Well, I’m about to head off on my 50 minute walk to work — hey, I’ll just bundle up in my Nordic finest and consider it part of my fitness regimen! (There’s a transit strike in NYC, for those of you who aren’t from this neck of the woods).

As I mentioned earlier, I’m giving myself a little jump start on my New Year’s resolutions.  I have also bought myself an early birthday present.  Since I’m approaching a milestone birthday, I have taken some drastic measures to ensure that I hit the second half of my thirties in top condition:  I started with boot camp, and more recently, I’ve kicked it into high gear at the gym since I re-joined NYSC a few weeks ago.  Last week was the coup de grace — I purchased a 20 pack of personal training sessions, two of which I completed last week.

Ali, my trainer, is huge.  HUGE.  I truly believe that he could eat me for a light snack and still be hungry.  His manner, however, is firm but fair.  He’s pushy, but in a good way, and even laughs at my self-deprecating humor ("no really, there are muscles under that squishy stuff." "I know.  I see them trying to come out.").  Muscles that I never knew existed are sore from last weeks two workouts, and he has given me homework over the weekend.  I have instructions to do cardio, but not just hopping on the elliptical trainer for a while, no sir.  Ali prefers other, more torturous cardio devices, like the stair-stepper with actual stairs, and my arch-nemesis, the Versa-Climber.  I really think he might be out to kill me.

Tomorrow, spin and yoga, and more of the same next week.  Look out 35 — I’m comin’ to get ya.

The word started spreading yesterday.  "He’s out of Iraq."  "Is he in New York?" "Not sure, but he’s definitely not in Iraq anymore."  Then later: "I have good info that Dave is back." "Really?"  "Heard from the doctor himself." 

Whew. 

As you may recall, my friend David was shipped off to Iraq at the end of August.  Last night, he strolled into Otto, a little thinner, but all in one piece.  I can barely express what a relief it was to see him in person and give him a hug, and even something as simple as sharing a bottle of wine with him again felt incredibly special.  Welcome home, David!

I used to be in much better shape than I am now.  Merely a few short years ago, I participated in several long distance bike rides, and training for these rides meant not only spending a majority of my weekends on a bike, but also going to spinning and weight training classes before work every day.  Even after the cycling season was over, I’d keep up with the spinning and weight training, and I even became quite flexible by doing yoga at least once a week.  At that time, I belonged to New York Sports Club.  It’s nothing fancy, but it’s everywhere.  Near work, near home, near wherever you have dinner plans — there’s a NYSC.  About a year ago, I gave up NYSC for the convenience of the gym in my building.  Granted, it’s amazing to have that convenience on a cold winter’s day when bundling up to go to the gym just a few blocks away seems like an insurmountable obstacle, but in reality, I just don’t push myself as hard as I do in the classes at NYSC.  Since I re-joined on Friday evening, I went to a spin class before brunch at Five Points with the girls on Saturday, I went to Vinyasa Yoga on Sunday before some holiday shopping and my one meal of the day (brunner?) at Babbo (more on that soon — it was my first visit), and went to a body sculpting class during lunchtime today.  Tomorrow is spinning again, either before work or during lunch.  I’m a little tired, and I already know that my shoulders will be sore tomorrow, but I feel good.   For me, the classes really help me to motivate.  Although I worked out often in my gym downstairs, I didn’t work out hard, which is what I need.  So — who’s up for a spin?