Calorie sourcing and the energy deficit

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, foxtrot, tango, quickstep

Shoes: Purple suede heels with rosette flowers on the toes

After 45 solid minutes on a cardio machine, I made the mistake of thinking I could lift weights and dance too; all on less than 6 hrs. of sleep last night and an average of about 6 or less each night for the past several days. Even with Greek yogurt in my system, that was somewhat of a miscalculation on my part, and I gave up on the weights part way through. At some point I just have to realize that if I'm doing all of this to dance, I shouldn't push myself physically to the point where I can't dance. Although Jeff is some super Asian and completely unsympathetic to my stance that 5-6 hrs. or sleep is not enough, I really have found it affects my energy levels pretty significantly as the week goes on with the activity level I'm maintaining. Food is also a whole other issue that we ended up discussing a little tonight. This training we're doing requires a decent amount of whole food and simple protein, which is pretty expensive, but we have both found that eating cheaper junk type high calorie foods just don't give the body what it needs to function on this level. I have personally found it is hard to keep up with eating enough of the right food...sometimes it's so hard to bother with I end up eating too little, and then have no energy. Without calories and the sleep, I really start dipping into the deficit zone.

Dancing today included work on the quickstep rumba cross section, as well as some slower tango. We also did a run through of all four dances, but today had some space constraints due to the reappearance of the bikini girls and a few salsa dancers doing their thing. Jeff and I were both tired out for various reasons and I think our practice reflected that...we didn't have it in us to tackle the slowest foxtrot exercise ever today. I'm sure the antics of the fitness models in their new sparkly excuses for swimwear didn't help anyone's focus either.

For tango, we tried out some new music from "Pirates of the Carribean IV," a Spanish guitar piece with a dead on tango beat, and though more of an Argentinian style, nevertheless quite fun to dance to and good for slow practice. I am getting better about taking smaller steps on the insides of turns and being patient on my slip pivots, and Jeff is being less "polite" with everything...all positives, and it felt better today than it often does.

Quickstep was just the rumba cross section run through slowly, and practice seemed to improve it some. As we had gotten more movement and more shape in our dancing in general, this particular segment of the routine had gone drastically downhill, and I for one usually felt like I was holding on for dear life since it really feels like an out of control roller coaster. We'll probably work on this more in the near future.

We danced some random mambo since the salsa dancers played their music for some of the time, and Jeff was aghast at me at first because it took me a minute to get into the "on the 2" groove, I'm so used to regular salsa that I would slip back into the "on the 1" timing after a turn. I don't even dance salsa anyways, so I think I deserve a break. (Wherever I want one, for that matter.)

All in all a less productive practice than some, but we did manage to work on some "trouble spots." Practice will be better once we've both had a chance to recharge our batteries.

Leg Day, Slow Day

Part: Follow

Dances: Waltz, quickstep, foxtrot

Starbucks: Xtra hot short whole milk mocha

My regular Wednesday choir rehearsal was cancelled this evening, giving us a chance to work out and practice when we normally do not get the chance. Because our practice time is usually very short if we practice at all on Wednesday, Jeff has picked that day for the legs workout, and I decided to join in the "fun" since I was too tired today to run on the cross trainer for 45 minutes. Unfortunately, since my calves seized up during the pre-workout warm up run, as I was stretching out my leg my left hip suddenly gave way and something popped. I don't think it was good but I can still walk, so I think I just hyper-extended something in my hip. That will be fun tomorrow...not. I will say, however, that the one half rule does not generally apply to my legs at all, as I am able to handle a much more proportional weight for my size on lower body weights...yay for being a standard dancer!

The dancing was slow and not great with lots of legs buckling underneath us and feet sticking to the floor, a lot of this a result of the preceding workout. Oh well, at least we got some in on a day we normally wouldn't. We tried to dance jive to warm up because our practice buddy (a Latin dancer) wanted us to play one so he could see us try to do it; the look on his face told me he thought it would be funny. That was a pretty sure fail after a brief attempt, since leaden legs do not make for light feet, so we ended up with a low key West coast swing for warm up material. We didn't get far in the waltz as it required too much leg control, the slow foxtrot exercise was pretty rocky, and we ran some slow quickstep as well, which probably went the best of the lot. The focus in practice there was more on shaping and less on leg control. All in all it was a short and not great feeling practice, but as always, I would say worth it.

The evening ended with Jeff enlightening me about the splendors of Velveeta "cheese," which to his chagrin was missing from the aisles of the local Safeway in the desired package size. "It's not usually in the refrigerated section," my hungry partner explained, "It's usually just kind of sitting right out there, which is kind of scary when you think about it." Ya think?

My Mom, Sarah

Dances:  Quickstep, Foxtrot, Waltz
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Legs at the gym.
Steaks Consumed Today: 1

Once again it's Wednesday, and strangely enough we had practice today.  Sarah's choir practice was cancelled so she decided to join me for my leg workout before hand.  We really got a good solid workout in today.  Unfortunately this meant that practice was pretty much shot.  Both of us had jelly legs the entire time.  On the bright side, that means we did our job when lifting weights.

Today we decided to focus on tiny parts of our quickstep and a little bit of the SUPER SLOW foxtrot.  I can't say it went too well since it was hard to get powerful drives and maintain balance with jelly legs.  But at least we got some practice in.  Shaoshu was there tonight to keep us company, dancing latin with his phantom partner.  She followed him exceptionally well.

On another note, I'm finding out more and more how much of a mom Sarah is.  There is a certain quality and inflection in the tone of her voice when she makes suggestions to me that is totally motherly and caregiver-like.  Exactly as if she is talking to a immature teenage child.  Kind of a dry, sarcarstic and authoritative texture.  I can't really blame her for this since I usually act like a teenager.  Just interesting to me how naturally that tone comes to her.  It leaves me feeling like I'd better take her seriously or I'll find myself in time out, or grounded.  At least she hasn't full-named me yet.

After practice we found ourselves at Safeway.  Sarah took great amusement in my quest to find steak and Velveeta.  Now for all you readers making the "ewwwww....gross" face right now, I am fully aware of the plastic qualities of Velveet cheese.  However every once in a while I think it's appropriate to crave some really bad food.  In this case, nacho cheese sauce made with salsa and melted Velveeta.  Luckily, the only size Safeway carried was waaaay to large so I left without it.  I did however leave with a GIANT pack of steak.  Also found our Sarah doesn't have a Safeway card.  Totally bizzare!  Who doesn't have a Safeway card?!?!?!

Finally, for Sarah's benefit (since she was laughing at me the whole time at Safeway), here is a snapshot of my dinner tonight:

Metronomic Foxtrot Claims Another!

Dances:  Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Quickstep
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Chest & shoulders at the gym.
Happy Hour:  The Parlor - Cheeseburger & Hot Wings

Another typical Tuesday routine today.  Only notable difference was the fact that Sarah actually did weight lifting today.  I'm trying to get her to lift on a consistent schedule, but she keeps fighting herself about it.  Sarah's concern is that she might get too big and muscular and that she will loose flexibility because of it.  I have to keep reminding her of how hard she actually has to work, both in lifting weights and diet control (in her case, eating A LOT more) for that to happen.  Not to mention the fact that her frame and body type won't actually allow her to get that big to begin with.  We were pressed for time anyways today, and didn't quite get the workout I wanted in.  Nevertheless, it's better than nothing and I still have Friday to make up for it.

We started by running our Waltz today.  I gotta say, it went really smoothly.  No real balance issues or anything weird.  Just lots of control and powerful drives.  It's hard to tell if we've actually gotten better from all the practice or if our muscles are just less tired since it's early in the week.  Maybe it's the fact that everyone had Monday off and took it easy.  But even then we had practice and worked out on Monday.  Either way, the waltz went off without a hitch.  I find it amazing how much difference your head and the direction it's facing makes.  It's been an interesting and challenging ordeal for me getting used to turning my head to the right.  I mean you spend most of your early dancing life learning to keep your head to the left, turned left and up.  For the most part in the beginning stages of dance that seems to dramatically improve performance.  However, after beating that into you countless times they now want you to turn your head right SOMETIMES.  I have to admit though, it does help A LOT.   I also found it interesting that most of our dances are now fitting exactly to the room's dimensions.  I've tested this at several ballrooms now, and we're always right up to the edge no matter how large or small the room is.  It's a good sign that we now have enough control over our routines to adapt them to the environment it's in.

After the waltz we were back on our SUPER SLOW foxtrot.  We tried it a few times to music then started up the metronome again.  I have to say, the metronome, while annoying, has been incredibly helpful.  We've gotten quite good at dancing to it at the slow speed.  Patrick was in there with us practicing today and was quite intrigued by our metronomic foxtrot.  So we took a little time and explained it to him.  A few minutes later we saw a frustrated Pat in the other corner attempting a SUPER SLOW foxtrot of his own.  All the same beginning symptoms:  falling over, off balance, forgetting which step you're on, stepping on a wood slap instead of a cowbell, etc.  It was fun to see someone else join the struggle at an exercise we had spent the last week and a half on.  I do think it's starting to pay off, but we're still a long ways from home.

We ended with the quickstep and tango.  Not much to report here.  The tango went well other than the fact that I forgot to breathe during it.  Quickstep on the other hand is still a little shaky.  We just need to keep hammering at it and it'll work itself out.  Another important issue is the song you choose to dance to.  "Going to the Supermarket" (not joking here) was a poor choice.  Sarah couldn't stop laughing (which then made me laugh because they started singing about moon cakes and spam) and it wasn't long before the whole dance just fell apart.