cardio blast & my weekly workouts

I admit:  I'm a cardio junkie.  When I first started working out & switching over to a healthy lifestyle, it was all cardio all the time - and it did wonders for me, too.  I know there are a lot of people who knock it, but I've always enjoyed cardio 400% more than any other kind of workout (except running - ohhhhh do I hate running).

All winter long I subjected myself to strength & resistance training - and I'm not going to say I didn't get anything out of it, because I love love love my back/shoulder muscles, toned arms, & the way I am finally able to look in a mirror and appreciate that my ass isn't COMPLETELY flat - but as soon as the weather starts getting warmer, all I want to do is jump around and sweat...which is exactly what I did all week long:

Selfies on the beautiful CTC campus.

Monday - I spent the work day at the Chrysler Tech Center, which has a beautiful campus, so I took advantage of my longer than average lunch break between classes (after scarfing down an amazing free salad) to do a few laps of the property, which was blissful.  After my seminar was over, I had a couple hours to kill, so I changed, headed out to Mae Stecker park to do some more walking (now that it's beautiful outside, I can't stop!) and then shot down to Lifetime to take a Zumba class with my friend Emily & one of my favorite instructors. Monday/Wednesday the class I take is super dance-oriented, so I feel like it not only works my body, but also my brain - I was never a dancer as a child so I can only hope to look even remotely as good as the instructor!!

Tuesday - After a looooooooong day at my actual job, I took a hot vinyasa yoga class with my favorite yoga instructor.  She strays from the typical Lifetime Yoga format of sun salutation A, Sun Salutation B, a longer flow, and then some stretching & a cooldown & instead adds a lot more longer, more challenging flows, complete with oodles of balancing work (which is one of my favorite things about yoga!) and a horrible (but awesome) core section in the middle. I never knew boat pose variations could hurt so good.  Then I came home and did a nice few laps around my condo complex while listening to a couple podcasts (the newest episodes of Barbell Shrugged & Strange Brews)!

Wednesday - Met my friend for another Zumba class with the same instructor as Monday.

Thursday - Normally every Thursday I take a Dance Jams class with my all time favorite instructor, but she was having a sub I don't care for as much this week, so instead I swapped Lifetimes & tried a new instructor at the Shelby gym, and he was WONDERFUL!  A friend of mine who had gotten there early graciously swapped spots with me so I could get close to the stage & actually see what moves I was supposed to be imititating which was sooooooo helpful.  The guy who was teaching had lost 100+ lbs doing Zumba, which is what made him want to be a teacher, and he was GREAT. The class was hot hot hot, everybody was yelling and dancing and interacting, which made it a million times more fun than the usual Zumba class - plus he was super interactive with the crowd & got up in your face a lot, which isn't something everyone likes, but it's something I LOVE.  Considering I passed up free beer to go, I'm glad it was so perfect!!

Friday - This morning I got up and went to yet ANOTHER Dance Jams class - I had the day off because of the holiday, and a friend of mine teaches only morning classes, so I never get to go, and therefore I justified yet another bout of cardio ;)  Later I plan on biking over to my parents' house to do some pre-brew shopping & then hit up a homebrewer meeting!!

Saturday - The instructor I normally take on Thursday nights is going to be back, so yes.....I'll be doing Dance Jams yet again.  The more I type, the more I'm starting to feel ridiculous...  (On a sidenote - I forgot my FitBit this morning & I got so upset that none of my steps were going to count.....and then, like a genius, I read the help forums and found that you could manually update your steps in!!  I guess that might just tempt some people to cheat, but I was sooooooo glad my hour long efforts were recorded after all - when I got home and saw I only had 184 steps, I wanted to cry!)

Sunday - AT LAST! Sunday is my big brew day (we're making two batches in one day - never before attempted!) so I need to be up & at 'em earlier than normal, which means I'm taking a super early morning hot vinyasa yoga class. Hopefully it'll stimulate those creative juices & help me make some tasty beer.

And finally, the holiday Monday - A special 1:15 long Dance Jams + Strength class with my favorite instructor and another who I've never had before - I can't WAIT for this class!!

A little ridiculous on the amped up cardio, I know - but I feel great!!  I'm getting my high-impact endurance back, and I've been really rocking out the past few classes, sweating and getting my jams on.  I'm trying to find a new strength class I enjoy to work into my routine, but in the meantime, I love what I'm doing & I'm seeing results, so I'm not going to let anybody tell me too much cardio is all bad!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do your weekly workouts look like?  Are you a cardio junkie or a strength training buff?  Does the weather impact your workout regime?

free stuff is the best!

Greetings from a four day weekend!!!  Between the holiday Monday, my plant (I work as a materials & release analyst in the plastics division of an engineering plant that does tooling, CAD design, foam, seats, plastic injection molding...you name it) being shut down today, and spending two days this week at the Chrysler Tech Center for supplier training, it feels like I've been on vacation for days already.  Fabulous!

Here's another thing that's fabulous: Influenster.  Basically, you sign up (my friend Dannie referred me a couple months ago), go through their laundry list of interests, pick what suits you best, and then take surveys, review products, and answer other peoples' questions until eventually you earn enough "influence" to qualify for free giveaways!  Every once in a while, the site will send you a survey to see if you qualify for a specific giveaway, and if you do, within a few days you'll get a surprise delivery of a box full of awesome free stuff for you to sample:

AND THE SPOILS ARE....

This box was specifically catered to an active livestyle - in fact it's called the #GoVoxBox, because it promotes all sorts of health and fitness related brands.  To be fair, I've gotten a few free things from the company before, but they were all one-offs of featured brands, and while I'm always up for trying out new free things, this is the first time I've been really really stoked to qualify for a giveaway.  As part of the idea behind Influenster, the point of being given all this free stuff is to turn around and share my thoughts on it with the internet - so here we go...

Blue Diamond Fruit Flavored Almonds - This was admittedly the thing I was the most excited about when it came to this box.  I love love love Blue Diamond - my faves are the low-sodium roasted almonds, the cocoa roasted, the salt & vinegar, the coffee roasted, & the coconut almonds...can you tell I'm a fan of nuts?  However, I'm not really a "sweets" person that often, and the idea of "fake" fruit flavor kind of grosses me out, so I was too skeptical to ever buy these on my own, so I was mega-thrilled at the idea of sampling them without commitment, and they were delicious!!  Granted, they were a little sweet for me, and I don't know if I would shell out my own money for them, but they were a really good fix for a sugar-craving, and the blueberry was actually quite good, and didn't taste like fake sugary garbage at all.  Awesome job, Blue Diamond!

PROFOOT Pedi-Rock - This was another one I was stoked about.  Working out as often as I do, I get the grosses callouses on the bottoms of my feet, and no matter how many exfoliating pedicure nonsense products I buy, they just don't seem to get any better.  I used the pedi-rock this morning & while it didn't take care of my callouses completely like those fantastic skin-graters they have at the nail salon, it made a HUGE impact.  My only concern is that it seems like after only one use, the exfoliating outside of the rock was already pretty worn off?  I'm unfamiliar with products like this, so I'm not sure how long they're even supposed to last, but after one use, mine already looked like this ---->

Aqua Spa Relax Collection Body Creme in Lavender Chamomile - I was less excited about the lotion itself and more excited about the scent!  Lavender Chamomile has been one of my favorite relaxing aromatherapy scents for years - when I first moved into my condo I pretty much bought out Bath & Body Works of it's lavender chamomile aromatherapy line & it's been the scent "theme" of my bedroom ever since.  The lotion itself is really nice, not greasy, and really nice for post-shower pre-bed relaxation, but the best part by far is the awesome smell.  I think it's even stronger than the Bath & Body Works version!

The Vitamin Shoppe Next Steppe Fit N Full Meal Replacement Shakes - The GoVoxBox came with 3 flavors of these meal replacement shakes - Swiss Chocolate, French Vanilla, and Fresh Berries.  I'm not a "meal replacement shake" person - they don't seem to fill me up or leave me satisfied - so I can't speak to using these that way, but I have been using them bit by bit as whey protein powder additions to smoothies and yogurt, and I will admit they're quite delicious that way.  I even made Paleomg Sweet Potato Protein Chocolate Chip Cookies with the vanilla yesterday & they were fabulous!  The best part about this part of the giveaway was that Vitamin Shoppe was nice enough to also include a quaint little mini blender bottle, which is the absolute PERFECT size to stash in my gym bag for those days when I really need a quick shot of pre-workout.  Awesome!

Muller Greek Corner, Corner & FrutUp Yogurts - This one was a coupon for a free yogurt - obviously sending one via US Post wasn't quite feasible.  Luckily most grocery stores around here carry the brand & I was able to pick one up pretty easily.  I enjoy yogurt, but again I don't like fake or syrupy fruits (even when they're not the totally sugary processed gross bad ones), and I normally just get plain & add my own mix-ins, so I wasn't quite sure which Muller I was going to choose, but luckily I found a Greek Corner flavor that's just vanilla yogurt with caramelized almonds to mix in - I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to add a whole lot of fresh fruit when I do!

The box also came with a couple other treats - a Vitamin Shoppe coupon for more Next Steppe products, a 16 pack of Playtex Sport Fresh Balance Tampons (which I can't review because I haven't had the need for them yet, haha), and a PROFOOT Traid Orthotic shoe insert that I haven't tried out yet either.

These products were all supplied to me free through Influenster, for reviewing purposes, but the opinions are my own.  Hopefully some of you can gain some insight to some products you might want to try based on these reviews!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Have you signed up for any programs like Influenster?  What's the best free sample you've ever received?

blog version 2.0 (and a little throwback friday)

I keep thinking, I need to make a post about _____.  And then I don't, because it doesn't seem "relevant" enough or "big" enough or "important" enough, and so my blog, which I created because I'm a writing major, and I miss writing and I miss tracking memories & being able to go back to them whenever I want, sits here and gathers dust because the things I feel like posting about don't fit into my pigeon-holed ideas about what the blog "needs" to be about.

And that's stupid.  I'm not a fitness blog, I'm not a beer blog, I'm a me blog and those two things just happen to be what I'm most interested in.  So now I'm going to write about me, and I'm going to write more often, and if you only want to read about the cool things I'm brewing or the cool classes I took, or how much weight I can lift, you'll have to learn how to skim.

We picked the bracelets with the bells because
we love to be annoying!! (My shirt says "I
HATE RUNNING" FYI....but I don't hate dancing!

ANYWAY, to start things off, last night I went to a 2 hour "Spring into Summer" Zumba Bash at Ken
Jackson's Fitness Factory (which is one of my favorite "small" - maybe private is a better word? - gyms/studios, because every time I go in that place I can't help but feel totally badass.  Maybe it's the giant mural all over the wall, or industrial feel, or the garage doors that open out into the parking lot, or the giant tires strewn about and the punching bags hanging from the ceiling, but it's really just an awesome space, period.  I took my friend Alisha, who is really trying to get into working out & being fit, which is great because it is SO fun to have someone to work out with again!! Especially now that it's getting nicer outside, so we've been incorporating a lot more walks & bike rides & outdoor stuff into the routine.

The cool thing about this jam was that it was taught by Ivy Mitchell, Terri Harrick, Nancy Bara, Dru Roby, Terri McCartney & Nancy Graybill (one of my Bokwa mamas!), some super longstanding Zumba instructors in Michigan, and the "theme" was kind of a throwback to the roots of Zumba.  Say what you will about Zumba - yes it's silly and no it doesn't feature barbells and heavy weights and giant muscles, but it's what really got me into fitness a few years back, and dance fitness classes in general are still a big part of my routine, and a huge part of the weight loss I accomplished.  I'll always have a soft spot for it - and it's just plain fun!!  Nancy started the class off saying how they're all 102 years old, but these ladies (and gentleman!) absolutely brought it for two straight hours.  Plus, I've been doing Zumba for about 3 years now, but it's been around for a lot longer - so it was really cool to see some styles & hear some music from basically the inception of the workout.  I'm not going to lie, my favorite dance class at the moment is 100% different - full of hip hop music & club dance styles and full of a lot less salsa & meringue, but it was really cool to go back to the roots.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What got you into fitness & how has it (or you!) evolved since then?