Hi there! Happy Monday! I hope you’re all feeling refreshed after the weekend.

At the beginning of last week, I was feeling bored with my workouts. I don’t really know why, because I feel like it was just a few weeks ago where I said my workouts left me really sore, so that must mean I’ve been doing different things, right? Whatever the reason for having that feeling, it went away just a few days into the week. Between subbing a class, doing an at-home workout and going to my first class at Recycle Studio, I had a fun-filled week of fitness by the end of it!

Last Week’s Workouts

• Monday- I did 20 minutes on the cross trainer before doing 10 minutes of abs and teaching kickboxing at the Watertown BSC.
• Tuesday- It was my plan to go to the gym after work, but by the time I left work it was freezing cold, windy and snowy, so I opted to take advantage of a non-teaching day and head right home after work to do an at-home workout. I based it off of this workout from Athena. I obviously didn’t row, but I did 2 minutes of cardio and core supersets in place of the rowing. My chest was so sore on Wednesday!

• Wednesday- I ran 3.5 miles before teaching a packed UXF Burn class. Dana asked for a hard workout and although I planned it before  her request, I think it still ended up being pretty hard!
• Thursday- I taught SHRED and Kickboxing. I based my SHRED workout off of what I did at home on Tuesday night, and although it was a good workout, it didn’t pump me up while teaching it. Fitness instructors- do any of you ever experience this? You do a workout on your own and love it, but don’t love to teach it? Hmmm.
• Friday- Rest day! Besides my normal walk to and from work… I had an exciting meeting that I’ll share more about with you later 😉
• Saturday- I took a “Reboot” ride with my friend Lindsay at Recycle Studio.

• Sunday- I went to Exhale Spa for one of their Core Fusion Barre classes. Since I bought the Guilt 3 class pass, I wanted to try out different classes. Last week was yoga, this week was Barre. I liked the class, but I think I like Pure Barre better!

This Week’s Workouts

• Monday- I’m not sure what I feel like doing after work today! I received a 3-week pass to the gym in my new office building and they offer a ton of classes so I may try something there during or after work or I may head to spin at the East Boston YMCA. After my class with Linsday, though, I’m not sure I can go back to regular ol’ spinning!
• Tuesday- I have plans after work so I’ll get up and probably do some strength training in the morning.
• Wednesday- The usual: running and then teaching UXF Burn.
• Thursday- Again, the usual: teaching SHRED and Kickboxing
• Friday- Rest- but maybe some yoga when I work from home.
• Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA.
• Sunday- I may be running a 5k in Cambridge with some BSC gym friends. If I don’t do that, I’ll do something else since I think it’s the Super Bowl and even though I don’t watch football, I’ll probably be around people who do… and eating football food (whatever that means… I’m pretty sure it’s not healthy…), so a workout before that is not a bad idea.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I think I’m getting together with someone on Tuesday after work. We talked about going grocery shopping and cooking dinner, which is one of my favorite things to do! I’m also looking forward to hopefully running a 5K this weekend and then rewarding myself with food, drinks and friends while pretending to watch watching football.

January Burpee and Push-Up Challenge- Week 3 Check-In

I have to be honest with you guys. I did NOT want to do the challenge yesterday. I had gone to a barre class and showered and was feeling super relaxed when I got home and the LAST thing I wanted to do was get out of my peaceful mood and bust out 100 push-ups and burpees.  We also did a LOT of push-ups in the barre class, so  the thought of doing more was daunting. I don’t get like this very often, but when I do, I try to honor my body and myself. My friend, Jen, posted on Facebook that she did the challenge for week 3, but not for time because her legs were tired from snowboarding. I was so proud of her for acknowledging this and modifying for it. It’s important to push ourselves, but we also need to know when to call it quits, right? So, I copied Jen and did the challenge last night, but not for time. I modified the burpees (didn’t do the jump at the top) and did the push-ups on my knees and with multiple breaks within each set of 25. I’m happy that I listened to my body and took the challenge down a notch. I know I’m guilty of getting wrapped up in doing things as fast as I can all the time, so it was a big thing for me to slow down, achieve the challenge, but leave behind the competition with myself. It made for a much more enjoyable experience!

I want to hear from you- Week 3 of the challenge… how did you do?  Did you push yourself this week or did you do it without a goal or time? What was the hardest or easiest part for you this week? We’ve got one week left and I hope you’re all going to stick with me until the end!

Questions for you: Did you make it to the gym in the snow storm or did you opt for an at-home workout? Did you try any new workouts this week?