Week 6: I have been forwarding my mom the link to Heather’s website since I started writing about our experiment. My mom is thrilled that I’m prioritizing exercise. She is 85 years old, walks her dog every morning and goes to water aerobics three days per week. She has always been conscientious about her health, exercising regularly and eating healthy. (My kids complain about all the vegetables they’re expected to eat at Grandma’s.) When I last spoke with my mom, she assumed her motherly role, asking whether Heather is working me too hard and if her expectations are too high. I assured my mom that Heather is ever supportive and while she makes me work hard and challenges me, she’s rooting me on and sets me up to succeed. My mom reminded me that there is more to life than having a “fantastic figure”. I assured her that my aim is not to be thin, but to be fit, strong and healthy. I will make an effort to increase my language sensitivity in my writing and avoid words like “torture” when describing our exercise sessions.
Private 1: We worked on the Cadillac and the reformer. Heather is helping me increase my flexibility as well as my strength. She showed me where she wants my position in short and long spine. Apparently I’ve made enough progress that we can spend some time on refinement.
Sunflower class: Heather worked us hard with minimal time between exercises. We worked our arms on the reformer and used the box for mermaid to reach and stretch. I followed the class with time on the treadmill and was joined by a friend of Heather’s who encouraged me to do 60 second sprints and then recover at a lower speed. I worked much harder than I would have on my own. It was fun and I was sweaty.
Private 2: We worked exclusively on the mat. I was reminded that you don’t need a reformer to work hard. We again worked on my strength and flexibility, focusing on my abs and hamstrings. We observed that my right leg prefers to track to the right rather than straight so I’ll be focusing on keeping it aligned. We ended with a very challenging exercise (plank, to downward dog, walk your hands back, stand up, walk your hands down in 4 to plank, 3 push ups lift leg, push ups, leg down, other leg up, repeat). Let’s just say I have a lot of room for improvement.
My waist line suffered this week with both my kids’ birthdays and Valentine ’s Day. Still, I continue to prioritize exercise, try to eat healthy and allow myself to celebrate life.
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