Day 25

Today, the prescribed breakfast is cottage cheese with fresh fruit....ain't nobody got time for that.

I am switching up the breakfast because I'm going to do my strength workout tonight and so the carbs are justified. Went with Kashi Go Lean cereal, 2% milk and half a banana. Would love to have planned ahead for the snack (two Laughing Cow cheeses and some baby carrots) but I pretty much turned off for the night after Pilates. Oh oh, and the strength workout is the last one like it. Start a new strength workout on Monday! No more lateral lunges! Yipee!

I dropped my husband off at the gym and jetted off to class with not a MINUTE to spare. Class had already started and some kind of weighted crunch was being performed. It did not look like fun, but I jumped right in. We spent the rest of the class on basic moves. Lady D (the brutish instructor I have talked about in the past) has been on a kick getting us to perform the mat version of Reformer/Tower exercises because she noticed many of us (me?) couldn't do them with proper form. What's interesting about all of this is that as instructors with a brand new studio, surely they knew that people who may or may not have experience would be taking the regular classes since there are no pre-requisite or 101's.

 And, the instructors don't divide the classes by level either. So you can have an advanced person along a newbie in any class you take. Of course there are going to be people that suck! There is no filter for those people. It was almost offensive how she discussed the situation. She said that a lot of people just could not do the most basic things. Well, if we all started with the basics, this wouldn't be the case. Of course, if every class is all levels, there will be variation, so with this current set-up, she really can't complain.

Some of the basics we did variations of were the roll up, where you keep your legs flat on the mat and roll back, tucking your tailbone and curling into your tummy while also slowly peeling onto the mat, then rolling back up. Another basic was teaser on the mat. Teaser is probably one of the harder Pilates exercises, and I was first introduced and jumped right in in a tower class with this same instructor.

You start in this variation, rolling your legs and arms up in synchronicity. Then you can start moving your legs an inch up and down, and then your torso up and down. And then both together. It's bananas-crazy. And it's very hard to keep your legs locked and together, which is essential.

We finished out the class with some leg work which was killer, as usual. I've worked up into a purple spring on the second setting. The easiest is a yellow spring, followed by a yellow spring set a little higher, and then a purple spring set a little lower. Anyway, the whole series was either us pulling our legs down or to the sides. Midway through, we start lowering our legs all the way to the mat and locking them there. To keep them down with all that resistance is a task. You have to really lower your back into the mat to not injure yourself, and push against the poles with your arms. Then, you slowly move your leg in and out on either side, and finally end with circles.  Gives me post traumatic stress just thinking about it. LOL.

I'm going to my mom's tonight to HOPEFULLY pick up my Off the Mat jacket. Since she's not home, I expect someone will leave it on her doorstep, which kind of sucks. Didn't think about that. She's usually home! Oh well. I'll get to spend some time with her and my sister. Should be great fun :).

I leave you with the new as yet to be widely released Forme Jacket II in COCO PIQUE!! It is stunning and I want one! If not Daily Yoga, than this one for sure.