With the boy away at a cardiology conference all weekend, I had the entire day today in my own apartment on Sunday. I slept until 10:30 which is a BIG deal for me. I never sleep that late. And I was asleep by 11 the night before! I clearly needed to catch up. I woke up and went right to spin and it was a fantastic class with lots of jumps. I went home, showered, and went back to the gym to try a class I have been curious about: Transfigure.

Transfigure Review

From my gym’s class description:
Join celebrity trainer Brynn Jinnett for this intense total body workout that combines the most effective movements from Pilates, yoga, ballet, Lotte Berk and traditional strength training.

It sounded like it might be similar to Physique 57, which I am excited to try very soon. I did some research on the instructor and found out some interesting information:

(1) Brynn Jinnett teaches Core Fusion at Exhale. I have recently been thinking about ordering the Exhale Core Fusion DVD after reading some wonderful reviews, so I thought it was a good sign that I would be taking her class. I have a feeling Transfigure is similar to Core Fusion, because this is the Core Fusion description, from their website:

Core Fusion^® is a Pilates-infused transformational fitness experience allowing you to work from the inside out as it consistently delivers results. This highly publicized mind body class is proven to give you washboard abs, a tighter and higher backside, and a perfectly toned body.

This one-hour class fuses the disciplines of Lotte Berk fundamentals, core conditioning, Pilates, and yoga to produce long, lean muscles, a flexible, youthful body and a sense of peace and relaxation.

(2) She did ballet with my cousin for 10 years. I discovered this when my research of Brynn turned up that she was in the 1993 Macaulay Culkin movie The Nutcracker. My cousin was in that movie as well, and I knew they recruited dancers from her dance school for it. I figured that being dancers in NYC at the same time, they must know each other, but because I wasn’t sure of Brynn’s age I didn’t know for sure. After coming home from Transfigure, I texted my cousin to find out that they did, in fact, take ballet together for years.

Transfigure is offered at my gym on Sundays at 2:30 and Wednesdays at 7:30, both inconvenient times for me, plus I am often lazy. Also, it was only recently that I became fascinated with Physique57 and similar workouts. With the boy being away and me being in my apartment next door to the gym, it was the perfect time to try it out.

I get to the class and Brynn tells us to take a thick mat, light weights, a wooden stick, a yoga block, a strap. I wasn’t sure if I should take 2 or 3 lb weights, so I took both. The class is broken up into sections — arms, legs, butt, abs. I might be forgetting something. I also can’t remember every part of the class, but I will do my best.

We started with arms. I immediately considered leaving. The pushups were difficult and many, and I hate pushups. We did planks. It was not easy. I decided this class was not for me. Then I decided to stick with it — it is one hour and I was so curious! Plus, if I couldn’t make it through this, I probably wouldn’t make it through Physique 57! I was determined.

We picked up the weights…  did so many repetitions of different arm exercises. So very many reps. My arms were burning. At some point, I put down my 3 lb weights and picked up the 2 lbs. Next time I take this class, I will only be taking the 2 lb weights. My arms are extremely sore today. It was a great arm workout though and something I need to get the toning I want.

We put the yoga block on the floor and the wooden stick on top of it and stood there holding the stick, doing various leg exercises like plies and lunges. Only they weren’t normal lunges. They were fast, intense and involved lots of movement up and down and back and up again, all quickly, never stopping. I wish I could describe it better.

We went to the barre/mirror and began the most painful legwork of my life. WOW. It was intense, short, quick movements that we performed to exhaustion. My quads were BURNING as was my tushie. One move that I particularly remember is holding onto the barre, one leg on the floor and bent, the other leg behind me, also bent. The back leg has to be moved up and down, up and down by little squeezes of the butt.  It was hard! There was another move that kept causing my quads to spasm. I need to work on this more!

Also, by this point at the barre, I was SWEATING. I didn’t expect to sweat much I guess, so I didn’t wear one of my headbands. Next time, I will definitely remember. As you know, I can’t stand sweat dripping down my face! And during one of the barre moves, my right foot was on the floor and my left was bent behind me in an arabesque-type position. My right leg was SHAKING. That’s how you know you’re working hard!

Brynn walked around during the class and corrected people if their form was off. The few times she corrected me, I felt a major difference in the exercise! It became much more challenging when I was doing it correctly. I was pleased when she walked past me and said I was doing something correctly! I’m not used to having good form but I think my background in dance (took dance grades K-12) helped me understand some of the positions.

We got down on the mat and did some leg work, lying on our side, that was reminiscent of all the pilates classes I have taken, but much, MUCH more challenging. My legs were really burning, and when we got to the point of these giant circles, putting our leg in front of us, next to us, behind us and back in front, the burn was so intense I couldn’t really do the move full-out. I never in my life felt a burn like this!

Then, abs. I really would like some nice, tight abs for the summer, but I hate doing anything about it on my own. The Shred helps, but I definitely need more. This is the class that would get great abs for anyone. Seriously. We did exercises that I’ve never done before. The moves, again, were quick and intense and I felt a burn unlike any other. It was painful and amazing. During these, we held the yoga block between our thighs.

The class ended with stretching using the strap. I never saw a strap like this before — it looked like one of those cloth belts that loops into 2 metal rings. It really made the stretching much better for me since I have a very tight lower back and can’t stretch deeply. I believe this class will improve that as well.

There was more, but I can’t even remember it. I will give more details next time I take the class. And yes, there will be a next time — and a time after that, and after that. I was ready to walk out in the beginning, and again during the barre work. I am so glad I didn’t. It was hard, the hardest class I have ever taken, but I could also feel it working. It pushed me much farther than I would ever go on my own or with the Shred. I felt both the major muscle groups working along with other, smaller ones. This class would tone anyone — and I love that we only used weights for arms and nothing else!

Also, there was really great music on the entire time which definitely made it all more bearable! Once class ended, Brynn told us that anyone whose name she doesn’t know should introduce themselves to her. I went up to her and we talked a little. I told her how difficult and rewarding I found the class. I didn’t tell her about my cousin because I didn’t know for sure yet, but next time I will! I told her about how tight my lower back was and she was just extremely nice. And it turns out her mom’s name is similar to mine!

The verdict: AMAZING. I seriously wanted to leave at first and I am SO glad I didn’t. I wanted to leave because it wasn’t easy, and I like easy. It was painful, and I don’t like pain. But when it was over I was so happy I did it — I really feel like it would make a huge difference if anyone who takes it regularly.  Also, I had already taken a really great spin class that day, so my body was probably more tired than usual! I even thought my abs looked tighter and flatter this morning — but that might just be because I had no food in my apartment and ate nothing buy yogurt all day yesterday. Hmmm… 

If anyone reads this who goes to the Sports Club/LA on the Upper East Side, take this class! If anyone reads this who might be considering Core Fusion at Exhale, try a class there! I bet it’s very similar. And now I definitely want to get the DVD. Anyone who has gone to Physique 57, let me know if this sounds similar to what you did. I’m especially looking forward to that now!

Like I said, Transfigure is offered on Wednesdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:30. As much as I don’t like going to the gym so late on a weeknight, I plan to go most Wednesdays (instead of spin!) since I am usually on the west side on Sundays. I’d like to get in a Sunday here and there, too, when I can!

OIKOS/Chobani Vanilla Taste Test

I love Vanilla Chobani. So much that I buy all of them I can find. Then OIKOS contacted me about trying their organic greek yogurt out. I decided to do a taste test with the Vanilla of both, since that is the flavor I eat every day.

The test was not blind. I have no bias towards either company — they both were generous enough to offer up some free samples. I just want to know which one I like better so I can make the best choices going forward.

I tasted each yogurt. The OIKIS was more tart. The Chobani was a bit sweeter. I like the Chobani Vanilla better than OIKOS Vanilla.

But — I rarely eat the yogurts plain. I usually mix pumpkin butter in. Once I mixed that in, they were both delicious and I would be happy with either. Since I do prefer Vanilla Chobani to Vanilla OIKIS, I will buy Chobani more often. However, since OIKOS is organic and I don’t dislike it and I like to treat myself to organic things once in a while, I will certainly buy it sometimes.

A note on price. At a Key Food in Queens this weekend the Chobani and OIKOS were the exact same price. In Food Emporium near my apartment in Manhattan and Jubilee near the boy’s apartment, OIKOS is more expensive. OIKOS is organic, though, which makes it reasonable that it would cost a little more.

Please click here for my previous comparison of the two yogurts.

Honey and Blueberry Yogurt Comparison – Chobani and OIKOS

I also tried OIKOS Honey and Blueberry varieties. (I have Plain but haven’t tried it yet). Here are my opinions:

Honey – OIKOS blows Chobani away here! I tried the Honey Chobani and thought it was all right, but nothing to write home about, and that I’d rather just add the honey myself. Yesterday, I tasted OIKOS honey flavor and WOW. I loved it. So much that I already bought more! There was lots of honey on the bottom that I mixed in, and the result was sweet and delicious.

Blueberry – I’ve gotta give this one to Chobani. The blueberries in the OIKOS weren’t very sweet, and since the yogurt itself is quite tart, the result was lots of tart, not enough sweet. The Blueberry Chobanis I’ve had were quite sweet. But I don’t plan on buying either, really. I prefer the Vanilla and Honey.

Something Funny
At my old job, I worked at a book company and had to write author profiles. I wrote a profile on Dave Barry once, and found him so funny that I ordered his daily quotes calendar. There was one day with a quote, written during the low-carb craze, that I particularly loved:

“When I was young, there was a lot of peer pressure to consume carbohydrates. You’d be at a party, and there would be a lava lamp blooping away, and a Jimi Hendrix record playing (a “record” was a primitive compact disc that operated by static electricity). And then, when the mood was right, somebody would say: “You wanna do some ‘drates?” And the next thing you know, there’d be a bowl of pretzels going around, or crackers, or even potato chips, and we’d put these things into our mouths and just . . . EAT them. I’m not proud of this. My only excuse was that we were ignorant. Back then, we had no idea. Nobody did! Our own MOTHERS gave us bread!”

Speaking of the low-carb craze, I am about halfway through Rethinking Thin, and I have to say it is fascinating. I will discuss more in depth once I finish.

Rethinking Thin Sparked Memory of My GI Condition

I was thinking on the train this morning about the course my illness has taken. It began in August 2007 but took a few months to get to where it is now, its true form. But from August through December, I had gone through a lot while the condition morphed into what it is today.

I imagine the insides of my body during those months as the beginning of an episode of House. They show the insides of the person suffering; neurons firing, synapses, electricity, things buzzing and connecting and hitting each other and lighting up and firing up and mutating. During the time my problems began and the time they reached their true state, all this was happening inside me. I know this because of the multitude of symptoms I had during this time that I don’t have now. I know this because the problems that I am left with came on slowly and built up over time to what they are now, and have been for a year.

One particular symptom I thought about today (sparked by my reading of Rethinking Thin) went on for maybe a month, and it was this consuming need to eat nonstop. Literally. I would eat breakfast and a few minutes later need a snack. And then another snack. It went on all day. If I wasn’t having a snack, I was thinking about the snack. When I could have it, how much I wanted it. Not a second went by that I wasn’t thinking about eating.

If I didn’t eat for an hour, my stomach would make these very loud sounds and I would feel things inside me grinding. It was an unusual movement. And I would get SO weak that I would need to shove food in my mouth at the very first opportunity I had. This is after an HOUR.

It was torture. Food should never consume thoughts like this. I was just constantly starving and nothing satisfied me. I couldn’t think of anything other than snacks and meals. And of course I gained weight. But not eating was simply not an option. The hunger pangs were so painful. The only way to relieve the pain was to eat.

This symptom went away, oddly, when my doctor attempted a treatment for bacterial overgrowth. It was a very expensive ($320) antibiotic that I had already been on, in a smaller dose. There was a simple, FREE WITH INSURANCE test he could have done that would have determined if I even needed the medication, but he did not tell me about it. So I took the prescription and while I never had bacterial overgrowth (evidenced by the continuation of my most extreme symptoms), the hunger pangs went away. I don’t know if it was related to the antibiotic or not, but luckily they disappeared.

At the time it was happening, I couldn’t even imagine a life where I wasn’t hungry all the time. I couldn’t understand how people around me weren’t eating all day, how they could just have their meals and be fine, how they weren’t obsessing over their next snack or picking at food at their desks all day. Once my symptom went away, I no longer had these thoughts. I once again knew what it was like to not need to constantly eat every few minutes.

It was a strange symptom and I am not sure how it relates to the rest of my condition, but very interesting to look back on.

Speaking of my GI issues, tonight I am getting hypnotized!

It will be the first of 7 sessions, every other Monday for 14 weeks.

Some of you might remember my dilemma — I’d love to get in a workout between work and hypnosis and was trying to find a way. Well, I think it will be doable after all. Today, no need to, since the boy is away and I was able to spin at my own gym this morning at 6:30. Plus I have a Victoria’s Secret $10 they sent me for my birthday that I’d like to use.

That leaves 6 more sessions. I have 3 guest passes that will be pretty easy to use (two to NYSCs near work, one to NYSC near hypnotherapy) if I want. Also, it will be getting warmer out so I’ll probably just want to walk outside!  In that case,  I might as well just walk from work (Battery Park City) to hypnosis (Flatiron)! I have to find a good, safe route (I tried walking somewhere once and ended up in some scary areas) and then I’ll be on my way!

Have a great week — I will describe hypnotherapy next time!

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