Last Saturday, I caught a glimpse of myself in my workout gear after moving myself and my roommate into our new 4th floor walk-up in NYC. I was horrified. I was red, blotchy and bloated. My yoga pants were stretched to capacity and obviously did not look like I had been using them for yoga, haha. While I was obviously unsatisfied with how I looked, I was moreso disappointed with myself.
To provide some context; last year, I worked really hard to lose 31 pounds and to work out regularly. I did a combination of things to help me get in shape--Weight Watchers, Diet Bet, Crossfit, and Yoga. I was so proud to of my new body and being able to climb stairs like it was my job. But then...I fell off the wagon last June. It all started with a beach trip to St. George Island. I was so happy to be running around on the beach in my new bikinis, that I didn't really think about how much greasy fried fish I was consuming or how many sugar-laden daquiris I was ordering. When I came back from that trip, I weighed myself, and I was 4 pounds heavier than when I left. I thought to myself, "No big deal, it's just water weight, it will come off quickly." But that vacation from working out and cooking my own food turned into ordering in all the time and opting out of exercise.
Over the course of this past year, I made multiple excuses as to why this has all happened: I'm too busy at work, grad school is eating up my Saturdays, the gym is too expensive (yet, I continued to eat out), I just don't feel like it. But Saturday was a wake up call. I saw myself in the mirror and then began to unpack those same bikinis I trounced around in last summer, and I just felt...well, sad. I know HOW I let this happen, but WHY did I let this happen???
I immediately stopped my unpacking and began googling work out options in my area--I knew that I needed something that relys on and builds a community to keep me motivated, and Pure Barre popped up. I follow a couple of YouTubers who swear by Pure Barre, so I thought, "Why not?," and I gave them a call. It turned out that they were having a free intro class in an hour. I immediately got my purse together and walked out the door.
So far, I've been to 3 Pure Barre classes, and 1 yoga class. I even bought new running sneakers! Since I'm pushing 30, I really need to start pushing myself and get back down to my healthy fighting weight!