Sports and Leisure - Workouts and andFLEW!
I'm in the earlier stages of creating workouts that I enjoy. I've put on 20 pounds over the last year and I'm ready to be done with that. I was all set to do this awesome bootcamp/circuit training thing, but the only way it's offered here in town is through a personal trainer with a group fitness program. I did the free week offered, but found that after that, I really couldn't do personal trainer prices. I did love the workout though - my friend Crystal said her workout DVD sounds similar, so I might order that and let Jillian Michaels and her scary face scream at me two or three times a week.
Looking at me now, one might not believe it, but I do have a background in gymnastics and dance. I've always wanted to get back into dancing somehow, but my 32-year-old, 5'10", XXX-pound body resides in a small mid-western town where adult dance classes have always been impossible to find. Until now! Enter andFLEW! Studio for the Arts. Along with her family, the studio was started by Gessell Caudill, a girl about my age who was home-schooled along with her sisters. The family has always fascinated me - through their homeschooling they had the opportunity to develop their already existing talents in the arts and now they teach us dance, yoga, dance fitness, music and more. I won't plug them too much more, check out their website for that. The point is, I hate "aerobics" and most things like it. Now I can dance! For me, this week will be Cardio Striptease (it's not dirty! And I would feel ridiculous if it were. It's mostly the kind of dancing you do when you've had a few drinks, come home to a house that is either empty or sleeping, crank up your iTunes or Rhapsody, and dance by yourself) and Zumba. When I'm feeling in shape enough, I can't wait to start ballet. Or tap. Or jazz. Ugh. How will I tell my children that I can't read to them at bedtime because I'm rehearsing for my recital?
Here is one other aspect I plan to add to my workouts twice a week. We already have the heavy bag in the basement, but it's attached to the rafters and when you use it, it literally shakes the whole house - so I can't do it after the kids go to bed. Are there two times a week when everyone is out of the house but me? We'll find out.
Art & Literature - What I'm Reading These Days....
I love books and I've only recently figured out how to work them back into my life. Birthing two babies in 16 months kind of stops every other part of existence in its tracks. But now I'm back in the game and have become part of.....wait for it....yep....a book club. And it's exactly what you might think it is - a bunch of women sitting around drinking wine and discussing works of contemporary fiction and non-fiction. Exactly the sort of thing that makes me cringe and also makes me feel like I'm now a woman of a certain age. But guess what? I love my book club! It's filled with intelligent, insightful women, excellent wine, and NO Oprah Book List! Thank you to my excellent friend Rachel for creating this avenue.
Here's what we've read so far:
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Shaffer and Barrows
Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
The Shack - William P. Young
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
And we are currently reading:
The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy
I do have things to say about these books, but it will be at a later post, maybe an end of the year review. Or maybe tomorrow, I don't know. My brain doesn't seem to want to think about the books right now.
I enjoy books outside my club of course. I've been reading The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan, since 1996 (my high-school boyfriend introduced it to me - it took me months to get past the prologue and the fact that I was reading fantasy, but I finally embraced my repressed inner geek girl and went for it!) and am now, with much excitement and bittersweetness, awaiting the final volume due out in March.
More to come - more books, more music, more everything! This sure is fun :)
