Day 85: I Came, I Saw, I Left: Gym Visit

A fancy new New York Sports Club opened up in our area 2 or 3 years ago. As it was being built, it was a BIG topic of conversation - most of my friends were planning to join, everyone wanted to get "in" before they opened, i.e. the pre-opening special rates. We all called to put our names on the "list" before they even opened the doors because they were only offering the deal to a certain number of people....it was crazy.

At the time, I got all swept up in the hysteria (even though I've never really been a gym person) and joined the gym along with Dan. I went exactly once. I got on an elliptical machine and had such a visceral reaction - all the NOISE, and TV SCREENS, so many BUTTONS to push, so many PEOPLE! - that I almost started to cry right there. It was an overwhelming environment - so I decided to stick to the yoga studio, where it's quiet and peaceful. Luckily, I was able to talk the gym into giving me a refund.

Fast forward to today - I figured I'd go back and check it out. Even though there are some smaller and cheaper gyms in the area, this is overwhelmingly where everyone I know goes (including Dan, who goes regularly in the early mornings before work). I have to admit, I was a little nervous to go back. I felt compelled to wear leggings and a tank top that shows off my shoulders and arms - like I'd just come from a yoga class. I even put on a little make-up! To me, I guess, gyms = workout competition, like everyone there is checking everyone else out while working out. I wanted to present a strong version of myself.

Walked in, requested a tour. Friendly guy at the front desk had me fill out a little form that included questions like, do you currently exercise? What do you do for exercise? What are your fitness goals? I answered, yes, yoga and home workout, to continue exercising through the winter (this was my "line" for why I was interested in joining - being able to swim for cardio through the winter). As soon as I had filled out the card, a tall blond woman strode over to me and introduced herself. She had the direct eye contact and the too-close-for-comfort, in-my-personal-space stance of a true saleswoman. Immediately, I forgot her name. She asked me if I'd ever been here before. I said, yes, I had toured the gym when it was first opening up. Right away, she put her hand on her hip and squinted at me: "So, why didn't you join then??" Wow, way to put me on the spot, Sales Lady! I mumbled something about not being able to afford it at the time because I was spending money on yoga classes outside of the gym. She then asked if I still wanted to have a tour since I'd been here before. Now I'm thinking Sales Lady's sales skills could use some work! YES I want a tour, that's why I'm HERE, bi-atch!

So she QUICKLY walked me around for about 5 minutes. The whole time I was half-paying attention to her, smiling and chatting her up so that she would soften up a bit, and half-trying to see what all the people there were doing. That's what I was truly interested in - observing the gym rats in their natural habitat. Sadly, Sales Lady didn't give me much of a chance to watch what was going on. In terms of equipment, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of different weight machines. There was a whole area for free weights/lifting, which, ok, every gym has that. Then there were 2 different systems of circuit(?) training machines that are supposed to isolate different muscle groups. One that you're supposed to do on your own, and a second, different system where a trainer is available to help you (during certain hours) go through the whole circuit in 20 minutes. Then there was a whole separate area with more weight machines - but my head was spinning by that point, so I can't remember what were the point of THOSE.

Sales Lady did show me two different areas designated for stretching, so I got to ask if they had "smaller equipment like medicine balls or resistance bands" (I didn't ask about jump ropes, though I should have, just to see her reaction). She said, yes of course they have those things, and then made sure to walk me all the way back across the room to show me. I saw, I believed.

Then it was on to the sit-down sales-pitch. Sales Lady went through all the membership options and prices (snore). It was at this point, as we were sitting across the desk from each other, that I decided to remove my thin sweater and flash my incredibly toned shoulders and arms at Sales Lady. She didn't fall off her chair or anything, but she did ask me why I was interested in joining the gym now (as opposed to being a lemming when the club first opened, I guess?). I said something about just finishing a 90 day program that I've done mostly at home and wanting to keep the momentum going....and, I swear I'm not making this up, that was when her eyes wavered from their tractor-beam direct-eye-contact stare...and she totally checked out my biceps!!!

SCORE.

Of course Sales Lady had to follow up with, are you ready to join today? I said I'd think about it and come back. At this point, I'm expecting the hard sell - bring it, Sales Lady! You're no match for these homemade guns! But...she let me down once again. I was shaking her hand and outta there before I knew it. From start to finish, I think my visit to New York Sports took all of 12 minutes.

What I shoulda done, I realized later, was forego the whole tour/sales pitch thing in favor of Dan getting me a guest pass so that I could have hung out and observed the gym rat scene at my leisure. The one person who stood out among the sea of treadmill runners and free weight lifters was an old lady who was working with a super tiny but drill sargent-y personal trainer. Old Lady was killing it! She was all up and down the hallway doing these squat - turn 180 - squat thingys. Later on I saw her on the floor doing plank - lift right arm - plank - lift left arm. Awesome.

Needless to say, I ain't going back. I seriously could NOT imagine doing a PCP workout there...or at any gym, for that matter. Not with the facial contortions, the heavy audible breathing, or the grunting/swearing/shrieking that goes on here at home. Most importantly, though, knowing that I can do a great workout at home or wherever I happen to be...is very freeing. Not that I was ever a slave to the gym industry, but now I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I will never need to spend that money, or my time, at a gym. YAY!

Day 84: Oy, I'm Plotzing!!

FIRST of all, I can't beLIEVE we're at T-6 days. WTF?!?!?!? Or (for Stu), what the FUCK???

Yep, it's one big mishmash of emotions over here. Anxiety about being kicked to the curb to fend for myself in less than a week. Anxiety about making it thru the final week's workouts. Premature nostalgia for the whole PCP experience. Love for my teammates. Depression re: the fact that we won't have these damn blogs to keep us going. Excitement about the final week's workouts. Fear that I will fall off the wagon after day 90 - especially with the exercise. I don't see the diet as being so hard to keep up....but I fear that those will become my famous last words. :)

OY.

Anyway, TEAM BADASS, I'm thinking of you all right now. Wishing you well, wishing you strength and focus and dedication for the final week. Also wishing you ease and good humor as we get ready to KICK SOME ASS!

Promised myself a good night's sleep tonight. 'Night, all!

Day 83: Who Doesn't Love VIDEOS??

Now that I've figured out how to embed videos, NO ONE can stop me!!

From my house to yours, here's a little sumthin' to inspire your next workout:



This little ditty has become one of my favorites on my workout playlist - though, I have to admit, I totally poached it from Tara's list. It's an old standard made down and dirty. Here's a live version:



There are tons of jump rope trick videos on youtube - my favorites are the super amateur ones, no soundtracks, no fancy camera work. Check out this guy just doing his thing on the street. Getting winded, tripping, saying hi to the random lady strolling by...it's pure gold.



And I love this chick jumping barefoot in the hotel parking lot - she's got some badass tricks up her sleeve:



So I gotta say - after 83 days of jumping rope, I finally figured out how to do something other than jump with both feet over...and over...and over. Stay tuned - if one of my family members can capture my new trick on video, you guys will be the first to see it!

Day 82: Indulgence #3 and...

Here's a quick run-down of my final indulgence from last night. Since my last indulgence was a lovely date night out with my husband, I figured this would be a good chance to include the kids. So we all went out to Sweetgrass Grill in Tarrytown, a new-ish restaurant featuring seasonal and locally-sourced foods.
Our shared appetizer was an OUTRAGEOUS marinated heirloom tomato salad with cucumbers and charred mozzarella. You can see where my fork went first :)
And here we have a whole egg pappardelle (pasta) with garlic lamb sausage, roasted corn, braised bacon, corn puree, and fresh basil. YUM. Didn't finish all of it, but came pretty damn close. Dan ordered a braised eggplant and shrimp dish that was equally yummy. The kids were psyched that they could order their standard grilled cheese and french fries. Here we are with full bellies:
After dinner, we ambled down the street to the local ice cream shop where we promised to take the kids for dessert. I figured maybe Dan and I would share something, but he wanted his own, so I was FORCED to order my very own ice cream cone. I found the chocolate-y-est flavor on the menu - I think it was called "black soot". Dark chocolate ice cream with a fudge swirl and chocolate crunchies mixed in. It was GOOD, y'all. Very, very good. More than made up for my disappointing first indulgence experience.

Food was great, company was exceptional, and I loved being able to enjoy a special meal out with my family. Looking back, the food I ate for dinner could almost have passed for PCP-compliant, even though I wasn't thinking about that at the time. I just ordered what looked good. The ice cream, though, definitely made this a far-from-PCP-diet indulgent experience, so I'm really glad I had it.

Now I'm all fired up for the final push!! Let's RIP IT UP, TEAM BADASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS - And it'll be a lengthy PS...I have to show you guys what I did this afternoon:
Inspired by the YogaSlackers and a workshop I took with one of them last spring, I finally set up a slackline in our backyard!
HA - tonight's email from Patrick said to find a new ab exercise and blog about it. So, BAM! Here's mine:
Balancing on one hand & one knee is a pretty standard-issue core strengthener. Try doing it on a one-inch thick piece of tubular webbing that is swaying between two trees! Actually, doing anything on a slackline requires TONS of core strength. Here's how the pros do it - seriously, watch this short video:

And here's me - video, and commentary, courtesy of Stella. Keep watching for the big finale!



The kids had just as much fun as I did trying to stand up on the line:

So, obviously, I'm psyched with our new outdoor activity! I plan on making this a part of my daily practice. Balance and core strength FTW!!

Day 81: How It Is Right Now

OK - I'm going to let off a little steam right now by freaking out about the fact that Team BADASS is finishing this thing in NINE days (how is that POSSIBLE?!??) and I still feel like I have a bunch more work to do to reach my personal peak condition. I know, I KNOW! It's not like we're going to turn into a wax museum version of ourselves on Day 90, forever stuck at whatever point we're at on that day. I KNOW it's not about the 90 days! Believe me, I plan on keeping this thing going, in some form or other, for years to come. However - there have been moments during this past week where VANITY has reared it's ugly head and pointed out all the places on my body that still need work.

Here's what VANITY has been talking about: a)Back and shoulders = WEAK. Pull-ups still totally suck and I hate them for making me feel so...weak. b)Hips and butt = still rockin' some layers of fat. Might be some muscles under there somewhere, but they have yet to make themselves known. c)My old "friend" Melvin - ha! Still hanging around - yes, literally hanging from my body like an old balloon that's lost it's air. Can't imagine him ever leaving for good.

AHHHHHHHHHH!

Ok, deep breaths. Had to get all that off my chest. Yes, these nagging thoughts (thanks, VANITY!) have been bugging me - HOWEVER. They happen sporadically, popping up from time to time in the midst of what is becoming my "new normal", to quote Haley. The new normal keeps evolving, but so far, it's characterized by increased energy, steadiness of mind and heart, equanimity, and commitment to health. The daily diet and exercise is, yes, still "required", but it has also become a given. I know, upon waking, that I will get up and jump rope. I know that I will fit in the rest of the workout at some point throughout the day - it's a given. I know that I will make sure I eat what I need to eat in order to sustain myself. Right now, that means hitting the grams. In the future, it will be a little trickier, but I know my experience of food has already shifted so much that I can't see myself going back to where I once was. I can feel the benefits of all my hard work manifesting throughout my days - and mostly, I can take the long view when it comes to my physical body. Especially after a day like yesterday, when everything comes into focus. All my rants, all my worries, all my obsessions...they are so irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Life is short! Why create unnecessary pain??

...Aaaaaaaannnndddd the next morning I have to face the dreaded pull-ups all over again. I curse, I rant, I feel completely defeated, I cry. I might even slam a door. And then I do the rest of the workout. When I finish, I eat. Somewhere in there, I am reminded that getting my undies in a bundle is part of the human condition. This reminds me to breathe. I turn on some music in the kitchen and suddenly my kids are laughing at me while I "shake my butt". Which reminds me that my butt is good for shaking. More laughter and dancing ensues.

That's just how it is right now.

Day 80: Yom Kippur Musings

A very interesting day, this Yom Kippur. Gave me a lot to think about this year.

First off, fasting. Not eating food connected me to those who don't have food to eat. We are SO LUCKY to be able to eat beautiful, bountiful food. So many others are not so lucky.

Second, feeling the effects of not eating or drinking for 24 hours (feeling tired, light-headed, cranky) reminded me of how I used to feel a LOT of the time, just because I wasn't feeding myself well. I can see the difference BIG TIME in my interactions with the kids. Before the PCP, I was often cranky with them, had no energy and therefore little creativity in spending unstructured time with them. Now, thanks to all the changes in diet and exercise, I have so much more energy and not so many huge shifts in mood. We're all enjoying our unstructured time together - impromptu bike rides, walking the dog, playing made-up games - and I'm actively building more down-time into our days. Interesting how the fast brought up that awareness of how I used to feel, day in and day out.

Third, even though I wasn't eating well during the day, I did the next best thing in order to take care of myself: a big fat NAP. It was both luxurious and necessary.

Fourth, fasting is not easy. It's meant to be difficult. In the context of Yom Kippur, it's meant to be a reminder of our own mortality. I really did feel that today. Awareness of how our lives are so short and yet, we all carry so much pain around inside of us, some of it self-inflicted, some of it the result of mistakes we've made. It's a very powerful thing to be able to stand up as a community and get in touch with all of these things. Life is short, and yet, pain. What is our responsibility in all of this? How can we repair what has broken? Where do we choose to live from, now?

Felt good to sit with the questions.

Day 77: Family Matters

DAMN!!! My blender just bit the dust. I guess this last banana/blueberry smoothie cream was the straw that broke the camel's back. The rotary thing that spins the blades around from the bottom, completely disintegrated. And now I'm stuck with hunks of frozen bananas & blueberries, sitting dejectedly in a bowl of milky yogurt. Sigh!

So today, my 7 year old daughter Stella decided, pretty much out of the blue, that she wanted to make her own exercise and diet plans. We haven't talked too much about the PCP, she and I, though she's certainly watched me exercise and cook more in the past 2 1/2 months than I have in, oh, probably her lifetime. (Though, randomly, this morning she asked me if I've ever used the stove - apparently she hasn't noticed me standing there cooking EVERY DAY.) From the backseat of the car, she piped up that she wanted to make a list of exercises she could do in the morning, afternoon, and evening, plus a list of foods that she could eat for each meal. The minute we got home, the two of us sat down and wrote all this stuff down. Her food list is short since she's a pretty picky eater. Boiled eggs made it on there twice, even though I don't think she's ever eaten one. But hey - it gave us the opportunity to talk about balanced meals and eating fruit/dairy for snacks, instead of processed foods. Plus, she ate half a sweet potato later for dinner, a new veggie for her. Score!

The exercises on her list were mainly her ideas but she also wanted me to show her some new stuff. See if you can spot which is which:

EXERCISES (Stella ONLY)

Morning:

• jumping jacks
• push ups
• crunches

Afternoon:

• squats
• plank
• duck walk (i.e. creep - she liked the name "duck walk" better)
  

Evening:

• stretches
• downward dog
• meditation

Even though she marked this 'STELLA ONLY', she agreed to let Milo in on the action just this once. The two of them took yoga mats and went in the playroom while I made dinner. I'm kicking myself for not spying on them and/or taking video of their shared workout - hopefully I'll get another opportunity during "morning exercises"!

Just to keep that ball rolling, I invited them to do 8 Minute Abs with me after dinner. Pretty funny! Milo was tired, but Stella was totally game - she kept wanting me to check her form (that's my girl!) and stuck with it until the end. "What is he saying? What does 'firm up' mean? Why does he keep calling us 'guys'?" 8MA dude's funny sayings are even funnier when channeled through a 7 year old.

Even if all of this is just her "activity of the day", I am psyched to know that some of my new PCP-ified habits are starting to trickle down to the kids.

PS - TEAM BADASS is lookin' GOOD, yo! I'm loving all the new pics...which reminds me that I need to take some new ones tomorrow. And I can't get over the SEVENTEEN Day One'ers!!! Holy influx! Welcome to the hood, y'all.