myself to try and sharpen my moves. What I noticed was that when we broke up into small groups, I was quicker to jump in to do the choreography. I think it’s because I’ve been drilling. Also, when we danced at Erinwood, I noticed that I was a lot more comfortable being spontaneous. I credit this to drilling the basics and practicing. Which just goes to prove to myself that practice is important.

Weight
Two words: Stress Eating
I’ve been roller coasting within my “zone” for the last few weeks. It seems like every weekend has some celebratory food thing and although I haven’t been very good at maintaining my points, I haven’t gone beyond my upper threshold (which is my Goal + 2 lb). Last week I made my Weight Watcher’s Lifetime membership*, which is the last big WW milestone. Yay!

However, it was up from a month ago, it was on the heals of lots of indulgent eating, plus I was facing the prospects of Erinwood and no fitness for 3 days. Then, on Friday my (notoriously unreliable) home scale said I was over Goal.

Gulp!

So I put my self on “hunger watch”, which in my world means “stop eating when you are no longer hungry”. Despite the wine/cheese pairing on Saturday, a big indulgent dinner on Sunday that involved “cleaning my plate” and then “grazing on shrimp”, and the stress-cookies and stress-garlic bread during a lunch-time meeting on Tuesday, I managed some balance because I was tracking. Today I was down one pound from last week. I’m glad I did the wine/cheese thing, but I can’t help wondering where I’d be if I resisted the cookies and bread yesterday.

*Lifetime membership is gained after reaching goal weight. Following goal, you continue to attend meetings and weigh in for 6 weeks and during those weigh-ins your weight does not go higher than Goal + 2lb. Now that I am a lifetime member I can attend meetings for free as long as I weigh in 1x a month and maintain my Goal +2lb as my upper limit.

Comments

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

It's great when she's there. She's amazing to watch and she's very perceptive. Some of her back-up teachers don't really "do it" for me, though.

Classes

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I wouldn't say classes by Ultra Gypsy because on at least one occasion the teacher was someone who teaches "yoga for belly dancers" and not a member of Ultra Gypsy. Though she taught Jill's moves.

Unfortunately, I'm dreadful at names. One of the alternate teachers is a member of UG, one definitely not, and one dances in the studio and is definitely a "veteran" studio dancer tho I'm not sure if she's part of the troup. We had one guest teacher who just moved from the East Coast who did hip-hop-belly dance. (I want to take hip-hop classes, so for me it was very interesting.)

I would say Jill teaches most of the time. Normally, I enjoy the alternate teachers and I have some sympathy for someone who has to fill in for such an excellent dancer and teacher like Jill. Definitely hard to "fill those shoes".

Re: Classes

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

IMO, she doesn't teach ATS. She's teaching a more modern fusion of tribal and jazz or tribal and "MTV dance stuidio". One night we did Tunisian. Sometimes it's a night of "101 ways to shimmy". I think being versed in ATS would help, but I don't think it's necessary in order to get something out of her classes.