Go Fit Girl!

OK, OK, I guess it is now or never. I LOVE spin and this comes from a girl who hates exercise. When I started running a few years ago I really enjoyed it, but then I started having IT band issues and could not continue running. I was bummed because I had finally found something I enjoyed.

But, boy oh boy, running soooo does not compare to spin. I love the music, the dark room and the energy. I love that it kicks my butt almost every time. I love that I finish the class every time.

I love that I feel like the strongest, most amazing woman in the world because I just rode 10, 12, 15 miles on my bike every time (and this is coming from a girl who doesn’t know how to ride a “real” bike. But that is a whole ‘nother story).

For a while I was going to spin 2-3 times a week and I could see the muscles in my legs and butt almost immediately. One day my husband grabbed my upper thigh and gave me a look of surprise as he commented on how muscular my legs had become. Needless to say, that didn’t hurt the cause!

Alas, that has all changed. I continued to spin for the first few months of pregnancy but it became more and more difficult to keep my heart rate at a baby-safe level (even using a heart rate monitor) so I stopped going.

Just the other night I told my husband that I cannot wait for this kid to come so I can get back to spin class. I know, I know, that is a crazy concept especially for a non-exercise girl like myself. Hey, come to think of it, maybe they pipe something in the room or have some sort of subliminal messages in the music because it seems impossible that I would become hooked on something that makes me sweat and exert energy.

Who knows, spin class might even inspire me to learn how to ride a “real” bike one day! Check back … I might be writing a post on my cross-country bike trip or my tryout for the Tour De France!

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Thanks so much Erica for sharing this with us. If anyone is interested in writing a guest post for Go Fit Girl! let me know via comments, Wall comments or send me an e-mail to: ann@gofitgirl.com.

It has been a bit warmer these days. Well, it is summer. So you know, hitting anything above 70 around here is hot!

Well, afternoons or evenings at the gym, especially upstairs, is almost unbearable. Since they won’t let us open to door anymore during spin class they got us an extra fan!

I got to class yesterday and got a bike in the front row. A classmate of mine informed me that he had already turned the tornado fan on. Thanks Bob!

I have to say that class was much easier (though still tough) with the wind blowing on me the whole time.

As long as I can remember food was always a very important thing to my relatives when I was growing up. On every visit one of the first questions asked was “Did you eat yet?” and before I could answer a bowl of food was literally pushed in front of my face. It really shouldn’t be a question because I couldn’t turn it down or else I would get a look of disappointment and I ended up feeling guilty so I just accepted it and I ate whatever I was served. It didn’t matter if I was hungry or not, but as long as I ate everyone was happy.

I eventually learned that food equals care. So when grandma gave you food, it means she cared and for you not to accept meant the same as rejecting her care.

When I grew up I picked up this food pushing practice. If people were visiting or I was visiting someone I always had goodies with me. I never realized how hard this could be on someone who was watching their weight until an ex-boyfriend gained 20 pounds from being with me! His weakness was his grandmother’s banana pie recipe, which I made weekly for him. I finally had to stop because he told me about his weight gain and he was not happy.

Initially my feelings were hurt because I felt like he didn’t appreciate how much I cared, but realized it was not personal and that he just didn’t want to be overweight. It was hard for me not to make the dessert, but I forced myself to stop.

Pretty much the same thing happened with my current boyfriend. I loved to give him large portions of food at each meal because it meant I cared about him. Next thing I knew he started to grow a little tummy and he started telling me he had to cut back. I tried hard not to show him my feeling here hurt, but they were! I felt rejected and he had to assure me he cared about me and loved the meals I prepared. But he just didn’t like the extra weight he had put on. After this I realized how I turned into my relatives and how addicting food pushing was for me.

Food still means care to me so it’s a hard addiction to get over. Eventually over time I had to learn to stop plopping food in front of people. Just ask once or twice and that is it. No more feeling hurt if someone says, “no thank you, I’m full.”

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Thanks so much Alicia for sharing this with us. If anyone is interested in writing a guest post for Go Fit Girl! let me know via comments, Wall comments or send me an e-mail to: ann@gofitgirl.com.

So Saturdays are my normal day to work out for two hours: spin; abs/core; body conditioning.

When I woke up yesterday morning I was so tired and dehydrated (did some drinking the night before) that I just couldn’t go to the gym. I was only planning on hitting spin because of a wedding Curt and I had to attend later in the day.

Sundays are my normal off gym day. But I decided to go today since I missed yesterday. The elliptical on my own is not as good of a work out as spin class. But it was better than nothing.

My regular morning yoga teacher has been out of town. So she has had two subs: Ken and Jennifer. I like both of them. They are so different.
Yesterday Ken had us continuously do vinyasa flows.

There are many variations of vinyasa flows. But the video above gives you an idea. I think what really made me sore was going back and forth between downward dog and plank to a push up (or really a push down).

My arms and shoulders are pretty sore. I love that good kind of sore.

I am trying to get Erica to write a guest post about why she LOVES spin. Because I seriously don’t get it. And she is gonna be busy soon, Baby O will be here soon.

So help me encourage Erica to write something up.

Anyway, spin has been so much tougher than usual lately. The classroom in the evenings is so hot! On Tuesday I walked in and was sweating and I hadn’t even gotten on the bike.

We can’t open the door anymore. It is an emergency door and an alarm will sound.

So the gym got us a tornado fan. But so far I have not felt anything from that fan. On Tuesday I noticed it was on but pointed at the teacher. And the instructor HAS a small little fan right by the bike that cools them. (Oh, and I was in the front row that night.)

Today I got to class right at 6 p.m. and the only bikes left were in the back row (there are three rows of bikes). I hate sitting in the back for many reasons: it is difficult to hear and see the instructor and the cooling factor is about nil back there.

The tornado fan was on today, but man, that just didn’t help me. My row had a fan pointed at us. But that didn’t help at all either.

But I survived the class and feel good that I did. I always feel great after spin class. I just hate actually taking part in the class.

Oh, and being in the back row pretty much forces you to look at the clock–which does NOT help you survive the class.

I was happy to pound away on the pedals to old school Michael Jackson: Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’. I have the Thriller album on vinyl. I used to play it on my Popeye the Sailorman record player. Yea baby!

A Bloody Mary tastes great, right?

For those of you who don’t like tomatoes or tomato juice, don’t answer.

OK, so a Bloody Mary tastes good, it is an adult alcoholic beverage and you also get a vegetable in. I mean, how can it get any better than that?

Bloody Mary from McNally’s bar in Rockridge

So I had read a Weight Watchers e-mail about tips to handle a wedding.

One tip was to survey all appetizers before taking any. You know, see what is available. What you want.

Well, I didn’t do that. Crab cakes came by and I grabbed one. Oh my goodness! They were so good. There weren’t a lot of appetizers. So it worked out great for me. What I had was yummy and worth the tastes.

I had also decided I would drink wine instead of beer (Curt and I bought a keg of Belgian beer as a gift for the party). We were hanging out chatting with friends (new and old) during the cocktail hour when the guys went to get another beer. My friend Joe asked me if I wanted another glass of wine. I told him I had already had two and wanted to wait a little bit. His response: He grabbed my glass and got me a refill. HA!

Soon after that it was time for dinner. So I had only had a few sips of the third glass of wine.

There was a champagne toast and then dinner time.

The food was yummy and pretty healthy. I had some chicken, salad, rice with veggies, green beans and I skipped the bread.

Soon after dinner the dancing began.

Photo by Monica

And I danced a lot! I had already hit two hours at the gym earlier that day with spin/abs/body conditioning. But I had to work some more calories off–and dancing at a wedding is much more fun than going to the gym.

At one point Monica and I headed outside for some cool fresh air and a glass of really yummy sweet white wine.

So I think I did pretty good.

Apparently June 5, 2009 is National Doughnut Day!

A co-worker brought in doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. I grabbed one and scarfed it down. I barely even remember eating those empty calories. HA!

Oh well. At least I celebrated this wonderful holiday.

After my yoga class today I hit Peet’s to get a coffee and while there decided to also get a pumpkin bread.

I knew the pumpkin bread would have more fat and calories than I really wanted to consume. But what the hell, right?

I got to work and checked the nutritional information online. My small soy latte was reasonable with 90 calories and 3 grams of fat. The yummy pumpkin bread, not so much at a whopping 380 calories and 16 grams of fat!

That pumpkin bread was HALF of the Weight Watchers daily points that I am allotted right now (while trying to lose a few pounds). Luckily I have some flex points sitting around waiting to be used.

Lesson learned: When you got to Peet’s for coffee, just get the coffee. No yummy, tempting goodies!