“Pilates” is Italian for Snuggle Time Right?

If there are any regular readers you will remember that I am working away on a life plan called the “GYST” (Get Your S%^*t Together) plan. This plan had 4 components:

• Finances

• Weight reduction

• New job

• Organized home

To date only one goal has been fully realized (new job), but the others are clicking along. The apartment is in better shape than it has been for a year, alright, it needs a really good cleaning, but my home used to look like an episode of hoarders, so things are much better on that front.

Finances are doing a little better, no real improvement there yet, but I have a couple of irons in the fire, that, if I’m able to really pull them off, will mean big things for.

So that brings us to weight reduction; I’ve been working hard, not as hard as I should, but I’ve been working to try to get some of the extra weight off. The problem is that my new shoes have given me extremely painful blisters on my pinky toes. Part of the work I’ve been doing to help bring the finances under control involves writing about the treatment of foot ulcers. Now, I know that blisters aren’t foot ulcers, but, if this work has taught me nothing else, it’s that you have to do right by your feet. This means that I have been on hiatus from my exercise routine. There’s no way that Cadie can go without her walk, and my feet needed a break…but it’s been a long time, and I needed to get back in the swing of things so I decided to do my Pilates tape. This tape is an ab workout tape, which was great for me; my feet only needed to take Cadie for her walk, then I got off my feet for the duration of the workout (only 30 minutes, which is even better).

So I got on the floor and started working my way through the breathing exercises, when Cadie caught sight of me. Any time a dog catches you on the floor it’s a big deal to them. Naturally they assume that you have gotten down to their level so that you can play and love them. So there I was flat on my back, trying to concentrate on my breathing when a little head threw itself down on my soft belly and demanded to have her ears scratched. This went on for the next 30 minutes.

If you’ve never done Pilates you may not know that it can be quite painful, especially if it’s been a long time since the last time you did this workout. Pilates is even harder and more painful when you have a 19-pound lump sitting on your stomach. However, until my feet recover, I think this is going to be the way to go.