I fell off the wagon a little bit. I know I had great ambitions of going every single day, and I had planned to do some Yoga while I was on vacation, but it just didn't work out. There was too much to do, and not enough time. By the time I was up and contemplating trying to do some stretching, the children were dressed, fed, and ready to start running around the hotel grounds. I have to tell you, Great Wolf Lodge is pretty cool (and expensive).
I did notice almost immediately that my stomach has gone back to puffing out like I'm five months pregnant by mid-day. And I crept back up to 200 lbs. *sniff* As much as I want to kick myself for not working out, I also have to realize that there are going to be times when it is just not going to fit in with the schedule, and what's important is that I am making the effort to try my best. I should be able to go every day for the rest of the month, as originally intended, but once I start back to work as a teacher, I know going every day is not going to be a reality. Between teaching schedules, picking up the kids for food and after school activities, plus my own marking, (plus the fact that I can't do the weekday classes anymore and the evening schedule is a little more limited), I think I will need to re-evaluate my once-a-day goal for September and set something realistic to stay in line with my health goals, but also something that is achievable. And I also need to realize that that is OK.
All that being said, I wasn't completely without exercise the entire trip. I did make the mistake of forgetting to bring my charger for my step counter, so I can't even rely on that to see if I got in enough fitness, but we were also at a water park, so it's not like I was wearing it anyway. Between the multiple hours of swimming/water slides (and oh my goodness the stairs to get to the top!), and chasing the kids around the hotel on their little exploration missions, I think it's safe to say I got in some fitness every day. We even went to Clifton Hill and off to view the falls, which certainly got my lots of walking that day - and walking uphill! That's got to count for something... maybe. I looked into going to a gym while on vacation, and while my membership is good at other locations, there weren't any even remotely nearby (closest one was an hour and a half away).
I kept trying to correct my posture every time I thought about, keeping the advice of my trainers in mind. Doing a 7 hour road trip and trying to sit upright with proper spine posture is something in itself. I felt like I looked foolish, but I could also feel my shoulder muscles between the blades putting in a wee bit of effort. I did bring the Yoga balls and there was a night while the adults were sitting around playing cards that I was balancing on the stability ball while I played, and using the Alpha ball to dig into the sore muscles with a bit of stretching. It wasn't a complete loss.
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It feels good to be back at home, and even better to be back at the gym this morning. I even tried to get my husband to drop me off at the gym on the way home so I could get in a Monday night workout while he unpacked the kids and car, but we hit Ottawa five minutes before the class started. Not happening. Despite being on the road for five days - which also meant five days of pretty much only eating fast food for every meal, I am only back to my original weight of 200 lbs. It seems there were no massively adverse effects to eating deep fried everything three meals a day. maybe only two, the hotel sold $8 smoothies which made up my breakfast every morning. I want to complain that this is over-priced, but really that's what local Smoothie-shops charge, and so does the gym café - although both of those at least add in protein for that price, this was all fruit and sugar. Still, better than fast food.
So I went this morning to an aerobics class with weights set to music. Have I mentioned I have no balance and no sense of rhythm? That being said, I think it went pretty good. There were a few moves I struggled to hold because of balance, and it took a bit to keep up with some of the steps, but overall not bad. There were something like 8 different sizes of hand weights we could choose. Being Ms. Muscle I decided the 2nd weight would be great (3 lbs). That lasted about two minutes before my arms started to tire so I down-graded to the smallest size of 2 lbs. It was a good workout. I definitely sweat out a LOT, and I could feel my muscles getting in some good exercise. Exactly the kind of workout I need if I want to increase my arm strength and It took me a bit to get into sync with the movements, but for the most part I would say I was doing pretty good.... until the stretching at the end. I've been doing pretty good at my Yoga classes, and I don't think there's ever been a class with stretches I am not capable of doing. Today's weights class was a reminder that no, there are definitely moves that I am not capable of doing. For instance, sitting on the floor with straight legs out in front of you and bending at the waist to try and bring your hands down to your feet. Cannot even come close. I simply lack the flexibility to be able to make that stretch even remotely a possibility. So here are all these women bending over and trying to grasp their ankles or their mid-calves and the best I can muster is to sort of awkwardly hunch my shoulders over with my back still nearly straight and then there's three of us in the same boat kind of awkwardly grinning at each other as we look around the room. I kid you not, every else is in some semblance of bent towards the ground and the three of us are nearly upright looking sheepishly around. It was curious to note that the other two ladies were tall like I am (I'm nearly six feet tall). I wonder if there is a connection there. I don't think I've ever been able to do that kind of stretch. It didn't matter. The instructor was pretty good at offering us variations, like there was one where you needed to be up on all fours and lifting your one leg in the air and stretching it in various directions - I could not keep my balance and I felt the strain on my wrists (you know, still at 200 lbs). She suggested we could go on our elbows if this was too much. So much better!
The nice thing about the workouts at this gym is that I noticing no one ever makes you feel bad for not keeping up, or not knowing the moves, or not being able to do certain activities. So far, it seems that instructors either make a comment of "it's OK to go at your own pace", or "stretch until you feel a slight pull but don't push it too far" when they see someone not at the same pace at the rest (and yay! It's usually not me! It definitely was today). It really takes the pressure off trying to work out. I know it can be very intimidating when you are in a class and everyone else seems like they're all pros and you're like "which way do I step next?", but I've found that really doesn't seem to be happening at this gym. I think I already related my years-ago Yoga experience of feeling shamed by an old man in super tight pants who was doing all these crazy bends and poses while I could barely maintain my balance. I felt awful and never returned to that class - or that gym.
Today's workout was overall really good. I don't know if it's going to make my list of "I love it" classes (there seem to be an awful lot on that list), but it was good workout with an energetic and motivating instructor that targeted areas I wanted to work on and left me feeling like I really got a lot out of it. Why shouldn't it be on the "love it" list? Sometimes these things just aren't rational. Some of the footwork was a bit challenging to get into swing, and I wasn't a super fan of the stretching at the end (though I can see why it was a great idea). I think I will most likely go again next week, but I won't cry that I can't go anymore in September. It was a good workout, and I'll leave it at that. We'll see how my muscles feel tomorrow.
I came home and had a nap for nearly 3 hours in the afternoon. I think I needed it, but I also can't afford to do that after every workout. I have a house to clean up in preparation for next year, some projects I want to get done, and some planning for next year. Maybe I was just recovering from the "vacation". As a parent, they are nearly never time to relax and reset your body. They're just more intense running around as you take your kids to see a million things. But it was good, and a lot of fun. And I think we'll go again next year.
Oh, I forgot to mention, my daughter is so into "Yoga" now, she has her own mat, and keeps stealing my equipment. Well today she puts on some full black leggings and a white training bra and sets up the living room floor with two mats, then tells me it's time to do Yoga. I tried to get my husband to film her because it was darn cute (she was telling me to do some pretty decent stretches, and she can certainly do them way better than I can). Then she realized we were filming and wanted to do it like a video blog of her own class; telling us all which stretches to do, and how it should feel. This started out fine but then went a bit silly as she wanted to get the cat involved in the video and her sister is off to the side laughing hysterically. I should try and upload it to share here. It was super cute. The whole thing lasted about 10 minutes before I realized we had descended totally into silly and I pulled the plug on it. Still, it was cute and she has some good ideas about Yoga. She even told her audience to get into "downward dog" pose, then she proceeds to lift one leg off the ground and is doing this stretch absolutely perfectly. I'm a little jealous.
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