Am I too ambitious with my physical activity?

Back to work today. It was hard getting up. Hard staying seated. Good to see people there though. I missed them. But hard being back after 12 days off. I'm going to do it all tomorrow.

One thing that did make my day interesting. Awkward but interesting. I wore my beautiful new shimmer purple and orange dip dyed maxi skirt by Tree of Life for the first time. I was in the lift and caught my reflection in the shiny panels. My skirt was tucked into my undies! Oh dear! I don't think many saw. I had a big laugh about it with the people at work. And I'm probably making you laugh, or cringe at the lack of care I paid to adjusting my clothes post toilet activity. Whatever. It was pretty funny. And I'll be more careful next time I wear it!

Tomorrow is the day I start by body balance class. I have my clothes laid out and bag packed, ready to go. I have light grey marle harem pants (I know my friends' stance on harem pants, and I disagree!), a watermelon coloured oversized tee over a charcoal longsleeved top. I am suprisingly excited. I want to challenge myself. And stick with it. This year will be the year of all encompassing development for me. Career development. Education development (I WILL graduate as a Master in December). And heath/fitness development.

I also found another bellydance school that has Saturday classes that I can enrol in until the second semester of the year.

So I want to try and do three pieces of exercise a week - body balance, pilates and belly dance, depending on uni and ChIPS commitments. And of course my health.

Am I too ambitious with my physical activity? Given that I currently do nothing but walk between shops? Maybe. But each class is only an hour.

In 2008 I signed up to one jazz dance class. Woah. I was so unmotivated. It was on a wooden floor. We had to get on the floor and do moves. I can't dance well upright, can't dance at all on the floor. What was worse, the movement on the floor caused my vaseline to create this massive perimeter of oil slick under me. I was like a seal pup caught in an oil slick, trying to get off the floor. A seal pup in a flippy skirt. I was telling my manager and colleague this story today, and we were howling with laughter. That exercise endeavour failed.

Here is a blog I wrote on 18 February 2008 about the jazz dance experience. Tomorrow's experience has to be more successful than this one!

It’s Britney, Bitch. (Carly’s dancing adventure)

So in light of my lifestyle changes - less spending, better eating, a budget - I decided to broaded my life activities in other ways.
Get fitter. Take up an enjoyable form of exercise.
Like dance. Belly dance - I loved that when I did it a couple of years ago.
But it's booked out.
Casual jazz classes will do. I know I couldn't say I think I can dance tomorrow, but I'd have fun and be ok??


First night was tonight! Couldn't wait. Rushed home from work. Ate a balanced meal. Styled myself up in makeshift gym clothes - cotton skirt over leggings and a tank top. It looked terrible in front of the mirror. I was like a bright red frump. That was only the start of it.

There was stretching over, under, on the floor, push ups, sit ups (which I could do) and funny backwards bends. My skin makes it very hard for me to bend, so I looked like I was doing it half heartedly when I was probably working harder than the other girls.

Me dancing, or even just stretching, is like watching a wet starfish try to pick itself up from the rock. Or even a wobbly drunken panda, really heavy and unsteady on its feet. Make that a wet starfish and a panda trying to move in an oilslick.

That's right, my leggings were very oily because of my cream I use for my skin, So I sort of had this massive circle of oil under me that I've made through moving on the dancefloor. Kind of like a snow angel that you make lying in the snow. Only mine was slippery and made me laugh. And was a OHS hazard for other dancers. Who managed to stay on their feet because they were 1345068 times better than me.

Hell, what was I thinking?? Aside from watching the male instructor's butt pull in and out for an hour, who was I kidding thinking broadening my life activities would include being able to dance to Britney Spears? As if I'm ever going to do that in every day life!