The Grand Tour

Let's get Physical!!!

I'm so sorry that it's been so long since Toli or I have written in. The usual excuses apply, but I had thought that I'd at least have more time this week to catch up on logging. See, I'm finally doing that intensive yoga workshop that I've been working all those extra hours for. There's class from 9-11 am, then free time until another class from 3:30-6:30pm. But free time has been a total illusion. Class usually goes overtime until about noon, and then there's lunch, and by that time my body is so worked that I have to take a long nap or sit in the sauna and work out my aching muscles!

Anyway, these last few weeks in Kalani have been a revelation for me. Or my body, that is. I have honestly never been so much in love with my body as I am at this point in time. Since I can remember, I have never been much of athlete. I was usually picked last for sports teams, lacked the hand-eye coordination for ball games, wasn't strong enough to play on the monkey bars, etc. I was too much of a nerd to really care about it, but I have to admit that it didn't do wonders for my self esteem. Except for a couple of swim team summers, it wasn't until I was past puberty and mildly obsessed with my body image that I started exercising regularly for "health" reasons (meaning, I was terrified of gaining weight), so it's always been a chore to get myself to the gym and work it.

At Kalani, though, with all the emphasis on the physical side of things - not just the yoga and swimming, but also the physicality of the work - I find myself constantly amazed by what my body is capable of doing. It took me only about a month of consistent yoga to get back the flexibility I had two years ago when I had stopped going to yoga at my gym. And another month to surpass it. I'm probably more fit now than when I was a P.E.-cutting fifteen-year old. Fit, mind you, not thin or anything like that. For some reason, I actually look thinner when I don't exercise due to the loss of muscle. So my calves are huge (that's thanks to hula), but so is my self-esteem. Fancy that.

Probably the best reward I've had for all of this working out is getting a chance to swim with the dolphins a few weeks ago when they came through the area. It took both getting over my fear of the ocean and being in good condition for me to swim out past the surf break over to where the pod of dolphins was swimming around. Toli had already played and swum with them twice by then, so he led the way to where they had stationed themselves. They were more in "sleep" mode, going down deep for long periods of time and then surfacing for air, than "play" mode, but they weren't afraid to swim close to us. It was an amazing experience to see them underwater and to hear their chirpy sounds as we swam in their vicinity. And we got pictures too, which we'll have to share sometime!

Anyway, it's approaching 3:30, so I've got to get my butt in gear to get to my next yoga class. I had hoped for a longer and more in-depth log entry - this one seems kind of shallow with me just talking about my body - but it's been kind of distracting with my yoga teacher chattering my ear off about flights back to the mainland as I type! Hopefully there will be more time later this week to write in again.