Sub-Headings

Sometimes I think it's easier to blog when things are going poorly than when things are going well. I've blogged ad nauseum about depression, griped like hell about the difficulties of parenthood. But lately things have been going relatively smoothly (knock on wood) and I feel like I have nothing to say. But here's a brief run-down of what's been going on with me.

I'm Trying to Step Up My Workouts
Now, back in the days when I didn't really work out (those days being defined as "the random pockets between various workout fads"), I would say, "I should work out more," just thinking exercise was something I could seamlessly slip into my life. Turns out, if you're going to take on some type of workout, you have to give up something else. Like energy.

When I first got back into swimming, it didn't occur to me that adding in 45 minutes of cardiovascular workouts per day would leave me dragging in other areas of my life. I guess it's because we have this image of a mom with boundless energy who works out every single day and then powers through the rest of her responsibilities without a single groan or yawn. After all, exercise is supposed to give you energy, right?

Well, somehow I've never been able to emerge from exercise feeling energized. Calmer, yes. Less stressed, yes, I think. But energized? No. Some days I work out in the morning and then count down the minutes until the boy's naptime so I can take a nap myself. After naptime we basically just get through the dinner and bedtime routines and I kind of crash in front of the TV. At the end of the day, I think about how the only thing I accomplished was working out and managing to keep my family alive for another day.

Anyway, since I've been swimming fairly religiously since about a year ago, you'd think I would have lost a whole bunch of weight through exercise alone. But, in fact, prior to Weight Watchers, I actually gained a whole bunch. And then even with Weight Watchers, the loss is slow-going. So when the new fall schedule at the gym started up again, and the gym daycare resumed its full hours, I decided it was time to amp up my workouts.

I thought maybe yoga would be good for me. Now, I have done yoga before, and in actuality I think yoga and I are a terrible match. I have a really hard time quieting my mind, which, yes, I know, is precisely why I should do yoga. Also I have a hard time getting into the spiritual aspect of yoga. While I completely respect those who follow the Hindu religion, it's unfamiliar to me and doesn't feel right in the context of exercise. And perhaps I'm very unenlightened, but I feel like in my life I need to keep spirituality and exercise separate.

Well, the good news was that the gym's yoga was pretty light on the spiritual side. The bad news is that it was the most ass-kicking core workout I have ever experienced. Seriously, I was dying in there. And I had the wrong clothes. Everyone else had these tight-fitting yoga clothes (and the bodies to look good in them), whereas I was wearing my free giveaway Ingalls hospital t-shirt, size XL. So it was all billowing around my head every time we did something that was upside-down, which was a lot.

Sore as I was from yoga, I kept up my swimming workouts, swimming 2000-2500 yards four times last week. Thursday night I went back to aquacize, which I really like. It's so much less boring than swimming, and I actually think if you try you can make it a fairly rigorous workout. The evening class, which is the one I go to, is a little more challenging than the daytime classes, so we workout with special water weights (basically just buoys shaped like dumbbells) and also these crazy giant rubber bands.

Saturday Bill and I decided to take the Strong(R) weight-lifting class. The brochure described at as "non-tricky" and "non-dancey," which I appreciated. But that didn't mean it was non-difficult. But it wasn't impossible, which is more than I can say for some exercise classes I have taken. In fact, I emerged from that class feeling an energy that I haven't felt in a long time. I also appreciated that it got us all out the door on a Saturday morning, so afterward we toodled around town as a family. We went to the bakery (oh, the irony, I know, but seriously I only had a Diet Pepsi) and to the farmer's market. I bought some apples. I'm going to make pie. (I know, more irony. But I'm giving them away. I swear. I put it in writing on the Internet, so there's no going back on it now.)

But I digress. Anyway, although I'm going to give yoga another chance, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for to meet my flexibility needs. So in a couple of hours I'm going to go do a swim and then take a class called Just Stretching. I'm hoping it's not Just Old People. There's another class I'm interested in called Spirit Qui Gong, which is an energy-producing workout of Chinese origin. I like how they hold that class outdoors somethings, which is fun for at least another month.

But I don't know if I'm going to have time for Spirit Qui Gong this week. Or Zumba, which I also want to try. I'm kind of running out of time, and tonight is my first ice skating class! How I'm going to stay up on ice with my horribly-sore muscles (from the weight class), I don't know.

And if I don't lose like 5 pounds this week at Weight Watchers ... well, I guess I'm just going to keep on trying.

I've Been Doing Some Other Stuff, Too
Since I last blogged, I have been on a few adventures.

I went to floral arrangement school. Now, floral arrangement has been an interest of mine for some time, and I've been looking for the right place to get some formal training. I finally found a place that offers one-day sessions for non-professionals, and spent a blissful day there on Sept. 5. Okay, actually it was also a very tiring day, because 8 hours is a long time to arrange flowers. And in some ways it was a humbling day, because I have a long way to go in terms of my floral knife tools. But we made some beautiful bouquets, and at the end of the day the teacher and I were friends. Well, friendly, at least. Also I'm all jazzed to go to the flower market (which is not open to the public, unlike the L.A. flower market, but I got a special in because I went to flower school) and make all kinds of flower arrangements. So far the only flowers I have "arranged" are the ones I bought at the grocery store yesterday.

We went to a carnival for Labor Day. It was dumb. I don't want to write about it.

Last week we had the opportunity to see a preview of the new show at the Shedd Aquarium, Fantasea. And it was a total WTF? See, the old show consisted of some dolphins doing tricks, and the trainers told us a little bit about dolphins, their training, and how to be a responsible environmental steward. Kind of dull and educational, but what do you want from an aquarium? Well, apparently when creating Fantasea, they decided to throw all education out the window and create some Disney-esque extravaganza consisting of a giant backdrop screen, weird creatures dressed in costumes reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil, and, for some reason, a falconer. And they did the stupid "let's pick a random kid out of the audience to be part of the show ... oh wait we had that kid planted all along." The only good thing was that the plant kid was sitting right next to Nathan, so he got to be on the jumbo-tron thing when they close-upped on the girl.

But the rest of the evening was great. The aquarium was relatively uncrowded, and they had ample free food. And why is it that Weight Watchers doesn't seem to apply when the food is free of charge?

This weekend I mostly just worked out, slept, and took care of household chores. I was just the picture of discipline yesterday: bathroom-cleaning, gym, laundry, grocery store, and more laundry. And I know this isn't interesting enough to warrant inclusion on a blog, but I got every shred of laundry in my laundry room put away and/or hung up. It had been about two weeks since I did that. Of course I promptly started a new load, so the excitement of laundry-doneness was fleeting.

I have declared this week "stay local" week. In an effort to seize those last few days of summer, I dragged my family all over Chicagoland. We traveled on trains and in the car. But the reality is that I live in a beautiful community with fun things to offer right here. So I am only allowing myself to go within a 10-mile radius, and really it's mostly only a 2-mile radius except when I have to go for the vehicle emissions test. (It's like Illinois' version of the smog check, except it's free here.)

Tomorrow the boy starts up his music classes again, which is something he's been counting down to forever. Seriously, we were in Hawaii and I mentioned the music classes to my mom, and right then and there Nathan thought we were heading to music class, and he began to cry when he realized we weren't. And every single day he wakes up and asks me if we are going to music class that day. I sure hope that class lives up to his expectations.

Off for more self-torture at the gym. Hope you are all having a beautiful fall!