Well, well, well... Look at me.

So I did nothing for the month of June, until today, June 30. I got off my ass and ran in the sweltering heat. I didn't get too far, but dammit, I did it. And I'm going to try and stick with it. The end.

Week Whuddever, Natalie

Last Thursday I basically did a lot of lifting, moving, running up and down stairs, running around like a crazy person for like 6 hours. Therefore, I took the rest of the week off. And the beginning of this week. Hopefully group exercise will start up again soon and have classes I want to take, because I'm not doing very well on my own. Today I mowed the lawn, weeded, and planted in my yard. THEN, I installed a dog door. One would not think that this would be too labor intensive, but my jigsaw is like 300 years old, and my door varies in thickness. Hopin' to do something fun and active tomorrow afternoon... not sure what yet.

Week 1? Day 1 Natalie

Do I have to start all over again? This afternoon I got over my fear of the rec center pool, and headed over for a swim. I didn't swim for a particularly long time, but man, i can already feel it in my muscles. All of those little muscles that don't get used running, biking, doing ballet, pilates, yoga... yowza. I hate to even think what it's going to feel like tomorrow. At any rate, it's good to be back. Missed y'all! Oh, and week 18 I did ride my bike once. ha!

Week 16!!! Days 1 & 2

Yesterday I attended ballet again, and I loved it again. I'm not sure what I'm going to do once the semester is over and they don't offer it anymore... for at least a month or so. Then there's the question if they'll even bring it back! But I have grown to also enjoy the PiYo class, and plan to continue with that. And I want to try out the butts & guts class too.

Today I went for a nice, long bike ride. The weather is beautiful, and I wanted to get outside. I'm still here, Herpreet. I'm just avoiding all of the posts in my reader that I have yet to read. I think I'm just going to go ahead and delete all of them. In other news, the end of the semester is looming. I have 3 fairly significant papers to get out of the way, a presentation tomorrow, and I took a final earlier today. I hate that I have given up on blogging, but I love that I've been exercising. I think they both do a little of the same thing for me, but exercise is good for me physically as well as mentally. This summer should see an uptick in blog posting. Nice rambling! The end!

Week Whatever, Day 3 Natalie

I went to PiYo again this afternoon, and really enjoyed it despite the fact that I heard at least two unmistakable farts during certain stretches. I was not bowled over by any noxious fumes, so I was able to contain my teenage sensibilities and keep from commenting (though I did notice a couple of other people holding in their giggles).

Today I had lunch at Subway because I didn't bring my lunch. Honey Oat bread does not have milk, nor does turkey (as far as I know...) The Veggie Patty does have dairy, which was a bit surprising and very disappointing, though the turkey wasn't bad. Actually, it was quite good.

For dinner I had salmon and asparagus. The hard part might be dessert. I heart cookies and milk!

Last Week and This Week, Natalie

Last week I did ballet on Tuesday, and then exercised a lot by lifting drinks up off the bar and to my mouth. Spring Break '09 y'all! Yeah, not much exercise. But yesterday I returned to ballet, and today went for a grueling run. I hadn't run since before I started with the ballet, so I think I've lost my ability to pace myself. I felt really good starting out, and felt like I was running nice and strong, but then I pooped out. I also think this has something to do with me knowing about how far I've run no matter where I am in relation to my house. I need to start running elsewhere.

SO I'll keep it up because it's week 15!
I'm starting a non-dairy diet. Have any of you done that before? I've heard it can have an effect on psoriasis so I'm going to give it a shot... but I figure it will be really hard, because you never know where dairy is lurking. we will see. so far I've tried a silk yogurt for breakfast this morning (it was ok... not great, but tolerable for sure) and bought some tofutti cuties (non-dairy ice cream sandwiches) which were actually really good! I guess I just need to be careful and pay attention. I'll keep everyone posted.

The end.

Week 13 Days 3 & 4, Natalie

Okay, so day 3 probably shouldn't count, but I'll do it anyway. When I got home from school Thursday, the options were to go to a class or to borrow a ladder and climb up on the roof and throw limbs down. I'm afraid of heights, but for some reason really wanted to get up there. I feel like I should be on my roof at least once if I'm able, right? SO I borrowed the neighbors ladder and had them watch me as I climbed up and then launched huge limbs off the roof. It was more an exercise of fears than it was physical exercise, but I'll count it anyway. Day 4 was yesterday. I worked in the yard, and was feeling like it wasn't really technically work, but I can feel some aching in my legs and gut from all of the squatting and pulling I did. I yanked up a good number of cast iron plants, which were not really wanting to come up. If my neighbors were home, I'm sure they were curious as to what was going on in my back yard.

I said that I wasn't going to let the teacher from that resistance class affect me, but clearly it has. I haven't been back to the rec center since then. Ballet is still on for Tuesday though, so hopefully it will give me the guts to continue.

Week 13 Days 1 & 2, Natalie

Tuesday I returned to ballet. It was a very small class, so we were able to do some work at the barre... which I had been missing. So it was a good class with some heavy-duty leg stretching. Today I went to my first resistance training class, and I'm not sure if I'll be going back. The girl seemed kind of put-out that I didn't know how to do everything, but she also seemed a little put-out by the fact that the door was locked and she had to go get a key to get in, so maybe it really didn't have anything to do with the door OR with me. I need to stop being so self centered and realize that I'm really not that important to total strangers... it's usually something else. Besides, even if I was annoyed by someone who was lost, I'd admire their stickwithitness if they stuck with it until they got things down. So we'll see. But I did wish I had done the pilates class instead. So what is tomorrow... was it PiYo? hmmmm, that was Friday.... NO Friday was kick & sculpt, so PiYo it is! I think I might try something new again Friday if I can squeeze it in. I also need to try to squeeze a running day in soon too, it's been so long! surely I won't still be bored with it, right?

Week 12 Day 3 Natalie

Yesterday evening I attended a Kick & Sculpt class, which consisted of 30 minutes of kick boxing (which unfortunately involved coordination), 15 minutes of resistance training, and 15 minutes of stretching. I recommend the instructor, too. I think what I like most about this instructor and yesterday's instructor is that they walked around checking to make sure that people were doing things properly rather than just let everyone possibly do everything wrong. So. There ends my exercise week, because the exercise I'm going to get today involves the dictation I just finished and the hour or so on my ass driving down to New Orleans. The End!

Week 12 Day 1 Natalie

I skipped ballet last night because I had a paper to write. Boooooo! But today I went to a NEW! class (new for me...) the 30-20-10 class, where you do 30 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes of resistance training, and 10 minutes of stretching and stuff. It was a good workout, but I am terribly uncoordinated and wasn't able to follow a lot of the cardio work. But someone was kind enough to tell me that it gets easier the more you do it, so I may try it again. Now I'm watching my neighbors climb up a ladder onto(?) their roof. I heard a loud crash earlier, I wonder if a mountain goat fell to its death. I'm gonna check it out.

Arm Workout, Day 1

Was going to go do something this afternoon, but got very wrapped up in painting the kitchen. It was actually pretty strenuous work. Painting a ceiling is always a good arm workout, and I had to go over everything with a brush afterwards to get into all of the crevices and stuff. Hope to finish up tomorrow or Sunday, it's going to be a loooooooong weekend!

Yesterday I was going to do something, but then remembered that I wanted to enter a painting into BR Gallery's Venus Envy show. It was due yesterday evening at 6:00, and I got it in. Now we just have to wait and see if it got into the show. I'm not holding my breath!

30 Minute Pilates Class, take one

I went to a short pilates class this afternoon when I got finished with class. It was okay. I'll probably go to another one if I am in class until 3:30 again (it starts at 3:50), but I will probably NOT wait around if I get out of class early (like today and every day this semester). I might try out a 30/20/10 class tomorrow afternoon, or I might go for a run. I guess we will see when we see! Oh, and Kevin, I have a beginning pilates dvd if you would like to borrow it!

Week 11 Day 1, Natalie

Another week, ANOTHER BALLET CLASS!!! Love it, loved it, will love it some more next week. I might try out another class tomorrow afternoon when I get out of class. This weekend I felt like I might be coming down with something so I relaxed and read a lot. No exercise, but at the same time, no marathon drinking events either. hmmmm.

Week 10 Day 2 Natalie

Let me tell you, that ballet can wreak some havoc on the old muscles. Yowza! I'm still sore today! But I went for a run this afternoon, and it's definitely time for me to relocate for my runs. I'm just sick of my routes! So maybe next week I'll try the lakes or even try to do more at the rec center. I suppose we'll see when we see. I'm off to New Orleans this weekend for the St. Patty's Day parade down there, so this may be it for me as far as exercise goes, but I think that the ballet class was a goal in itself and I reached it, so I'm okay with just 2 days this week. Happy weekend everyone!

Week 10 Day 1 Natalie

I went to the ballet class at the rec center today, and it was fun. Mainly fun because I am able to laugh at myself, but I felt really good afterwards. Maybe because I got over my fear of doing something new BY MYSELF. I mean, I didn't get over it, but I was able to overcome it and get my ass in there. It was about an hour long and included stretching, jumping, and what may have been a little pilates. All around a good little workout I think! Also at the beginning, the instructor made some announcements- such as what days you can come in for free fitness and nutrition evaluations, which I think I'm going to need to check out. So as I've grown a little bit bored with running, I might just cut that down to once a week and keep doing new stuff. Then I'll have a whole arsenal of activities to choose from. Exciting! So Kevin, for me we have:

Running/Elliptical = Out
Trying out various classes = In

Have a great week 10 guys!

Week 9 Days 4 & 5 Natalie

That's right! 5 days! Friday I did a short run but ran hard, followed by some yard work that involved using a rake AND a shovel. Yesterday was Race for the Cure, but I didn't think I wanted to run, so I rode my bike over there so that I could walk it without feeling guilty. Then I ran the fun run and part of the 5k. Then I rode my bike home. Today was a day of pure lazy and relaxation. Slept past noon, had lunch with JK, then snacks and a visit with the neighbors. ah!

Week 9 Day 2 Natalie

I had big plans, BIG PLANS, to go to the ballet class offered at the rec center yesterday afternoon. But I couldn't find my ID, so I wasn't able to go. I spent the time furiously cleaning out my purse and my coffee table. It took about a half hour, and finally found my ID on the coffee table. Does that count as exercise?

This afternoon I went by with my freshly found ID and did the elliptical for 35 minutes. I did the cross training workout, and maybe it is way harder than the others... or maybe there was something wrong with the machine... but it was ridiculously hard. Like almost impossible resistance. So I messed with the resistance to levels that I could handle, but regardless, I can still feel the burn in my calves. Yowza! When I got home, I did a little bit of work and then went outside and raked and bagged leaves for about 45 minutes. I consider raking and bagging to be exercise. So there you have it, Week 9, Day 2. And a solemn vow to do all that I can to make it to the ballet class next Tuesday. Amen.

PS: Mardi Gras is over Lesley!

Welcome Back! Week 7, Day 1 Natalie

This morning I took my last day of antibiotic, so decided to stop at the rec center on the way home. I did the elliptical for 35 minutes, one of the cross training routines. I usually just do easy start and stick with a comfortable level. It was hard! But I stuck it out and finished it. It also felt good to be back to doing something more active than walking the dog.

Since I don't know how to do weights or anything, I've decided to start working on some home renovations on my off-cardio days. That's right. I'll be paint scraping and sanding and all kinds of good stuff for a while. My arms have never been more toned, or strong, as when I worked in antique restoration. It's amazing how quickly repetitive motion can build up those muscles... after a few months I was so strong! So that's my plan.

So that's that.

Week 6 Day 1 Natalie

I'm taking things really easy this week because it seems I've got an upper respiratory infection-type thing going on over here. This afternoon when I got home Annie and I joined my childhood friend Aaron and her parents' dog Sam on a stroll about the neighborhood. I wouldn't call it exercise, but at least I'm doing something despite my urge to sleep.

Week 5 Day 3 Natalie

Just went for a run. Friday afternoon. Didn't really feel like it because I feel I might be malnourished because I didn't eat dinner last night and today I've had cheese puffs, coke, birthday cake, and 1/2 of a Take 5 candy bar. But it was fine, and I actually picked up my pace a bit. 2.24 miles. No elliptical this week, house renovations kept me from going to the rec center. Maybe I'll try for tomorrow. The end!