Spinning Class

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So, I took a spinning class today. It was kinda spur-of-the-moment. I checked the class schedule for this morning and saw it was open, so I thought - why not?
Woh.
Of course, I knew it would be hard, but man, I was like jell-o walking out of there. Not only were my legs shaking, my whole body was crashing from the expulsion of so many calories, and therefor, a blood sugar crash. Once I finished up my water and ate at home, I felt better. But boy, will I be sore tomorrow.
My goal is to try as many different classes as possible. After the class, I took a moment to speak with the instructor and let her know it was my first class. She asked why I had decided to take it, and I told her frankly - I had hurt my calf muscle in the Group Groove class and needed a good hard workout that wasn't going to kill it. She laughed and said "dancing?" like I was insane. It goes to show that many trainers and instructors certainly don't find all kinds of activity to be useful, and certainly not equal. Although I know I have a lot to learn when it comes to exercise science, I really feel that my basic idea of movement will not change: Movement is good for everyone. Spinning, dancing, walking, running, strength training - it's all movement that makes our bodies healthier. And frankly, the more diverse the better. If anyone takes the initiative to have more movement in their lives, it's a wonderful, healthy thing. No matter how fit I get, I will never laugh at someone for any kind of movement they decide to do, because I know first hand how difficult it is to get to that place - that place that makes you go to the gym, or go out for a walk, and make it a habit. It's hard, and is to be commended, regardless of the activity. So dance on, my friends. I sure will.

Interesting experiment

So, after an incredibly stressful week for many reasons, I decided to push myself and do a little experiment. I made up a "running playlist" off of my ITunes and went to the gym. I knew I had been getting better at running in my walk/run interval workouts, but I wanted to see how long I could run at one time. This experiment was inspired by wanting to walk/run a 5K on Thanksgiving morning.
So, I started out with a warm-up song at about 3.8 on the treadmill. Then I started running. I ran for 20 minutes straight and I was super proud - however, that was not the biggest breakthrough of this experiment.
As soon as I was done with my 20 minute run, my "lazy demons" started talking "you just RAN 20 minutes! You only have to do a total of 30 minutes today..." etc. I ALMOST fell for it, but then I started to tell myself things like "I'll just walk till the end of this song", then it was "well, I'm almost at 35:00, so I'll go till then" then it was "I've almost burned 400 cals, lets just keep going" and on and on... not only did I keep walking, I RETURNED to running 3 more times!! In the end, I ran/walked a 5K (3.2) miles in 47.19, and I ran/walked for a total of 65 minutes, 4.2 miles and blasted 625 calories. A long way from my 30 minute timeline!
I have noticed a few things regarding this - one is that I am beginning to ENJOY pushing myself "just a little further". Another is that I recover MUCH more quickly after a more intense workout than I used to. And finally, I am actually looking forward to going to the gym! Who knew??
I feel good. My weight is going in the right direction. Still working on eating enough, but this past week I have been doing better with that and I think that's why I am seeing the scale drop!