SpyralBound
Forum Replies Created
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portableninja — "I've gone through periods of counting calories and tracking everything that goes in and out of my body with precision, usually followed by holidays and emotional pig out sessions which make me feel like a hopeless failure. At least for me, the overly scientific approach to diet and fitness is too rigid. I can be a perfectionist and if I don't get something exactly right, it is really disheartening."
I AM THE SAME WAY! I get so fed up with counting and tracking. I got on a site called SparkPeople when I was back in college and stuck with the counting/tracking for a long time, blogging regularly, weighing in regularly… and then it just got boring and tedious. Tracking every bite was such a chore, especially since each item in a meal has to be tracked separately (I can't just write "Turkey Sandwich," it's 2 slices of whole wheat bread, 2 tsp. mayo, 1 slice cheese, 2 oz turkey…).
I'm a words person, not a numbers person. I'm starting on a new health plan myself right now and what I did last night was simply write down what I ate at each meal in my journal. No measurements, no calorie counts, nothing quantitative, just qualitative descriptions. And for the past three months I've been tracking my different types of workouts – pole, yoga, and strength/aerobics, each on its own page – by noting the date, how long I exercised, the perceived diffculty (low, moderate, heavy, intense) and notes on what I did or observed during that workout.
To me, the point of tracking is accountability more than math, and tracking in this qualitative way is definitely easier to fit into my lifestyle and to wrap my head around than simply punching in numbers and budgeting calories.
My big challenge is meal planning. Whenever I fall off that wagon, things go to hell. It becomes all convenience foods and last-minute, what-do-we-have-in-the-house meals and eating a pile of snacks instead of dinner. Ugh. So that would be my advice to anyone trying to slim down: plan ahead and save yourself from taking the lazy way out.
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I love my endo but she's in a different city. Last year I moved from Dayton to Cincinnati and while I found a new PCP, I was willing to make the hourlong drive once a year to see my endo rather than find a new one.
I had a bad experience with my last endo, he turned out to be a quack who overprescribed me. I felt *Great* on the high dosage and was at the lowest weight of my adult life. Then one day his office just closed and he was gone. For a while I had my PCP manage my thyroid but he kept screwing with my dosage (like, a different dose every 3-6 months up to the point of taking one pill X days a week, the other Y days a week…) so finally I asked him to refer me to a specialist. When I mentioned my last endo's name to her, she got this look on her face and sorta said yeah, he was known for over prescribing, and she explained to me how she couldn't just put me back on the same dose he'd given me, even if I felt great, because it's potentially FATAL. Well hot damn, thanks Dr. Quack!
Anyway, my new endo is great and helped get me leveled out to a regular dose that doesn't change with every damn blood test, so yeah, after finally getting that sorted out I didn't want to up and switch docs if she was still within driving distance, especially since I usually only see her once a year. But my new PCP is much closer to home and work.
My new PCP isn't horrible or anything, I don't hate her, I just have mixed feelings. I've only seen her 3 times – once for my new patient orientation, once for a normal physical (that was back in January and the only thing they found was a bladder infection and a Vitamin D deficiency) and once for a pelvic exam, which she…seemed to struggle with, I think next year I may go to an actual OB/GYN instead. For the physical and the pelvic exam appt's, I felt really rushed, like she was just trying to get me in and out as fast as possible. When she did my skin check during the physical, she totally missed my thighs, and I happen to have a large mole on my left thigh that most doctors pay some attention to (I've had it since I was a kid and it's never changed, but I still expected it to come up during a skin check). And then BAM she was out the door and I'm like… that's it??
I'm only 25, I don't have much experience shopping around for doctors and I don't know what's "normal" behavior that I'd experience at any PCP office, and what's worthy of "wow, I should find a different doc." This one came recommended to me by a coworker. My "Ugh" reaction is less about not wanting to see her, and more about the hassle of taking time out of my workday for an appointment. I am a notorious hassle-avoider.
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Ugh. I will make an appointment I guess. At least I'm pretty sure it's not pole-related – I've experienced twitches like this for years and years, to varying degrees. I couldn't really tell you if it's actually gotten worse, or if I just started paying attention to it in the last year or so.
The eyelid twitch following the monster sneeze was the ONLY time it's ever lasted that long, I can say that. Normally they're gone within a week or so.
I do wonder. I have hypothyroidism, have had it since I was born. Every year at my checkup, my endocrinologist asks if I've had tremors and has me hold out my hands to see if they're shaking. I've always said No to the tremors because in my mind, tremors means your hands are shaking kind of constantly, almost like shivering/trembling or like what the elderly experience. What I have feels more like a pulsing twitch, and it's not constant — I could sit here for a minute and not feel a twitch, but in five or ten minutes I probably will feel several. But now I wonder if this applies to her asking me about tremors. Of course, my bloodwork is really what determines my treatment for the thyroid thing, and according to that my current dosage is fine.
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Bahhhhh I hate going to the doctor. I wonder if the Little Clinic at Kroger could handle something like this or if I have to try to get in with my normal doc. I've only been seeing her for a few months and I'm not sure how happy I am with her, she moves through appointments so fast I feel I barely have her attention, and seems quick to prescribe a drug rather than talk about options or explain what's going on.
I grew up in a family where we pretty much only went to the doctor when something was seriously wrong – bleeding, vomiting, high fevers, that kind of thing – so I have a habitual resistance to running to the doc for every little thing, or for things like this that are annoying but don't actually interfere with my daily life.
I've never noticed a connection between my eyelid twitches and fatigue or anxiety, but that would seem to make sense – I'll pay attention to potential triggers next time I get that particular twitch.
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I concur, Veena's lessons are totally worth the investment – I didn't realize how valuable they were until I canceled my lessons here to start going to a studio (it was an either/or thing for my budget) and instantly missed the ability to watch the lessons.
Veena does such a great job of breaking it down, doing the move from all different angles, showing different options, and building you up for the next step. An instructor can do that too, but you only get her for what, an hour or two a week? She has other students to teach, she can't magically move in slow motion, and you can't sit there and hit "replay" to see her do it as many times as you need to understand the move.
As an intermediate dancer I find that in-person classes are valuable for instant feedback and support, encouragement to try things that scare me, and to instill some regularity into my practice. Veena's lessons are good for seeing the larger picture of how moves work together and progress into each other, and for practicing and fine-tuning at home.
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Oh no, if anything I hijacked your thread, Jadorebree! Glad you had a good experience at your second studio.
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The students who are interested in the classes that have been cut back are being encouraged by the instructors to make sure they say something to the studio owner about how much they loooove those classes and want to see more of them, because that's how those new classes got on the roster, by expressions of interest. I personally have not done so yet but it's among the many many things on my to-do list.
I do know that one of the Intermediate instructors is moving to another state soon, which makes me nervous – I don't know if they're going to fill her slot with other instructors, or reduce the Intermediate classes in favor of something else with a high demand (creating even more competition to get into those Intermediate classes). I'll have to wait and see…
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Yeah, I'm just venting mostly. From what I have heard (and have insider knowledge), it's less about teacher availability and more about offering new classes that the non-pole students have expressed interest in.
There's a core group of very dedicated/interested pole dancers there who are already filling and over-filling the classes (and new ones coming up through the ranks from the Beginner levels), but we're still a smaller sliver of the overall studio clientele. I get that, and the non-pole students deserve their classes too – I'm not trying to say this studio should run their business differently. Just that the current model, and especially the recent cutbacks, are not ideal for the serious, pole-and-nothing-else member.
If I had my druthers, as they say, I'd be a regular at a studio where pole is more central (if not exclusive) and didn't have as much competition from non-pole/non-aerial classes and students. That's all. I'll take what I can get, though, I'm just going to change how I pay for it.
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Correction – The studio in the city where I used to live does Pole, Aerial Silks and Burlesque.
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Aerial studio, then. The studio in the city where I used to live does Aerial, Silks and Burlesque and has been in business for at least 5 years that I know of.
The demand at my studio strikes me as high enough to merit adding more pole classes to the schedule instead of cutting them back – what with the waitlists on pretty much every pole class. They charge more for pole classes too. I have to go to at least 3 classes a month to get my money's worth from my membership – between my own schedule limitations and the waitlist issue, it doesn't work out that way, hence why I don't want to re-up my membership. Like I said, I'll pay for the classes when I know I'll actually be attending them.
And I wouldn't have a problem if it was only a few extra classes to pad the schedule and make the business run, but they just have SO many options there (and they keep adding more!), that to get everything on the schedule in a week (in the peak times), they have to make the classes shorter than I'd like them.
Two of my best friends teach there, and I LOVE training with them, so I continue to make this "my" studio. I'd kind of feel like an asshole ditching them to go to another studio, especially since there aren't any studios that are as convenient to me location-wise as this one. I only know of two alternatives within the area I'm willing to drive, one is way out of the way of anywhere else I go, and the other has a bad reputation for really catty, nasty behavior.
I'm pretty sure once my membership at this studio expires I'll still go to classes now and then, but I'll also re-enlist in Veena's lessons and probably practice at home more.
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That's one thing that frustrates me about the studio where I go. It's not a strictly pole studio, it is a "class gym" – no treadmills and ellipticals and such, but lots of classes in a variety of disciplines – pole, aerial silks, TRX, barre, Pilates, Zumba, hooping, weights, you name it. Trouble is, they have only 2 classrooms and only one of them has poles in it, and with SO many things on the schedule, they make their classes really short – 45 minutes. Kudos to the instructors, because they do a great job with what limited time they have, they never skip warmups and send us to the back of the room to cool down & stretch while the next class is coming in. And typically we do go a little bit longer than 45 minutes, as long as the next class is able to start on time.
But still, it's not ideal. It's like, just as I'm getting really warmed up and mentally/emotionally "there" for practice, the class is almost over. They've been dicking around with the schedule lately, posting fewer of the classes I like (Intermediate, Freestyle and Sexy Pole). And the classes fill up INCREDIBLY fast. If you are not online the moment they post the new schedule, you're gonna be on the waitlist for classes a month out. I like to plan ahead so this drives me nuts, I don't like not knowing if I'm going to a class until the morning of. I bought a six-month membership back in February but I don't think I'm going to renew it when it's over – I'll wait to pay for classes until I know I'm actually in them, thanks.
I go there primarily because I love the instructors, and it's not too far from my house or my work, but I do wish it was a full-time pole studio. 🙁
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No such thing as too slow when it comes to sexy work! 😉 Slow music forces you to slow down. A lot of dancers (myself included) struggle with rushing, especially when we're trying to be sexy and feel insecure/uncertain/nervous about it.
Personally I'd advise you to pick a song YOU really like, not one that he has chosen. Yeah, it might be a nice surprise for him, but trust me, he's not there for the music. 😉 Pick a song that revs your own engines and the sexy moves will flow naturally out of that.
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1. I love, love, love being a redhead, and all that comes with it – the pale skin, the freckles, the blue eyes, and oodles of compliments from total strangers. Especially older people. I like being a rarity!
2. I have a body like a Botticelli painting. While I'm not thrilled to be 'overweight', I prefer being curvy to being scrawny. (This is the one I have to remind myself of most often. It's really easy to hate my body when I'm around skinny-mini pole dancers all the time).
3. I dislike shaving and let myself get pretty damn fuzzy by modern American standards before I finally cave in and shave, and I'm secretly weirdly proud of that.
About my dancing:
1. I have a kickass taste in music. This has to be #1 because it drives my interest in pole dance. I wouldn't do it without the music.
2. I am constantly amazed at the progress I've made, both in progressing through the hierarchy of moves, and in overall body strength/flexibility/mobility.
3. I have great flow.
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Thanks Curious. What type of oil is safe to use on Xpoles, do you know?
