My First Barre Class

Hello!

I hope  you can make it! It’s supposed to be a warm, sunny day – perfect for some yoga in the park.

Being Grateful

I’m so grateful for my friends! They showed up at my apartment on short notice and helped me drag all of my furniture downstairs. The entire ordeal took less than an hour, instead of all day. Plus, I was able to give them some of my things to thank them

Staying Fit

Fri – Nothing that I can remember?
Sat – Moved furniture from my 3rd floor apartment to the curb (full body training!) + a 4 mile walk/run when I locked myself out and had to retrieve a spare set of apartment keys from my office. My sanity and patience were also stretched quite a bit.
Sun – My first barre class (more about this later).
Mon – Nothing.

Eating Food

1) Snacks! Board games with some friends always means delicious snacks. I wish I had gotten a better photo, but my friend Kevey made a really awesome rhubarb chutney and was generous enough to share the recipe on his blog. It was so good! A little tangy, but also sweet. It was great with super fresh tortilla chips. (I brought the cookies and popcorn, ha. Not quite as crafty in the kitchen.)

We played a really fun game based on building railways throughout Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

2) Pancakes! Still this recipe, as always.

3) Okay, I realize this looks totally boring, but fresh pineapple + coffee is one of my favorite breakfasts. We ate it constantly in Costa Rica and the hot bitter coffee with the cold, sweet pineapple…it’s amazing.

Barre Class

Okay, so my friend Charlotte loves barre classes. She talked about how it really works different muscle groups, especially in your lower body. I found a Pure Barre studio near my house that offers the first class for free (FREE STUFF) and, despite having no idea what to expect, I was super excited to try it out.

Omg, you guys.

1. It started with a warmup and upperbody exercises that were kinda weenie, like bicep curls with 2 pound weights.
2. Core workout on the floor that FINISHED with planks, oh my god.
3. To the barre for a bunch of quad, hamstring, and glute exercises (like in this video). My legs were shaking so violently, I almost felt like they were completely disconnected from my body. It was so surreal.
4. Back to the floor for more core work.
5. Stretching.

If you have never done a barre class, I would say that it’s kind of like a mashup of Pilates’ focus on posture and core strength with Bodypump muscle fatigue. It is NOT like how the pictures online make it seem, with a buncha lithe bitches just standing around.

What I really loved about it, though, is that it was mostly bodyweight based.  Manipulating postures and making us rise onto the balls of our feet enabled our instructor to really kick my ass.

Who’s coming to the meetup? No barre class, I promise!

Tacky Q&A!

Hello! Sorry for the lack of photos! I’m in the throes of midterms.

Being Grateful

I know that it’s childish to be grateful for material things, but check out this rad workout top that I won from Lisa’s giveaway! Thank you so much, Lisa

Yay, for free things! I was actually just thinking the other day that I haven’t purchased new workout clothes in…um…awhile. The last time I got “new” stuff was from a yard sale last year.

Staying Fit

Tues, Wed, & Thurs - Nothing.

Eating Food

1. Coffee.
2. Chocolate.
3. Pasta and tomato sauce.
4. Hummus.

…aka, the basic food groups of a whiny grad student

Being Nebby

Here in Pittsburgh we have another word for “nosey” – nebby. Like, a nebby neighbor. It’s also a verb, as in, “Don’t neb.” Anyway, I’m a nebby bitch. I admitted this to all of you when I wrote my Day in the Life post.

When I read posts, I sometimes ask myself tacky questions about the blogger that I would never actually ask In Real Life. I thought that perhaps I’m not alone in doing this, so I here are my answers to the questions that I want to ask about others, but never would. Neb away!

Q: Do you have a job? What is it?

A: Yep. I do entry-level accounting-type stuff at a large college.

Q: How old are you?

A: 25.

Q: Do you live with your parents?

A: Nope. However, I will be moving back in with my folks for July, before I leave for Saipan.

Q: Do you have disordered eating in your past?

A: Yep. I struggled with restriction in the past. Today, I sometimes struggle with mindless eating and I often struggle with stressed eating.

Q: Does your blog make money or get you free stuff?

A: Ha! NO and NO.  I wish!

Do you have questions about other bloggers, but would never actually ask?

I’ll edit my post to add and answer them!

Is there any tacky question that you ever wanted to ask me?

Do it anonymously here!

Impressions From My CrossFit Class

Hello!

My parents went out of town over the weekend, so I got to hang out with their gal Mauly. We had a lot of fun together

Being Grateful

I’m grateful that I have my own little private office at work. I’m reading a lot about intuitive eating right now and a lot of people struggle with eating when they feel hungry because they are teachers or they share a work space with others.

When I waited tables or worked at a front desk, I wasn’t able to simply pause and eat the way that I can now. I never realized how much of a privilege it is to be able to eat literally whenever I’m hungry

Staying Fit

Fri – Full body strength training.
Sat – My first CrossFit class! 90 minute dog walk.
Sun – 45 minute dog walk.
Mon - Full body strength training.

Eating Food

1) Grilled cheese and coffee for breakfast. Because I can!

2) White pizza with spinach and tomatoes. Check out these awesome plates – shaped like a slice of pizza! There are also little piggies wearing chef uniforms.

3) Sushi! My parents had this waiting in the fridge for me.

CrossFit

I’ve been very curious about CF for a long time. I found a gym near my parents’ house that offers the first class for free. Free! I’m there.

We did a one hour session that was about 60% warmup, 30% strength training, and 10% “workout of the day” (WOD). My general impressions:

• I love its focus on functional movements that mimic motions you would do In Real Life. For example, you are more likely to do a deadlift (like lifting a heavy box), than you are to do a bicep curl. Functional movements use lots of different muscle groups, so they’re super efficient.
• It got me to do some new exercises that I had been curious about, but never tried, like rowing and kettlebell swings.
• It had me lifting heavier weight that I hadn’t thought possible…but I was fine. I think I get scared of pushing myself when I’m alone in the gym.
• Our coach spent a good bit of time discussing form, although some of his points contradicted other articles I have read.
• It’s expensive. The cheapest option at this particular gym is $155 for an unlimited month. If you follow their recommendation and go 3x per week, that comes to $13 per class. Annually, this would run you $1,860, which makes my stingy self cringe. I think they would argue that you’re paying for a coach, accountability, equipment, etc., but none of these things are very important to me personally.

Biggest Concerns – Certification & Competition

You gotta research your coaches. I found out later that my coach is trained in weight lifting, but not actually certified as a “Level 1 Coach.”

Even crazier is that you can get an actual certification after only TWO days. Like, anyone can enroll in a course, pass a multiple choice test, pay a few thousand dollars, and then open a MF gym. What the actual fuck?! If I’m paying $155 a month for some dude to teach me how to lift properly and safely, then I want to know he did more than spend two days playing Angry Birds on his iPhone during a seminar on “how to conduct a class.”

I also worry that the competitiveness of doing reps for time could cause sloppy form and that working out together could cause people to lift unsafe amounts of weight, either of which could culminate into serious injury. I mentioned above that I deadlifted more weight than I thought I could, which is great because I learned that I’m stronger than I realized. But, it also meant that I lifted a weight that I thought I couldn’t/shouldn’t lift, yet didn’t say anything. Also, if the WOD was longer, I could see easily myself focusing on finishing and possibly sacrificing form.

Fortunately, I’m familiar enough with strength training that I can mostly distinguish good pain versus bad pain. However, for someone who’s new to lifting weights or who’s very competitive, I could see CF being potentially disastrous.

Overall

I like the principles of CF, even if I don’t agree with its execution. Many gyms post their WODs online, so I’ll probably integrate these into my weekly workouts at my own gym.

I know there is a CF gym in Saipan and it seems really reasonably priced so I’ll probably end up there regardless of everything I said above

What are your thoughts on CrossFit?

C’mon…I know everyone has an opinion