We all know what spring break means for most college students: beach, drinks, and shenanigans. Well, that’s not my spring break. Never has been. My final spring break was spent in Los Angeles training with a Playboy model. She asked me to come visit several times and I figured I had never had a real spring break before, so why not?
I met Kayla Lyons in my third year of college through a mutual friend. We immediately bonded─like drunk girls do─and spent nearly all of our free time together. I knew from some other people that she did modeling and was proud of the fact she had been photographed as one of the girls for Virginia Tech when Playboy did their Girls of the ACC shoot.
Being friends with someone who was so extroverted and into the bar scene was a ride I’m not going to forget anytime soon, even two years later I still have a lot of funny stories from nights out with her. But, all good times come to an end right? Time passed and she moved out to Los Angeles while I remained at school.
Make the right impression then everyone knows your name
Let me tell you a not-so-fun-fact: Los Angeles makes you feel awful about your body image. Kayla (who has always been super comfortable with her body) told me that when she arrived she dropped ten pounds as fast as she could. I didn’t believe her when she told me about the importance of appearance. So, when I got there, I felt confident enough in my body that I thought I could hold my own. By the end of the week? I had dropped two pounds and felt I like needed to lose more weight.
Now, it probably helps the weight loss process that Kayla lives a sober life while I don’t. Alcohol adds unnecessary calories and she’d rather spend the time working out. While there, I decided to adhere─mostly─to this diet as well. I think I drank two nights for a grand total of 4 drinks? So, it couldn’t have added too many extra calories. At least that’s what I hope.
But working out wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I’m the type of girl who goes to the gym, lifts weights for like an hour, and then finishes out with half an hour of cardio─preferably rowing. And as far as I remembered, that’s what Kayla did back in school. Not anymore. I was in for a week of spin, yoga, and hiking.
Got me walking side to side
So after even one class of spin, I gotta say this: mad respect for you people who do this on the regular. After my first class, I felt like I developed a blister on my butt. Seriously. I’m not kidding. Spin classes are all about endurance for about 45 minutes, at least where we were going. It’s not easy and I had sweat in my eyes at least 4-5 times in one class.
I had to wuss out the second day of spin, I was worried that the soreness would actually become a blister if I irritated it more. So while Kayla was on her second day of spinning that week, I found myself walking about two miles, wandering around The Grove people-watching and drinking ridiculously expensive juice containing activated charcoal. I embraced the oddity of that food trend for a day.
The next day, while Kayla was working, I attended a yoga class. This is when I decided that yoga was definitely more up my alley than spin, even if the others taking the class were way better at it than me. Now, I’ve done yoga before, and I like it enough that I’ve committed to yoga classes outside in freezing weather. But it was warm yoga and mildly uncomfortable─I’d rather just commit to hot yoga at that point.
After several days of spin and yoga (plus tanning on the beach), we decided I would finish out the week by hiking Runyon Canyon. Hiking─to begin with─is not my thing. So, hiking in direct sunlight during 80°F weather wasn’t really my definition of fun. I almost would’ve preferred having to run on the beach with no shoes instead of taking the time to tan.
Overall? Working out with a Playboy model is exhausting and harder than I thought it would be. Granted, I didn’t really think that much about how hard it was going to be. However, I definitely have a greater respect for her and other models. It’s hard to dedicate yourself to making sure your body always looks good. Especially with the potential body image issues that can develop in one of the top five cities for modeling.
This spring break made me decide to invest in a Fitbit and new workout gear to force myself to become more fit. I’ve never felt so out of shape in my life and this week made me recommit myself to getting back to a more athletic body. Nothing like working out with someone whose job is to look perfect to make you feel you need to look better.