"Perfect"

Wednesday:

I went to BodyPump on Monday morning as usual. It was Hallowe'en but we don't really celebrate it in Australia despite mounting pressure from the shops with all their spooky decorations. I happened to be shopping with the kids after school and it was a dieter's nightmare with lollies and chips and chocolates all extra cheap. I bought a little more than I strictly needed for upcoming events. And one bag of wrapped sweets just in case anyone came by trick or treating but of course no one did.

Tuesday was supposed to be Zumba but I was just too tired so decided on a walk instead. It was a beautiful morning and I would have walked outside but wasn't equiped for it (no sunscreen, wrong shoes, no pocket in gym pants for keys) so walked on the treadmill at the gym. At least I had my headphones with me for once so was able to plug into the TV. I walked briskly on an incline and did feel like I got my quota of exercise in. I went home and tried to work, but ended up napping on the lounge for part of the afternoon. I am getting a bit stressed about how much work I have still to do before Christmas.

This morning was BodyPump again. While definitely not easy, the weight I have been lifting has become very managable, so time to move up a bit. I will increase warm-up weight from light to medium and back-track weight from medium to heavy (for me) next week; but for today I added light weights to the bar for the chest track where I previously had a naked bar. I had two short rests but it went ok and didn't hurt my shoulder -- I could feel the strain a bit but it was ok. Then on the shoulder track -- where I had already been using the bar with light weights and doing wall push-ups -- I added my own very light hand weights from home to those sections where we use hand weights and I previously lifted empty hands. Shoulder is coping well with the increase.

The lunge track is near the end of the routine, and it was more than half way through the track, so I was getting fatigued. I was doing well though. The instructor helped the form of the new person next to me then looked at me and said "perfect". After a moment tears welled up and I spent the rest of the track feeling very emotional and trying not to cry. I am feeling a bit teary now. It was just so weird and awesome to get that praise, particularly in lunging which I have only been able to do all the way through for about a week now. I was overwhelmed. I don't know whether the instructor had noticed my previous struggles and improvement, or was just commenting on my general form; but I was doing it right. Go me.