Planks and Sushi- balance people...it's about balance.

Well- the instructor from last night’s class must have read my blog and known I needed to bust out some planks.  We did 10 rounds of 30 second planks-  a few months ago that would have been “Easy Peasy” (as Lilah would say- that’s her new thing).  Last night though, it was rough!  Shaking, fingers digging into the mat, legs wobbling, sweat dripping, - rough.  And today my shoulders feel it!  Tonight I will stick to the challenge and do my Day 2: 20 second plank- I have a feeling I can rock that with no problem, lol!

So after the gym- 15 minutes of cardio on the elliptical, then class- I went home - and per usual, didn’t want to cook.  I had trail mix for dinner.  Fail.  Saturday is the day!  I will go to the farmer’s market and the grocery store, and there will be no more excuses.  Until then though, no promises.  Anyone have any favorite, healthy, no cook, dinner recipes? 

Tomorrow is my last day of work before maternity leave.  I am so excited.  I can’t wait to have a little time to catch up.  Catch up on sleep…. Catch up on laundry… Catch up on cleaning.  It’s been really hard getting up at 5:00 am and getting ready for work after a long night of waking up every 2 hours to pee, or just to lay there with my eyes open for 2 hours – because why not.  So it’ll be nice to have a little flexibility and sleep in a little when I have a rough night.  And my little bug starts preschool, and ballet, and swim lessons, and I get to be home to take her to all these things!  I am more excited than she is!  I don’t see a whole lot of resting in the next 4 weeks- but I do hope to be productive.  Luckily I’ve gotten most of the baby prep done- all that’s left really is washing and assembling the co sleeper in our room, and washing the infant carrier. So I’m ready for ya, Ellie- but no rush, I’ve got lots going on the next few weeks- LoL!

I think that’s all for today- pretty uneventful yesterday… and Tonight I’m having sushi for dinner and probably not making it to the gym… so don’t expect much from me until Sunday or Monday when I’ve redeemed myself and have good things to discuss ;)

Swim caps and bathing suit skirts? Nope, not your Grandma's water Aerobics

Grandma and her swim buddies are savages! Don't be fooled!  A water workout is no joke!

I started the day with Stadiums, followed my Intervals class.  Cardio day, my favorite!  It was a good class, 1 minute intervals of 7 different exercises (sprints, jump squats, speed skaters, basketball jumps, foot ball run, cross jacks, and froggers) we repeated the set 3 times, with Ab Tabatas in between.  For the Tabatas there was a total of three, 1 was bicycle abs, 1 was full crunches, and one was russian twists.  I can feel the twists today!  

After class it was time to see what these water aerobics were all about!  Katie found and tried a workout on Pinterest, and I was excited to try it out as well!  

Warm Up: 5 minutes- Laps

30 seconds - Tread water, Legs only

30 seconds- tread water, hands only

2 mins- water at shoulder height, Jumping Jacks

2 minutes - water at shoulder height, Sprinting

2 minutes - Laps, Dolphin swim

Repeat 3 times

Cool Down- 3 minutes- Laps

Sounds easy enough, right?  Wrong!  Have you ever swam laps for 5 minutes?  Non stop, back and forth, kicking, arms, whole shebang.... 5 minutes feels like an eternity.... In fact I said "This is the longest 5 minutes ever!!"  Katie's response: "that's how I feel when we are running!!"  Point taken. 

After surviving the "warm up" it was on to the next step.  Treading water, while holding your hands up in the air... I knew right away this was going to be a challenge.... I can swim, I am not a swimmer, however.  So anyway, I spent most of the 30 seconds on this one bobbing under the water, fail.  Next, tread water, no kicking,  I got this.  The jumping jacks and the sprinting were completely do able, and very effective.  My arms felt like jello after wards, and I could definitely feel the sprinting in my outer thighs and glutes.  Next, Dolphin swim, oh my.  Back to how I said I am not a swimmer,  I have a sorry excuse for form in any stroke, my go to is doggy paddle... lol. First of all, I didn't have a clue what it even was... luckily Katie gave me a you tube tutorial.... Imagine how much worse it could have been without one.  I decided it resembles doing "The worm"... so envision that, with frog swim arms.... that's what I created to get through those two minutes.  I could definitely feel it working my core, and if I had done it correctly I would probably not be able to bend at the waist today.... At the tail end of the third set, right around Worm time, we decided we would combine those 2 minutes with the 3 minute "cool down" since the 2 minutes of dolphin swim kind of turned into freestyle anyway! so here came another 5 minutes of laps, Not my idea of a cool down!  But all in all, it was effective,  my body and muscles felt tired afterwards, but I wasn't in pain anywhere which was nice!   I would totally do it again, if nothing else for the laughter.

That completed my work outs for yesterday.  I was pretty wore out for the remainder of the day actually!!  Can't say I got much else accomplished at all.  LoL.  Today will be better.

Started the day with stadiums again, and this time I mapped it.... approximately 2.3 miles.  I started it late, so I might be off a little, I'm going to try to do it more accurately tomorrow.  On my way home from the high school I was mentally planning the rest of my day... Laundry, chores, bills, errands, when I remembered that today was the day, the day I said I would conquer that 20 minute jog.  I absolutely tried to talk myself out of it, put it off, think of excuses, but my "passion" won, and I decided I would pull up at the house, and just go get it done.  And I DID!  I did 1.94 miles in 22 minutes, and I ran the entire 20 minute stretch without stopping.  Mission accomplished!  Finally.  

Tonight is Muscle conditioning, yahoo!  I am looking forward to it like always!

Fish and shrimp is on the menu for tonight.  I was going to make Sour Cream and Bacon Chicken in the crock pot, but I forgot to defrost the chicken, oops.  So it is defrosting now, and hopefully I can make that tomorrow.  So for today I have some cod fillets and shrimp out.  I think I will grill the fish on the BBQ, wrap them in foil with a little butter, garlic, salt and pepper... and saute the shrimp in some butter and garlic.  Quick, easy, and healthy, perfect! 

Here is a little fun fact I will leave you with today.... I have to remind myself of it a few times a day.... try it!  :)