A Little Determined

It’ssss Friday! Who’s pumped? (-> this girl!)

Before I leave for a hair appointment (uhhhh, currently I have more routes than an oak tree), I wanted to share a few things with you. First, two ridiculously quick and easy meals I already consumed today.

Breakfast

Cereal is just about the easiest breakfast I can think of. Four out of the five boxes we usually keep on hand at our house is some kind of bran, fiber, or whole grain cereal. The extra one is for Scott, who generally isn’t too excited about eating “crunchy cardboard.”

To be fair, I don’t think he has even given my cereal choices a chance. In the three years we have lived together, I have not even seen him attempt to eat a bowl of anything with the word fiber on the cereal box. I guess that just means more goodness for me!

Today’s choice is one of my favs: Kashi Go Lean with vanilla soy milk and fresh blueberries on top.

The only cereal that gets me through to lunch is one with fiber and protein in it. Just one serving of this one produces 40% of the fiber and 20% of the protein I need for the day. Not to shabby!

Lunch

Lunch came early today, and I am actually finishing it up my as I type. Yesterday, I made the definition of a loaded monster salad, which basically means I pulled anything prepped and ready to go from my fridge and threw it in there.

When putting these together, I have a goal of making enough to have one or two more salads leftover for the next few meals. Today, I simply pulled my container of salad out of the fridge and added my “meat” and dressing of choice.

Enjoying the exact same salad as yesterday, this one included:

Fresh spinach, romaine, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, red and green peppers, green olives, and a cut up MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger all drizzled in balsamic vinegar + grapeseed oil. Just as monstrous and delicious the second time around!

A Little Determined

Last night I took a Fitness Pilates class. I have taken this class oodles (yes, I said oodles) of times before at my home gym. A few months ago, I found out that my favorite teacher also teaches the class at another location that happens to be even closer to my house. Yesterday was the first time I finally headed over there to give it a go.

Ten minutes before class time it was packed. I’m talking front to back, side to side, stuffed like sardines packed. I looked around a bit and found just enough space to squeeze my mat into if the kind lady behind it agreed to scoot back a smidge. I felt bad, but knew if I didn’t ask someone else would. I got the spot!

As I made my way around the room to gather the equipment needed for class, I knew I was hopping around like an idiot. Leaping over mats, squeezing through small spaces and dodging dumbbells, I was trying my very best not to irritate anyone in the process.

If this was any other group fitness class, I probably would have said “forget it” and come back another day. Seeing as though it was my first time making the initiative to take this class at night at a new location, I was going to make this trip worth it and take this class.

With a FRS Healthy Energy Drink Mix in hand, I was a little determined.

I literally got the last space in the room. When I was all set up, our instructor announced she was going to start five minutes ahead of schedule. The room was packed, so that was her cue to go. Good thing I allowed those extra ten minutes!

As we started our warm up, I was less than confident about swinging my 12-pound body bar in the air from side to side. I mean… one false move, and my neighbor would have been toast! This class time at this location was packed with people who I could tell frequent the class. I would guess that the majority of everyone in there was around my age, in good shape, and not there to play around. They meant business on their Thursday night!

Mid-way through, I couldn’t help but notice the constant energy given off by those surrounding me. There was not one person in the room who wasn’t giving their all, which is an amazing thing to witness. These students were hungry for a good workout, and our instructor gave us a challenging one! Towards the end, I even had to pep myself up to get through it all without stopping. She for sure makes this class time a little harder than what I am used to.

(I usually attend this class at Noon on Mondays and Wednesdays, which I guess would attract a different kind of crowd. At my home gym, I feel like I am one of the younger and more practiced students who attends.)

Even though we started early, we finished at the normal ending time which allowed an extra five minutes to cool down and stretch. My body loved this!

On my trip back home to Florida, I realized how much I miss teaching and taking classes at my old barre studio. To me, this is the closest thing I am going to get included in my gym membership, and it gives me the same feeling of accomplishment after class. Hey, I am even noticing how sore my body is while I am just sitting here writing this!

The point of me sharing my night with you is to hopefully inspire you to find what motivates you to get to the gym. Is it a running group? Is it a yoga class? Is it meeting a friend of yours for spinning?

For me, it is this Fitness Pilates class, and I am so thankful I found it.

If you have never tried a group fitness class and you have them available for you to take at your gym I strongly urge you to give them a try! Generally, there is just about a class for everyone, and you can’t beat the feeling of finding one that makes you look forward to coming to the gym. Really!

Something else that motivates me to get my booty outside to run is races, and I am excited about one I have coming up Sunday! Scott, a few friends and I formed a team for the 5K Foam Fest Mud Run right here in Detroit.

Right now, I am about to head out to pick up our bibs and couldn’t be more pumped to get back to a race setting. I am sure I will have plenty of stories and pictures to share with you after the weekend.

Hope yours is a good one!

Questions of the Day

• What is your favorite kind of group fitness class?

• What are some things you actually look forward to about going to the gym?

It is obvious that my favorite kind of group fitness class is barre. Second to that is any form of Pilates, yoga, kickboxing, spinning, and body pump classes. I love how I feel after taking boot camp classes, but don’t necessarily love them. I still have yet to take CrossFit, and have it on my list to try very soon!