MOTIVATED.....by dance!!

The past 9 days have seen a whole new frontier start to open up before me!

Nine days ago I agreed to be a demonstration partner to a visiting West Coast Swing instructor who decided to take me under his wing as he was impressed with my enthusiasm and interest in progressing.

Since then, myself and the girl who presented me the opportunity to be the demo partner have been selected as the right people to form the new committee which will take over the monthly dances that are one of the few outlets of West Coast Swing here in my fair city.

My mind has been racing with the possibilities and how we can build on the monthly dances, how we can bring in new dancers and expand the group of people who like to do this.

As well, my boss invited me to pay out some overtime which gave me just enough to book and prepay a hotel room for 2 nights so that I could go to the Toronto Open Swing Hustle Championships which my dance mentor recommended.

And now--I'm considering attending the Michigan Classic which is an even higher caliber of event at the end of May.!


Further still, are upcoming dances within an hour's drive out of the city with excellent instructors!

I've also found a new dance that I probably won't be able to learn in this city, but it's exciting to look at and revived my interest in Latin dancing (I kinda gave up on Salsa mostly for financial reasons last September). The dance is Zouk if anyone is interested.

With all these exceptional opportunities and commitment to a whole community of recreational dancers and a commitment to myself to reach a new level of skill, I do NOT want to arrive at either of these championship events feeling self conscious of my body.

The latin dances, and even West Coast Swing look much better when you're willing and able to execute body rolls and stick your booty and hips far out to accentuate the music and styling. For me, I need to feel that confidence again.

And so--I decided.



It's interesting but all these past few weeks of the new year when I was logging my food and learning to do new things with my body (ie: hoop dancing), I thought I *had* decided.

This feels different.

This feels like, "EFF THIS--I'm DOIN' IT because I'm EXCITED for what I'll be able to do when I feel PROUD of these curves and the small waist and by then my skills will have reached the level that I CAN join in the reindeer games!"


We have a jar of M&M's at work. I stood next to them and walked by them multiple times today in the course of doing my job. I was smiling inside because I was thinking, "man I can't wait to dance in Toronto and wear snug fitting dance tops!" : D

Calorie Burner: 3 hrs of dance lessons followed by 2.5 hours of social dancing

omgee.
my feet hurt!!

As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I am part of a West Coast Swing community of social dancers.

This evening I was fortunate to have a one hour private lesson, followed by 2x 45 minute lessons where I was the demonstration partner (for the first time ever!), followed by another 2.5 hours of social dancing. It was not quite on the level of World's Largest Disco calorie burning, but from 6pm-11:30pm, I burned about 1081 calories doing all of that.

You know that you've burned a lot of calories in a short span of time when you sort of "hit the wall" and then you'll pretty much eat whatever's put in front of you. I ate a leftover half-sandwich from the food trays that were put out and a handful of truffle candies, then a slice of bread and peanut butter (and a Tylenol) when I got home.

Knee Pain / Weakness (program)

This is a little post to capture a wonderful site I finally ferreted out after searching for help with my knee issue which my doctor had said was likely "something patella something" (I can't recall).

I found helpful information at:
http://www.knee-pain-explained.com/chondromalaciapatella.html

I found very good knee cap exercises at:
http://www.knee-pain-explained.com/knee-cap-exercises.html

General leg strengthening to benefit the knee at:
http://www.knee-pain-explained.com/knee-strengthening-exercises.html

Awesome knee and supporting muscle stretches shown at:
http://www.knee-pain-explained.com/knee-stretches.html

Calorie Burn: treadmill walking & leg extensions (plus an epiphany!)

Living in Southwestern Ontario between 3 great lakes has brought a lot of windy, snow and generally messy winter conditions. After a long day at work, whether I was tired out from a busy day, or tired out from lack of being busy, going out into the winter weather was enough to make me want to get home as soon as possible for a hot chocolate and my Hello Kitty pj pants.

This afternoon at work, I looked out our windows to watch the driving snow and the university students forging ahead from building to building. Again I visualized how nice a hot chocolate and my comfy pj pants would feel once I got home. As usual, since I've been paying for a gym membership every month and not going, I briefly considered whether I should go to the gym or not.

Since last summer, I noticed my knees feeling less stable, or weak even when climbing up onto a curb or getting up out of a chair, or my car. My doctor told me that it was likely just that I needed to strengthen the ligaments which hold the Patella (knee cap) in its place (sitting in grooves which it slides along). She recommended leg extensions.

As someone who has been learning to dance for the last 3 years with a promising future of enjoying it immensely, my knee strength is important to me. It's also important to me that I don't groan when I get up out of a chair or climb up a curb. I should be bounding up and down stairs, not leaning on the handrails for support.

I also mentioned in my last post that I've been considering running. I certainly can't run if my knees are going to be at risk, so I have new reasons to be considering the gym and what I can do there to improve my life by facilitating the physical ability to continue exploring these new activities.

While I was visualizing stepping out into the cold, wintery late afternoon, I fast-forwarded to the summer and visualized myself heading out into the warm sunny weather when it would be much easier to get to the gym.

That's when my thoughts shifted.

What's worse: going to the gym even though it's cold and windy out and I just want to go home and be warm and cozy, or heading out to enjoy a hot summer day feeling overweight and not being able to wear the things I want to wear like my favorite leopard print maxi dress, or all the other flattering dresses I've collected over years of thrift-store shopping?


I went to the gym tonight.

As soon as I climbed up on that treadmill, I felt successful and proud that I was able to push myself and overcome thoughts of immediate gratification. I had a vigorous 25 minute walk on the treadmill at a 1% incline listening to awesome tunes and then did 3 sets of 10 leg extensions using very low weight just so that I could work on my knees and not worry about trying to build muscle.

I enjoyed 7.5 minutes on the Hydromassage bed and then headed home where I had a healthy dinner and good conversation with my best friend while it was baking in the oven.

Calories burned in my 45 minutes of walking and leg extensions at the gym: 230

 I'm not really sure what that V shape portion of the graph is all about, there was no sudden decline in activity, I'm wondering if it was just an anomaly or something. I will pay closer attention to the clock when I go to do leg extensions so I can easily pick them out in the graph.

Flirting With The Impossible

I'm interrupting my youtubing to document the seed of a thought I've begun flirting with.

running.


Never in my LIFE have I been a runner. When I was growing up, we didn't have access to treadmills until the day I joined a gym. Even then, running on the treadmill was out of the question for a few reasons:

1. I already sweat a lot just walking briskly on a treadmill. I can't imagine how drenched and gross I would look and feel by running.
2. My junk in the trunk would be bouncing at such a momentum that I would look like a 1940's jalopy running full tilt at a giant bump on a dirt road with the back end barely hanging on.
3. My bosom (which I consider one of the few things I am happy with) would be bouncing so much that it may attract attention, or become so used to bouncing that all the ligaments would stretch out and I'd end up having my very nice bosom turning into something which hangs low and moves to and fro.

This would be the most common type of gym activity which would be the furthest out of my comfort zone, but which may bring me the physical appearance I want in the shortest span of time.

How did this seed form? My friend LG has been a dedicated runner, especially over the last year and has done admirably with her health and achieved her personal goals for physique with running.

And a girl I play World of Warcraft with posted on her Facebook wall that a year ago she was 27 lbs heavier and when I asked what she had done differently, she said she took up running on the treadmill.

So, I've begun considering the idea and not immediately dismissing it like in the past.

To document something I may or may not do, I thought I would collect some of the resources now in case I need to look back on them.

Running Form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3hjpDs_Fq8
Treadmill running program for beginners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2LL8f65x-Y
http://www.mytreadmilltrainer.com/

Calorie Burn: 1.5 hours of cleaning my 2-bedroom apartment

I have company coming today and it was the perfect time to give the apartment a once-over. I don't have a lot of things to dust and I don't have a lot of carpet to vacuum (which is unfortunate because I am a Dyson owner and there's nothing I love more when cleaning house than a good, cathartic vacuuming).

However, I have two cats that rough-house A LOT, so sometimes I'll be walking through an area and the air current from my walking past draws out some significantly large cat hair tumbleweeds (tumblefurs? I've invented a new word).

So, after doing my house cleaning, I promptly removed my Armband, plugged it in to find out how many calories that just burned:

300 calories!

See that flat spot in the middle? That's when my Dyson sucked up a pen and I had to find where it had lodged itself in the hose and remove it, which I did.


Housecleaning is well worth the good feeling it leaves me with when I've made everything fresh and sparkly, and makes me feel like I can have people over without concern for tumblefurs rolling by, AND I burned a good amount of calories!

Snack Revelation

Last Friday I weighed 1.5 lbs less than when I started tracking everything.

On Tuesday, I weighed 1.5 lbs more (back to original weight), however I weighed myself just a few days later, against my better judgement so I dismissed this as a water retention anomaly.

Today (Friday), I weighed 1.0 lb more than last week.


Mildly frustrated (because I am giving myself time to learn about my metabolism and habits etc.), I reviewed the amount of calories I racked up in the "Snack" category for the whole week, and this is how that looked:

So, given that I was creating a deficit every day of the week, according to my Armband, it seems that the snacks were adversely affecting whatever weight loss my body was trying to achieve.

This information was very sobering and I definitely reconsidered putting my hand in the jar of M&Ms at work. I only took 3.

In the week ahead, I am going to try and significantly reduce the amount of snacking I do, which is done primarily in the evenings after dinner, or in the morning at work, or in times of anxiety.

Calorie Burn: 1 hour of hoop practice in my apartment building

My mood wasn't the best today and I was definitely not motivated enough to get out and go to the gym.

However.

I did throw on some workout stuff and went down to the exercise room at 8:13 and enjoyed practicing some hoop dance and before I knew it an hour had gone by.

Calories burned = 283

I was feeling all pleased with myself when I had reviewed my food logging for the day and had come in at 1397 calories...unfortunately I quickly forgot the 42g chocolate bar and 1/8 cup of almonds I had before lunch.

This is where planning the meals and snacks ahead would have helped.
It also would have helped to put a cold pack in my lunch bag so that my lunch was sure not to have spoiled, forcing to me to hunt for a healthy lunch in the busiest hub of the university I work at and the food place with the shortest line and healthiest options won.

Calorie Burn: West Coast Swing workshop & dance

I belong to a West Coast Swing community in southwestern Ontario and attended a workshop and dance this afternoon which ran from about 2:10pm-6:10pm. I participated in the Intermediate lesson and sat out for the Beginner lesson that followed.

There was open dancing between 4:00-5:00 and then a little bit more dancing between 5:20 and 6:00. I chose not to dance as often since the majority of the music was Country/Western which makes me cringe.

Calories burned for this event = 554

In case you want to see what West Coast Swing looks like, and I highly recommend learning, check out Lucky Sipin and Shelly Saxena from Swing Niagara's Pro-Am Spotlight this past September 2012 (they're Torontonians):

Hoop-insanity

I might have to change the name of my blog to RachelInTheHoop instead of RachelAtTheGym because I'm having a lot of fun feeling challenged by learning to Hoop Dance!

I did a little 30 minute hoop session this morning, then the 2-3:30pm class, then when I realized I ate too many calories today than I am comfortable with, even though I had created a deficit, I went downstairs and hooped for 40-45 minutes for a total record-breaking calorie burning day of 880 calories!

However, hooping makes me ravenous, so of course when I got back up to my apartment all hot and sweaty and hungry again, I ate more (plain greek yogurt with coconut flavoring added)....and then I ate again later (my favorite snack of whole wheat toast, all natural crunchy peanut butter and no-sugar added blueberry jam).

To see what I've been up to for 4 weeks, check out this girl's video showing all the things I've learned: