Category: Spinning

Sizzling Fajitas

I was swamped at work yesterday, and I left much later than I had expected. Traffic was, of course, slower than my liking, and it took forever to get home. I was only home a few minutes when my cat started sneezing, and I called the vet, turned around, went right back out the door, and went to the pharmacy to pick up the antihistamines the vet said I could give to him.

When I got home the second time, it was oh-so-tempting to toss my work clothes into the hamper, put on comfy pajamas, and snuggle up with my husband. But I had promised myself I would work out when I got home, so I grit my teeth, wiggled into workout clothes, and hopped onto my exercise bike.

One of my favorite Peloton instructors is Cody Rigsby, because he is just so silly and goofy and funny. You never know what is going to come out of his mouth next, or what dance move he’s going to throw down, defying gravity by not falling right off his bike.

So I chose one of his classes, and I am glad I did. I randomly picked one that seemed like it had good music. It was a good workout, and Cody said something that made me laugh but also stayed in my head. When we were getting ready to increase the intensity of the ride, he described how, at a restaurant, when the server walks by with that sizzling plate of fajitas, everyone turns and looks and wonders who is getting those flashy fajitas. The fajitas capture everyone’s attention. He encouraged us to be the sizzling fajitas, not the complimentary tortilla chips, ha ha.

There you have it: immortal words of boundless inspiration and infinite wisdom, straight from Cody! Be the sizzling fajitas today, ladies and gentlemen. I am glad I chose to be sizzling fajitas last night instead of tortilla chips! Time to sizzle again today. What about you? 🙂

Survived!

Ta-da!  Here I am!  I survived Spinning class last night.  It was close, though.  I thought about shouting “Look over there!” and pointing to the front of the room while I stealthily sneaked out the back, but I wasn’t quite sure it would work.  Plus, I had difficulty mustering up enough breath to yell, anyway.

Since tonight is going to be so busy, my plan today was to walk during my lunch break.  But right at noon, a familiar fellow strolled into my office and invited me to lunch.

Before we bought our house a few years ago, my husband and I frequently met at home for lunch.  I miss that so much!  It’s not practical anymore, because by the time I got home now, I’d have to turn around and leave to be back at work on time.  I adore our house and wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I really missing going home for lunch and spending time with him for just a little while.

Now it’s a rare treat to share lunch together, so I didn’t think twice about going to lunch with him.  Walking can wait.  Maybe I can walk a little longer or do a more vigorous tomorrow instead.  It was more important to me today to join him and talk and touch base and pick on each other (of course) before getting back to a hectic day.

One of the things the Spinning instructor said last night was to learn grace.  She said that instead of coming to class and berating ourselves, thinking things like, “My legs are so wobbly today.  I am so weak!”, we should frame things with grace and think, “My legs are so tired today.  It might not be my strongest workout today, but good for me for being here and working out anyway.”

I may not be heading out for endurance runs any time soon, but I bravely faced a Spinning class last night that I was, quite frankly, a bit nervous about going to.  Little by little, I will get stronger and get back to my long-distance runs.  For now, I need to take pride in the process, in building and blooming.   I am far from where I want to be, but there’s no way to get there except bit by bit, day by day.

Seemed Like a Good Idea

Signing up for a Spinning class seemed like a really good idea last week.  Now that it is the day of class…not so much.  I’m sure that once class is done, I will be glad I did it, but for right now, I’m just dreading it.

For one, I am extremely tired.  I could curl up on my desk at work and fall right to sleep.  Second, my work schedule has prevented much working out beyond walking here and there, so Spinning class is way out of my current comfort zone.

The class is small, so finding an anonymous bike in the back is impossible.  So if I collapse a lung, hyperventilate, pass out, or otherwise fall lifelessly from my bike, everyone is going to notice.

Since the class is small,  I had to sign up ahead of time, so if I don’t go, I just took the spot of someone who wanted to be there.  I can’t be that jerk.  So I have to go.

If I’m not around tomorrow, you will know what happened to me.  Maybe send some lovely flowers to my grieving family.  But hey, at least a seat will have opened up in Spinning class!

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Guess which one is like me?

Feeling It

It’s so quiet in blogland lately!  You would think there was a major holiday coming up or something 🙂

Yesterday I gave myself an early gift: I signed up for a 7-day free trial of LoseIt Premium.  I decided that since I have so little free time, I need to make my workouts count when I have time for them, and I need to really focus on what I am eating.  Like it or not, I need to get back to serious calorie-tracking.  I want to see what other features are offered with Premium and whether they are worth paying the fee for an annual membership.

I went to the gym yesterday, and I ran on the treadmill for a bit, then switched over to the elliptical.  I won’t have time for much today, but I will make sure I fit in at least 15 minutes of walking during my lunch.

After my workout last night, I pampered myself with a face mask, a long, hot shower with a body scrub, then painted my nails in Christmas colors.  I guess it doesn’t sound like much, but just taking that time for myself and focusing on me for just a little while was luxurious.

This morning, I opened my calendar, then signed up for a Spinning class later this week. I was tempted to sign up for an early morning class, but I figured, hey, let’s not get carried away and all overly-ambitious, shall we?  Maybe someday I will feel up to morning workouts.  Hell, it would make sense on my jam-packed, long days to work out before work, then have my lunch break all to myself.  But it’s so hard to get out of bed when I know it’s my only time that day to snuggle with my husband, and that I won’t see him again until that night.

For now, I have my workouts scheduled for the week, and I am back to logging my food.  Maybe the week of Christmas wasn’t the most ideal time to decide to get back to it, but if I am feeling it, then I am going to run with it!

I leave you with this important, research-based diet tip:diet-tip-bacon-is-healthier-than-cocaine-sarcasm-only-⠀-3456832

You’re welcome!

Take Captive Every Thought

I was gung-ho and on fire when I signed up for another Spinning class this week.  When it was time to go to that class, though, I was less than thrilled.  I was downright irritated with myself for signing up in the first place.  Why would I do such a thing?

I contemplated not going.  It’s not like the Spinning SWAT team was going to come after me with sniffer dogs and high-caliber weapons.  I even texted my husband that I might just come home instead of going to class.

His response was simple, loving, pushing: “You can do it, baby.”

Pfffft!  Didn’t he know the correct response was “Sure, come on home, my hard-working and exhausted wifey.  I’ve already ordered pizza and wings, and I have your favorite blanket ready for cuddling on the couch.”

Well, no promise of pizza and wings, so off to stupid, freaking class I went.  I dragged myself into the Spinning room, mumbling about dumb old bikes, wishing I was at home instead, when I saw two quotes the instructor had posted on the wall:

The very first words out of the instructor’s mouth were about coming to class when we might want to be doing something else, overcoming the temptation to do nothing and bringing ourselves to class instead, steering our thoughts from sitting on the couch to pushing ourselves to straddle that bike instead.  (Okay, she said it all much more eloquently, but that was her pep talk in a nutshell.)

Wow, was this woman spying on me? I felt like every word was intended specifically for me.  I reread both quotes several times so I could remember them.  I really like “take captive every thought”.  That one really stood out to me.  I’ve read that passage before but never really applied it to myself before, my life, my choices.

Once I had two nice quotes under my belt, I figured, well, good enough!  So I left…no, just kidding.  I adjusted my bike, hopped on, and had a good, sweaty class.

I guess it will take a while for me to look forward to my workouts instead of considering them a necessary evil, something to cross off my to-do that I don’t really want to do, like mopping the floors.  But I did it, and I am sure I will sign up for next week, so I can swear, grumble, mumble, and complain the whole way to class again.

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