Keeping healthy without insurance 9/4/04

As I am a soon-to-be divorced and because the soon-to-be-ex cancelled my health insurance (against court order), I have been without it since last October. This is a little scary now I drive fairly long distance on the freeway. All I need is a little accident and medical bill will pile up while I can't teach therefore no income. Even without such thoughts, knowing that it costs so much to see the doctor when I might need it is something I could do without. In April, when I thought I had insurance, I saw a doctor who gave me clearance to exercise. He wanted me to come back in July, but of course I haven't done it. At that point, he was "a little concerned" with my cholesterol. I checked the blood pressure in Japan and I must say I got a little confused because I wasn't used to those (normal range) numbers. Cholesterol level requires taking blood.

So I was glad to see my gym has FitFest next Monday and offers free cholesterol and diabetes screening on top of a lot of things. Let's see if there is an improvement from April...

Fall challenge 9/3/04

Ahhh. The first week of the semester is over for me now! I am sure that for any teacher and any student, the first week of school is most difficult to survive. Friday finally came! YEY!

As I mentioned earlier, with my new fall schedule, I thought Wednesday morning is going to be the biggest challenge, because I teach Tuesday night classes in a remote location. All I can do Tuesday and Thursday night is come home, eat my yogurt, quickly catch up with the dog and straight to bed! However it turned out that the biggest challenge is not there. The hardest part was to stay awake on Tuesday and Thursday during the day. I have to wake up to attend the 7am yoga class on those days. It feels good, but starting later morning, I really get sleepy. This went on almost all day Tuesday and around lunch time on Thursday. That is not good. For months, I hadn't used my coffee maker, but this week, I did it twice. I am hoping that now that the first week is over, this is not going to be the case.

It is cool in the morning, but afternoon is still warm. I hope I get to squeeze a little swimming this afternoon!

Eric's yoga, first day 9/2/04

TVI's Intro to Yoga class started this week. Tuesday was all paperwork, rules and regulations day and today we actually started. Eric explained different breathing techniques and went on to mention different styles of yoga. Today's "mini-class" was more like warm up and cool down. For some reason, he does double kneeling position as a modification of mountain pose. As he explained, he does in Vinyasa style and sphinx and cobra are done from Active Child pose. Doing cobra this way was rather difficult. It also made it feel like arm exercise than back bending. For today, I think he used this as an actual warm-up routine as we haven't covered Sun Salutation. I kind of liked the way he did each pose or movement separately before we put together as a mini-class. It is always difficult to feel comfortable or predict if you are not familiar with the teacher. Eric says eventually the class will be more Vinyasa and power yoga he does in Rio Rancho gym. I would love to go to his power yoga class, but Rio Rancho is VERY far. Maybe during the break... I look forward to more of this next week!

Slimming waistline with Yopait?!? 8/31/04

My latest comfort food is yogurt with nuts. When I come home from class or yoga, or at night, I eat non-fat plain yogurt with a spoonful of sugar and unsalted peanuts or mixed nuts. It gives me cool feeling in my mouth and fun crunchy texture.

While I was eating it, I saw a Yoplait Lite commercials that claims that eating Yoplait Lite will make you lose weight and especially slims waistline! Even if the first part is true, getting rid of fat in the part you want is a fantasy. Making a lot of ab exercises doesn't let you get rid of the fat around belly. It builds muscles and if your muscles are hidden under layers of fat, you won't see them. I was rather skeptical, so as usual, I did some web search.

Well, this is what I understood from Dummies book, so I was surprised to find an article in iVillage, which was recommended by the same book. Yoplait Light and Weight Loss basically tells what the commercials says. Then a couple of search results below, I found Skinny on dairy: Diet value unclear article. I am aware that yogurt is an excellent source of calcium, which I desperately need, but at the same time, I need to be careful with its fat content. I use fat-free version and also add sugar myself into plain yogurt. I believe sugar can get quite high if you eat flavored ones.

もし日本人が初めて私のジムに来たら 8/30/04

（昨日スペイン語で書いたので今日は日本語にしましょう）

アメリカのヘルスクラブにずっと興味があったので、ついにDefined Fitnessというところに来ました。まず驚いたのがお値段。会員のお供でもないのにたったの７ドル！もし知り合いがいたら５ドルだったとは。一応ス タッフの人がここがフロアだ、ロッカーだ、トイレだ、プールだと見せてくれましたが、あとは別に機械の使い方を見ている人がわけでもなく、まあ、なんと自 由にやっていますわ。ロッカーのキーも自分で持ってこなくてはいけない（友達のマリソルちゃんに聞いておいてよかった！）のですが、まあ、ロッカールーム はゆったりしています。しかし、アメリカ人って真っ裸になるのですね。真っ裸でサンダルだけ履いて歩き回っている人がいて気絶しそうになりました。

まずプールを覗いてみましたが、なんとぜいたくに一人で一レーンとっているではありませんか。待つのも時間のムダかと思い得意の英語で、"May I share a lane with you?"と笑顔でおっちゃんに聞いたら、見事に"No."と言われたのでした。

それでめげてしまい、ウェイトトレーニングのフロアへと行きました。まあ、これが広い！いつも使っているランニングマシーンや自転車の機械の他にも初めて 見た機械がいっぱいありました。とりあえず慣れている自転車を３０分ほどやりながらフロアにいる人を観察していました。とにかくスペースがゆったりしてい るのと、機械の種類と数が多いのはすごいです。それから私の行きつけのところはダンベルしかないのですが、バーベルとかオリンピックに出てくるようなのと か、見たことのないものもたくさんありました。しかしアメリカ人はやっぱり大柄で背が高いのだとつくづく思いました。

ここまで来て広さに驚いている上に、まだ自転車のスピニングのクラス専用の部屋とヨガのクラスとかをするスタジオがあるのです！スタジオには大きいボール （何に使うのでしょうか）とか、ステップとか棒みたいなものとか、縄跳びもどきのゴムのものもありました。ヨガのビデオでよく宣伝しているBlockなん かもあって、感動しました。ううん、マリソルちゃんは一月３０ドルくらいで使い放題だそうです。これはすごい。

Ejercicio con iPod 8/29/04

Lo que no he hacido por un tiempo es ejercicio con iPod. Por eso, quiero decir que me gusta bailar y cantar con él. Antes de ir el gymnacio regularmente, el bailar fue el único ejercicio que me gustó. Creo que esa manera de ejercicio es una excelente forma de ejercicio cardiaco. Mis primeros auriculares se rompieron y el segundo modelo no es tan bueno como el primero. Me gusta cantar mientras escucho, pero cuando lo hago con el segundo modelo, puedo escuchar mi voz atras de los auriculares. ¡Qué pena! El bailar es mi manera de escapar del estrés. Cuando estoy super ocupada y abajo del estrés, ¡he bailado en el baño en el aeropuerto!

Este fin de semana, mi mejor amigo me consejó que debo comprar un modelo que queda encima de las orejas. Con ese modelo, no suena bien como el primero, pero estoy más satisfecha. ¿Por qué estoy escribiendo todo esto en español? Porque cuando escucho canciones, son canciones en español. Empecé a escuchar a calmarme para volver a dormir, pero al contrario, ¡no pude pararme bailar!