Fell off the getting fit horse during spring break, and now I’m trying to get back on it, by enrolling in ballet and gymnastics classes for this quarter. 

It’s funny how I’m going back to ballet after 15 years of not doing it. Now that I’m back, though, I’m starting to see why I liked it in the first place. All the floatiness, the prancing, the turns and leaps, and just being graceful in general. Of course, my instructor is kind of as hippie as hippie gets, but it’s not a bad class—definitely easier than I anticipated it being.

Couldn’t fit beginner/intermediate gymnastics into my schedule, so I enrolled in the advanced one. First day of class was a good one—consistent landed 10 front handsprings in a row off the tramp! Got moved to the floor to work with the boulder, and all hell broke loose. I’m too used to the tramp providing me with momentum and power, and I definitely approached the boulder with less power than I usually do. Was kind of a train wreck. Also got to do some bar work—I don’t remember kips being that hard, but they are. Woke up yesterday feeling it in my triceps, and my back definitely reminded me that I had been doing front handsprings.

Anyways, here’s to hoping I can get skinny this quarter! Need to look amazing to keep myself ahead of the game.

Guess who’s not sleeping tonight because she’s too busy rewatching it and singing along!

I just want to come home.

I don’t want to deal with worrying about pickpockets around every corner and being super on guard. I just want to come home and be in a country where I can read everything and where everyone’s nicer and more efficient and it’s safer.

Facebook isn’t working, and the app doesn’t work either, so here we are.

It’s been good—exhausted yesterday, after traveling about 20 hours. Crashed at about 9 pm, after going to lunch with my relatives and then shopping with my dad and Emma, then went to a bar on the rooftop of a building along the Bund, overlooking the river.

Spent today shopping with Emma. Bought way too much stuff at my favorite stationery store in the city, had the QQ milk tea at Coco (ordered half out of convenience—I couldn’t read the Chinese name for the drink I wanted), a fresh egg tart from Number One Food Court, and shopped around in the French Concession neighborhood.

Our hotel is in a really good location, right across the street from 85 degrees, which means I get to have that every day for breakfast! And it’s also across the street from the fried dumpling place 8)

Weather was kind of terrible yesterday, but it was super nice today. The sun was out, the sky was an actual shade of blue (as opposed to the gray it was yesterday), and it wasn’t very cold. (Or maybe I just learned from my mistake of not wearing enough clothing yesterday and wore more clothes).

It’s been good, so far. Will continue to try to get onto Facebook. If anyone has a good VPN to use, email me! I’d really appreciate it :)

Starving and exhausted, but it’s time to get spring break started.

LET’S DO THISSSSS.

DONE. Motherfucking finally DONE.

Running on 4 hours of sleep, and I haven’t gotten more than five hours of sleep a night almost all week…

BUT I’M DONE.

Overall, this quarter was kind of insane. Pushed myself a lot, professionally and physically (my abs are looking better! And I’m definitely more fit.) Tried to make myself a better person, and although academically I’m not sure I did so well, I’m glad I was able to motivate myself for so long.

(Although I did eat a lot of crap this week, and my gym time was definitely kind of flitty.)

Going to be working until midnight tonight, and then I’m working from 8-noon again tomorrow. 

AND THEN I’M FREE.

I’ll be able to hang out and THEN I’M GETTING ON A PLANE FOR A WEEK IN SHANGHAI! WITH EMMA. AND MY DAD. AND CHEAP, DELICIOUS FOOD.

Okay, my delirium is setting in. I’m going to go back to my little corner now.

Marginal results, but results nonetheless. I’m down to 107 pounds, which is the lightest I’ve been since the 5th grade (Yeah, I know I was a fat kid.) My abs are getting definition, and I’m losing inches. My clothes are starting to get looser, especially stuff that fit me over the summer.

I do need to start being careful, though. Pulled my hamstring last week in gymnastics, and it was the same one I injured over the summer, so now my left split is worse than it was before. My quads are killing me right now because I spent all of class Thursday working on my front handsprings, and even though I landed four of them on my feet, I landed most of them really poorly, which was rough on my quads. Thank god gymnastics is over for the quarter, because the ball of my right foot hurts when I jump or apply pressure to it too.

Otherwise, it’s just been cardio and abs for the most part. I go to Bootcamp Fun too, and it’s challenging, but not super challenging, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I’m debating whether to take ballet or belly dancing next quarter, along with advanced gymnastics. My schedule can’t accomodate beginner or intermediate gymnastics, so my only hope is to do advanced, but I’m honestly not sure if it’s right for me, considering I barely have a front handspring, and I just started working on my front tuck. 

Ballet would be nice to get back into again, since I have some background in it, and it’s supposed to make you long and lean and give you good abs, so hell yes. I just don’t want to go out and buy a pair of ballet slippers again. Bellydancing on the other hand, is allegedly supposed to whittle down your midsection, but it kind of seems hard to me…

I don’t know, I’ll figure it out.

I’m kind of upset with myself because I ate a ton of crap at the Phi Rho study party today. Lots of pretzels, mini scones, and mini muffins and cookies. 

I’m definitely going to go on a detox cleanse tomorrow.

So I know I’ve kind of fallen off the face of the Earth this last week with my workout posts, but it’s only because I’ve been so frickin’ busy.

Long story short, beginning of the week I hated being female, and then I became really, really exhausted because all the adrenaline I’d been running on last week left my body. I’ve been going to gymnastics, and we’ve been doing vaulting and front handsprings. I can donkey kick up to a handstand now, and my front handspring on the tramp is getting there! In between, I’ve been doing intervals and new ab exercises. I tried using the decline bench yesterday, and holy crap, it hurt my legs more than my abs. -__-

On the plus side, I went to the Santa Monica farmer’s market on Sunday and got a ton of leafy veggies, so at least my diet’s been decent!

DAY 25

Went to the gym to run, and I ended up doing intervals on the treadmill. Started at 6.0 then went to 6.2, then 6.6, then 6.9, and then 6.6, 6.4, 6.2, and 6.0. The girl next to me was running at 7.6, and it was kind of intimidating, but whatever. Did 5 sets of 10 each of leg lifts, V-ups, and Russian twists and 30 second planks afterwards.

I also spoke to the nutritionist at the Ashe center, and she said that I need to eat more vegetables and get more calcium, which I’m going to try to do once my midterm is over tomorrow. I need to eat less crap, but it’s tempting, especially when I have a couple of Bottega Louie macarons I need to finish before they go stale on me and tons of discounted Valentine’s Day chocolate. Going to take it one day at a time.

DAY 26

I GOT MY FRONT HANDSPRING!

‘Nuff said. Granted, it’s with a boulder, and I can’t really land on my feet when we do it on the trampoline, but it’s a huge improvement from last quarter, when I couldn’t even make the boulder move. Hopefully I can land it on the floor by the end of the quarter.

In the beginner class, we just did handstands and cartwheels on the beam again. My half turns are getting better! I can do them and not fall off on the high beam. We also did some more bars. He taught us how to “skin the cat,” which is a lot like the somersaults I used to do on the monkey bars in elementary school, except instead of falling down, we have to get ourselves back up. It was pretty fun!

Gymnastics, per usual. 

Worked on beam in the beginner class. I can hold my handstands with my hands in the beam position, but I’m just too much of a pansy to do them on the beam. My cartwheels on the floor are amazing, but I also can’t do them on the beam because it’s weird. The hand placements are weird.

We worked on front handsprings in the intermediate class, and I’m decent with the boulder. I’m hoping I can get a try on the trampoline with the boulder next week and see how that goes. We did handstand flapbacks (?) today, and it was so nostalgic. I used to do them in my old gymnastics classes when I was 10, and I actually did them at home and almost wrecked my mattress in the process. Needless to say, I enjoyed that thoroughly. I also tried another aerial, and I landed on my knees and somehow bruised one of them -___- It was from the tramp to the giant cushy mat, so I don’t know how the hell that happened….

I’m considering taking a ballet class next quarter. It’s been a while since I’ve done it (like, 10+ years), but all the dancers I know have really great abs, so it’s definitely an incentive! 

DAY 20

Couldn’t make it to the gym because things were so crazy :( 

DAY 21

I was home for the day, so I went running around South Pas again after my haircut. It was only 2.5 miles, because I started at Super Cuts and essentially just ran home. Most boring run ever.

DAY 22

Woke up at 3 am to take my dad to the airport and then got dropped off at school at 5 am. Crashed until 11, and that kind of wrecked my entire schedule, so I didn’t really exercise then either :( 

DAY 23

Didn’t have class today! Went for a run down Sunset and Beverly Glen. I was going to run by the Playboy Mansion, but they didn’t have a sidewalk on that side of the street, and I wasn’t going to jaywalk (jayrun?) across Beverly Glen. It was a pretty good run, almost 4 miles. Then I came back and did abs. I’ve been focusing on lower abs, doing 5 sets of 10 of reverse crunches, leg lifts, crunches, and V-ups. It might actually be working!

DAY 17

Went to gymnastics. Started doing uneven bars in beginners, and I’m the only chick in the entire class that can do a decent V-up on the bars without moving. Feels pretty damn good! I can’t completely touch my feet to the bar yet, but they’re close! All the guys can do it, so it’s kinda impressive that I can almost do it too. 

Then in intermediate, we worked on aerials again. Those drills we do for the aerials are getting better for me, and I’m hoping I can try them on the trampoline at some point this quarter. I think I’m really close to getting it!

DAY 18

I’ve decided that, for the sake of my hamstrings, Wednesdays are going to be my rest days. 

DAY 19

Another two hours of gymnastics. We kept doing uneven bars in beginner, and I ended up with a rip on my right hand, which basically meant I couldn’t do any swinging. We worked on front supports and casts, which I can do pretty well. I’m also making it a point to continue trying to work on my V-ups, because I want to be able to do them!

We started working on front handsprings in intermediate, and even though my backbend from standing is okay, it’s not great. I’m having a really hard time doing handstand to bridge. Every time I go up into a handstand, I keep thinking we’re doing handstand forward rolls, and I bend my arms, which is really bad for bridges! I’m also working on trying to stand up from a bridge, but unfortunately, I just keep using my legs instead of my back muscles and shoulders to push off of…. Will keep working on that.

In other news, it’s been so crazy this week. I’m so behind in my classes,  and I got a follow-up questionnaire for an internship, but I’m also trying to churn out cover letters for other internships too. Not to mention that I finally started working again this week, and I’ve done 10 hours in two days. So much madness.

Let’s just not talk about Day 15. It was kind of a miserable wreck.

TODAY, though, has been productive so far! It’s only 9:11 am and I’ve already run three miles at the gym, and did 50 reps of reverse crunches, leg lifts, and V ups! Feels good to wake up early and go to the gym to sweat it out. Also, there are fewer people.

Here’s to hoping I eat well today! I’ve had a slice of toast with peanut butter and four strawberries so far, and a cup of 100% apple juice and half a cup of soy milk. 

I’m such a wreck right now.

My biochem midterm is tomorrow, and it feels like I know absolutely NOTHING. I’ve been freaking out about it for the last two hours. I can’t focus, but I can’t relax. I can’t think, but I can’t stop thinking. 

It doesn’t help that I submitted the wrong cover letter for my internship application, nor does it help that I couldn’t stop eating today. At this rate, I’m going to be fat, ugly, and unemployed.

Still haven’t been to the gym, because I’m still battling this stupid virus.

Went to Pauley Lock-in last night, and didn’t get enough sleep, so I’ve been nursing a headache all day.

Might try to go back to the gym tomorrow, depending on how I feel. Maybe Monday at the latest, after my midterm, since I haven’t started studying for it yet….

Been eating too much crap lately. The more I don’t want to eat carbs, the more I end up eating pizza. I try to pick healthy toppings, like arugula and peppers, but it’s still pizza… Also went to Woodranch with my parents yesterday, and had South Carolina pulled pork, which was delicious, but probably not super good for you.

I WILL go back to being healthy after this!