It's been awhile since I updated my blog, which isn't intentional. I've just been busy and my internet at home is slow and painful to use. I'm not sure if the problem is my internet connection, my apartment building, or my computer. I'm hoping it's my computer because a shiny new one is on it's way into my life. I'm so excited about being able to see my computer screen again! I've completely forgotten what that's like.
The past few weeks have been muffin, cake, chips and ice cream heavy, and I have felt the effects of this. My slow but steady weight loss did a 180 and the numbers on the scale went up instead of down. While I would like to live a life where going up 1kg is not a big deal, I am still a long ways from my goal weight and going up 1kg is a sign that I've gone off track.
So it's been out with the junk food and into the pool for me. No more of this "oh, it's raining, I don't wanna go to yoga" business either! Discipline is an admirable thing to have in ones life and I must return to my idol, Lady Gaga, for inspiration in getting back on track. (Also, Janelle Monae, why on earth has my brother not told me about her?!) Lady Cop and I have entered into a gentle woman's accord to achieve our various fitness goals, and I have every intention of schooling her ass.
My aim is to lose 18kg in 7 months. This year I have lost at least 10kg, and that was only by moderately increasing my exercise. I have been making subtle changes to my diet more recently, and now I will need to be much more disciplined about what I eat. Also, I need to up my time at the pool from 3-4 times a week to 4-5 times a week. And I need to push myself harder at the pool.
At the moment, I swim 50 laps or 1.5km and I can do this in 42-43 minutes. Currently, I am trying to get my time down to 40 minutes. This is proving to be more challenging than I initially anticipated. It is requiring me to really build up my muscles. Which brings me to my diet...
After 6.5 years of dedicated vegetarianism, I have decided to start eating fish. I know, I know! It is shocking. I've only told a couple people at my office about this, as vegetarianism is pretty much the norm here. Today at lunch when I 'came out', one colleague said "...are you still queer?" (Yes, obviously! I haven't gone completely mad!)
I didn't eat fish before becoming a vegetarian, so this is no small decision. I was not getting enough protein to build up and maintain my muscles so a change of diet was required. Ultimately, my decision to turn to vegetarianism was for health reasons, and taking stock of my current situation, eating fish was the healithiest option to increasing my protein and maintaining a balanced diet. I felt sad and kinda sick the first time I ate it, but, then I had to admit to myself that it was really quite tasty.
Actually, if I can be really naughty, I'm even more excited about Christmas in Hawaii now. All those trips to the Indian Ocean when I said no the what looked like the most amazingly delicious fish dishes... Like hell I'm gonna sit on an island in the middle of the Pacific and turn down some Humuhumunukunukuapuaa now!
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
The Start of a Love Affair
Is there any other feeling better than that of the start of a new love affair? All the excitement and raptour! All the potential for things to come! None of the disillusionment of reality! sigh...
Another one of our "lose the cake weight" office ventures involved an "all levels" lunch hour yoga class. I had never done yoga before and really had no idea what I was getting myself into. Ah, like so many things in my life. I'm a jumper.
I jump into something and just hope I come alright on the other end. Mostly, I find this a rewarding way to go about living life. But every now and then I am forced to admit some forethought would have served me well. But that's a tangent for another day.
This lunch time yoga class we went to I intially found quite enjoyable, though incredibly difficult. I was happy to struggle along, and the instructor was pretty good about giving me alternate poses to do when the rest of the class did more advanced things. But then he went on holidays and a new instructor appeared. Her take on "all levels" did not seem to include the "super basic beginners" level and she did not seem to have much interest in giving me the guidance I needed to still be able to get some value for the $14 I had just shelled out. One class in particular I did my best to keep up, massively over did it, and was pretty much unable to use my abdominal muscles for a week. After that, I decided that this "all levels" business was a bad idea and decided to just stick to swimming until I could find a beginners yoga class that was covenient for me.
Well my friends, that time has come! My new apartment is quite near a pilates studio and the Brunswick Baths and this week I started looking into what these places had on offer for a gal with a limited income and at the "super basic beginners" level for pretty much everything. The Brunswick Baths supplied the answer: beginners yoga late Sunday mornings, with student rates. Perfect! So this morning, for the first time in close to a year, off I went to a yoga class.
While I had heard lots about the Brunswick Baths and walked past it many times, I'd never actually gone in before. I got there early and purchased my pass for yoga class. The guy at the front desk advised me to hang out for a bit so I had a wander and looked at the facilities. I'd been considering coming to Brunswick Baths for the odd swim since it's so much closer to home, but I've had some reservations. I'm quite fond of the Melbourne City Baths pool, and I've already got a membership to use there. But, yesterday's swim left me longing for more lanes. I often find the people who use the slow lane at MCB are lacking in lane etiquitte. I'm not quite fast enough for the medium lane, which means I'm either the slow one in the medium lane or the fast one in the slow lane. If I swim in the medium lane I make sure to space myself out so that those who swim faster than me aren't constantly being held up by me. When I swim in the slow lane, I rarely get the same courtesy. Yesterday in particular I felt the pool could have done with an additional slow or medium lane.
As I waited for my yoga class to begin, I sat and watched the swimmers. The pool at Brunswick Baths is a 50m heated outdoor pool... with 2 slow lanes, 2 fast lanes, 3 medium lanes, and an aqua play lane! That's a lot of lanes! Instantly I could feel my heart fluttering and my vision becoming rose-tinted. None of the swimmers seemed too concerned about swimming outside in the middle of winter, and my reservation about that suddenly seemed ridiculous. And so what if it's all chlorinated, as opposed to the MCB which is a mixture of salt water and chlorine? I have goggles! And yeah I normally swim in a 30m pool, but what a great new challenge 50m would be! *Cue cheesy love song*
Eventually, I tore myself away and joined the queue for yoga class. I really enjoyed the yoga class. The instructor was helpful and kind, the poses were all things I could do, and the atmosphere was friendly and welcoming. And best of all? The room it's in looks out over the pool.
Another one of our "lose the cake weight" office ventures involved an "all levels" lunch hour yoga class. I had never done yoga before and really had no idea what I was getting myself into. Ah, like so many things in my life. I'm a jumper.
I jump into something and just hope I come alright on the other end. Mostly, I find this a rewarding way to go about living life. But every now and then I am forced to admit some forethought would have served me well. But that's a tangent for another day.
This lunch time yoga class we went to I intially found quite enjoyable, though incredibly difficult. I was happy to struggle along, and the instructor was pretty good about giving me alternate poses to do when the rest of the class did more advanced things. But then he went on holidays and a new instructor appeared. Her take on "all levels" did not seem to include the "super basic beginners" level and she did not seem to have much interest in giving me the guidance I needed to still be able to get some value for the $14 I had just shelled out. One class in particular I did my best to keep up, massively over did it, and was pretty much unable to use my abdominal muscles for a week. After that, I decided that this "all levels" business was a bad idea and decided to just stick to swimming until I could find a beginners yoga class that was covenient for me.
Well my friends, that time has come! My new apartment is quite near a pilates studio and the Brunswick Baths and this week I started looking into what these places had on offer for a gal with a limited income and at the "super basic beginners" level for pretty much everything. The Brunswick Baths supplied the answer: beginners yoga late Sunday mornings, with student rates. Perfect! So this morning, for the first time in close to a year, off I went to a yoga class.
While I had heard lots about the Brunswick Baths and walked past it many times, I'd never actually gone in before. I got there early and purchased my pass for yoga class. The guy at the front desk advised me to hang out for a bit so I had a wander and looked at the facilities. I'd been considering coming to Brunswick Baths for the odd swim since it's so much closer to home, but I've had some reservations. I'm quite fond of the Melbourne City Baths pool, and I've already got a membership to use there. But, yesterday's swim left me longing for more lanes. I often find the people who use the slow lane at MCB are lacking in lane etiquitte. I'm not quite fast enough for the medium lane, which means I'm either the slow one in the medium lane or the fast one in the slow lane. If I swim in the medium lane I make sure to space myself out so that those who swim faster than me aren't constantly being held up by me. When I swim in the slow lane, I rarely get the same courtesy. Yesterday in particular I felt the pool could have done with an additional slow or medium lane.
As I waited for my yoga class to begin, I sat and watched the swimmers. The pool at Brunswick Baths is a 50m heated outdoor pool... with 2 slow lanes, 2 fast lanes, 3 medium lanes, and an aqua play lane! That's a lot of lanes! Instantly I could feel my heart fluttering and my vision becoming rose-tinted. None of the swimmers seemed too concerned about swimming outside in the middle of winter, and my reservation about that suddenly seemed ridiculous. And so what if it's all chlorinated, as opposed to the MCB which is a mixture of salt water and chlorine? I have goggles! And yeah I normally swim in a 30m pool, but what a great new challenge 50m would be! *Cue cheesy love song*
Eventually, I tore myself away and joined the queue for yoga class. I really enjoyed the yoga class. The instructor was helpful and kind, the poses were all things I could do, and the atmosphere was friendly and welcoming. And best of all? The room it's in looks out over the pool.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)