A few months ago, a friend from church lent me a new yoga video. I tried it out but immediately was distracted by the incessant breaks for verbal instruction and philosophizing between poses. Instead of trying to coodinate my breaths and hold each pose, I just sat back and listened.

Then I went to the video instructor's website and found some insights that pertained to issues in my life.

When I returned the video to my friend the following week, he looked dejected.

"Oh, you didn't like it?" he asked.

"No, I'll explain later," I replied. I wrote him a note and explained that the value I found in the video wasn't the workout but the ideas that the instructor, Brian Kest, espoused.

I was thinking about this chain of events the other day.

Again, I was writing to my church/yoga/pop culture compadre, discussing my initial concern over some weight creep. But then I realigned my mindset:

"...I have a freaky weird body type. Believe it or not, I used to be a triathlete (completed 4 in 2003 and 2004 ) I thought about doing it again but I don't enjoy anything but the open-water swim. I am not a fan of bike riding or running, really.

But its all about perspective. I did a hard treadmill intervals workout on Wednesday afternoon. I was so sore that, on Thursday, instead of my usual strength training/challenging yoga class, I opted for the concurrent "gentle yoga" class with a different teacher. It was just what I needed to work out the strained muscles.

After class, the senior ladies in there were half complaining, half admiring aloud about me, "She is soooooo flexible!" I reminded them that it isn't a competition (a Brian Kest-ism!)

I felt pretty good about that all day, though!"

I am finally feeling better now that my couse of antibiotics (Xifaxan) is almost done. I am also getting back into my pilates reformer training at least once a week to prevent injuries to my back and knee when doing cardio (a vicious cycle.)

Despite a recent chain of frustrating foibles with my body, this week I am feeling quite confident. I am looking forward to boogie boarding and possibly surfing** in a few weeks when I head to the Jersey Shore for 10 days. I am not remotely intimidated by the idea of wearing a bathing suit.

**sidebar: my sister and surfing partner is pregnant again so unless my hubby is willing to try surfing again (I don't feel its safe to surf alone, especialy as often as I wipe out!), I may skip it and opt for the boogie board, which is plety 'o fun in my book, anyway!