Nuthin’ but an H thang, Baybay…

Man, I’m sore. And it’s all Dena’s fault. She took me to the New Hope Lifetime Fitness on Monday night as a guest at her yoga class. We met up with Amy and they introduced me to their teacher, Peter. They warned him that I was new…

Thankfully, Peter took to heart that I wasn’t experienced. Certain exercises would prompt him to point at me and say “Not for you.” Some of the exercises felt natural and some were impossible. Down dog? No problem. Tree Pose? I don’t think so. Either way, it was a great experience and I definitely want to try it again. I watched Amy and Dena in an attempt to copy their form. Peter came over a few times to move me into the correct position for the exercise. You can imagine my surprise when he grabbed my hips from behind and gently hoisted them upward. I giggled under my breath…I couldn’t help myself, it’s my defense mechanism.

On Tuesday night, I whined to Corina about my sore muscles. She let me catch my breath when I needed to but still worked me hard. I worked me hard as well – I fought through each set we did. To finish the hour out, I really had to pump some anger into it. It hurt afterward and continues to hurt, but it’s a good hurt. Today, my knees are a little weak but I feel strong (and I slept soundly all night long). On a related note, I’m bummed out because I only have a few more sessions with Corina. It’ll be an interesting test to see if I can keep up with the weekly workout routine I’ve established. Oofda.

Anyway, I appreciated the chance to learn about yoga. It’s not an easy thing to do by any stretch (har-har) but it’s filled with great relaxation techniques and new ways to tone my body. Bally’s has an entry level yoga class on Wednesday nights that I may attend…I believe it’s even FREE. Free pretty much rules.

Thanks for letting me tag along, ladies!!

January is a terrible time of the year to have a birthday. I’d say it’s second only to December. Why? Well, January takes place right after the holidays, so everyone’s all partied out. It’s cold – ridiculously cold. It’s the time when a lot of people are receiving their holiday credit card bills and making a laborious effort in the gym (both reasons to be nice n’ cranky).

Despite my disdain for January, I was looking forward to my birthday this year. A lot of my loved ones sent me wonderful birthday wishes. I received fun messages on both MySpace and Facebook. Nick and Aunt Bon mailed me cards. Linda mailed me a box bearing several gifts! My cell phone rang like crazy with birthday greeters. My desk at work was barraged with both hand-written notes, emails and IM’s exclaiming “Happy Birthday!” The attention paid to me on my birthday is always overwhelmingly sweet.

For the occasion, Adam planned a large gathering at Benihana. My Benihana Birthday is beginning to form into a tradition, as we’ve done it the past 3 years. This time, we were 15 people strong! We had a little trouble getting Beni’s host staff to comply with our reservation, but after a little threatening coaxing, we were all happily seated at our two tables. Adam and I visited our other table a few times to make sure they were behaving (they, of course, were gleefully out of control). For dinner, I ordered a heavenly dish of lobster and filet. Predictably, absolutely every bite was delicious. I so appreciated everyone coming out in the cold to celebrate with us.

Then on Saturday night, my mom cooked us a lovely family dinner. All nine of us squeezed around the dinner table and enjoyed each other’s company. Kel and I opened gifts and then my mom prepared to light the candles on our cake. Rather than place sixty candles on the cake, she used two different types: one kind to represent the number of decades in our ages (3 for me, 2 for Kel) and another kind to represent the second digit (2 for me, 8 for Kel). Consequently, Kel had 10 candles on the cake and I had 5 – even though she’s younger than me. It was quite funny to watch her blow out double the amount of candles on her side. Good fodder for teasing, anyway.

So I turned 32 this January. Thanks to thoughtful friends and family and a wonderful husband, it was a perfect birthday. Still, if I had my way, I’d change my birthday to June.

On Friday morning when I woke up, I was feeling pretty fat. I’d had a fantastic time at Benihana the night before celebrating my birthday, but I also ate way too much wonderful, buttery food. My growling stomach reminded me of this indulgence and I was sweating over what to wear to work. Feeling the need to be casual, I plucked these jeans (pictured at left) out of my armoire to see if I’d be lucky enough to fit into them. Success! They fit nicely and I felt better about my “fatness” all day.

What’s cool about this, besides giving me a little lift in attitude, is that I can see the results. When I hired a trainer last November, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My goals included improving stamina, overall health, my sleep, and specifically learning the right way to work out. I’ve worked out in the past but I can honestly tell you now that I had no idea what I was doing. Rather than spending hours researching it and probably injuring myself in the process, I bit the bullet and paid for a trainer’s services. Initially, I stressed out over the money I was about to hand over to Bally’s. It’s funny because I wouldn’t bat an eye at spending that kind of coin on furniture or improvements for my house. But this was for my health! There are precious few things more important than my health – furniture ain’t one of ‘em.

Bally’s has a great team of people to work with. I was assigned to Corina, who is fun, smart, energetic and patient. She’s very in tune with how I’m feeling, she watches my face, checks in with me consistently and knows when I need a break. Plus, she’s the greatest cheerleader I could have. With her help and guidance, I have changed my body. I’ve lost about 8 pounds but gained a lot of muscle. My arms, abs and legs are getting more defined. I’ve trimmed two inches from my bra line, hips and waist (not sure about my arms and legs, since I didn’t measure them before I began the program with Corina). My stamina and balance have improved dramatically. The jeans I mentioned are just another proof point. What I’ve been doing has been working.

This kind of change has inspired me again. I hope to keep up my commitment to exercise and eating healthier and I’m trying new things to offer myself as many options as possible. As an example, I tried Tae-Bo last night. It nearly killed me, but I finished the 30-minute set and felt well-worked. And I’m really looking forward to an attempt at yoga in a couple days. I’ll let you know how that went…and if they’ll ever let me come back.

Guess what I bought yesterday? Yours truly is the proud new owner of an Emerson Research alarm clock with a SmartSet Time Projector. Yee-haw! The projector has an adjustable arm so that I can choose where exactly to display the image in my room (Adam’s forehead was unreceptive, however). I settled on the patch of ceiling just above my nightstand, and just in view of Adam’s side of the bed. No more turning over and batting down the pillows to view those inch-high digits! We can now simply peer out of one sleepy eye to see what time it is that Vespa is wreaking havoc in the hallway. Pure bliss, folks. Pure bliss. Oh! And the projector comes with three lovely color options: Red, Blue and Green. Adam and I agree on one thing – no red. He prefers blue and I’m partial to green. It’ll alternate to keep the peace but I’ll have to insist on green throughout the month of March (y’know, with St. Patty’s Day and all…and December, for that matter).

In other news, Adam upgraded my Wordpress software tonight! I’m now able to post photos again on my blog, hence the lovely alarm clock pic. He’s also hooking me up with some other cool plugins, including one to change photo thumbnail sizes. You know what you get when you cross your spouse with tech support? Spousal support!

You know you laughed.

At least we can say “28″ looks good on you, though I know you’re shakin’ in yer boots at the prospect of age 30 coming in 2 short years. Bwahahahahaha!

Anyway, I’ll see you on Saturday. I’m going to eat your Cream Chicken if you don’t get there on time. I’ve already claimed your piece of cake.

Love ya! Happy birthday.

Well, I’m happy to say that I’m about 90% over my cold. It was a long, long, mucassy week!

My appointment with Corina went really well tonight. She’s teaching me how to weave kickboxing into my workout and I found myself really getting into it. I’m becoming more coordinated all the time (hard to believe, I know). Additionally, I just picked up a TaeBo for Beginners DVD which will fit nicely into my pure cardio workouts. Never knew I could be such a jock, didja? I know I sure didn’t. I’ve been chatting up the lovely Dena and the lovely Amy about YOGA as well. Dena’s offered to take me as a guest to one of her classes next week – I’m nervous and excited to try it for the first time. What if I fall over and create the domino effect in my row? What if I split the seam on my pants?? No pressure there!

My thought on all of this is: if I can mix things up with my workouts, I’ll have a better shot at staying interested in it for a longer period of time. I’m hoping that all of these initiatives will create some improvement in my health and keep my head in the game. I mean, I even ate a salad today! Yuck!!

My cold has been letting up a little each day. My throat was the main culprit this morning and it made my job a bit difficult to get through today.

Over lunch, I headed to the looming Government Center building to have the Volvo’s title transferred into my name. There was no line, which is so rare that I questioned whether I was in the right place for a second or two. Because I had all of my stuff together (thank-you, Chrissy!), they pushed through the red tape pretty easily. I was grateful for the time I didn’t have to spend in the DMV and grabbed a comforting cup of soup from their cafeteria on my way back to the office. With my throat acting up today, I was all about that warm, bland chicken broth.

This afternoon, my head was completely buried in work tasks. Chrissy took me completely by surprise by dropping a steaming cup of hot cocoa off at my desk! The girl actually walked all the way over to Caribou to get something to help my throat. Isn’t that sweet?! I probably don’t say it nearly enough, but I really really appreciate her friendship. She’s the best friend I’ve ever had. She’s my hero. I’ve got to do something great for her. With all the help she gave on my car deal, it’s the very least I can do. If you have any ideas, please send them this way.

To finish off this very long day, I kept my appointment at Bally’s – a decision I’m very happy with. Even though I’m sick, it felt good to sweat and stretch out. Corina took it easy on me but she also showed me some new exercises, which always makes my workout fun and interesting. Did I tell you that I can actually see my biceps and triceps now? The progress is pretty exciting. Between the first week of December and the first week of January, I lost almost 5 pounds. Amazing.

Well, it’s time to rid the fluttering thoughts from my mind in hopes of getting some sleep. Sweet dreams, all.

Despite the best of intentions, I’m at home sick again today. Coughing through a lot of the night didn’t lend to the sleep I badly needed. I finally gave up trying to sleep and got in the shower at the crack of dawn. Immediately afterward, I felt somewhat okay. I proceeded with getting my makeup on and getting dressed. Midway through my eyeliner, I hit a wall: my sinuses began to hurt, my cough rose again, and mucus started coming out of my face at a rapid pace (again, sorry to be so informative). Plus, I was tired and my voice sounded as if I had rocks in my throat. Even though my tasks are piling up this week, it just didn’t make sense to go into the office today. I called my boss, who agreed.

I went back to bed as Adam left for work and woke up around 11am. I’m very groggy and my sinuses and throat are on fire. Time to take more drugs, I think. *sigh*

Lately, I’ve been around a heck of a lot of sick people. In fact, for the last two weeks, I’ve been actively trying to hold off a cold using the Zicam up-your-nose goo. Zicam is great – I believe it’s kept me from being sick a few times when I was starting to feel the symptoms of a cold coming on. Not this time though…my immune system has given in.

Most of my weekend was spent in bed feeling miserable (and quite sorry for myself). I canceled all of my plans and instead used my precious time off trying several combinations of drugs to counteract my headache, sore throat, painful sinuses, clogged sinuses, runny sinuses and aching body. Sorry, that was probably more than you wanted to know. Adam helped me put together an easel my mom bought me (er, in 2006), so I distracted myself on Saturday night and a bit of Sunday with some painting. Other than that, it’s mostly a blur. I slept a lot. I had a weird appetite. I got two loads of laundry done. I did dishes. I dozed in and out of a lot of awful TV shows. I surfed the internets. I took a long shower. Adam took good care of me, as always. He risked his own health to hug me again and again when he could tell I needed it. During one of my naps, he went to Half Price Books and picked up the Wayne’s World soundtrack for me (chyah!). I asked him to sleep downstairs last night so that I wouldn’t keep him awake, plus, I wanted to keep him away from my nasty little germs.

So, I’m home today. Still feeling terrible and sounding like Joan Rivers after smoking a pack of Marlboros, I decided it best to keep away from the office. I called my boss at around 7:15am and then slept until 9:30. My head is very clouded, probably from the TheraFlu. I’ve made myself a bed on the couch and I’ll probably fall back to sleep out there for awhile. Is The Price Is Right still on these days? I hope so, because if they have that one challenge where you have to guess the cost of some cold remedy, I’m all over it.

Why I need to get in shape this year:

1. Playa del Carmen in March for President’s Club.
2. Cozumel in July for Audra’s hawt wedding.
3. Kauai in early October for pure, unadulterated vacation.
4. Bridesmaid dress in late November for Chrissy’s wedding.

Just wow.