Soft and Strong

For some of you this is going to sound like a little nothing, but for me it was a big deal to actually go to the gym all by myself and work out without someone with me. I imagine how much courage it must take to go to your first yoga class if you haven't ever gone before.

Yesterday I went and got on the treadmill and tried to figure out how to use it. I'm pushing buttons and trying to get to that place where you can enter your weight and I finally get it and read the chart and try to get my heart rate to the right spot. Turns out that with the yoga my heart rate is low and I've got to try and get it up higher to meet the chart's suggested rate for someone my age. I was concerned that I have the heart rate of someone trying to work out in their 60s. Yikes. I'll have to do some more research on this.

Then today I actually went around and did the "weights." Wow. I don't think I've ever done that before even when I used to belong to a gym 12 years ago. I think I always gone with someone. So I've entered a new era!

Even though this is a gym I like, it's still not a yoga scene. Even though Trainer Andrew is into Deepak Chopra and all that, there are still TVs on, music blaring loudly, and the sense is we're there to get something accomplished. Fair enough. I tried to keep my movements connected with my breath and notice sensations and stay present. And I had a good time! I like the idea of being strong. Feels good!

On another body note, as I mentioned before, if you know me, you know I'm frugal :) So I recently experimented with doing my own waxing. And I'd seen those Veet "wax virgin" commercials and although I don't technically qualify as a virgin, I really hadn't given home waxing a strong go of it. So the past few weeks have had me trying different brands (I do not recommend the Veet and actually returned it to Shoppers where they happily took it back, well aware that it doesn't work), and ripping strips off my legs. Just sensations. Worse than the band aid effect is the stickiness. There I fewer things I like less than being sticky. And sugar wax is super sticky.

For years I didn't shave at all. Didn't want to, didn't have to, didn't care to. And then I got tired of the looks and as a yoga teacher being up in front of people, I decided I'd go along with our cultural norms and not try and educate anybody and just enjoy participating in our culture in this way!

Anyways, I'm still working with the home waxing and it's going okay but one of the reasons I didn't continue waxing when I tried it many years ago is because I get ingrown hairs and then my legs look like this and it's a lot of work to properly exfoliate (like picking out individual hairs with tweezers). And tomorrow I'm going to le Nordik. No biggie, I'm with friends, but I tell ya, this body hair tradition we've got going in this culture is so time consuming! I'm not even going to talk about the bikini zone.

I want to be soft and strong. That's what modern women are supposed to be, right?