weight-training

After a couple of weeks of working out to dance music in my gym, and a planned dance lesson that had to be canceled because of the downtown crowds for Game 7, I finally walked back into the ballroom for a dance lesson. This is the first time I have been back since October 3rd, two days before my stenosed spine decided to finally compress my sciatic nerve so severely that I felt like I was one of the baddies in an episode of 24 with high voltage shocks going down my right leg. So its been 8 and a half months with no dancing - almost as bad as physical torture for an addict like me.

But now I have mentally switched from thinking rehabilitation to thinking "GI Jane training" and though I am not working on weapon or  demolition skills, nor for that matter getting exhausted, water-logged, starving, or resisting torture, I do  have a multi-faceted program that keeps me plenty busy.

The nutritional plan-low carb eating seems to be working despite the fact that I have occasionally - well quite a few times actually  - been busted eating fries and breads. And then of course there is wine. But still I have managed to drop half the 15 pounds I gained during my 5  month forced couch-potato existence.

Right now I try to get to the gym or walk for a cardio workout at least 4 to 5 days a week.  Cale, my usually Satanic trainer has been relatively cherub-like as he gradually eased me back into a weight training and general fitness regime after the surgery. But he is now starting to channel Viggo Mortensen's Master Chief role as my workouts with him are getting more intense.

It is working because I am managing to hold core exercises like bridges that I thought I would never  have the strength to do again. So when I hear "10 seconds more" and I think "can't do it", I just breathe and think of my muscles getting longer and stronger - and I hear "done!" Whew.