And, just like that, it’s February and my barre3 membership is up in nine days and my food group is making plans for an early Valentine’s dinner.

I intend to go nine for nine at barre3, especially after going only four times last week when what was supposed to be an early night turned into 4:45 AM. Again. (It seems that 4:45 AM to me is what midnight is to Cinderella.)

As soon as the membership is up, I’m skipping the dinner and heading to Siargao. (I will be there from February 11 to March 17 with one-night stopovers in Cebu on my way in and out.)

Yeah, I had an overabundance of holiday cheer this year (and cookies and cakes and pies and things), and had to declare the entire month of January an extension of the holiday season. Thank goodness it ended yesterday. I assure you that I now have my serious face on and am getting on with my resolutions today. I will take the struggle one day at a time and, so far, I am happy to report that today is going swimmingly.

I do love barre3 and its reps to failure. (I could still feel all of the leg lifts from two sessions ago in my butt cheeks this morning!) I have no doubt that if I continue to do this diligently, I could really tone up. Plus all the legwork should serve me well on the Camino de Santiago in April.

Last Saturday, I upped my hand weights from two pounds to three. Since I didn’t have any difficulty with the added weight, it means that I probably should have increased the poundage a lot earlier. Today, I had the five-pound hand weights on standby, but we mostly did a lot of shoulder and tricep work so I stuck with the three-pounds.

At barre3 BGC last December.

I’m looking forward to continuing the workout in Siargao. I bought all the barre3 and Physique 57 (- which is similar to barre3) DVDs I could find and had a ballet barre installed in my play room on the island. Now, all I need is a working DVD player… But I’ve got a lead on an inexpensive Asus external DVD drive that should do the trick.