Tag: workout

Categories
Home

Twice in One Week

Well, we made it to Friday. How is everyone feeling? I am exhausted. I’ve been doing a lot lately (and by the time I get home at night, blogging is out the window!), so I’m ready for some R&R tonight. And perhaps some wine. Lots of o’ wine!

I mentioned on Wednesday that my friend Mel is in town with her hubby and his work for a convention… well, that convention is for helicopters.  Super cool, right? (He’s a helicopter mechanic by profession.) So yesterday I picked Mel up and we headed over to the convention so Nia could experience something new and interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever really been up close and personal with a helicopter, so it was pretty fascinating. Nia kept calling them ‘airplanes’ but hey, I totally get why – some felt as big as airplanes.

This particular one floats on water. Mind = boggled.

The going rate on a helicopter is well above what I ever would have thought it to be. It seems I have a bit to learn in the area.

Apart from going to this and all the other activities, we have been partaking it, like kiddie pool swimming, or lululemon shopping (and taking selfies to ask the husband if these are valid/good items to purchase),

I’ve also been fitting fitness classes in like my life depended on it.

Remember me saying on Wednesday how I hoped Pure Barre didn’t destroy me? Well, ya, it did, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the music, the moves, and how different the workout felt compared to others. Plus, picking a morning class on a Wednesday luckily meant only a few other people and not a jam-packed room.

I was thankful that Mel braved it with me for the first class ever just because new situations are always a little intimidating (especially when you arrive there with only a few minutes to spare, which we did). We gave each other multiple looks throughout the class, like, holy eff this kills, which was nice to know we were on the same page. I left feeling challenged, but not overly in torturous pain. And then the next day happened: calves, my butt, my side above my hips sore – all places I wasn’t expecting! (I also should mention that I did attend hot yoga that same night, so maybe it was the combo of the two that put me over the edge.)

And then I did what any (in)sane person would do – I registered for another barre class for today (this afternoon). I only have four days left to use my ClassPass and I love that I can attend Pure Barre two more times with it (because it’s a total of three max at the same studio). After today’s class, I hope I can make it to another one on Monday. I can’t wait to see what today’s workout has in store and how my muscles will react to being re-challenged so soon!  I think my body secretly likes all the challenges I’m putting on it lately. Plus, it really needs a bit of butt-kicking.

And then for the weekend, my agenda is as so: vino drinking tonight, possibly with popcorn, farmers’ market on Saturday morning, which I hope my grandparents will attend with me, and then heading to meet up with Tyler on late Saturday afternoon because he’ll be away this weekend at a golf tourney for his players. Nia and I are going to keep him company one night and then hang by the pool while he works.

What are you up to this weekend?

Have you ever tried Pure Barre? If so, what was your first experience like?

Categories
Home

The Future of Working Out + YouTube Videos

And just like that, it’s Friday! Where the week goes is beyond me. Also, where has the month gone? Doesn’t it feel crazy to think that we’re nearly halfway through February? I seriously need time to sloooooow down a little bit so I can enjoy it a bit more.

Anywaaaaaays, I wanted to dive into something I like to consider the future of working out because it gets me really excited.

CLASS PASS 

If you’ve never heard of ClassPass before, then you’re in for a treat. I was contacted by them to try out their service because it just launched in Orlando!!

What it is, is a monthly membership that gives you access to the best fitness studios in your city. Instead of committing to just one gym or studio, why not try out multiple, but pay a monthly-membership that doesn’t tie you down to anyone?! You have the freedom to try them all because ClassPass gives you unlimited classes to the studios in the ClassPass network. You can essential go to as many classes as you want to in your monthly membership cycle; try out one new thing, or try them all!

[One thing to note: While you can visit as many classes as you’d like per month, you can only visit the same studio up to three times per monthly subscription cycle.]

When I initially found out about this concept, I was very on board with it. Even the hubby thought it was a super cool idea. Why should I have to commit to one gym that may deliver amazing on one thing, but sub-par on another? I’ve been wanting to try out Barre for months and now I have the chance to do that. But, I can also do hot yoga, a boot camp, CrossFit, and the list goes on!

I promise you this word-venom spewing from my mouth is pure because I think this is a great idea and one that fitness forgoers have been longing for! Just two more things to share.

First, the log-in details of ClassPass. This is the screen once you log into your ClassPass account.

I love the simplistic nature of showing you all of your options; how to book your first class, upcoming classes, and completed classes. This might be good for those wondering if the membership is worth it to them, depending on how many workouts they’re actually getting out of it. Plus, it gives you the details on when your cycle will end – so hey, maybe you want to squeeze in another two workouts before it ends to round off a stellar month.

Next, searching for and selecting a class (by clicking on the ‘class schedule’ link seen in the screenshot above).

It shows you all the available class options for that day (or whatever day you choose to select at the top), with the ability to reserve a spot online. When I first logged into this two days ago, I loved seeing it for two reasons.

Reason #1: Being new to the area, unless I’m randomly googling for fitness studios, I really have no idea what’s out there. And even with googling, there’s no way I would have found some of the options listed above because I would have never known to type in those exact words for the search form (example: The Bar Method – did not know it even existed here!).

Reason #2: I’m a visual learner, so seeing all my workout options in one place for a specified day is music to my ear’s eyes.

I have SO many new fitness classes I can’t wait to try. I’d love to update you guys on how some of them are if you want me to. Not a full-blown post, but just a little info about what I attended and how it went.

I’ve paid $15/class the last two weeks for hot yoga, so my goal is to use this pass at the very least 5+ times over the course of the month to make it worth it (i.e.: to make it like “paying” $15 or less per class, as if I was paying for each individual class). Where we’re located in Orlando isn’t exactly centralized, which is where a lot of the classes are, and that’s one reason why I won’t be attending classes every day. You bet though that I’m going to try and attend as many as I very well can in the month. My grandparents come to Florida on February 26th and they’ve expressed that if I need to get out on my own at all while they’re here, they’d be happy to watch Nia…SOLD!

Ok, now I need to ask you some questions that go along with YouTube videos. It’s only three videos and they aren’t mandatory for watching, but you might enjoy #1 and #3…at least #1. And you don’t even want to know how many Frozen related videos are stored in my history thanks to Nia. It’s like I have a Frozen obsession or something (oh wait, my daughter actually does!).

  • Who is seeing Fifty Shades of Grey this weekend?

Originally, I didn’t think I would ever want to watch the movie or read the book, but multiple TV ads later (for the movie) and I think I’m ready to watch the film. It could be for the actor playing the lead, or just to see what all the fuss is about. But I’m not telling you which is the real answer.

Also on this subject, if you haven’t seen Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades main star) on the Jimmy Fallon show doing a Fifty Accents of Grey game, then you must watch it below. Hilaaarious.

  • Has anyone heard the Florida Georgia Line song ‘Sippin’ on Fire’?

I just heard it for the first time yesterday aaaaaand I loved it. I heard it in the car and proceeded home to listen to it another 5-10 times. There’s no legit music video yet, but here’s the song made video form.

  • Do you need some perspective on how great your life actually is?

I saw this video a couple weeks back when I was reading an email from a website I subscribe to and they linked to this video. It’s Louis CK on how everything is pretty awesome, yet we’re never happy. Obviously, he’s a comedian and you laugh at his references, but it really does make you think!

That’s it!

And now for you all to have a good weekend! I have some good content coming your way next week, so look forward to that! Also still debating whether to take Monday off from blogging or not. You’ll know by Monday, haha ;).

Disclosure: Although I am being provided one complimentary month of ClassPass to try out for myself, I was not instructed to write this post on behalf of them. I am purely doing it on my own to help spread the word because I think it’s a pretty awesome concepts for those interested in fitness.

Categories
Home

My Main Workout Motivator

Guys. I might be addicted to HGTV, and more specifically the show Fixer Upper. The hubby renos the house and the wife decorates it.  I LOVE her decorating style so much that I can’t help but want to marry her just so she can decorate my house. Her decorating style is just in alignment with how I want my house to look. All I need to do is move to Waco, Texas so I can go on the show and end up in heaven. Glad we got that out of the way.

Besides watching HGTV, I promise you that I don’t sit on my butt all day. I’ve got the Fitbit stats to prove it…and the workouts! Which for that, I owe a serious thanks to Winter Shape Up + waking up early. Those have been the keys to my success.

I also got to get back into hot yoga a week ago (with the hubby’s friend! haha) and plan on going again tonight.

I seriously missed the sweat session. And if we’re being honest, last week’s class was probably the most I ever sweated. It was really a sight to see. Shall I challenge that tonight? (And I want to review the studio because I really enjoyed some aspects of it!)

Then I did something yesterday that you probably won’t even believe unless you were there with me: I ran. I just wanted to do something quickly, so before the hubby went into work, I headed over to the gym to use the treadmill and did a speedy 2.25 miles. I have no photo evidence, so it’s up to you whether it actually happened or not.

I plan to sign Nia up for swim lessons soon (after finding a sweet indoor salt water pool offering lessons) and my main worry is getting in a bathing suit–even it’s in the presence of small children. Is it weird that my main motivator for working out right now might be to take my daughter to swimming lessons? Ha.

I guess whatever gets the job done?

The thing connecting my body and working out are my eats. Good ol’ eats. I actually asked the hubby last week if he wanted to do a smallish detox and cut out sugars for a week (or something because I honestly didn’t know if I could even go a week anyways) and his response was, “What is this? Jail?!?” So I guess that’s out the window. But seriously, I like my eating 90% of the time, there’s still a hurdle for the other 10% and I’m pretty sure it all comes down to amounts. But that’s for another post.

I do have a question for you now though: Any posts you want to see in the future? So far I’ve got a request for Fitbit review, and more food eats (adult and toddler), which is all I have in the books right now. So, give me more!

I also have a legit recipe coming up for you soon, too.

Categories
Home

My Fitness Motives

I first wanted to say thank you for all the congratulatory comments yesterday. I’m hopeful that this new space will work out perfectly!

Next, I wanted to clear something up: just because I switched to a blog with “run” in the title does not mean I am any less interested in good food! Remember how I said yesterday that ALL the other things in my life are what make for happy running conditions? Well, food is a big part of that! You can still expect to see a lot of food pictures on my Instagram feed and recipes on here. I have been slacking on the recipe front, but actually have a new one coming your way soon. I just re-tested it again on the weekend and it still tastes just as good as I thought it did the first time! So look for that.

Now, I wanted to switch gears to a more “fitness-focused” post because well, I’m finally getting back into the swing of things. The hubby had kind of said for the new year that he wanted to get moving somehow and some way, every day. I was definitely on board for this, too! I find as a SAHM that I can get used to just going through the notions of home-life and push fitness to the back of my mind.

No more, my friends! And that’s why I’m here to tell you about my fitness motives.

I never knew that this first thing would make a million times difference, but it does: waking up early (6-6:30am) and working out right away. You know how good it feels knowing it’s only 7:30 in the morning and you’ve already worked out that day?! It makes me feel like a million bucks. It means I have SO many more hours to do other things. Versus what I found typically happened before: hours would drag on before I got my workout in, and then it wasn’t as enjoyable because I felt like I “had to” work out before I ran out of time in the day. Definitely not as effective. This way, I get to not only workout with the hubby (vs. doing it solo), but we help keep each other accountable for actually getting our butts out of bed in the morning and doing it!

As you can tell from the above picture, my current regimen is based out of the home. I don’t have a gym membership, but we do have a fitness room where we currently live so sometimes the hubby and I will take Nia over there. This allows us to work out with weights and equipment that we don’t have in the home. It helps out the hubby more than me because the weights are heavier for him to use than what we own! We went there on the weekend to do a Winter Shape Up workout, and the bonus is Nia loves the room!

Another thing that’s helping to keep me on top of workouts is the above mentioned Winter Shape Up. Not only are Gina’s workouts hard, but man do they make me feel good. I feel like I’m not in a place of loving my body right now, and instead of beating myself down over it, I’m building myself up. It takes time to see noticeable changes, and thankfully I have another 3 weeks of Winter Shape Up to work on that…and to know that I’m actually doing something about what I’m not happy with.

I’m also learning (only took two years!) that it’s ok to combine my needs with Nia’s. I always come back to feeling like Nia needs to come first, but especially since moving and being away from family and not having the help/support, I know that I need to get this thinking out of my head. My sanity is just as important as hers. That’s why I’m figuring out more things that I can do for her that also benefit me. Take: running to the park a mile away from us. It allowed me to get a 2-mile run in and her some outside playtime. We’re both winning!

And finally, adding some more yoga in! We actually did a bit this morning before Nia woke up and I’m going to a class tomorrow night with one of Tyler’s friends from work. I miss the calmness of it and the lengthening. Ah yes, the stretching that is much needed as I lose my flexibility a little more each day (it feels).

I also think it’s important for Nia to see us working out, as well. She already grabs the 2lb weights when we go to the workout room and calls them “my weights.” Start ‘em young!

Do you have a lot of fitness equipment in your home?