Getting My Bounce Back. Carolee Belkin Walker
have Shazamed it when I was shopping for my nieces and nephews during the holidays at H & M in Georgetown. And this one: “You Just Don’t Love Me” from David Morales. Shameless techno club pushed me through my last six or seven minutes.
I’d gotten in the habit of bringing my coffee with me to the gym in the mornings. This started when I was taking yoga classes at six o’clock in the morning. I know it’s not very Zen to have coffee in the studio or very smart to hydrate with coffee during cardio workouts, but at least in those early weeks the coffee kept me from sliding off the back of the treadmill. My childhood BFF Ken Levitan, the country music mogul and foodie in Nashville, will appreciate this, because he was the one who told me he knows how to sneak coffee into the Ashram in Los Angeles. My apologies if it wasn’t you, Ken. I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.
After work, I took a yin yoga class with Christopher Brown. Yin is my favorite yoga practice, and I look forward to taking this class whenever possible. We hold poses deeply and for a long time, so you can feel the stretch in the joints as well as in the muscles. Christopher says to find the place between too much and not enough first physically and then mentally, and stay there. It’s so interesting how different my mind works when I’m in the zone during a training session versus being completely present during a yin practice. As a type-A New Yorker, it took a significant effort to get the “being present” concept in yoga. When I’m in the zone during a training session, my mind goes to the strangest kaleidoscopic mix of places—from the Clinique counter at Lord and Taylor to any aisle at Strosniders hardware store.
Nutrition
Pre-cardio: one half Ozery Onebun (wholegrain) with Smart Balance margarine and orange marmalade
Breakfast: whole wheat English muffin with a dollop of fat-free cottage cheese
Morning snack: fat-free Greek yogurt and berries
Lunch: salad with homemade baked tofu and a sliced apple.
I’m going to date myself here to share my secret for baked tofu, which comes from the original Moosewood cookbook. If you’re in a hurry, which I frequently am, you can just slice the tofu (I use lite extra firm when I can find it, otherwise, regular extra firm) and marinate it for at least 30 minutes in the Moosewood concoction or your own sesame/soy mixture. Most of the time, if I’m taking this approach, I prefer Soy Vay Hawaiian style. Just cover the bottom of a lasagna pan with a small amount of the marinade and let the tofu slices sit for 30 minutes (flipping the pieces over after 15 minutes). Then bake in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Once cooled, you can transfer to a storage bowl and keep in the fridge for a few days. The slices make great sandwiches with light mayo and lettuce and tomato on pita or whole wheat or tossed in salads.
Afternoon snack: Nutrigrain bar (yeah, I know I can do better than that) and a cup of green tea.
Dinner: Because by now it was nearly 9 p.m., I passed on the impulse to pour a bowl of cereal. I had a piece of grilled fish and some roasted cauliflower and Brussels sprouts left over from the weekend.
My plan was to get on the scale in a few days, so I was crossing my fingers that the numbers would go down or at least not up.
Day 3, April 1, 2014
“Bring your body and let me switch up your atmosphere.”
—Flo Rida, “Club Can’t Handle Me”
The fifty-nine-year-old writer in the More magazine feature training at the San Francisco Equinox talked about how out of place she felt among the otherwise well-dressed, well-appointed, and well-preserved men and women working out around her. What got me when I looked around the training room in Bethesda was not so much how out of style I felt—although there was that—it was how out of step I was. Right from the treadmill, where serious people-watching is matched only by passing an afternoon at a Parisian café, I was impressed by the large number of clients working with trainers and on their own to maintain their physical health. Sure, there were a few like me who were starting at square one, but remarkably few. I began to recognize Adorable’s clients, since he would greet them warmly while he was working with me, and later, when we saw each other on our own, we would share a pleasantry. We were all writing the same page from a similar chapter in our unique personal stories.
Triathlete was getting ready to train for a race over the summer, and she casually began to plan her workouts and diet. She had done this before, so she was in a position where she could afford to let her discipline slide. I wasn’t so slick. Over the years I had let everything go, and I knew I was looking at months of meticulously scheduled workouts. I felt defeated when Adorable stopped me after five reps when I wanted to do ten more. He didn’t do it often, but when he did, I got the message.
“Why are you being so hard on yourself?” Triathlete asked me.
“Look at all this time and work ahead of me,” I said. “I’m so stupid.”
Nutrition
It wasn’t a great food day. During our early morning session Adorable had pointed out that without something to burn, without fuel, I’d poop out, which I did. I’m sure he used a more scientific description to make his point, but I was recovering from our third set of core work and had only absorbed the gist of what he was trying to communicate. After the session, I had to get ready for work quickly, and the morning flew by. I did not have time to eat my morning yogurt and fruit and only had time to manage half of my salad. At a social event I had a beer and a potato pierogi and then headed to the gym for cardio.
By the time I met Triathlete for dinner at Lebanese Taverna in Bethesda, I was coasting on fumes. We shared some mezza—mostly vegetarian—and I said no to a glass of wine. I was glad I was committed to staying focused, because otherwise I might have had two beers in the afternoon and joined Triathlete for a glass of wine with dinner. Even with only having picked up every other word, I figured that was not the fuel Adorable had in mind.
Pre-training Warm Up
Go Do – Jonsi
Viva la Vida – Coldplay
Somewhere Only We Know – Keane
After-work Cardio
(3.88 miles / 65 minutes / mostly 3.7 MPH)
Pumped it up tonight—I needed it.
Timber – Pitbull
Coastin’ – Zion I and K. Flay
Down With The Trumpets – Rizzle Kicks
You’re No Good – Major Lazer
Right Round – Flo Rida (My all-time favorite.)
Envy – 116 Man Up (I love this riff on Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat in the 1999 Tony award winning revival of Annie Get Your Gun, which featured Mia as Nellie Oakley—you can hear her on the Broadway cast recording.)
Rough Water – Travie McCoy
Club Can’t Handle Me – Flo Rida (This was also playing during our training session just when I thought I was about to go bust—it got me through.)
Cool Down
m.A.A.d city – Kendrick Lamar (Explicit, but incredibly narrative, and a good six-minute focus piece.)
Day 4, April 2, 2014
“Just because it burns.”
—Pink, “Try”
There are moments when I think there are so many parts of my body that need an overhaul that if I could concentrate on fixing one part at a time, the process might seem more productive. I bet when Adorable met me for the first time and considered how he would approach our fitness regimen, he must have felt like a college student looking around his room in the middle of the semester.
Where to begin.
We were catching up that morning and going over my plan for nontraining days, and it struck me how strategic