Elegantly Random

Destination: Adventure

In my twenties, I set a goal for myself to travel as much as possible, and I feel really good about the results. I just checked my tally, and I have made it to 40 states. Forty! All but Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Nebraska, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska and Hawaii - and I'm betting I can knock at least 5 more of those off pretty soon, given my current locale. I visited London, England, Paris, France and Warsaw, Poland. I also lived in five states in my twenties - Ohio, New York, Missouri, North Carolina and Washington. These are not shoddy numbers, people.

My goal for my thirties is this - and it's inspired by a lot of my friends: Ceylan, who recently hiked the Inca Trail in Peru; Marianne, who is currently biking through Tuscany. My goal is to participate in active, adventurous travel. Not that the travel we've done has been lazy, oh no. We have put so many miles on our feet. But my goal for this decade is active travel. I want to bike through Europe. I want to hike through national parks like Yosemite and Redwood and Arches and the like. I want to use my body more to explore new and different things. I want to commune with nature, people! Plus, the more active you are, the more you can eat and drink, which is always a huge motivation for me. (And fitness, that too, yeah yeah...)

I've never been a big outdoorswoman, really. I love camping, and as a kid we did a lot of what I like to call "Pennsylvania-Style Camping." This is where you visit a mediocre Pennsylvania wilderness or recreation area (in our case Pymatuning State Park or, if we were feeling CRAZAY, the Shenango Wilderness Area) and you "camp out" - in a tent, yes, and with a campfire, yes, and with campfire-cooked foods, but with plenty of facilities and RVs around. I loved it. I always craved REAL camping adventures, and I had a few when I did my cross-country drive back in 2002 from St. Louis to the Grand Canyon. But I'd like to do more of it, and look where I live, dudes! The opportunity is ripe. I'm down with getting dirty, sleeping on the ground and roughing it a little, communing with nature, peeing outside, eating trail mix. Bring it on.

I've also never been a real hiker, per se. Once again, I'll take you back to my childhood, the bulk of which was spent in a pretty but uninteresting (geographically speaking) part of Western PA. "Hiking" meant we got in the car and drove over to Woodcock Dam, which is apparently now lovingly referred to as Woodcock Creek Lake, and "hiked" on the Orange Juice Springs Trail - which is apparently formally called the Bossard Nature Trail (why is adult life so much less fun?!) - or just went roller skatin' across the mile-long dam.

I'm not really knocking it - we had a good time camping at Pymatuning and roller skatin' at the dam. My parents made the most of where we lived, and they made sure we saw everything there was to see for miles around. They also took us on trips to see other things, like Yellowstone National Park. But what we did growing up in Ohio and PA and NY, it was not REAL camping and hiking. As an adult, I've slowly begun to foray into real hiking, but it's way hard, man. You need gear, and stamina and shit. Living in North Carolina, I got into really good shape and attempted several hikes with my husband, who is very, very into the sport, but found myself limited by season. I just couldn't stomach a hike on a 100 degree day. Could you?

So it occurs to me - in between trips to Glacier National Park and Tuscany, I can live this adventure in my own back yard. In case you haven't noticed, the Pacific Northwest has some mountains. Big ones. 

 

 Mt. Rainier, el. 14,411 ft

And they're close. Rainier, part of the Cascade Range, is just 80 miles from Seattle. The Cascades in Washington also include Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Baxter and Glacier Peak (over 10,000 feet).

Olympic National Park, over the sound, is 84 miles away. 

 

Olympic Mountain Range from Seattle

These are my favorite mountains. I love how they look rising over the Puget Sound.

 

 

 

Mt. Olympus, el. 7,965 ft.  

I live in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by amazing mountains - some of the best scenery the United States has to offer, really. And I sort of decided, I'm ready to hike. For realz. I recently suited up with some new hiking gear suitable to my climate - sturdy, waterproof boots; breathable, convertible hiking pants/shorts; breathable rain jacket; proper backpack for shorter hikes. I've been working hard in the gym. I'm ready to go. Now all I need is a goal - and I have one.

This August, when we spend a week in Maine, my brother and my husband are planning to hike Mt. Katahdin. And I'm going with them.

 
Mt. Katahdin, el. 5,268 ft. 

 
Knife's Edge, Katahdin

It's small by PacNW standards, but tall by what-Sarie-can-hike standards. The tallest mountain I've ever hiked was Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina, at just under 6,000 feet. But by all accounts, Katahdin, the origination point of the Appalachian trail, is a much harder hike. Plus, it just might involve an overnight camping trip, depending on how we time it. And I've got 2 months to get ready. More than likely, Jay and I can get a hike in once a week leading up to the trip at the end of August. Think I can do it? Tips for preparation?

Let the adventures of my 30s begin!

One meal at a time.

As I've mentioned several times now, I've been reading Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma for the past few weeks. It's a really heavy book - not so much in the sense that it's too dense to read, but the subject matter I find gets me really worked up and I have to take breaks. Breaks in which I read horrible, shitty sci-fi books. It is summer, after all.

So here's the deal with TOD and Michael Pollen. It's really disturbing. Like, it has the power to alter my mood and keep me up at night. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the book, and I'm already so saturated with terrifying information that I've reached a point where it's hard for me to even express my thoughts about the book.

What's good about it is, Pollen manages to make some serious points about the food industry without writing a persuasive work of non-fiction. He uses the facts to show us how deeply screwed we are. The premise of the book is the simple question "What should I have for dinner?" Pollen follows the major food chains of industrialized and alternative food production to show us where our food comes from and how it gets on our plate. And it's upsetting on so many levels that I don't have time or space to share with you. 

But honestly, everyone should be reading this book, and his other book, In Defense of Food, because the fact of the matter is, plain and simple, the government and the food industry are keeping us obese and unhealthy because it is more profitable. And we should all be up in arms over our food - not just our meat, but all of our food - because it's laden with processed corn and other things that are horrible for us. Almost all of it. It's really disturbing to look into your cabinets and refrigerator and realize exactly how many processed foods you are buying - or rather, how few of your groceries are whole, unprocessed food.

And I think we generally know that processed food isn't as good for us, sort of? But maybe not. I'm here to tell you, if you had any doubts, it IS bad for you. And the more I read about it, the less I can ignore it. Just like with the meat industry, which is bad enough, but it's just a sliver of the overall bad scene we're dealing with.

That leaves me thinking I should cut out processed foods - right? But it seems absolutely impossible. Literally 70% of the things in my kitchen are in some way processed. And I'm a really healthy eater. How? Where would I even start? It's daunting, and that's why most people just shove it under the table and keep eating. But then, it occurred to me - what if I attempt it one meal at a time? It would take a while, and a lot of hard work, but what if?

So, that's what I'm proposing. A challenge, if you will, in which I set about attempting to cut out processed foods from my diet, one meal at a time. I realize that it will never be possible to do it entirely, but I feel like if I have looked very carefully at everything I eat and really made an effort, then the occasional squirt of ketchup or handful of M&Ms (things I can't really recreate myself) won't hurt me. I wonder if I will lose weight, have more energy? I wonder how much more money and time it will cost me? I wonder if the food will taste better? Will it help me with my cholesterol and acid reflux?

So the first meal is, of course, breakfast. I usually eat some cereal, but we already crossed over to making all our bread ourselves. I know this can be done. I don't like yogurt (believe me, I have tried it every which way, so don't suggest it), but I do like oatmeal and granola and the like. I also can't have a lot of dairy in my daily diet. With that in mind, I'd love your input. What should I have for breakfast? I am willing to cook things ahead of time, but not every morning.

Stay tuned.

Stepping it up.

Three years ago, I made the decision to live a fit lifestyle - healthy eating and exercise 5+ days a week. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made for myself. While it is incredibly time consuming and exhausting to put that much effort into fitness, the pros far exceed the cons. I am stronger, lighter, healthier, and less stressed than I was three years ago. I sleep better and I have more energy than I have ever had in my life. My too-high cholesterol is a little lower. It's a total win all around.

The biggest drawback to years of hardcore exercise, however, is boredom. In the past nine months, I've realized I was just going through the motions at the gym. Sure, I was burning 700 or 800 calories a day, but I wasn't really challenging myself like I used to. The exercise had become easy for me, and I was at a plateau in terms of my interest in my workouts and my body's progress toward the nirvana of sexiness. You like that one? :)

SO I chatted with one of the trainers at the YMCA where I work out, as well as a couple of uber-fit friends, and came up with a new workout plan, AKA Spring Torture Regime '09. The biggest change is the weights - I'm now focusing each session on a portion of my body, so instead of 30 minutes of full-body lifting every other day, I'm doing all arms one day, all abs the next, all legs on the third day and then taking a day of rest from weights. Three days of lifting, one of rest, repeat. PAIN.

Additionally, I've taken my daily cardio and ramped it up - instead of just doing an hour on the elliptical machine, I'm doing more cross training, so 30 minutes each on two machines on some days, spinning class one day, etc. Variety - so that my body doesn't get too accustomed to the cardio workouts. I'm even going to toss in at least one day a week of swimming over the summer. My machine of choice has always been the elliptical machine, since I don't run, but I'm forcing myself to branch out to the bikes, treadmill and also...the stairs.

Much like spinning class used to intimidate me, the stairs have always seemed insurmountable. They're so...tall. And steep. And the people climbing them are always absolutely soaking wet with sweat. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate sweating?

But I started noticing something else - all the fittest people at the gym are doing the stairs. And I want to be part of that elite group of people with rock-hard bods. I don't know if I'll ever get there, given my body type, but I decided it was worth a shot. So about three weeks ago, I mounted the stairs, cranked up some Justin Timberlake and selected the fat burning program.

Please note that the three times prior to this when I had attempted stairs, I only made it about 8 minutes before thinking I might pass out and die.

The stairs are sooo hard. WHY? Why are they so hard? I don't know, but there is nothing, NOTHING in this world more disgusting than the sight of me on the stairs. I am absolutely drenched in sweat, it's beading up on my arms, it's dripping from my hair and my chest down onto the stairs, my sweat towel needs to be wrung out every 5 minutes, my inner thighs and back are completely wet. It's absolutely awful. But you know what? I LOVE the challenge of it. As hard as it is, when I'm next to someone who's got the body of a Victoria's Secret model and she's walking up her stairs twice as fast as me, I take that as a challenge.

It has taken me three weeks and LOTS of Black-Eyed Peas to be able to complete 20 minutes on the stairs. Last night, I clocked in at 20 minutes, 1.5 miles, 70 floors, 165 calories (although I cannot believe it was only 165 - that just seems impossible seeing as I lost a good quart of water during that workout). To put this in perspective, I can do 70 minutes on an elliptical machine, or a 60-minute spin class, and burn in excess of 600 calories. Three weeks, after three YEARS of working out, to make it 20 minutes on the stairs.

Either I'm the world's most dedicated person, or I'm bat-shit insane.

This is why you're fat.

Warning: If you have a sensitive stomach, do not click this link.

Thanks to Cheryl for finding this treasure. If the movie Super Size Me didn't convince every single human being in the entire world to rethink their diet, perhaps this site will. Or at the very least, gross them out.

Though I must admit...sometimes, I still want McDonald's fries. I can't help it. I blame the fact that they're dipped in crack.

Going through it.

Everyone has a cause, something they care really deeply about, have a personal investment in, etc. Mine is health and fitness. America is the fattest, laziest, most entitled country in the world and it shows in our waistlines. And that laziness extends to the way we attempt to dig ourselves out of the fitness holes we put ourselves in - through the easiest means available to us.

During my college years, I put on some weight. Then, post-college, I sank into depression and put on some more weight. Just over 3 years ago, after a year of constantly worsening heartburn, I got a wake-up call when I woke up in the middle of the night to an acid attack that nearly choked me in my sleep. A trip to the doctor yielded the news that I had extremely high cholesterol for a 25-year-old and a severe case of acid reflux. The doctor told me, in the kindest "stern doctor voice" available, that I had better up my half-assed, 3-days-a-week gym routine (which was only helping me maintain my current weight) to six hardcore ones (cardio=weight loss), and see about losing a good 50 pounds. Yes, friends. I lost more than 50 pounds. It's hard to believe, even to me, but I did.

I've been thin and fit for two years now, having made some serious changes to my life. I count my calories. I work out six days a week (and, wonder of wonders, I actually enjoy it). This is my routine every day, probably for the rest of my life. My cholesterol is still high, but I was able to lower it significantly without any medication whatsoever. I do have to medicate for my acid reflux, but at least I know I have done everything I can about it, eating foods that aggravate my system only in moderation or not at all.

Since I got healthy, I've become hyper-sensitive about fitness and health. I hate that so many people have weight issues - it's so scary and sad to me, especially when I see it in children. It fills me with a rage that I just can't describe, knowing that people who have this problem can fix it and just don't. And let me be clear about this - I was never an athlete. I didn't play sports, although I did dance for many years. Truthfully, I was kind of a lazy-ass. So honestly, if I can do this? If I can make the effort to be healthy, then truly anyone can.

I have several friends, acquaintances and coworkers who have tried or are currently trying to lose weight, and I support them. This is not pointed to any one person in particular, it truly is not, but it just eats me up (no pun intended!) when people fall for dieting scams. It's true - I do not like diets, but let me clear up any misconceptions my friends may have about this. I dislike diets not because I don't think they can work, but because they perpetuate the notion that people can easily lose weight and keep it off while doing very little work. Many diets even advertise themselves as being effective without exercise.

Diets like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem (three of the most popular among my friends and family) have helped thousands of people lose weight. I'm not arguing that. But do those people keep it off? Many times the answer is no, and nine times out of ten, the reason for that is that whatever poor habits were in place before the diet were never corrected. My point is that a diet can only take you so far, largely because the word "diet" implies a temporary plan that can stop once weight is lost. Anyone can go on a diet and deprive themselves of fatty foods and get skinny.

Unfortunately, weight is a lifelong struggle, not something you tackle for three months and then forget about. There are two ingredients to being a fit, healthy person and those are proper nutrition (a large part of which is portion control) and exercise. If you try to get thin by eating less while skipping the exercise, you're doing yourself a disservice and you're also setting yourself up for long-term failure. This is common sense - the cast of the Hills understands that in order to be thin, you have to burn calories. Why intelligent people cannot - or, rather, will not - accept this concept is absolutely mind-boggling to me. You can't be healthy without exercise, no matter how skinny you are. I know it's unpopular and painful to talk about, but I'm in the business of speaking my mind, and so here it is (this time it just happens to be backed up by science): the only tried and true and permanent way to being a thinner, healthier person is to get off your fucking ass and exercise.

Perhaps the worst part about having lost weight "the hard way" and feeling the way I do about dieting and weight loss is when people (some of whom are dieting, and some of whom are fatasses who just don't give a damn anymore) say to me, "I'm not like you. I don't have the discipline to do what you do." That hurts me. Sometimes, it hurts me because the person who's saying it is doing so in a nasty, condescending way, like "if you had kids and responsibilities like I do, then you'd understand why I don't have time to work out." Other times, it hurts me because the person has already given up and decided they can't do something. I'm not so great - as I said, I was never an athlete. If I can do it, you theoretically could too.

There is more to life than being a size 6 (or whatever). Fitting in your pants is great, but you know what else is great? The stress relief, great skin, energy and stamina that exercise and nutrition bring. I don't consider myself this amazing guru. I'm just a person who had a problem, who got scared about it and decided to act. That's all. I opted against using a diet plan because I knew this was going to be a lifelong struggle for me to fight against my genetics, and I don't like the temporary nature of the traditional "diet." I also didn't want to pay money for something I could do on my own for free. It was painful. It sucked. At first I could only do 3 days of exercise a week because I was out of shape, but it got better and I came to love the exercise. Now, I get funny when I can't work out.

But it's still work. It still sucks. I eat pizza and ice cream and cookies, but I go to the gym so I can enjoy them. I go to the gym and strive to eat healthy foods as much as possible so I can live a longer, healthier life and if skinny is part of the result, that's awesome, but I'm also not going to kill myself to lose another 10 pounds.

Spragg sent out a quote today on Twitter - "The best way out is always through" - Robert Frost. I think that aptly sums up what I'm talking about. Don't take the easy way. Don't avoid the real issues. If you need a boost like a Jenny Craig to help you get started, fine, but pair it with some exercise for God's sake, and learn to cook healthy meals so you can maintain the work you've done after you go off Jenny. So if your resolution this year is to be thinner or healthier, to you I say, BRAVO! But before you get started, think about what caused you to gain in it the first place, and remember - there's no magic trick you can perform on yourself to become healthy. You have to go through it.

I said gobble gobble, damn it!

I know this blog topic is going to be extremely unpopular and met with a lot of dissenting opinion, but I can't help it, can I? No, I cannot. You all know how much I love to fuel the fires. So here it is ... I dislike repeated Thanksgiving potlucks and dinners.

It used to be Thanksgiving was one day out of the year. Now it seems like between various office parties and get togethers, I end up having at least 3 Thanksgivings. And that's not to mention all the Christmas feasts. And New Years. Many of you know I worked my ass off to lose weight a couple of years ago, and sure, that's part of it - but it's not so much about being paranoid to gain weight as I'm just now so aware of what I put into my body. And no one needs that much turkey!

Why must we always, always celebrate by stuffing our faces?

And seriously - why do we have to have office parties where everyone brings in part of a Thanksgiving meal? My husband has one today, and I'm sorry but really? We really have to eat turkey and dressing twice in one week? And the same damn thing will happen at Christmas, and New Year's, too.

I can give you three excellent reasons why we should not have repeat feasts for Thanksgiving, Christmas and/or New Years:

1. It's tough on your body. Like it or not, that is a lot of food and calories and fat you're consuming, and it's just not healthy. And be honest - how many of you are getting enough exercise to make up for it? That's what I thought.

2. It's tough on the bank account. Seriously - I can barely afford to throw Thanksgiving dinner one time, let alone to do it over and over. Even chipping in - times are tough and money is tight. Call me Ebenezer Scrooge, but I'd like to save my dollars to celebrate with close family and friends.

3. It lessens the enjoyment of the actual day. Tell me, how exciting is Thanksgiving when you've already eaten at least one Thanksgiving feast? Would Christmas morning be as fun if we did it 5 times a year? I don't think so.

Alright. Commence disagreeing with me. Meanwhile, I'm holding out for Thursday.

Friends, weigh in on this one...

Lately, I've been noticing a weird thing at my local YMCA branch - parents leading their children in workout regimes. I say "regime" because this doesn't appear to be your run-of-the-mill, let's-get-the-kids-interested-in-fitness type of activity. Rather, I'm referring to parents barking like drill sergeants as their offspring fulfill a series of exercises that would be demanding for any twenty-something, let alone a 9 year old.

Is it just me, or is this kind of strange? Some of the kids I've seen are chubby, but I have to wonder if it's really necessary to make your kid drop and give you 50 - couldn't it just be a chubby, in-between kind of phase? Even if the kid's thin - do 7 year old kids even have muscles? Is it smart to have them lifting 10 pound weights?

I'm definitely not poo-pooing getting your kid to exercise - but I don't remember my parents ever dragging any of us to the gym and insisting that we do three sets of ten of anything. It was, "It's a nice day - get outside" or "go ride your bike" or something like that. My brother and sister were active in sports, but I basically hated anything involving a team (that should surprise exactly none of my readers!). It was all my mom could do to get me to put down my battered copy of Anne of Green Gables and go outside - but she still didn't worry and force me to spend 30 minutes on an elliptical.

I'm just not sure it's normal to make your kid work out. I guess some of these kids appear to be having fun, but most of them look downright miserable. I'm all for teaching your kids about the merits of good diet and exercise, but this seems a bit extreme to me.

Glad I don't have to pay his medical bills.

There is a man I know who, I swear to God, must eat fast food for at least 75% of his meals. He's single, though about to be married in a few months, and probably in his early 50's. Every single morning he consumes at least two cups of coffee and some sort of breakfast sandwich from McDonald's. For lunch every single day, he picks up something fried - either Bojangles, Wendy's, McDonald's (twice in one day!), Burger King, or something along those lines. It is truly astounding to behold.

Despite the fact that he's rather thin, I have to wonder at his cholesterol. How in the world is it possible that he's not had a heart attack yet? Assuming that he's eating something other than fast food for dinner (which is probably a stretch, but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt), he must be ingesting over 3,000 calories and 120 grams of fat per day at the rate he's going. It's alarming! All I can say is, I hope he has good health insurance because he's gonna need it. If not, he must literally have an iron stomach.

And to think that most of America eats this way...I understand that healthful foods cost more money. But in this guy's case, I know money isn't the problem - it's sheer laziness, and a raging boner for fried food.

To meat or not to meat.

Surprisingly enough, in the past two and a half years I have turned into what most people would call a health nut. I try to eat a very healthy and well-balanced diet - I work very hard at it, in fact, and I say no rather frequently to a lot of foods I used to whole-heartedly say yes to (much to the disdain and confusion of many friends and coworkers).

As much as I respect a person's very personal decision about what to ingest each day, and as much as I want to be the healthiest person I can be, I cannot wrap my mind around vegetarianism or veganism. Partially this is due to laziness - it's so much easier to just keep on eating what I'm used to eating. The other part, though, is that I am really not sure there's anything wrong with eating meat as far as health concerns go as long as you stick to lean meats. I've essentially cut red meat from my diet and only have it two or three times a year.

I understand that the mass production of meat has led to incredible levels of animal cruelty, so I try to buy organic free range meats whenever possible. But it still seems impossible to give up meats like fish and chicken, which I love. I've made an effort to have a couple of meat-free meals a week to lessen the amount I'm buying, but I can't imagine really excluding meat from my diet, and frankly, it just seems like the more elements you cut from your diet, the harder it is to get all the vitamins you need. I know that because I don't eat much dairy anymore, I don't get nearly enough calcium, for example.

And here's the other thing I don't get. I'm all for ceasing animal cruelty - but what real purpose do animals serve if not for meat and animal products? I mean, sure, they're beautiful and all and I appreciate that. But true vegans don't buy anything made from animals. So...what will the animals do? I mean, just stand there? Breed? Sleep? Eat? I mean, really. Let's forget for a moment that we're thinking animals ourselves and remember that Mother Nature created a food chain on purpose. If I don't eat that chicken, some other animal's gonna.

So here's my conundrum: although I don't get vegetarianism/veganism, don't know if I could do it and am not entirely sure it's healthier than what I'm currently doing, I can't stop thinking about it and even entertaining the notion that I should at least consider going there. But I just can't break my lifelong mindset that animals are for eating. What's a girl to do?

You spin me right round.

It's tough to motivate yourself to go to the gym regularly. Everyone knows this, whether you're like me and get exercise 5+ days a week, or you're a former athlete who's fallen off the wagon, or you just hate to work out and rarely go. We all know it's good for us, but even though we all want to be thinner and look and feel better, I believe most humans are inherently lazy and self-destructive when it comes to fitness; i.e. we'd rather sit around and eat tacos than go to the gym. Understandable.

I am one of the few and proud who actually do drag their asses to the gym almost every day. There are days when I literally have to force myself to go to the gym. There's usually some kind of an ice cream-related motivation there. But ultimately I get my butt in gear and work out, because I really don't want to get fat again. Or, you know, die of a heart attack. Priorities, people!

Sometimes, though? You just get bored. Like, oh dear god, if I have to look at that elliptical machine one more time, I'm going to puke all over it. And then refuse to wipe it down with sanitary spray. Take that!

So this weekend, I finally stepped up and took a spinning (cycling) class - something I've been considering for about 6 months now -though, truth be told, my friend Kristen has been telling me for years that I should give it a whirl - ah! so many bike puns! What can I say? It takes me a long time to make up my mind! I would watch through the window of the darkened room where 30 people were furiously spinning away, drenched in sweat. The pumping music was alluring, as was the intense workout. Could I do it? I had heard horror stories about spinning - that your sitbones hurt for days, your quads would be so sore you couldn't walk, the workout was so tough that many people left in the middle, on and on and on.

But on Sunday, I went. I mounted my bike, and with a little help from an instructor (who was 75-ish and totally fit) I was ready. A younger instructor shouted out instructions for how fast to go, whether to stand or sit and when to crank up the resistance. I focused on the music and pedaled my little heart out for 60 minutes. And when it was over (yes, I made it through the entire thing), I felt strong! Invigorated! Triumphant! Ready to take over the world! Sure, I was absolutely drenched in sweat and my legs felt like they were going to fall off - but it was awesome!

2 days later, my ass feels fine but my quads are definitely sore. I also noticed some soreness in my shoulders and neck, which means that I was too tense up top and need to do a better job keeping my shoulders down when I ride. But I will ride again! And I think all of you should try it too! It definitely gave me a lift that I needed.