This day went from cool and sunny to cool and dark! I think the rain is going to start any minute, so I’m happy I got all my day’s activity taken care of before lunch.
This morning I set my alarm so I could make it to a new class, Muscle Pump Interval, at 9:15. I knew I was going to be gone for a while, so I made a hearty smoothie: kefir, protein powder, coconut milk, Chocolate Green superfood, banana, peach, and almond butter. It was very thick and creamy so I was super satisfied. Then it was off to the gym!
The class promised 60 minutes of muscle moves with cardio intervals. I was hoping it would be as close to boot camp as I could get in Michigan. It was…closer than I’ve gotten so far! The instructor was good. I see her around a lot, teaching Zumba in her halter top, and she’s very energetic and nice. Some of her jokes made me want to roll my eyes, but she had good music, so I’m going to let it slide. Her moves were good too! We used gliders which I loved, the body bar, weights, a resistance band, and a medicine ball. My only gripe was that I wanted better cardio intervals. We did two sets of mountain climbers with the glider, which were hard and definitely left me breathless, but, really, is it so hard to stop and do jumping jacks every now and then!? That’s all I ask.
Just when I had given up, though, she took us out to the main gym floor and made us run intervals (backwards, foward, high knees, side to side, etc). It felt great! Drills on a gym floor reminds me of playing sports when I was younger. Even though I’m in good shape, I’m not a fast runner, so this was a nice challenge. I would have been thrilled to stay there for longer or do a couple sets of this throughout because it was great cardio.
I do think I’ll go back to this class, and I will plan to do some cardio after. Today I stayed and used the elliptical for 20 minutes, stretched, and then went and practiced my serve on the tennis courts. When all was said and done, I realized I was at the gym for two hours! I wouldn’t normally say, “OK today I’m going to do a two hour workout!” but when you try different things and break it up, time really flies. I used to go to sports practices for two or three hours, and that never seemed like a big deal.
After that I had to run some errands, so I was seriously ready to eat by the time I made it home. (I am glad that my smoothie held me over for as long as it did though! It looks like that combo has four-hour staying power.) For lunch, I made a big green salad with grilled chicken, chickpeas, green peppers, tomatoes, red onions, and cucumber, topped with balsamic, lemon juice, and flax seed oil. (No pic since my salad pics suck.) The salad totally hit the spot! Then I finished with a massive green apple.
This afternoon I need to do some reading and figure out something to make for dinner from our very bare fridge.
Have a happy afternoon!
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