Exercise
I haven't been really exercising whilst we were in London, a combination of laziness and being too cold. I did, however, walk 30 minutes to work, and 30 minutes back home, every working day, and since we tended to avoid the Tube whilst we were in London my husband and I did a lot of walking on the weekends. But generally, nothing cardio-based.
So I finally ran for the first time in around 10 months on Sunday afternoon, with my husband and his younger sister, around our housing estate. It's usually a 2km run out in the open with a little bit of slight-uphills and downhills along the way, and even when I was running regularly I would occasionally walk some bits of it, so the fact that I managed to run about half of it without stopping, and didn't walk for too much of it, pleases me immensely. (I have pretty low expectations of my own fitness)
I did ache quite a bit on Monday morning though...
Yesterday I went for my first adult ballet class! I used to take proper ballet from when I was 8 years old till I was 12, and carried on dancing on-and-off all the way to adulthood, but never ballet (modern dance club during ages 14, 15, 17, 18, 22, then salsa when I was 25, 26...). Recently "barre exercises" became popular in the US and I considered tentatively whether to try and try them out (I find exercise tiring but dancing fun), but I've read a few articles that basically said: Ballet is >>> barre exercises, more fun, more discipline, more structure and maybe better for fitness. So I looked at adult ballet classes in Singapore, and turned up for my first class yesterday, incidentally taught by a ex-classmate (who is a full-time ballet teacher!). Another ex-classmate also went for class with me, we used to take the same ballet class back in primary school and us two with the teacher were all in the same class in secondary school, so it was a nice and relaxing reunion. But man. 18 years of non-practice means that my plies were terrible (I was never any good at plié-ing) and my calf muscles ache like mad today. But I think it's a great start!
So I'm thinking of running on Sundays, ballet on Mondays, and maybe either a swim or some other dance/yoga exercise on Wednesday afternoons (my office lets people leave at 4PM on Weds to exercise), and that ought to keep me in good shape and relatively fit!
Also, I think I lost my wedding ring. Weep. I have finger knuckles that are so unpronounced they are actually narrower than my fingers, and so any ring that I wear, if loosened, will slip straight off my fingers without me realizing, and my knuckles wouldn't provide any sort of resistance. I know I still had it on when I reached home yesterday, and my best guess is that when washing my leotard by hand, the soap probably caused it to slip into the tub with the soapy water and when I drained the tub into the toilet bowl my ring fell in without me realizing. ... ... ... Oh well... My husband was planning to get me an anniversary ring anyway. But. Still. Sigh.
So I finally ran for the first time in around 10 months on Sunday afternoon, with my husband and his younger sister, around our housing estate. It's usually a 2km run out in the open with a little bit of slight-uphills and downhills along the way, and even when I was running regularly I would occasionally walk some bits of it, so the fact that I managed to run about half of it without stopping, and didn't walk for too much of it, pleases me immensely. (I have pretty low expectations of my own fitness)
I did ache quite a bit on Monday morning though...
Yesterday I went for my first adult ballet class! I used to take proper ballet from when I was 8 years old till I was 12, and carried on dancing on-and-off all the way to adulthood, but never ballet (modern dance club during ages 14, 15, 17, 18, 22, then salsa when I was 25, 26...). Recently "barre exercises" became popular in the US and I considered tentatively whether to try and try them out (I find exercise tiring but dancing fun), but I've read a few articles that basically said: Ballet is >>> barre exercises, more fun, more discipline, more structure and maybe better for fitness. So I looked at adult ballet classes in Singapore, and turned up for my first class yesterday, incidentally taught by a ex-classmate (who is a full-time ballet teacher!). Another ex-classmate also went for class with me, we used to take the same ballet class back in primary school and us two with the teacher were all in the same class in secondary school, so it was a nice and relaxing reunion. But man. 18 years of non-practice means that my plies were terrible (I was never any good at plié-ing) and my calf muscles ache like mad today. But I think it's a great start!
So I'm thinking of running on Sundays, ballet on Mondays, and maybe either a swim or some other dance/yoga exercise on Wednesday afternoons (my office lets people leave at 4PM on Weds to exercise), and that ought to keep me in good shape and relatively fit!
Also, I think I lost my wedding ring. Weep. I have finger knuckles that are so unpronounced they are actually narrower than my fingers, and so any ring that I wear, if loosened, will slip straight off my fingers without me realizing, and my knuckles wouldn't provide any sort of resistance. I know I still had it on when I reached home yesterday, and my best guess is that when washing my leotard by hand, the soap probably caused it to slip into the tub with the soapy water and when I drained the tub into the toilet bowl my ring fell in without me realizing. ... ... ... Oh well... My husband was planning to get me an anniversary ring anyway. But. Still. Sigh.