Listening to : Rai and B Fever - Un gaou Oran (I love this song! It's excellent for working out to!)
It's official! I'm an official member of Elysium's (Body, Mind and Spirit) Health Spa as of last week! The owner of the place (or at least I'm going to assume she is, 'cuz she bossed everyone around) seemed really nice (except for the bossy part but she is the boss after all so ... anyways). Nadia or Nada (I suck with names :P) and I chatted about everything and anything on God's green earth including Cyprus (Wheee ^^). At first I didn't know if I should ignore the subject or offer her my condolenses (assasination of Al-Hariri). I opted for the latter. At the Renaissance restaurant, Nadia (or Nada?) asked me if I'd like to drink something. They had an awesome selection of teas (as in apple and cinammon, yum!) but naturally I chose coke which caused her to berate me for the next fifteen minutes. She promised me that by the time she was done with me I'd quit coke (fat chance).
Oh, do you guys know that bigass staircase in the middle of the main hall? The lady who escorted me to the restaurant to meet up with Nadia (when I first came in) made me climb it. When I was panting and puffing halfway through, she turned to me and said "Oh, there's a lift but I thought we should take the stairs." I just about strangled her, right then and there. Please note, I was wearing tennis shoes and was out of breathe while the Indian lady who escorted me was wearing pumps and she wasn't even breathing hard.
Before I could start, I had to get a physical check-up with the appointed doctor at the gym. She made me strip then lie down on the bed. She pressed down really hard on my abdomen and stated matter of factly in that thick accent of hers, "
You do not drink enough water." "she said
You can tell?" "
Of course, it's my job!" cue laughter After she joted down my height and weight and took my blood pressure and listened to my heartbeat "
You are not fat..." My heart soared but then she ruined it by concluding "
You are chubby." I gave her a dejected look (or at least that's what it felt like) but she just patted me on the back.
At the gym I was asked to walk on a treadmill for 5 minutes while placing my hands on the bar that measured my heart-rate. It seems that I'm extremely out of shape cuz my heart was beating way faster than it was supposed to. After that, this pretty blonde showed up and assigned specific machines to me and showed me how to use each of them in turn, but not before stretching. It turns out that the blonde giant (she's really tall mashalla mashalla) with gorgeous huge eyes (mashalla mashalla) was the gym instructor for the day (rotation deal going on here, twice a week per trainer). Anyways, the stretching alone was tiring but the blonde assured me that I would be used to everything in a month and would even start seeing results by then. She also kept on saying "I will destroy your thighs" which apparently means I have huge thighs but she's going to fix that. Also when I'd whine about how this or that hurt or how I'm tired she'd give me this cross-eyed look and I'd crack up and stay put. She was fun and just as goofy as I am. I went home and had Burger King for dinner with 3 cans of coke :D
After that I avoided the gym for a few days 'cuz everything in my body ached. The next time I went, a different instuctor was at the gym. She was much shorter, just as skinny (no really, mashalla), and just as pretty as the previous instructor. She was a brunette. Oh and both instructors had short pixie haircuts. Her name was Livia (I think...). I bounced onto the nearest treadmill and got to work. Did I mention that each treadmill had a tv directly in front of it? Anyways, Livia decide that I seemed to be enjoying myself too much while watching Melody Hits on tv so she increased the level which had me panting for breathe in no time. Moving on to something or other that targets your abdomen I had to do 4 sets of 25 but I couldn't even get through 1 set. This huge chick entered the gym and got on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and went on to every other machine and spent a not so little amount of time on every one of them while I was barely able to keep up. It was very humbling. Little by little, girls started showing up at the gym as well. Each one's outfit was more ridiculous and inappropriate than the next, and their make-up, oh... my... gawwwd! (allahoma la shamatah)
The first decent looking chick I've seen enter the gym besides us (he3he3) got there, just when I got done with what was assigned to me. Then another decently dressed but extremely loud girl entered. Livia the brunette and the two girls who were last to enter the gym each grabbed the bouncy pad thing that they usually use in the excercise videos. Livia asked me to join them. Not knowing what I was doing, I did grab the pad thing and joined them. Livia turned on the stereo and turned her back to us ('cuz we're dumb, and get confused if she's facing us). Did I mention that the walls of the gym were mirrored... just like any other gym :P Anyways, it was an aerobics class and I just about died! Halfway through I gave up. It hurt too much! I had KFC for dinner and 3 cans of coke.
Again, I stopped going for a few days 'till the pain went away. I went thursday night (yesterday). Again, Livia was there. I got done with my excercises early and so did the cool kuwaity chick who was at the last aerobics lesson (where I dropped out) so Livia decided to call us over and told us to each grab an excercise matt, which we did. Sensing my uneasiness, (well it was apparent all over my face, I looked like I was just about ready to cry) Livia cracked up and assured me that we were only going to stretch today. "Only stretching Dana, don't be such a baby.", she chided in her equally thick accent. I brightened up immediately which cracked up the kuwaity girl. Livia was telling the truth, this was stretching... this was stretching things a bit far! My bones practically creaked and cracked every few minutes. Later on when we had to bend over and touch our toes, I couldn't do it. So Livia got behind me and pushed my back down hard. It would not budge! haha She was like "Dana, you have the back of a 60 year old! Very, very bad back!", she complained rolling her r's. "Don't worry. I'll fix it.", she assured me. Ah, promises promises! Don't get me wrong. I know that I have bad posture but I prefer slouching all the time anyway, so it's all good :D After that, the kuwaity chick and I got into the jacuzzi to relax. We chatted about the gym and moved on from there. She was really, really sweet and very down to earth. She kept on calling me "Daloo3a" though 'cuz I complained alot during the aerobics excercises, and the stretching excercises, and all the other excercises in general. I abhor whiners but it seems that I've now become one of them :D No dinner, and only 1 can of coke :D
One thing I noticed about the Elysium is that everyone is superfriendly. I love the atmosphere there (although the decor` ... okay, no comment). Go there, shoot someone a smile, and see what you get. I almost wanna hug everyone, if not for that whole I'm uncomfortable with the touch-touch thing I've got going on. It hasn't reached Howard Hughs' level yet but I'm getting there.
Another thing alot of people have noticed about me at the gym is that I'm actually drinking water now. It's so fun to hang out in the hallway and drink water from the water dispenser using paper cups. The water dispenser is fun. I love the weird-bubbly noises it makes. Oh and the girls at the gym are all telling me "3/4 cold water, 1/4 hot water, so you don't get sick". They mean well... I guess. Well anyways, water is now fun :D
Finally, one last reason why going to the gym is good ; for the first time in my whole entire life, my cheeks were actually flushed (after working-out)! ^_____________^
Have a good one!
Thursday March 3 - America Plus -
The O.C. (pilot ((first)) episode) - 9:00pm, 1:00am (repeat Friday March 4, 5:00pm)
Friday March 4 - America Plus - One Tree Hill (pilot ((first)) episode) - 9:00pm, 1:00am (repeat Saturday March 5, 5:00pm)
Sunday March 6 - America Plust - Gilmore Girls (season 4) - 9:00pm, 1:00am
(repeat Monday March 7, 5:00pm)
