Binging (yeah, I, too, thought I was joking when I came up with the post title – but I’m running with it)
So the first week I started Weight Watchers was crazy! I had a lot of fun and went out to eat (fairly indulgently) every single night. But I only gained the ~4 pounds I had lost due to starting physical therapy, so I just chalked it up to picking the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
This week, however, I have been mostly good… aside from the wee gathering I had at my friend’s place that was populated almost completely by people who love to share food… and aside from the extravaganza of finely grilled MEAT (and many excellent side dishes)… Okay, so there was a bit on binging, but it was *awesome*! [redacted] is not only excellent at providing her guests with tasty meat, but he also looks good doing it.
Purging (still running with it – sorry)
I have been exercising like crazy this week! And liking it!
So last Wednesday at physical therapy, I did my 10 minutes on the elliptical. For the past couple weeks, I have found a nice even pace that I can maintain the whole way through (which is better at the elliptical than I ever thought I’d be); the machine says this pace is 8.4mph (13.52kph). YAY! Oh, yeah, also last Wednesday, my usual person came to me and said, “So is it all right if I let a student run your workout since she’s bored?” And I was very agreeable since I was hoping for something a little more challenging – and boy did I get it. While I had once asked about standing on a squishy thing (umm… the physical therapy is for my knee and not only is balancing a good skill to have, but also it builds up the muscles around the knee that start doing some of the work of keeping the knee aligned that the stuff I damaged did) and had been humored for the one session – but this time the woman had me stand on a squishy thing while throwing and catching a ball. Also she had me stick my leg out to the side while using an elastic.
So Thursday… I did not take the day off. Well, I did take the day off work (since I was meeting my mother and other people from my old neighborhood for lunch at Buca di Beppo – Hmmm… maybe that should have gone in the binging section, too), and to make up for all that free time, I decided to check out the new yoga place near me: (Studio 34. After you get up the treacherous flight of stairs at the entryway, the site is gorgeous – two classroom studios (large and medium), many small rooms for community massage/acupuncture/reiki/pilates workers to rent out for individual sessions, a large public sitting/dais space with plush cushy couches, and a wee little library space! So I took a pilates class, and while I have woefully inadequate abdominal muscles, I still managed to complete about half the class. And the next day I discovered that I do, indeed, still have lower abdominal muscles. I thought they had been lost completely (I’d been going crunches over this past month or so and not been able to feel them working at all. Now I can – ow :-> ). And, luckily, that day there was only one other woman in the class, and this was her first pilates class since giving birth, so I wasn’t too hopelessly outclassed. I think I can build this into my schedule twice a week for the future.
And then I’d thought about going back for a 5:45 beginning yoga class that same day, but I was feeling a little sleepy after the drive back from lunch, so I didn’t manage to get out of the house in time.
I did, however, manage to make it to the 7:30pm Belly Dancing class. The woman teaching the class is rather impressive, and I hope I manage to find a way to take more classes with her. She has a foreign view of belly dancing, so she is all about small movements working very particular muscles in a certain way – and it does really make a difference. Even the posture is different. Of course it also helps (and makes things a little bit more brutal) that she has a strong background in yoga. I was definitely also feeling those muscles in a way I haven’t from belly dancing before. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to remember much from the two classes total that I’ll be able to schedule.
So that was Thursday,
Then Friday I had more physical therapy – at the new intensity level. It was only after I finished the step section that my therapist told me that the other therapists were talking while I was doing it because they’d never had anyone use *four* levels before. And my nice steady speed on the elliptical magically went up to 12.3 mph, but I must have been reading the display wrong – or it was broken. I’m still waver between wavering at the end of 10 minutes and feeling like I could push on through to 15.
And then this morning I went to my second pilates class. There were more expert people there, but I was able to do just as much as the first time, and I can definitely see where these are exercises that make sense and will benefit me. Hopefully, I’ll keep it up. You don’t have to make a commitment to a series of classes, either – you just pay $10 per class on a drop in basis – and pilates is available most mornings at a very workable time.
And then an hour later, I went to physical therapy. Mostly, it went very well, but it took a while to build up to balancing on the squishy pad.
*whew*
So here’s what that means in Weight Watcher’s land: you gradually work up to *blah blah proprietary information* 28 points. I earned an insane 45 points – and I’m not sure I counted everything.