Tag Archives: YMCA

Fitness Friends Weekend!

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Well hello there.

The weekend is winding down, so I thought I’d sit and push through a post via my iPad. Since the last time I checked in, my Boston gym friends Athena and Ashley drive out to stay with me for the weekend. I had so much fun. And I think they did too. I seriously just really loved having a healthy dose of girl time- filled with good food, drinks, a workout, and fitness talk (my secret favorite indulgence).

Once they arrived Friday afternoon, we headed over to Davidson’s for some food and drinks. We split nachos and I had a bison burger (I keep wanting to ‘moo’ when I say Burger, but since it’s a bison..I’m a little lost as to what noise to make. Ok wait, I just googled it- YUP I’m making this noise and this face every time I say Bison. From now on.)

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Saturday, we went to the gym. Obviously! I didn’t take any pictures, so…..sorry. But Athena did and she will probably post them on her blog soon! We chose to do 2 ROUNDS of the deck of cards workout. For the first round, we designated the following:

Diamonds: push-ups
Clubs: burpees
Spades: reverse crunches
Hearts: weighted squats

I shuffled the deck, then got to flipping. For each card, we would do that number of reps for the designated suit. 10 reps for Jacks, Queens, and Kings; 11 reps for Aces. (If you do the math, that’s 94 total reps for EACH move.) 52 cards later- we were only halfway through our workout.

After a quick break, we broke into round 2. For that, we switched the exercises:

Diamonds: tricep dips
Hearts: kettle bell swings
Clubs: jump pliés
Spades: V-ups

We were sweaty. We were shaking. We were tired. we were happy to be done. Phew!

Sidenote: just the day before- Friday, before the girls came- I had done Workout C for this phase of Best Body Bootcamp. It was an endurance strength workout which had us doing super sets of exercises repeatedly until we reached 100 reps for each- then we would move onto the next superset. It included weighted squats, lunges and push-ups (among several other exercises), so I was already feeling the burn by the time we did our two deck of card workouts!

Late lunch was at Rock Hill Bakehouse. One of my favorite lunch places to hit up when I am back home. Vegetarian black bean chili and a spinach salad.

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Last night, we had my parents drive us down to Saratoga. (Responsible adults, since we knew we would be drinking!!) We stopped into Cantina. There were a few rounds if Pomegranate margaritas first…..then dinner. and another round.

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And the only photo I got of the three of us:

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We managed to stay there for a bit, but did go to another bar were I had two of the best beers ever.

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After the girls left today, I managed to have a nice salad plate topped with eggs, some melon, AND-although being incredibly sore from yesterday’s workout- I used my ‘off’ day from workouts as an active rest day and walked 4.5 miles on the treadmill.

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That’s all I have for now! I wrote this entire post with the towel still on my head, so on top of nearly my entire body being sore, my neck is as well!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Question: have you ever done the deck of cards workout? If so, what exercises did you do?

Winter is here and I hate pants

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Yesterday morning was terrible. Terrible in the sense that I was reminded of WINTER.

 

 

 

 

 

Layla loved it though. She was stretching in it, and plowing her nose in it. And basically wouldn’t leave the front patio for about an hour. I, meanwhile, was wrapped in blankets and guzzling coffee and sitting in front of one of the vents all morning trying to keep warm.

I finally got my ish together and had a phone conference with one of my professors. I couldn’t help but picture this lady from Go On.

 

(Source)

 

The one on the far right. She is who I think my prof looks like. And now I can’t get it out of my head.

Looks like Friday night tacos might have to be changed to fajitas because of the dang beef recall. As if beef here wasn’t expensive enough.

I taught the first session of my new class last night (FYI Calgarians: I am now teaching TRX on Tuesdays at 5:30pm and HEAT on Wednesdays at 5:15pm at the Eau Claire YMCA). I had a pretty good turn out, considering the class wasn’t advertised. And I am not allowed to play my own music. (it’s about some stupid law that the Y has to own the music that is played on premise, blah blah blah) I tried to keep this first class pretty basic because I wanted to assess the fitness level of my participants, and it seems like I might be able to play around with my format a bit. I know I got  great workout, and the mile or so walk back to my car was a nice stretch. And beautiful, might I add.

 

 

And now I must cut my rant short because I have just decided to hit up the mall and buy pants. Yup, the thing that I hate most in life. P-A-N-T-S. I hate buying them, I hate wearing them, I hate the idea of them. But the pants I managed to bring to Calgary with me no longer fit and it’s starting to get a tid bit nipply out, so I think I must grin and bear the torture.

Don’t forget to “Like” my facebook page by Oct 12 to be automatically be entered to win a prize! (It’s a good one. Plus, getting mail is always fun. Unless Tyler randomly wins, in which case, I’ll just throw it on his side of the bed or something.)

Return of the Run

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I believe the word I am looking for is PHEW!

I woke up this morning and was balls to the walls sore. Like, I’m-not-even-gonna-get-up-to-get-a-glass-of-water-because-that-requires-movement sore. But, after a quick gchat with Athena, she convinced me to try a treadmill interval workout. It was good, y’all.

At first, I didn’t think my muscles would want to go through the interval set 2x, but once I got movin’ and groovin’ those muscles didn’t mind at all!

After the treadmill, I used a foam roller to get all those kinks out of my legs, then I did a bit up upper body work. It included:

  • Front raises
  • lateral raises
  • cuban presses
  • skull crushers
  • chest press
  • clean and jerks
  • cross legged overhead press
  • standing knee to elbow press
  • weighted oblique dips

A big ol’ thanks to Athena for helping me get my bee-hind to the gym for a good long cardio session!

******(Insert smooth transition here)

For dinner last night, I made homemade calzones (even the dough was from scratch!) and s’mores parfaits.

Here’s the recipe:

For the dough

  • 1 packet yeast
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 warm water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsp salt

Mix the yeast and warm water in a bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes. Then, add the rest of the ingredients until well incorporated. On a floured surface, knead with your hands for 2-3 minutes. Place back in a bowl, covered with a towel, and let sit for 1-1 1/2 hours.

To make the calzone

Half the dough. For each ball, knead and stretch out to about a 10″ diameter (like a pizza). Add sauce, fillers of choice (I used zucchini, red peppers, pepperoni and mozzarella) to one half the dough. Fold the other side over the fillings. Take a fork and press the ends together to make sure the pie is sealed. Top with cheese (optional) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes

There were veggies in there, I promise!

The s’mores parfait was even easier.

I made Jell-o cook and serve chocolate pudding (with almond milk). After it was chilled in the fridge for a few hours, I layered it with marshmallow fluff and graham cracker crumbs. Not gorgeous, but delicious!

Good thing I ran like a maniac today after all that food. Woof!

Oh, and Layla says hi to everyone.

Cert. course, Day 1

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I survived day 1 of the YMCA Basic Theory course. It was a lot of repetition- things I have learned from previous courses in the states. But it was a good refresher that also had additional information that fall under Canadian guidelines.

I was a good girl and packed a super healthy lunch:

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A banana, spinach salad and Oikos Greek yogurt. I had an English muffin, but didn’t end up eating it.

Holy crap the Y location where the course is being held is HUGE!

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It’s connects to the local library and another wellness-recreation center. Really blew my mind.

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Yeah… See that? That’s a rock wall- in the foyer. Holy moly.

And the course material?

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Boom. Now there’s a novel I get to enjoy over the next couple of days!

I just got home and haven’t decided what to indulge in for dinner. I’m sure it’ll be something healthy since our afternoon topic was nutrition.

Have a good Friday, y’all.

It snowed

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Hi there, hi there!

I may be a little absent over the next few days- I have a YMCA certification course that runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8:30-5.

(pause)

Why, you ask? Because it’s gonna get me one step closer to being able to get back into teaching group fitness and personal training! I got all the certs in the states, but once I moved, it’s like they don’t exist and I have to start all over again from square one. (wah wuh).

I may check in at the end of each day and recap things I’ve learned (if they’re interesting…).

A couple quick pics from the rest of the day:


after lunch snack of a toasted English muffin with almond butter and apple cranberry butter and a half banana

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dinner: salad with 2 pieces of pizza

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As soon as Layla and I got back from our walk, it snowed. And snowed. This pic is taken from inside the front balcony at 8:30pm. PEE-EM people. It’s light out there!

K I’m off to bed.. Tomorrow is almost going to be like a real work day… Except I get to wear stretchy pants. And I’ll have fun. OooOo burn.