Working on my Physique

A while back I decided to try a new workout DVD set called Physique 57 based on the recommendation of Mormon in Manhattan. She's a gal that's been on Broadway (and currently is right now) and has also made a living as a personal trainer. Needless to say, she's pretty fit. So when she said it kicked her tushy, I knew it had to be worth a try.

Physique 57 is a workout system based on the Lotte Berk method and is also very similar to the bar method. Basically, it's kind of like a combination of ballet and Pilate's. It started out as a studio in New York and has since branched out to DVDs and a studio in LA. When it first came out, it got a lot of press, especially since Kelly Ripa apparently does it to keep in shape (and if her shape is any indication of what these workouts can do for a person, it's worth a try). You use your own body weight to strengthen, lengthen, and tone your muscles. You also use hand weights, a bar (or chair), and a playground ball to make the movements more intense. A lot of the movements are small, so it seems easy, but trust me--it's not.
 
There are 3 DVDs in the set: the full 57 minute workout, a 30 minute express workout, and a 30 minute arms and abs booster. They also have a second set of 3 DVDs that I haven't tried yet, but have coming in the mail. These DVDs are supposed to be harder, but I can't really speak to that since I don't have them yet. The DVDs I do have are a little corny, but they flow well and are easy to follow. I don't have to stare at the TV to figure out what's going on so I can just concentrate on getting the move right and feeling the burn. And boy are they hard! My muscles start shaking almost immediately and I have a hard time getting through all the sets. It's not so hard though to be discouraging, and they do offer encouragement and modifications to help beginners get started and keep going. They also say that you can do them while pregnant or recovering from rehab, but I think you'd need a pretty good exercise knowledge base to be able to modify them enough to make it work.

I first tried the full DVD back in December, but with exams and travel I didn't get too into them. This week, I decided to try them as recommended. The recommendation is that you do the full workout 2-3 times per week, and the two 30 minute workouts once a week. Combined with my running program, that's rounding out to be a lot of exercise (I'm doing the couch to 10k program). So far, I've mostly been able to stick to the schedule. I've done the two 30 minute workouts this week, but will only get 1 full workout done (tomorrow). I've also been walking/running about 3 times per week for about an hour at a time for the past 4 weeks, and I'm happy to say I'm starting to see some nice results. My arms are more defined, my posture's improving, and my legs feel stronger. I'll update a few weeks from now with my progress, but if I can keep it up I'm thinking it will be pretty good. Spencer even commented tonight that I was looking pretty good. Needless to say, if you're looking for a good workout to add to the mix or if you're like me and don't really like tradition weight lifting, give Physique 57 a try. I'm sure you'll be happy with the results.  

Romance Novel

First off, Happy Valentine's Day. This post is only slightly related to the most loved/hated of holidays, but since it surrounds the "romance" genre I thought it would be a fun inclusion to all the other V-Day posts out there.

I guess a while back there was a deal where you could download a copy of a newer book (Giving Chase) for free to read on the various Kindle applications. Since we not only have iPhones, but also an iPad, we use the Kindle app quite frequently (Spencer especially. I prefer the "feel" of a real book). At any rate, he downloaded it because it was free and mentioned on a deal website he frequents. I innocently stumbled upon said download and decided to start reading. I made it through the first chapter, thoroughly enthralled in the story line, but wondering why it was so badly written. Being the impatient person that I am (I used to read the last chapter first because I couldn't wait), I looked it up on Amazon to learn a little bit about it. I've included the link above for your reference as well. Turns out said book is a romance novel. Not only that, it comes with an "explicit content" warning. Needless to say, I stopped reading and un-downloaded (is that a word? it should be) the book as fast as you can say "Mississippi."

So there you go. I may be the only person in recorded history who mistakenly began reading a romance novel, got drawn into the story even though it was badly written, and the voluntarily put it down once I figured out what it was. I guess I can't really recommend (or caution against) this book since I didn't really read that much of it, but I can only guess based on the warning that it's definitely not my thing. If it's your thing, the first chapter had me hooked so I guess that's good for this type of genre.

The Games that Left Me Anything But Hungry

While in Utah for Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law gave me the first of 3 books in the Hunger Games saga to keep me entertained when the boys were overindulging in football, football, and more football. At first I was hesitant to get into it since I'm the type of reader that forgets the rest of the world exists when I get into a good book. However, I finally succumbed to temptation and dove into it not knowing exactly what to expect.

The first book was a quick, easy read that was masterfully written. I enjoyed the way the Collins wove in description to her story without going over board (think Meyer's in the 4th Twilight Saga book...*shudder*). At any rate, I really got to know the characters pretty well and became attached to them. Sure, the descriptions of all the gore sometimes turned my stomach, but I was definitely caught up in it. It was compelling enough to be a page turner, but not so compelling that I had a problem putting it down to do something else for a while (this is a good thing for me). I also really enjoyed how Collins made it pretty clear that this was some version of a future America. It was both interesting and a little disheartening to see how poor and backwards the people of the districts were, especially in contrast to the amount of technology available in the Capitol. So when my sister offered to let me take the second book, Catching Fire, home with me, I jumped at the chance.

Taking that book turned out to be one of the best decision I made that entire trip. Through a series of weather-related delays, I ended up reading almost the entire book either on a plane in flight, in the airport, or stuck on the tarmac in a plane that had no available gate to go to. The second book was just as interesting as the first, complete with a second hunger games. Collins did a good job of showing how tumultuous the pre-revolutionary country was and how ruthless those in power could be. I also appreciated that some of my favorite characters were back, though I didn't really care for how dense Katniss (the main character) was when it came to the relationships in her life. Still, the story ended on a cliff hanger so of course I was begging for more.

Which brings me to the third book, Mockingjay. Because I was finishing up my final papers for my degree, I was unable to dive into this book quite as soon as I wanted. Plus, I didn't actually have a copy and didn't really want to buy it. I also didn't get any responses to my desperate plea on Facebook for someone to loan me one. So I did what I do in any situation where I'm too impatient to wait for something to come out. I googled it. After reading the ending, I really wasn't all that interested in reading the third book. Still, the opportunity to read it presented itself to me last week when Spencer "checked in out" from his Kindle app on the iPhone. It was just too tempting not to read it, so I downloaded my own copy and spent a few days reading it. The story was just as well written as the previous books. There were no really slow parts, though I did not care for the direction Collins took with some of the characters. I didn't care for portions of the ending and I didn't think it really served her message. Spencer disagrees with me, but that's just his opinion.

All in all, this was a fun, quick series to read. Well, maybe fun isn't quite the right word given all the death and gore, but I did enjoy reading it. I've heard they are thinking about making it into a move. I have no clue how they would do it without making it so gory and so violent as to drive off most audiences. I certainly wouldn't be inclined to see it, though I would be interested to see how the movie created the world of Panem and some of the crazy characters in it. Movie aside, if you're looking for an entertaining read, look no further.



Disney Disillusionment

I can't remember if I've blogged about this before, but it was on my mind this morning and I felt the need to share. I know I've mentioned it in passing to some of my friends out here in Wisconsin, so if you've heard this before--I'm sorry.

A few weeks (perhaps months) ago I was watching Monsters, Inc with my best friend's 4 year old. She was completely enthralled in the movie with that glazed-eyed stare people get when they've been staring at the TV for way to long. The other adults present were no doubt engaged in something much more sophisticated and adult that the kids movie, but I, too, was engrossed in the movie.

And then a funny thing happened. Instead of enjoying the happy ending like I should have, I started to analysis it. Sully and Mike discover that laughter is more productive than scream. That means that Mike meets his quota after 1 door. That means there's no more energy crisis. That means that the price of energy goes down. That means that they make less profit. That means that there will be cutbacks. That means that some of the monsters will lose their jobs. That means that the happy ending wasn't so happy after all, from an economic standpoint that is.

It was at that moment I felt really, really old.

PS: Belle has Stockholm syndrome and Ariel can't be happy without totally changing her body. Oh, and Snow White shouldn't just be waiting around for her prince to show up. She should be out there living her life instead of putting it on hold until some man comes along. And Cinderella needs therapy for all the abuse her dad put her through by marring her step-mom. Seriously though! Is this what we want ingrained in our daughter's minds?

Top 10 Reasons Why I Would Never Make a Good Contestant on the Bachelor

10. I don't scream when a guy walks into the room.
9. I would never kiss a guy when he was kissing other girls.
8. I can't rock a bikini and would never wear one even if I could.
7. I refuse to go on group dates where there are more girls than guys.
6. I prefer to be pursued rather than be the pursuer.
5. I refuse to pretend like I'm in love with a man I've never met or hardly know.
4. I don't wear a size 000.
3. I'm don't spend hours on my hair and makeup.
2. I don't think you can find love when you limit yourself to the man the producers chose for you.
1. I'm married to the love of my life!!

"Being Erica"

I do a lot of data entry at work which means I listen to either music or TV on hulu.com. Recently, I started listening to a show called "Being Erica." It's on soap net, so I'm sure it's not the cleanest show in the world to watch, but I really like listening to it. The basic premise of the show is that the main character, Erica, meets a psychiatrist who gives her the chance to go back and try to fix her regrets. She usually ends up learning some valuable lesson about herself or her relationships with others, but the part that got me interested was that the premise of would you change your past mistakes if you were given the option? I have made my fair share of mistakes and I regret some of the decisions that I've made. That being said, I feel like we are a sum of our past decisions and if we were to change any one of them, we wouldn't be where we are today. While I'm not exactly thrilled to be doing glorified data entry day in and day out, I am happy with my life overall and am working hard to improve it. If given the chance, I don't think I would go back and change a thing. After all, there's no telling if changing something I regretted would have prevented me meeting and marrying Spencer or being in the place I am today. Would you change anything?

New Moon

I saw "New Moon" this weekend with my friend Jessica. It was pretty blah. No chemistry, too much dramatic talking, and weird camera pans around people's faces while they were talking. Also, melancholy Bella is not all that different from happy Bella. As I remember from the book, this was also kind of true, but seriously there should have been some notable difference. I liken it to my first experience with Harry Potter movies. The first was absolutely terrible in terms of acting ability (and a few other things, too--but I digress). Harry was just about as excited for his birthday cake as he was to die by the hand of Quirll/Voldermort. Same with Bella. She was just as excited to be loved by Edward as she was to be lost.

Side note: until now I've thought the whole Edward vs. Jacob thing pretty lame. If it were up to me, I'd have Bella leave them both, go to college, get her PhD in weird-ology and then fall in love, but since the author seemed bent on her picking one, I never really picked aside. The movie, however has changed my mind: Jacob all the way! Have you seen his abs? Arms? Etc? Holy cow! And then Edward takes of his shirt and you recoil in fear. Pasty white, untoned, hairy teenage vampires should not get the girl. Especially when you calculate the cold factor in. I am perpetually chilly and Jacob would be like dating an electric blanket. And then there's the whole controlling, abusive, I'll die without you aspect to the relationship. Seriously! Now what were the reasons for picking Edward again?

PS: If I ever have teenage daughters, they aren't seeing this movie/reading the books. I don't want them thinking that that's what real love looks like.