jennerosity everyday

Saturday, July 12, 2014

helpful hint (DO NOT!!)

helpful hint: if you happen to share a kitchen with another adult, you will save yourself some misery (and a broken nose) if you follow this one important helpful hint:
DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, DO NOT attempt to change your roommate's carefully-planned, highly-tuned system of organizing the shelf of plastic leftover containers. DO NOT. NOT. DO NOT try to shove all the pots & pans in there and move the plastic sandwich meat containers elsewhere when person A is at work and go on with life, humming zip-a-dee-doo-dah- as if nothing's happened. DO NOT! just sayin. ahhh, (deep breath) there. i'm ok now.

Friday, July 11, 2014

could be worse

things could be worse.
much worse.
sure, my situation isn't good. it's disappointing. unfortunate.
but it could be worse.
i could be in this same situation,
but..
still be thinking that it was all i was good enough for,
that i didn't deserve anything better,
that it was caused my own badness and inequality with those other wonderful people who had such happier, glorious, more boastworthy lives than i.
but no
that's not true
not anymore.
instead i know
that i have been wonderfully made
by my Creator
i am capable of great things
i am loved, so loved by my God
that He gave it all for me.
He knows my every thought
He counts my every hair
He gives me talents, gifts, a quirky personality
not just for my own enjoyment
but to reflect His own creativity
and to draw out the good qualities in others
as they complement my own to create wonderful balance
in relationships, in work, in life
(we are all like this, but i'm just speaking for myself right now)
yes things could be worse
but like the man in that movie,
i forget the name,
the man who is sent with his young son
to a concentration camp somewhere in Nazi-led Germany in the 1940's,
but instead of mourning their horrible existence
he finds joy, somehow, using his creative mind
making up stories and fictional scenarios
sharing these glimpses of light
with his son to cheer him up
despite the grimness, the horrors surrounding them.
no my situation isn't a concentration camp
but i can take on that same type of human spirit
to be positive through hard times
to put my faith in the Holy Spirit of Christ
which lives in me
to find the good
to fan those good things into a warm flame inside my heart
that perseveres
even through sadness
through disappointment
through hopes deferred
i will know that there is joy
in leaving something of beauty
of goodness, of love
with this world
once i am gone.

Crazy Train body combat (part 2!)

So here it is, don't laugh, my first attempt at a Body Combat instructional video. Just a little practice, in case I one day decide to become a Certified Les Mills Body Combat instructor and need to submit instruction videos for my certification.

ha, ha, definitely would not be submitting this video, this was just for fun. It's been many years since I used to be a teacher, a dance teacher or school teacher, and I think I kind of miss it, but it is a lot of work. Teachers of any kind are held to such stricter standards, easily judged by their students. Gotta know your stuff. So I've got a lot to learn.

But, without further ado, here it is. Join in, if you want, and together we'll be "Going off the rails on this Crazy Train!!!!!!!" hiiiii-yahhhh!!!!!!

p.s. enjoy the silly antics of my suddenly spastic, photo-bombing cats!! sprinting back & forth and sliding down the weight bench like they're at the kitty playground, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Crazy Train Body Combat (part 1)

Hola!

It's been a couple weeks since I was able to attend my Body Combat class, so yesterday I was so pumped to be back in class, eager to learn new moves, and a bit nervous since I was already feeling out of practice. Mood check: happy, this is fun! Not feeling a lot of the angst and demon steam that sometimes explodes in me once I get into fighter mode. Looking around at the mostly women in this class, thinking, these could be my friends! Actually not thinking of fighting them, or even competing against them today, just having fun. Happy, bubbly, buoyant. Focused on technique, not tantrum.

And technique is what we got today. Well, not just technique, but a hearty dose of heart-throttling reps of everything, too, so much that I was dead to the world after that class and am still feeling the effects today. A good burn. But I'm drinking my chocolate milk, trying to recover.

One of my favorite tracks came right in the beginning, and I almost cried with joy when I heard the first few notes, or screams from this favorite song of mine that I'd been thinking of lately and really hoping Rob would throw into the set today...and he did..the classic, Ozzy Osbourne Crazy Train!!! (i can hear it now.. "..ayi...ayi..ayi...!!!!"

Here's a clip I found on YouTube of the same routine we did in class:

Crazy Train was our second track, after a boxing warm-up.
Then came the "butt-blaster" track of esquivas and switch-lunges for.ev.er. (NOT plyometrics, Robb emphasized, he should not be seeing ponytails bouncing up and down. Use the glutes, not the momentum.)

Muay Thai. Tricky combination I wasn't used to, a fast sequence of first an ascending elbow strike, then descending and then a fast kick, altogether confusing me as I hadn't done that in awhile. Then add the running-man knee strikes, 49 of them in a row, with only a short "recovery" time of doing killer hooks and scissor-jumps before starting the second set of 49. talk about out of breath. Robb's comment on hooks: "The hook is a knock-out punch, but only if you punch like you mean it!"

New track- possibly from the New Release combo he'll be teaching next week. This one has the decoy-switch move, where you keep your upper body still, and do a quick jump and rotate the hips to land with the other foot in front, in the opposite lunge position. (or he gives an easier option if your knees can't handle it) Then he throws in this brand-new move that he must have introduced while i was absent once because I was totally discombobulated (LOVE that word!!) and flabbergasted and feeling so out of control at not being able to perform it. It was a combo of a strike move, but not a punch, it was more of a karate chop, like you were about to bust a pile of bricks, but I had never done this before. (excuse me, Robb, what is going on? I didn't get the memo on this!!!!!) Plus it's done so fast with a quick back snap kick right afterwards so I'm really lost here... It's an unnerving feeling, not knowing the move in a fight sequence, when I'm supposed to be feeling so tough, defensive, able to take any blows from the opponent, but having this confused feeling that I don't like. oh well, hopefully we'll practice it more next time. Then I can explain it better.

Next week is the new release of Body Combat 61, and as usual, Robb encourages us to dress-up for the occasion; this time the theme is 80's, in celebration of some of the re-vamped 80's music that is included in the tracks. hmmm, we'll see if I can dig up any old legwarmers or old sweatshirts with the necks and shoulders torn off, I used to do that to a lot of my sweatshirts back then, it really was more comfortable!

Followed Body Combat class with Body Flow. Calm music and dimmed lights were such a contrast to the hot, bright, loud mayhem of Body Combat class. Got a good yoga stretch and core conditioning from the pilates section, and a wonderful, restful quiet time during the final relaxation track, as we laid there on our mats, eyes closed, listening to spacey New Age music.

yes, i love my gym days. and stay tuned, as my next post will be a little surprise project i did at home, as inspired by these work-outs. See ya!!