I love a challenge??

Who needs bikram yoga when you can sweat to death in your own living room? Okay, so I'm not really sweating to death. But I manage to get quite a workout. My yoga classes definitely improve my home practice. And I'm not sure why people get the impression that yoga is just stretching. If it were just stretching, then it would be called stretching. And I've never experienced muscle soreness from just stretching. Nowadays, my yoga sessions feel more like strength training workouts. My goal is to practice more at home, especially on days I feel like doing nothing at all. There are many people who get into yoga and eventually cut out everything else. If you can support your body weight with just arm strength, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you really don't need to do anything else. No, I don't plan to give up everything else. I just want to do more yoga. It's just good for you. It makes me feel stronger and stand taller. I'm trying my best to make 5'5 1/2" look as tall as possible :) By the way, I spent most of my life thinking I was an inch shorter. Then I measured myself a couple months ago. So I grew a bit after high school. Who knew?

Now that I'm doing this yoga thing more, I find myself wanting more of a challenge. Some people like to workout within an inch of their lives. They wanna feel like they've just had their asses handed to them. That is so not me. I'm totally okay with not feeling the burn. Sweating is a good enough indication that I'm working hard enough. Yes, I'm a wuss when it comes to working out. No challenge? No problem. But I find myself doing more intermediate yoga routines. Heck, I actually want to do the arm strengthening exercises. What? That is unheard of. My upper body is my weakness. And I hate working on my weakness. What's going on with me?

That brings me to swimming. I found myself in the pool on Friday because I wanted an upper body workout. What in the world? But I skipped chisel class this week. Mind you, this is the class I hate. I call it torture. Different muscle groups are burning in every class. And all the sudden, I find myself missing it. I felt like something was lacking. So to the pool I went. I got my fill with the breaststroke. I felt every bit of that. Front crawl didn't bother my arms as much. After 2 swim free weeks, I decided to throw in some 5 stroke bilateral breathing too. What was I thinking? At times, my lungs wanted to kill me. And other times, I felt like I was breathing normally. My goal is to get up to 7 stroke bilateral breathing, but I'm a ways off. And eventually, I want to practice with the Masters Swim team. But my cardio is not ready for all that. I don't want to die a watery death. In the meantime, I will practice, practice, practice.

Maybe this whole challenge thing is about measuring my improvement. I love, Love, LOVE seeing results in the activities I do. I guess that's why I have a love-hate relationship with chisel class. It hurts, but I get fast results. I went from feeling sore and broke down to feeling normal the next day. My arms look great and I'm a lot stronger. Heck, I'm halfway tempted to do pushups again with someone standing on my back. Okay, I'm not gonna take it that far, but you get what I'm saying. The more I improve, the more I want to do. It's funny how that works. So here's to putting my wussy ways behind me!

Oh, and here's a recap of my week in case you care...

1/5 - Elliptical (50min - 5.38mi)

1/6 - Yoga Class (1hr)
Elliptical (50min - 5.42mi)

1/7 - Yoga: Fire in the Belly (42min)
Dancing

1/8 - Yoga: Going with the Flow of Life (40min)
Swim (53:31 - 1800yd)
Dancing!

1/9 - More Dancing! (Is there a contraption to measure the calorie burn?)

Resting and Dancing

I was tempted to workout yesterday, but I let it go. I ended up at an after hours party in Philly. Let me just say that dancing is so much more intense than running on any day. I'm sure I burned about half the calories I ate yesterday. Well, that's what happens when DJs spin really good music. And you won't hear any of it on the radio. I heard Redman, Biggie Smalls, A Tribe Called Quest, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Roy Ayers, Bob Marley, Parliament, just to name a few. My friend said I was like VH1. I named a lot of songs as they came on. Hey, I love music. That's what my profile says.

It was good to be out and around a bunch of different people. People you think you'd never see in one place. People you'd think couldn't dance. Then next thing you know, they're battling each other on the dance floor. It was also good to be out in a place where no one bothers you. A typical club has people standing, holding up the wall trying to look cute to collect phone numbers. Here, people dance and have a good time. Oh, and running shoes make the best dancing shoes. I could easily slide across the dance floor. No, I was not out trying to be cute with shoes that have your toes overlapping. I was comfortably dressed in jeans and a breathable top. I came to get it in, which I did.

Cool stuff about last night...

**I knew the bartender. I went to ask her where the rest room was, then next thing you know we're catching up. I taught her how to make Sex on the Beach. Yes, I actually remembered something from class.

**One of the DJs came to talk to me. He meets so many people, I figured he may have forgotten me. I love him to death. I sometimes play his mixes for running. He's going to give me another CD. A couple of years ago, he told me that I have impeccable taste in music. That is the best compliment I can get from a professional DJ.

**I was twirled around on the dance floor. It was so much fun. My friend said it looked like we coordinated the dance.

**I made new friends, Ram, who did the twirling, and Lauren, who was celebrating her birthday and stressing about turning 23. 23? That's not old.

**I got to party til 4am. Well, actually 4:14am. Yes, I said it was an after hours spot.

**I had a tasty black bean burger in a South Philly diner. I'm going to assume it was vegan since it didn't make me sick.

**I found out that my friend is half Jamaican. So am I!!

**I laughed and smiled all night :)