Stormy Fridays

We have been having an extremely mild winter which is just the way I like it. We had one big snow storm in November, then nothing until last Friday when we had a storm. Then on Tuesday it warmed up to 8 degrees and all the snow was gone by Wednesday. Today we had another storm - started with snow, then ice pellets and freezing rain, and it's supposed to warm up enough to rain after that. Honestly, I don't think we could ask for a better winter.

Last Friday

I did work at home today; I didn't like the idea of having to drive home in freezing rain. I had planned to go to Zumba this evening, but I didn't want it badly enough to go out in the weather. I'm sure it wouldn't stop a lot of people, but I freely admit to being a wimp about winter driving.

I had kind of a bad day. I've been feeling a lot of negativity about work lately, and today was even worse. I won't go into that, it's not why I'm here. I'm here because by the end of the work day I really just wanted to sit in front of the TV and eat guacamole. But I talked myself into a treadmill walk. I was sitting by my desk, putting my sneakers on, feeling cranky and trying decide between TV or tunes. At which point I decided it was time for a change of strategy.

I had this new Ellen Barrett DVD sitting there. Ellen Barrett workouts always make me feel good. They require some concentration, even more so when it's a brand new workout. So off came the sneakers, and into the player went the DVD. The workout flew by. There was one shoulder stretch at the end that hurt in a way that tells me I should be doing it every day. And I feel better. Thank you Ellen.

On the subject of new workouts, I've tried two others so far this month.

My Jackie Warner collection is nowhere near as big as my Ellen Barrett collection yet, but I have four DVDs now and I like them all. This is the newest; I've only had a chance to try the upper body workout so far.

It went something like this:

Hey! I like Jackie's hair cut, it's really cute...Hmmm, she says 3 - 8 lb dumbbells so I'll go with 6 lbs...This is kind of fun, but I don't feel like it's doing anything...Wow, they get through those reps really fast...Oh! Ow! Where are my 3 lb weights?

And then, thankfully it was over.

It went really fast. It was doable, but challenging. Each segment is two exercises that you alternate between, doing a pyramid; so alternate between pushups and bicep curls (pushups were from the knees, then you come up to kneeling for the bicep curls), starting with 1 rep each, then adding a rep and repeating until you get up to 10. I found it really challenging to change positions and keep up with the pace on the DVD; I don't know whether to blame that on it being the first time with the workout, my bad shoulder, or my being a wimp. In any case, I did survive the experience and was sore in new spots the next day which makes me happy because I know I've hit some muscles I don't normally work.

Now I just have to survive the lower body workout.

And finally: Zumba Circuit! I didn't make it to the regular Zumba class on Monday or Tuesday. I've been avoiding the Circuit class because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it with my bad shoulder.  I ended up having a lot of fun!

I tend to worry about new classes, I think I will be lost, I won't keep up, etc. The thing is, I've been doing this fitness thing for quite a while and since I like variety I've tried quite a few activities; maybe not so many live classes, but a lot of DVDs and a lot of different workout plans. That doesn't mean I can walk into a class and get everything right the first time, but it's usually nowhere near as bad as I think.

Zumba Circuit was fun. We did one song to warm up, then everybody ran to stations. There was a max of 3 people per station, and I ended up going around with 2 ladies who were also new, which was nice; sort of a 'we're in this together' vibe. Most of the stations were not anything new, except 2 that used TRX - that was kind of exciting as I've never had a chance to try TRX before. That was also the only thing that bothered my shoulder, so I guess I won't be signing up for TRX classes any time soon.

I enjoyed the class, I worked hard, I walked out feeling good. Note to self: get over this fear of new things! And fun workouts make you feel better!

Now. Did someone mention guacamole?