Monthly Archives: September 2013

Teaching Body Sculpting

Food for Thought, Jazzercise

Wednesdays are usually my days off from teaching Jazzercise, but tonight was a little different as I was asked to sub for a fellow instructor who is on her honeymoon! I’m very jealous as they are somewhere warm and tropical, and I’m stuck here in SW Missouri waiting for Fall to arrive. Anyways, the 6:45 class on Wednesday evenings at our center is a Body Sculpting class. It’s a Jazzercise class format that focuses on building and strengthening muscles with a 40 minute set of strength training routines.

It’s a completely normal and widely used class format in Jazzercise centers – it’s just something I’ve never taught before! So last night I was frantically searching through all my Jazzercise materials to make sure I didn’t fudge this thing up. The outcome? It was super fun and challenging to do something new for a change!

Typical classes are around 40 minutes of cardio followed by 20 minutes of the strength training songs. So basically, I cut out the cardio and just about triple the strength training requirements, and voila! You get one awesome muscle toning session.

I arrived home sweaty and exhausted. This little lady is gonna be sore tomorrow!

Lunch

Lunch today was extra quick and half of it was eaten in the car on the way back to work. (I was busy finishing up my bodysculpting music set!) I threw together a salad with romaine lettuce, snap peas, and some more sweet peppers!

photo(29)Those sweet little babies are also getting ready to go bad, so I need to eat them up quick! Still crisp and delicious as of today 🙂  And I had some cottage cheese with a spoonful of mango salsa mixed in for a little extra flavor. After inhaling this, I quickly walked King Mac who couldn’t seem to quit crying for my food! Whiny and annoying as always during meals…

picstitchI made a quick turkey and mustard sandwich on wheat to finish off my lunch. This was eaten as I was driving back to work, and therefore, it is not pictured. There are crumbs all over my drivers seat now as proof though!

Dinner

Dinner needed to be substantial tonight after 2 workouts and a faster-than-normal lunch.

I downed some yogurt as soon as I walked in the door along with a banana. I literally inhaled this stuff so fast that I couldn’t snap a picture! I then hopped in the shower and thought about what else I wanted….decisions, decisions.

photo(22)I decided to keep it carb free and go for some steamed broccoli and cauliflower and ham! The mix of warm veggies and ham definitely hit the spot. And I now have leftover steamed veggies for lunch tomorrow. Win!

And now Nick, Mac, and I are lounging on the couch getting ready for a new Duck Dynasty! Wednesdays really are the best weekdays when there is a new Duck Dynasty to be watched 🙂 I love me some silly rednecks!

Have a great night!

Grocery Ad Day!

Daily Life!, Workouts

It’s Wednesday! And guess what that means?? It’s Grocery Ad Day!!

I Love it!!
I Love it!!

I’m insane, I know this. But every Wednesday I get oddly excited to run out to my driveway and grab the morning’s paper. Tucked inside are the grocery sale ads for the week for all my favorite local grocery stores. Dillon’s is my favorite (they carry the Kroger brand for those of you not from SW MO!), and they always have a fabulous ad that often includes coupons!

photo(30)I have to admit that I’ve developed quite a little addiction to couponing ever since moving into my house Mid-May of this year. This is when I started receiving a daily local newspaper. Every Sunday morning I rush out to get the paper and start digging through the ads to find the best sales and coupons. But this whole process has to begin on Wednesday when I find out what’s going to be on sale during my weekend grocery shopping! I can start compiling my grocery list needs and wants based on what’s on sale. Then, when my Sunday coupons come, I often get lucky and receive coupons for the things that are already on sale. Yay for saving! I’m not a pro, but I’ve gotten pretty good at saving around $35 a week with coupons and in-store savings with my shopper’s card.

HyVee also has one of the prettiest ads. They have amazing designers for their simple weekly ads! I rarely go there (it’s across town), but I love to look through their ad anyways for design inspiration 🙂

Oh you fancy, huh?
Oh you fancy, huh?

Breakfast

Breakfast today was not exciting, and it was basically exactly like yesterday with oatmeal and blueberries, so I’ll spare you the boring pictures 🙂 I was extremely happy to see my cup of Greek yogurt for my snack around 11 AM though. I was starved! And yes, the blueberry frenzy continues!

photo(28)Lotsa protein for a grumbly tummy!

Workout

I think my grumbly tummy was due in large part to my morning workout. I was slightly all over the place, but got in some good cardio and strength training time. That’s all I ask! I woke up at 5 AM and headed off to my gym to complete the following workout.

  • Interval on the treadmill, til I hit 2 miles
  • 3 sets of 15 reps Lat Pulldown
  • 3 sets of 15 reps Bicep Curls
  • 3 sets of 15 reps Chest Press
  • 30 reps on each leg Glute Extensions (at 65 lbs.)
  • Inner thigh & Outer Thigh presses at 70 lbs. for 2 minutes straight a piece
  • 20 minutes on the Elliptical

I was sweaty and oddly refreshed leaving the gym! This is a pretty standard little circuit for me in my gym when I’m by myself. Plus at 5 AM I’m not too creative, so the strength training machines are great for me.

I hope your Hump Day is going great! The rest of my day will consist of work, walking a whiny Mac, and subbing for a Jazzercise instructor who is on her honeymoon! I’m teaching a Body sculpting class format which is way out of my element, but I’m excited to try something new! I’ll see you guys later!

Family, Friends, & Jazzercise

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Jazzercise

Priorities play a big role in our everyday life. Today, I made it a priority to get to work on time, to walk my dog, to say I love you to Nicholas…the list could go on and on. And thinking of your own priorities, you could probably get very profound and serious or keep it on a lighter note and say you made it a priority do something like eat a bowl of yummy ice cream. 🙂

These thoughts come rushing into my mind tonight after I received an email from my Jazzercise center’s owner that one of my fellow instructor’s mother-in-laws passed away today. She concluded her email to our center’s owner (which was forwarded) saying that she would teach tomorrow morning at 5:40 AM and would teach her classes the rest of the week. She just wanted us to know what was going on. Talk about making Jazzercise a priority!

But the point of this is that we need to fill our lives with things that we love so much that we strive to make it a priority each and everyday. Yes, sometimes life makes it difficult to get to the gym or to eat a healthy dinner. It’s probably not going to be the easy route for Nancy to come teach her classes the rest of this week with this burden weighing on her family and husband. But she’s made a commitment to her students and is keeping her workout a priority even through tough times. And if you think about it, during hard times such as a death, a great workout will do a body a lot of good! Endorphins are our friends!

What are you going to make a priority tomorrow and the rest of week? I think I personally am going to make it a priority to keep a positive attitude during my workday and to eat as many veggies as possible at each meal!

So let’s back up through the day…

Lunch

Lunch was mildly disappointing, but I didn’t have time to waste!

picstitchMy fresh cucumbers were yummm. And my Lean Cuisine? Was not so yum. It was steak tips and mushrooms. Not super awesome, but it did fill me up which was a win.

Dinner

Dinner was veggie filled and light! After my weekend of eating too much, I wanted to keep today light to set me back on track. Plus I had a fun and energetic Jazzercise class, which always seems to suppress my crazy appetite for a bit. These Green Giant veggies were absolutely amazing!

photo(19)I ate the entire box (2 servings for 100 cal total) along with some tuna and mustard.

photo(20) photo(21)Yes, I’m a little weird and LOVE tuna. I could possibly eat it everyday. Plus it’s a great protein!

I hope you all have had a great day! Get some rest and we’ll see ya in the morning!