It’s early and I don’t want to be up. I also don’t want to lay in bed for one more damn minute thinking about all the things and stuff. 

My desire to keep the schedule I’ve set myself for today ends at about 11:30am. I’m not particularly excited about going to CB today. I’m actually not really jazzed about going to the exercise class I have on the books for 8:15 this morning. Which is a good segue for what’s aching this week. 

I’ve met a number of really great people through the MFA program that I graduated from this past January and 2020 was not ideal for cultivating new relationships. 

It was also a serious bummer that I had to give up my addiction to Jazzercise. Now that things have relaxed a bit with the “restrictions” I’ve been given the green light to attend classes again. Just as I was getting ready to look into signing up for classes, a few women from the MFA program approached me about taking classes with them at a “classes only” gym. 

These two women I would consider acquaintances at this point but with the potential for more of a friendship, which is exciting. I mean, I don’t meet new people easily and am often socially awkward and quiet in group settings so the opportunity to chat outside the big MFA groups is great. So I accepted the invitation for attending a week of free classes with them. 

Monday was weight training which was working all the major muscle groups using a bar and free weights. The sets are set to music which of course is great. The classes are quite small compared to Jazzercise (5-8 people) or any class I ever took at my other gym. Monday’s class was good but there wasn’t a lot of intro or consideration given because I was new.

The instructor didn’t provide recommendations for weights or even explain along the way how one might go up in weight for legs or down for biceps and triceps. I was sort of left to watch everyone else and self conscious so I stayed with the same weight the entire time. Probably not smart.

The class was hard and made me super sore. It wasn’t just “next day sore”.. it was “legs and arms of jelly for about 2 hours after” sore and hard to move the day after. But in a way it felt great just to feel that feeling again after so long. For the past year I’ve just been walking every day and not really getting any weight training in.

These women go everyday so Tuesday was not a rest day.. it was cardio instead. We did a step class and I’ve never done step before. If I thought the instruction on Monday was poor, Tuesday was horrific! Zero intro and so fast paced that unless you’ve been doing it for years, you would be completely lost. 

It also made me feel like a fool, to be hopping around the riser trying to keep up and constantly facing the wrong direction, or being on the wrong side of the step. It was close to an hour of fast paced music with the instructor calling out moves and “left-this,” “right-that, “straddle,” “corner,” “indecision.”… 

Indecision?? No indecision on this one.. it was terrible. 

At least with Jazzercise they work slow into the routines and you can catch on. With this, there were so many hops and turns, half the time you aren’t even facing the instructor. I pride myself on being coordinated and also being able to pick up on stuff pretty quickly but this was horrible from the first song to the last. 

Anyway, if you’re paying attention, you’ll recognize that Tuesday was also the angry day from hell and let me tell you this cardio workout only made that worse. 

I dare say I won’t do that again unless they offer a beginners instructional class to teach the moves and practice at half pace or something. Then there was Wednesday.. yesterday, the anti-Tuesday. 

It was another weight training class (mind you I was still really hurting from Monday). This one was called “body pump” and it was a little less intense with more reps. I was actually kind of dreading it given the way my body felt and the two previous experiences, so the bar was really low. 

Turns out the class was fantastic. Everything about it was great. The instructor actually took T and I aside and explained the class and helped us to know what we needed for eq and also why we would want different weights to switch out during the class and what we should start with since this was our first session and was kind of a test of what we could handle. 

She was also really personable during the class and encouraging. It was a huge 180 from the previous two days and I don’t know why it hadn’t dawned on me, but it was the instructor. Makes a big difference. I would definitely go back and do that one again.. if I decide to sign up for realz. 

That was yesterday and today is barre. Another new experience for me. And T has already told me it was the hardest one from the classes she did last week. Good golly. I’m already feeling so, so sore. Can’t imagine it being worse than Monday and Tuesday so I can’t say I’m particularly looking forward to it. Still.. gotta try at least once. 

In the back of my head I’m comparing everything to Jazzercise. I love J so it’s gonna be a hard sell to get me to put my money into this place instead. Doing both would be big $$$ and also a big time commitment. 

Of course one thing going for this class are my two new acquaintances. T invited me over to her house after barre today for tea and that sounds lovely. It will be nice to sit and chat instead of standing around a gym floor. 

After that, as I said, I’m supposed to go to CB for lunch with my dad. Not particularly excited about that. I mean, it’s ok, but I could definitely use that time for something else. I know it’s bad but my brain is working overtime on excuses to get out of it. Does that make me a bad person? Probably. 

Anyway.. my time is almost up and I’ve got to get ready for the morning. 

Peace and love, 

~Miss SugarCookie