GYM

Feb. 1st, 2012 10:32 pm
katycat: (iceland - coring)
I did something last week that I did not think I would ever do.

That's right, I JOINED A GYM.

Admittedly the main draw was yoga classes two nights a week. I've been somewhat keeping up with doing yoga DVDs at home, but it's much nicer to have a real live instructor with some variety, and a place to do yoga that is fully carpeted.

(Oh man, this floor. I'm fairly sure my basement apartment is cinderblocks under minimal insulation under hard, shiny tile - 3 mm of yoga mat, even 3 mm of yoga mat plus a towel, is not enough to make it stop destroying my wrists and toes. It has already literally decimated the glass objects I owned when I moved in.)

So, back to the gym - it's clear from my immediate impressions that the only gym-like structures I've entered for the last, oh, seven years have been Icelandic swimming pools. What? Shoes allowed in the locker room?? What, I have to bring my own lock?? Individual shower stalls? Changing rooms?? It's like I'm living in a repressed society with unhealthy body image issues that paradoxically glorifies self-centered autonomy! Or something.

Anyway, this is all a prelude to: I CAN almost DO PUSH-UPS NOW! \o/!

Updates!

Apr. 8th, 2009 09:11 pm
katycat: (Default)
Ow. I pulled something in my thigh trying to do yoga. I was trying to use a strap to do some of the postures that I still can't manage, and, ow, bad idea! I can't do any of the ones that involve really wide legs while sitting or lying down. It's really annoying, because I can manage just about all the other poses, but when she's like "ok, now lay down, and grab one toe and pull that foot up by your head, and keep both legs straight" - I can't even get close, and all the other yoga exercises I'm doing are not really helping me get closer. :/ Even just sitting forward bends with wide legs - I feel like I used to be a lot more flexible in that dimension. I think I need more varied DVDs. ... must back away from Amazon ....

ANYWAY, I told people at work that I'm leaving June 18th, so now I can post publicly about Iceland and grad school -- yay! Two news items there:

(Note to those who may not have heard yet: I'm going to UMass Boston for an MA in Historical Archaeology, starting in Fall '09 - following a 6-week excavation in Iceland.)

1. PSU finally rejected me. Oh well. It was fun to try, and I learned a lot from visiting, but we really weren't right for each other.

2. ICELAND! Flights are getting figured out. After leaving work, I'm going to go to Boston and find an apartment, then fly out from there with everyone else the following weekend. Everyone's leaving Iceland on August 16. BUT, I realized that I was looking at the wrong schedule - fall semester doesn't start until after Labor Day: September 8. That relieves a lot of the pressure I was feeling about needing time to settle in. So I've asked if they can fly me into London for an extra week. :D And then I'll fly back - I wanted BWI, so I can grab stuff at Mom's and drive up to Boston, but Icelandair doesn't serve BWI any more, so it will probably have to be New York, and then I can catch a train or something to BWI. OR, depending on which day and what time I fly back, I can try to get TDS or TCR tickets for that night, and use them to bribe someone to come pick me up in NYC. :D But anyway, there are lots and lots and lots of logistics still to figure out.


I've also been giving a lot of thought to how my journaling is going to change once I get to DW. Expect a post on that at some point, soonish. It would make my life easier if ALL of you came with me!

I'm reading Suspense and Sensibility. (I have a lot of books to read and movies to watch in the next two months if I'm going to adequately determine which to sell and which to bring and which to put in storage!) I didn't expect it to be awesome, exactly, and it's not bad, but much of it feels very anachronistic, as if it rather wishes it were Edwardian than Regency. :/ That is a very strange feeling. I haven't found much that is factually out of place, but the sensibility (haha) of the prose is very Edwardian, and it's ... odd.

Darcy has the snuffles! She has no other signs of illness - eyes clear, nose clear, just as much energy as normal, good appetite - just the sneezy snuffles. She's had it for a few days now, poor baby. I'm not sure what to do; all my cat books say to look for those other symptoms. I opened the window last night for some fresh air and it doesn't seem to have helped. :/

Yoga

Mar. 16th, 2009 07:42 pm
katycat: (Default)
I think I've mentioned a few times that I've started doing yoga again recently. I've "started doing yoga" probably four or five times over the past five years or so. But this afternoon I finished my second complete rotation through my collection of videos, which means I've kept it up for nearly two months - something of a record for me and exercise, so I'm hoping I can finally blog about it without jinxing myself. Fingers crossed!

I had a few reasons for starting this up again:
- I was tired of feeling like a lazy slob, and rationalized that even low-impact yoga > no exercise at all
- I thought there was a chance it could help my back hurt less (I work on the computer all day, and generally come home and .. get on the computer, and tend to have rather atrocious posture in both cases)
- If I lost weight, that would be a plus, but not really the point.

After two months, I can say that I do feel somewhat less like a lazy slob, and my back problems may have lessened, though it's hard to quantify as they certainly haven't gone away entirely. I haven't noticed any lost weight, but people've told me I look slightly slimmer, so there's that. (I don't own a scale, so I measure my weight by how I feel about it and how well my jeans fit.) And I'm getting more flexible - not something I was particularly aiming for, but expected.

What I didn't expect was to notice any kind of a mental shift. Much to my surprise, I've felt generally mentally healthier, better able to let things go, better able to focus at work, and more in control of my life since I started practicing. I've always been pretty zen, but not this zen. And I credit yoga with helping me envision a future in which I am happy, and even fulfilled, right where I am now - even if grad school doesn't happen this fall - possibilities that have been right here all along, but I wasn't able to see. Which is pretty amazing, considering the headspace I've been in for the past few years.

(Yes, there might be other factors, blah blah, but yoga certainly didn't hurt, and I really believe that it helped.)

Anyway, video reviews. )

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