Wedding Dress Workouts

It's absolutely fitting that I write about my latest ventures in exercising the day after the taco post ;) There is an important reason for it though:

I need to fit into my wedding dress! 

So, one of my sisters' best friends, Dana started a blog recently and I've been really inspired by her to step up my game when it comes to fitness. Our wedding is in about 4 weeks (!!!!)  and since New Year's we've been saying how we want to be in the best shape of our lives. T has always been better about working out than me because he likes to play sports whereas I am so uncoordinated, they only way I can catch a frisbee or ball or something is by it hitting me in the face. Seriously. Not good!

Anyway, so while Tomislav is out playing squash or ultimate frisbee, my main exercise came from walking the mile up and down hill to work and sporadically doing a yoga video at home or pilates. Since I had a week off after Easter, it was a great time for me to really get healthy inside and out. I started running, pretty regularly. Tomislav and I have gone together for a run on the riverbanks on a nice day before but usually I couldn't muster the motivation to go running on my own. It always felt boring to me and I felt self conscious thinking that neighbors or people around would think, "What is she doing? She doesn't know what she's doing." I did absolutely horrible at track and field in high school and never found an event I was good at because I was terrible at them all!

But I want to be active and healthy so, I began doing a 2 minute run/1 minute walk on the riverbank, I jogged to the market (then walked back with the groceries), and shockingly enough, after I dropped the groceries off I wanted to go back out there and keep going! This never happened before. I'm usually really not the type but so far I've really enjoyed my newfound exercise strength. Now, it's just about finding the time to go out. I would really love to go for a run in the morning before work but that would mean getting up even earlier (like 6am early, yikes) and no matter how many times I've set the alarm, I can't get up that early. I've been tutoring after school almost everyday and that combined with meeting up with a friend for a coffee, the endless wedding meetings we have and everything else going on, I can't find the time until like 9pm, and I really don't have the energy to go out in the dark then. So I'm considering going at least for a short run during my lunch break. I don't want to get all gross and sweaty though so not the best idea.

There you have it, this is how I look after a work out! 
All red and sweaty...who cares what the neighbors/girls at our neighborhood bakery think?

If anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it! I just want to be healthy and I also need to fit in my wedding dress...oh how I dread that measuring tape! Since my dress is still in the States, my Mom sent me the measurements. I'm not trying to do anything drastic, I just have a couple of centimeters to go so I can zip up my dress. Really hope it'll fit by the time my sister brings it here! I don't belong to a gym here in Zagreb (they are very expensive here!) so I need to use my surroundings (as Dana says, the world is your gym!) and any online resources that are available internationally! So, if you have any tips for a relative newbie in the exercising arena, please let me know. Hiking on Sljeme, the mountain in Zagreb, would be really fun to do and I think a nice form of exercise but that's more of a weekend work out.

Do you exercise regularly? What do you do to switch up your routine?

Ladies Give the Best Directions

Last night, I realized something major. Next time I need to ask for directions to go somewhere, I should just ask a woman. I'm proud to be a strong, capable, and independent woman and you know what? I'm not afraid to get lost to try to find my way. I'm also a big fan of using a GPS while driving. Unfortunately, my friends' address wasn't being found in the GPS. Normally, I would ask Tomislav to help me out with finding where to go but instead I called my friend first. It was amazing. She asked what was around me and I described the cafe and 2 markets nearby and she knew exactly where I was and how to lead me out of there. She told me to go straight at the childrens' park, turn left at the first stoplight - landmarks that I could actually see, even though it was nighttime. The reason I'm sharing this is because I had an epiphany as to how much better I can understand directions when they are explained by a woman!

One of the first times I was in Croatia, Tomislav was at work and I was at his parents house on the other side of town. He drew me a "map" and wrote out some "directions" to explain which trams to take and how to get to a university so we could go to a friend's graduation. His directions, no joke, said something like, "Cross the street that's perpendicular to the north side and walk over around the right." Huh??

 

I didn't have a cell phone at the time and I ended up getting controlled in the tram (without a ticket) so I got out and made my way to what I now know is Branimir Centar. I saw there was a Cinestar there (the movie theater). Tomislav used to work at Cinestar while he was in college so I felt some hope. I asked them if I could use their phone to call Tomislav but before they could get me the phone, the girls somehow figured out the crazy ass directions he gave me and led me onto the right tram. When I finally got there, Tomislav was waiting and so nervous thinking the worst had happened to me. I quickly exclaimed, "Your directions! That's what happened!"

I have learned, once and for all, to ask a woman! She won't tell me to look at the sun to figure out where west is or whatever. She probably won't say, go North, you know, towards Sljeme (the mountain around Zagreb). Sometimes at night, it's almost impossible to see the mountain! Especially when I'm already totally lost.

 Landmarks like the big Nikola Tesla statue make giving directions much easier!