I fell. Flat on my face. In yoga class. Everyone looked. When I get a little less embarrassed I might talk about it.

Jen from nowhere @ 5:19 PM

Oh, yoga night. I do love yoga night so. When I started out, it was just another form of exercise, something different to do, something to give me a break from pounding on the treadmill. But now I think of it as playtime, with an added fitness benefit. Plus I've moved past the point of just simply trying to learn the exercises and now I can actually do some thinking while I'm practicing - it's like time for me to be alone with my thoughts. Which is funny, since usually anywhere from 10 to 20 people are in my class on Thursdays. But I kind of go off in my own world doing the asanas - it's more than physical, it's spiritual. I know that sounds hokey, but that's honestly how I feel.


So I'm looking forward to the gym tonight. Yoga nights mean that I don't have to sneak out of work a few minutes early and rush to the gym to avoid the 5 p.m. crowd. They also mean that I don't have to fight for a machine or wait in line for one to open up. Ahh.

Jen from nowhere @ 3:49 PM

OK, spank me. I know I haven't written much, but honestly, there's not much to write. I've been hanging around at 130 for the past few months and I know it's because I can't get my eating under control. I was starving this morning so I had a Pop-Tart for breakfast. And last weekend Mark convinced me to go to Pizza Hut so we ate there. Very, very scary stuff.


I signed up for a Kundalini Yoga class through UT...it meets once a week for four weeks, on Tuesdays. I did it partially because I need to get out in this city and start trying to make friends, and partially because I want to deepen my practice of yoga. Yoga has really been good for me since I started doing it last summer. All of my life I've thought of myself as an unathletic person - I was always picked last in softball, I made bad grades in high-school gym because I didn't want to do the stuff...the works. But what I've discovered is that I'm not hopelessly uncoordinated - I just hadn't found the exercises that are right for me. But I think yoga may be that exercise. I can do it well now in my Thursday night class, and when I go to classes I'm less familiar with, I can still do pretty good. It's very uplifting to actually be good at some kind of fitness routine.


I've actually been thinking about becoming a yoga teacher. Austin is the perfect place to become an RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) because there are tons of schools, and on May 17 I'll actually be going to a local studio to learn more about it. I'm very excited but also daunted because the schooling usually costs something like $1,500.


Anyway...I just wanted to share that. Here's a random observation: Last Friday night I went to the gym to do my usual 45-minute cardio routine, even though I had gone out to happy hour with some coworkers and I was a little tired (not drunk) from the beer. By the time I got there, around 8, no one was there. I was plodding along on the treadmill when these two young girls - they looked to be college sophomores or so - climbed on to the elliptical trainers in front of me. In a matter of 1 minute, they went from a steady, even "climb" to this furious, gym-rat-on-speed pace. It was interesting to watch. It was as if they wanted to get in shape now and they were determined not to let this fat sit on their thighs one minute more. Like they wanted to improve their bodies but also wanted to take a shortcut. And the funny thing is, they weren't even fat. Compare that to me, a girl who does need to lose a few pounds, and has been exercising slowly but steadily for nearly the past year. Watching them I felt lazy, like I should be burning up the treadmill, but also sad, because I've learned that quick fixes are not the way to keep the weight off. Anything taken off in the span of a few days will, inevitably, find its way back to your body.


Of course, they could have just been in a hurry. Who knows.

Jen from nowhere @ 9:02 AM