Jarred's Slice of Heaven

Jarred's posts with tag: health

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Weekend and news

Mar 26, '08 2:22 PM
for everyone

Let me start off this post by announcing the very good news. As of yesterday, I've found it necessary to tighten my belt by another notch. As I was walking through the office in the morning, I felt my jeans start to do the "let's wiggle down the hips" dance. This rather excited me.

Granted, I'm mystified by this discovery, as the scales at the mall announced two weeks ago that I haven't lost much if any weight. It says I'm still at 277 pounds. (Which might be down by five to eight pounds, but that's it.) And yet, I'm tightening my belt. And this is after going from a 44 waist to a 42 waist. And to be honest, I don't care what the scales say, as long as I continue to inch towards the physical dimensions I had back in high school.

This past weekend, I had a pleasant time at my parents' house. I left work a couple hours early so that I could pack and give Precious time to settle before I put her in her kennel for the two hour drive. I ended up getting to PA around 8pm. That evening, my parents and I just sat around the house and had a pleasant chat.

Precious spent the first twenty four hours or so having issues with the presence of the (increasingly mis-named) barn cats. She apparently felt threatened by them. But eventually, she figured out that they'd run away from her if she chased them, so that became a sport for her. I'm waiting for the day the barn cats decide it's time to chase her!

Saturday, we ended up watching a couple of movies, but otherwise just spent the day enjoying each other's company and chatting some more. Apparently, they'd never seen "A Series of Unfortunate Events" before, which shocked me. So that was one of the movies we watched. They both enjoyed it, and it was good for a few laughs.

Sunday, we had the traditional ham dinner for Easter. I even brought home some leftovers. (I plan to make a ham sandwich to bring to work for lunch, but I keep getting home too late to do it.) Sunday evening, my aunt and uncle came over to visit, so I ended up leaving for Rochester later than I planned. However, it ended up being a nice visit, and I got to find out how some of my cousins are doing. I even got to see video clips from Chris's one mile race at the Division II National Championships for indoor track and field.

Overall, it was a pleasant weekend.

Tags: health, family, relaxation, holidays

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Call me the dancing fool

Feb 3, '08 11:01 PM
for everyone

Two weeks ago, I started taking dance classes. Half my friends are laughing over the whole thing, but all of them are being relatively supportive.

This is not the first time that I've taken a dance class, mind you. My junior year in college, I took two semester's of dance class. I took the first semester because it counted against my phys ed requirement to graduate. I figured it was a nice alternative to trying to play a sport (I have yet to find one I'm not awful at) or go fly fishing (which I despise). So when my housemate suggested Joan's dance class, I decided it was worth a shot. I ended up taking the class for the second semester simply because I enjoyed it.

A few weeks ago, I noticed some cookbooks on a table at work for sale. After reading the material next to the cookbooks, I learned that they were to raise money for the Park Avenue Dance Company. I also found out which coworker brought them in and inquired as to his involvement with the organization. As it turns out, he's one of their dancers.

As we briefly discussed the matter, he suggested I give one of their dance classes a try. As I had already been thinking about it (I had already checked out their website), it didn't take him much time to convince me. The following Tuesday, I took my bag of with workout clothes over to the dance studio and had my first class.

I've had three more classes since that night and have loved every minute of it. In fact, I'm reaching the point where I feel like the class is the highlight of my week. I enjoy dance that much. In fact, I forgot just how much I enjoyed it.

It's been close to thirteen years since Joan's class. And while Joan's class primarily focused on ballet, Christine's class is more contemporary, which means that I've had to relearn a few things anyway. However, I have noticed that a lot of the work at the bar is the same, which is why I seem to be picking that up pretty fast. Now if I can get just as good at the rest of it all. But I'm making slow progress.

One nice thing about the class is that it's an answer to my concern about exercise during the cold months. Now I have at least one hour a week of good exercise planned -- exercise which is far more intense than the walking I normally do, anyway. I'm also considering picking up the Wednesday night class, which is 99% floor and bar exercises. Add to that the fact that I hope to eventually start practicing the routines at home (I'm still trying to learn them right now and don't wish to practice them "wrong"), and I should have no problems maintaining my physical activity year round.

And of course, I want to try the jazz class someday. But I think I need to get more comfortable with the contemporary dance stuff before I confuse myself with a second style and instructor.

Tags: dancing, exercise, life, health, fitness, fun

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