Dumbbells

I'm home with my dumbbells - even have the weights screwed on and have taken a few test lifts. Let me just say right off - 10 lbs is ALOT heavier than 4 lbs! I'm alittle worried about clonking myself on the head with them as I lift them overhead . . . Good thing Jim will be home tomorrow morning when I really try them out - if I knock myself out, someone will notice sooner!

Shopping at the big sports store was a perfect lesson in how not to do customer service. Every seminar dealing with customer service I've ever attended harps on greeting the customer within 1 minute of them walking through the door. At QP we try to at least say hello and not to spout off with the dreaded "Can I help you?" line, which most EVERYONE, including me, automatically says no to. Not one person spoke to me or acknowledged me until I was checking out and the cashier asked if I knew any of the 5lb weights had a POS sticker on them. I was in the store for a good 20 minutes, in the same department, going from sets to individual weights so you could build your own trying to decide what to buy. They get an F for customer service.

Ok, here you have a 50 year old woman in the weight lifting section of the store. It's kind of like a man coming in to QP with a list of things he's supposed to get - the whole scene screams "HELP ME". Good thing I did my research before I went because there was no help offered at the Sports Authority in Brick. Now granted, I didn't go looking for anyone to help me and if I'd had burning questions about what I was after, I would have. But whatever happened to customer service? If there had been a local store where I could have gotten this equipment, I would have gladly paid more for a little service and guidance. We live in a Wal-Mart world ladies & gents & I am not sure that's a good thing.

So then it was off to B&N for a yoga book - no local bookstores anymore either, bummer. I found a book with good pictures and descriptions but no DVDs. So it was home to the computer & Amazon. It's hard to buy books online - how the heck do you know what you're getting until it arrives and then it's too late?

Doesn't this look painful? I don't think I could do this when I was 19!

If I'm not in the store tomorrow, you will know I was following my yoga book and pulled something I shouldn't have - or I clonked myself on the head with my new dumbbells!

Till next time.

Yoga & Me - NOT

A conversation right before the first of the year with a group of shop owners I regularly chat with convinced us all we don't do enough for ourselves. That conversation resulted in a new challenge for the year - design and make something for ourselves. We can't teach from it, write a pattern from it, use it as a sample in the store or even use fabric from our stores. We have a deadline of Oct to get our challenges finished. We will meet at Quilt Market in Houston and share our accomplishments with each other.

This discussion, combined with trying to sit cross legged on the floor to peel blue painter's tape from the baseboards of my hallway, convinced me I needed to do something about getting myself back into some type of shape. In my quest to find some type of harmony with my 50 year old body, I've been strength training since the beginning of the year. Now before you get too impressed, I'm only using 4 lbs weights so far! This week's adventure is to go buy dumbells that have adjustable weight plates. That should make for a good blog entry!

Last week I decided to try Yoga. I've had the DVD for at least a year and never even cracked the plastic wrapping. I decided Wed was the day. I did my usual routine and then struggled to remember what remote, what buttons to push on the DVD player AND the TV - could that be anymore of a guy thing???? I was finally rewarded with Oprah's fitness guru introducing the program. He was talking too much so I fast forwarded and pushed the button for the "Go Easy On Me" section of the DVD.

A blonde AMAZON comes on & it takes you a minute to figure out it's a computer image. So not only is she gorgeous and BUILT, she can move like lightning and pretzel herself into all kinds of shapes without one huff or puff. She's snapping out instructions while telling you to relax & breathe deeply - "Feel your breath expand your rib cage".

Right. The only thing expanding is my frustration level! How are you supposed to do that and figure out how to move your body into the positions whose names she is snapping out in a rapid fire method, and see the TV to be able to contort your body into said positions? Thank goodness I pushed the go easy on me section and not the "I Want A Challenge" section! I want a DVD of a middle aged woman in baggy sweats who I can look at & think to myself, if she can do that, so can I. Not some young, hip, FAKE Amazon who is young enough to be my daughter.

Needless to say, my first yoga experience didn't go well. I am off to Barnes and Noble to find a book that explains the position and a better tape. Good thing that the Barnes & Noble is in the same mall as the Sports Authority - I can buy my book, tape and dumbells all in one trip. Of course, I may feel like a dumbell after all the research and then still not be able to follow the yoga tape . . . .

Till next time!