Spin Class Challenge(s)

We are now close to halfway through our spin class challenge.  There are 2 ways to win the challenge:  most weight lost and most spin classes attended.  The gym has added lots of extra spin classes, but I don't expect to win that category, as I have very limited times that I can go.

However, I have been able to go to 2 additional classes a week, on Tuesday and Thursday morning--so I have been exercising vigorously for 5 days a week, a marked uptick.  I am the kind of person who does best when I get my exercise done in the morning.  I always used to say that no one ever calls a meeting for 6:30 in the morning, but it can be hard to get away for a 5:30 in the afternoon class.

Of course, I also do my best writing early in the morning.  If I could live my life however I wanted, I'd probably wake up at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., work for a time, sleep for a time, and keep going in 2-3 hour cycles.  I think that would work, but would it really?  I'll probably have to wait until retirement, should that day come, to find out.

I am sleeping so much better in the past two weeks--is it because of the extra exercise?  This week, I also abstained from drinking for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night, so that might play a role too.  Or maybe I've just been tired.

Yesterday we had an announcement in class:  someone had donated a pair of women's size 11 spin shoes--did anyone need them?   Could anyone use them?  Did anyone have that size foot?

I do, especially with my arthritis swelling.  Still, I felt somewhat guilty.  But the spin instructor/head of the Wellness program said that she'd made the announcement in class after class, and I was the first one who wanted the shoes.

I do feel a bit like Cinderella--Cinderella and her spin shoe.  I had been needing a new pair of spin shoes, and these might do the trick.  I can make them much wider than my regular spin shoes, which is no small thing these days, with my swollen feet.

True to most athletic shoes, they are a bit smaller than a real size 11, but my foot slid right in, so I'll try them in a spin class this morning.

I got my first pair of spin shoes--the pair I'm still using--from a spin class buddy who had been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and so had to buy much larger shoes.  I bought them for 15 bucks and had to go to a cycle shop to have the clips put in.  Once they were loose on my feet, but I made them work.  Now they are not.  Sigh.

I am lucky that I can still do this exercise--it's the only vigorous exercise that I can still do consistently.  I never realized how much I bend my feet in a normal day until it became painful to do so.  And so much exercising involves an ability to bend the foot.

I thought I might be able to win the weight loss part of the challenge, but truth be told, I don't really care if I do or not.  I needed something to encourage me to eat differently--and to drink less.  So far, it's working, although I haven't made the radical changes I would need to make to lose the weight I would need to lose to win.

Unless . . . I suspect others are in the same boat.  And there's still 2 weeks.  Stay tuned!