August 11, 2014- 65 days until the wedding!!

     Every morning that I wake up I assess my body and judge the aches and pains. Today, my arms are at an 8!! They are so tight and tense!! But sleeping in this morning felt incredibly glorious and so relaxing! I'm trying to enjoy these days off as much as I can, because at the end of the week, I go back to work for huge chunks. I was lucky in the fact that I had a TON of vacation time to use up. Once my work anniversary hits (which is about the third week of August), I lose all vacation hours that I did not use! That's like free money down the toilet!! No way was I going to let that happen!! So I timed everything out so that my days off and the start of my Movement coincided! I will confide in you, dear reader, that I am immensely worried about doing back to my "normal" shift (which is 10a-5:15p). The worry comes from the fact that I will have to complete an entire work shift and then haul my butt to Vixen Fitness for classes. Currently, I'm getting scheduled evening shifts and I get to do my workouts in the morning and then head into work. This system is perfect for me because mornings are my friend! And I can get my workouts done early and go home after work.
     I love my job. It is the best job that I could have ever hoped for or asked for. With that being said, some days are harder than others. And those hard days are incredibly draining emotionally. It's those days that I cannot wait to clock out and go home. I'm worried that I will have those days with my new Movement. I know that the LAST thing I'll want to do is workout. But I suppose that it'll be those days that will test my devotion and commitment to this Movement.
      Fortunately, today was not one of those days! I rested, played with my pups, did a few chores around the house, and then headed to Vixen for classes. Today I started with Intro To Pole!!

     Knowing that my arms were already sore, but that I would need them for a Pole class, I was scared!! Luckily my good friend Ariana was there to join me and she gave me the encouragement I needed. We were both extremely excited to try a pole class and learn proper techniques! It was a fun class! The instructor, Allison, showed us various moves we can do with the pole (body rolls, the sexy walk, hip rolls, etc. And we also learned two "moves", the 'fireman,' and the 'martini' (which I believe is the move pictured above!) The great thing about classes at Vixen is that everyone is in sweats and tanks or t-shirts. The instructor was the only person in heels, although she encouraged us to try and incorporate heels once we become a bit more proficient with the pole. At times I felt completely inadequate! The instructor made everything look so sexy and sleek and she performed the pole moves with such ease. I, on the other hand, felt like a hippo gyrating obtrusively!! I felt very un-sexy. And while I could do the moves, I was spinning around the pole so quickly that I started to get a headache from the constant dizziness!! I had no idea how to spin slower and how NOT to get so dizzy!! But Ariana did have a blast in the class. When I realized that everyone else were beginners like me, and that we ALL looked like gyrating creatures, I stopped worrying about how I looked and focused on having fun!! I left the class feeling confident! I will have to take Into to Pole 4-5 more times, at least, so I can master the basics and build up my strength before I move on to the next level pole class.

     After pole class, Ariana and I had a bit of a wait before our next class, Cardio Dance, started. Unfortunately, the teacher was a little late due to traffic, and then he couldn't get the audio to work correctly and that took a few minutes to fix, so we started class about 10 minutes late total. I adored our teacher Romero!! He was so funny, and just the person that I'm used to at work! But the first thing he had us do was a rotation of 20 sit ups and then a 2 minute plank. We had to do that 4 times! That's 8 freakin' minutes of planking!!! Whew! It was exhausting! Romero put us through an extensive ab workout, and a deep stretch. And then we only had about 10 minutes to actually dance. He started that he usually taught 1.5 hour classes (this class was only an hour), so he apologized to us! He asked us to come to the next class that he taught and he would use the same routine! Ariana and I loved him and we both agreed that we needed to catch his next class!!

     All in all it was a good day! I've been fortunate enough to be able to sample a plethora of classes at Vixen Fitness and I'm ready to commit to a full membership once my two weeks are up!!