Ghost Stories EP 1. Ghost Dance

My husband and I sat down to share an experience at the studio I dance out of.

Pick Up, Dust Off, Try Again....Repeat

With the weather came a really rough start to the spring semester.  I am a bus driver so the weather can make for an extremely long day for me.  I just wasn't ready.  I really expected them to not have school on Monday.  They did.  It sucked.  I didn't meet most of my goals. 

Tonight I am getting to bed on time.  Tomorrow, I will pick up where I left off.  I must expect to falter.  I must also expect to pick myself up,  dust myself off, and try again. 

Progress is progress

While I was not were I wanted to be on any of my goals, I did progress on all of them.  Bought my groceries for the week.  I lifted weights.  I went to dance practice.  I just am such a perfectionist that I still see it as a loss.

I didn't do all my pushups on my toes (or any on my toes for that matter).  I didn't do all the food prep for the week.  I didn't have the choreography down.  I didn't have this blog typed up an hour ago.

What would letting those negative thoughts cloud my mind and my actions but disappointment.  If I let those thoughts take hold, I will give up.  The whole goal of this year is to not give up.  The whole goal is to see how far I can get on these plans.  The only way I can fail is to give up.  Trying each day is the success.  The results are just gravy.

I hope you are not giving up on your goals!

Tango On!

In the tango, if you get tangled up you just play it off as part of the dance and dance on.  Today I am going to have to do that.  While I did make progress on some things, most went by the way side.  Tomorrow is another day.  Today I did the best I could.  Tomorrow I will do better.

Even Procrastinators Can Do This

I actually still need to do day 3 of the Push program yet before I can go to bed, but other than that I have gotten everything done.  Most of it was after dinner, but I got it done and that is what counts.

I also made progress on my troupe's costumes for our big show.  I need to type out directions for them before I forget all the adjustments, but big steps where made.

Dance practice tonight was Serpentine with Rachel Brice.  I forgot how hard and rewarding that DVD is.  There are a lot of places I am tight that I am not normally tight and some places that I am looser than I remember!  My backbends were much lower.  Go me!

Well, got to go if I am to get these notes typed out and do today's Push assignment.  How are you doing on your resolutions?  Any where in your progress that has surprised you?

Second Step, Easier than the First

So day two of 2014 is coming to a close.  I can truly say that I did good today.  I met all my goals and even tried out a new dance DVD.  The Celebration Bellydance Workout with Sarah Skinner is the DVD I tried out.

I only did the actual workout so this is a bit more of a first impressions review.  First, if you are not comfortable with learning choreography on the fly, watch the video first.  Most of the moves are not repeated more than once per side.  Also, the cuing is minimal.  There are some points in which I do believe that there should have been more cuing (face down on the floor or back to the screen) or more information about what was coming next. 

Second, this does involve lots of level changes.  Those with bad knees really need to skip this.  Those who are trying to work on level changes will love this aspect.  It does build leg strength up rather nicely.  Sarah has you go all the way down to a low squat and back up right away.  There are also parts where floorwork is involved.

Third, it is rather bouncy.  If your teacher constantly reminds you not to get a head bounce going, your teacher would love you to not watch this video.  For the rest of us, this means cardio.  Traditional move are used to amp up the heart rate in a very bouncy saidi.

Overall, I did like this DVD.  It challenged me in turn with the pace of movements, shimmy combinations, and level changes.  The strength exercises were challenging enough that I truly felt them, but presented in such a way that I was rather distracted from how well they were working.  I think that the minimal cues will help me keep from getting bored with it later.  I will let you know how I feel about it down the line.

First Day of the New Year

Well, the first day of the new year is almost done.  How did I do on my resolutions?  No workout planned for today, totally nailed that.  The first Baby Step for FlyLady is to clean and shine your sink.  Sink is shiny.  First step in the Push program is listing what you want to be known for; dancer, fitness, kind heart, and costuming.  That would be done.  Dance practice was also done with my sword trio.

My only fail was a partial fail.  We got up late.  Even though I really didn't want to I made blueberry protein pancakes and scrambled eggs.  It would have been easier to just go get something.  I did make them though and they were great.  Then came time to start prepping dinner.  I did say we got up late right?  Just two major meals because of it.  Just one glance at the recipe and we both knew we did not have all the ingredients.  Long story short, dinner was a Mcdisaster! 

After breakfast tomorrow, there will be grocery shopping and food prepping.  We need more veggies anyways.

Today I did my best.  Tomorrow I will do better.