Yesterday Ben and I received a copy of The Herald with the Big Sur Marathon on the front page (dated April 30). We’re assuming it’s from the Big Sur Mary peeps. Weird, but cool?
I woke up at 5am and decided to just get up and start the day.
With food.
This morning I tried Pilates for the first time! Last month my gym had a SUPER SALE for employees and I bought 4 sessions of Pilates. I asked one of my good friends, Sarina to train me 
Let me start by saying I really knew NOTHING about Pilates before this session. Our gym has a private room off in the upstairs corner of the gym with reformers and Cadillacs. I’ve seen a few things, but never tried it myself. Pilates London specialist David Canevaro has created his own method over the years that combines Pilates and osteopathy, which he refers to as “Osteopilates”.
If you live in Croydon and need an osteopath, you can easily find one by searching for ‘osteopath Croydon‘ online.
This is a reformer:
This is a Cadillac:
This is inappropriate:
(Sarina said I should have my results in 2 weeks.)
Since this was our first session together my trainer got a feel for my abilities, strengths and weaknesses. She tried to get me to do pull-ups – to which I told her, “I cannot lift my body weight!?!?!!*#NB”.
She said, “We’ll work on our weaknesses until they become strengths.”
THAT is my new theme for 2012.
While this was eerily similar to a gynecological exam, I still had fun! I don’t think it’s a workout comparable to running (but that wasn’t the point!). I think it’s a great way to strengthen my core. I really really need this since I just signed up for a marathon (!) and my ribs are really sore the day after a full because my core gets tired of holding me upright. 
On the way home I made a very important pit stop for my two cravings of the week: WATERMELON (always)
And TJ’s Honey Wheat pretzels.
This will be lunch.
Question: What is a weakness you can work on this year?
For me it’s definitely core and flexibility.
And maybe I should work on putting less vag shots on my blog…
Arrrghhhh…what marathon did you sign up???? Sorry…just curious…and not stalking you!
Love that quote. That is a good one to keep posted on the fridge, computer, etc…
We buy like 10 bags of those pretzels when we go to TJ’s. The nearest one is 2 hours away – gotta stock up on carbs.
Almonds!!! Or pecans!! Or cashews! Or any kind of nut besides filberts or brazil nuts. Ick, now those nuts are not good nuts.
what a great way to look at building up your strengths!
I bought a HUGE watermelon, when I carried it up 3 flights of stairs (it is heavier than a small child) I saw it has seeds. FML. Want to come over for a seed spitting contest off of my balcony? I am sure the neighbors won’t mind.
I’d be down for that 🙂
I have been loving my pilates classes. I have a private class on the reformer and cadillac and then also go to the mat class. The classes are amazing but it helps having an amazing teacher who really knows her stuff. I’ve taken a class in another state and it was so poor. But I hope you continue past your 4 classes because pilates can really help you with your running. It did for me and there are many football players who take pilates and it helps them be tougher too:)
I need to work on my cor, flexibility, endurance, speed and probably a lot more too! Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me! 😉 Great! Haha
i wanna do pilates with you. wait, that sounded way more sexual than i meant it.
Pilates is CRAZY fun and a GREAT core workout. The owner of the gym I worked at back home was the Cadillac Driver 😉 She WORKED it!
freaking LOL’d so hard at your “DR APPT” pic!
FUNNY STUFF ya got here today 😉
….or dirty minds think alike
Lol I seriously laughed out loud when I read the “This is inappropriate” caption!! Keep it up, girl!
I wondered about those machines! Seen them at my gym…
HAHAHAAAAAAA
Love your last line- you are so effing funny. Come to my bachelorette party in Vegas in Aug! 🙂 You would be a hit.
I cracked up at the inappropriate photo. Hilarious. And, I love the quote!
I am cackling at my desk like a lunatic. You are hilarious. Who knew pilates was so much fun? 🙂
I have always thought it interesting that pilates equipment strikes an eerie semblance to medieval torture devices. Just sayin’.
As far as weaknesses, I should give up yelling at my kids. Instead I’ll be realistic and focus on strengthening my hip flexors and activating my glutes.
🙂
I really want to try Pilates but a) I’m scared and b) I imagine it to be very expensive 🙁
Really looking forwards to reading how you get on with it.
It is super expensive for pilates (like over 70 a session)! But you can often get a free “demo” session from a studio to see if you even like it.
awesome! ive never actually tried the reformer before just regular pilates classes…looks fun (and hard!). im actually taking a break from running for a bit to make my legs stronger…my hammies, hips, and various other parts are super weak (i thought running would make them strong wtf?) so thats the goal for now!
I’m working really well getting my core and flexibility with the insanity workouts; no joke, I’m stronger and touching my toes more than I can ever remember! You should seriously take some time off running to try it!!!
otherwise, a weakness i’m working on is not falling back into bad eating disorder habits. I’ve been failing at it lately but am determined to keep getting over them!
So with you on core and flexibility. That mexicali salad looks awesome!
Yeah, that salad is my new fave from TJ’s!
I love how Pilates makes me feel stronger, but I hate every second of “the hundred” and most other moves, lol.
I like Sarina’s quote, too, and your humour!
I’m going to say flexibility is one weakness I need to work on. Another is incorporating a warm up into my activities. I always jump right into them.
cracking up at your ‘inappropriate’ pic. love it.
Upper body strength. This is the year I accomplish an unassisted pull up!
The Big Sur peeps used to send the copy of the paper because a full listing of the results were inside. Check it out…you guys’ names should be in there! 🙂
I just checked, they only have the full results but that is super cool!
I absolutely LOVE pilates on the reformer (I do mat too but prefer reformer). It seriously has given me the best upper body and abs. For a while I was doing it consistently 2-3 days a week and I had the best body of my life. When I lift weights I tend to get a little bigger but pilates leans me out while still toning – (add more springs for harder resistance). You should definitely keep doing it. You’ll see results for sure.
I love Pilates. I have a Pilates for Dummies DVD I use at home. It really strengthens the core. I had to stop using the DVD after I got an injury but I think I can return to the DVD!! Yay!!!
And one weakness I have is I don’t know how to swim. I can doggy paddle and all that but I can’t properly swim. So I think I’m going to sign up for lessons either this summer or fall. I’m nervous! :-/
I was lovin’ pilates at the gym but they changed the schedule and now the classes are at odd times. Oh well! My weakness right now is… when I run distances over 10, my lower back and hammies really seize up. Gonna have to figure that out before I do a marathon.
I used to do mat pilates religiously. I’ve tried pilates on the machines and I don’t like it quite as much, but it is still a good workout.
I think the theme of work on your weaknesses till they are strengths is a great one! Mine is similar, but it is to simply FOCUS. I have my goals, I need to focus on them. Ignore the unimportant crap that is getting in the way.
Great quote. Someone mentioned pilates to me today. I may look for a place with a one on one session. Congrats on trying something new.
I just tried a 30 minute beginner Pilates class last week, and went again this week! It was only 10% as bad as I thought it would be! Maybe I will think about taking private classes.
Hey Monica! I love your blog, it’s always my go to on the web… After Facebook ofcourse… Haha anyway, I just started insanity and have been doing my usual running as well. What are your thoughts on this workout program?
I think Insanity is a great program! Challenging, changes it up and can be fun 🙂 I would just be careful of doing too much cardio if you’re doing it in addition to running. You want to compliment running with strength and stretching and balance exercises. (I have no idea how much you run, so I’m just throwing that out there. You know what’s best for you.)
Loving that quote, thanks for sharing. Pilates is a great workout, I just found a box of Winsor Pilates videos all dusty in my closet, time to bust one out – thinking the core workout one!