Be-you-tiful Tuesday!

Today was a very busy day! It was my first day back teaching kettlebells. Between our trip to Florida , being sick last week and the snowy weather canceling classes I have t taught Kettlebells in two weeks! It was great to be back through. 

Surpassed my Garmin step counter goal by more than 7000 steps! 

It was a double work out day so I made sure to fuel up with a protein shake this afternoon. 

Chocolate-strawberry Protein shake

1 cup chocolate milk

5 frozen strawberries 

3 scoops Genesoy Soy Protein

Love this artwork on the mirror at class tonight! These ladies are so inspiring and I feel so blessed to be a part of their journey to improve their health.  Be-you-tiful!!! 

Snowy spring cleaning

In an effort to jumpstart some Spring cleaning (clearly I'm in denial about all the snow we have been getting and I'm sure Spring is just right around the corner) I grabbed a huge stack of fitness and running magazines and went on a culling spree. I cut out relevant articles to save in a binder and will recycle the magazines.

I have two of these binders organized with divider tabs of ideas for upper body workouts, lower body, core, cardio, injury prevention and research. 

I even found a receipt from purchasing this one in the Puerto Rico airport from our trip two years ago! Ahhh memories of warm weather!! (read about Puerto Rico here, here and here)

I had a meeting for Thirty-One this afternoon then came home to make dinner and meals for the week. I made delicious chili for dinner. I love my anthropologie accessories (thank you Caitlin and Kristina!!)

A beautiful amenity from our Thirty-One meeting today! It's a wonderful company to be a part of!! 

An end to a great weekend and the start of a great week! 

20 min Cardio Intervals

Im on a roll lately! Heres another great, quick workout to get you in and out of the gym when you don't have a lot of time.

I came down with a bad cold (which you may have read about in my previous posts) while in Florida. So one day I was out running 6 miles in the 60 degree sun and then Saturday I was knocked out by this cold. I still managed to workout Fri and Saturday but Sunday was a disaster and a travel day to boot.  Monday I all I could manage was to try and stay hydrated and fueled.  I started to feel better today and after training a few clients I hopped on the arc trainer to see how I felt. It was one of those "tell yourself its only for 10 minutes" plans and it went great.  After I was finished I had another client to train and then a small group.  I took the small group to a group exercise class that was dance based.  I don't dance. So you can imagine how that went. I was pretty much off the entire class and was just baffled at why my body cant move like that. I mean really, Im a former collegiate athlete! I took ballet and gymnastics as a kid! I sang in the choir! How could this not go well? But we had fun none the less and my Garmin heart rate monitor told me we burned 275 calories during the 45 min class. I kept my intensity very low because of recovering from my cold, so I am sure it would have been much more if I had given it my all.  And been on the beat.

What I did love, was the feeling of not knowing what I was doing and getting another small dose of that intimidation factor that many of my clients and new gym members feel all of the time. I am very sympathetic and reassuring to those members as a rule, but its always a nice reminder to physically and emotionally get into their shoes.  A dance class is definitely not something I would do on my own and is thoroughly out of my comfort zone but Im so glad I did it and had a great time with the group! 

Snowday bodyweight Workout

So unfortunately I am battling a cold and cant go out and play in the snow, but I was able to put together a workout with no equipment for you to try!  As Ive been stuck in bed resting and recovering, D has been out playing with our lab Georgia (and working a lot too). 

Try it out and let me know what you think! :)

Valentine's Day in Florida with an Abs and Buns Workout!

We spent the early part of Valentine's Day strolling through St Augustine.  We toured the Castillo de San Marcos first, and since it was National Park Day, we got admission free admission! :) 

We stopped by Guano Wildlife Preserve Beach on our way back up A1A to our resort at Ponte Vedra. 

The gorgeous grounds of the Sawgrass Marriott Resort

We played a round of mini golf (and I won, by the way!!) We could see the Championship golf course which was really pretty! 

The resort's Spa fitness center which was a more exclusive workout facility.  I was not feeling well as my cold was settling in, but D got a workout in and I did some leg work and cardio. 

After we worked out, we went to the hot tub which is just above the waterfalls in the first picture of the resort grounds. It was really nice to relax before getting ready for dinner. We went out to dinner at a great Italian place called Poppy's.  The portions were huge so I felt very bad about having to waste so much delicious food that I couldn't finish. 

It was a great first married Valentine's Day for us :) 

Two-a-days in Sunny Florida

Good morning from beautiful St Augustine, Florida!!  While the husband was off at work I walked the beach before settling in to study for a bit. 

After studying I hit up the gym for a core workout before D returned and we left for Ponte Vedra, Fl

Here's most of what I did, along why cardio intervals. 3 sets of 15 of everything. Side planks were 1 min each and no break in between sides!! Try to perform a smooth transition without letting your knees hit the floor and staying stable through your hips. 

We stopped to grab lunch before heading up A1A. Yummy avocado, provolone, tomato and sprouts sandwich for lunch. 

We stopped off at Publix just before getting to the Sawgrass Marriott Resort to get some healthy snacks. Once we were settled in D wanted to get a workout in so I joined him at the fitness center for some cardio intervals while he did weights. There's a great view from the fitness center :) 

Busy travel day!

Today I've been going non stop. Do you have those days? I know I need to get better about drinking more water especially on days when I'm traveling. 

I trained clients and taught classes this morning then jetted off to the airport. 

While waiting or my flight I thought I'd make use of my time with a quick workout. It was great to get some muscle building in even without a gym. Try some of these next time your in the airport! 

This verse has been on my mind a lot lately. It's a great reminder of God knowing the bigger picture and having faith when you can't make sense of circumstances. I hope maybe it reaches some of you in a positive way.   -Jeremiah 29:11-

Birthday recap

I had a great Birthday yesterday. I taught  Kettlebells in the morning, followed by two more classes and trained lots of clients. My husband took me to get some new running shoes and out to lunch which was so nice. I had a meeting downtown then went home to take Georgia for a 4 mile hike. I trained a few more clients then had a great workout at the gym with my husband before going home to make dinner. 

We have a big day Saturday so we had a low key evening which was perfect. :) 

Run like me...

This commercial was probably my favorite one during the Super Bowl. Don't get me wrong, I love the Clydesdales and the super adorable lab puppy (If you don't know me well enough to know already, I am heavily biased to horses and labrador pups!), but I thought this was really cool and really unexpected.

I see a lot of preteen girls at the gym who walk around not really sure of what they should do or how they should act or what they look like.  I love the kids in this commercial and how they put their all into each of the actions (run, throw, fight, etc). Especially the one who said it means to "run as fast as you can".  But somewhere along the line we lose that a little bit. We start to care about other stuff.  As the commercial demonstrates we should be proud that we run, throw, fight, like a girl because we are girls.

I am a four-sport college athlete, conference championship winning and school-record breaking girl.
I am also hard-working, smart, and I really like to laugh.

So go on, run like me. Or better yet, run with me :) 
It doesnt have to be fast, it doesnt have to be far.

Most of all: 

  You can make a huge difference in the lives of those around you by being encouraging, accepting, friendly, and helpful.  You never know who you could be inspiring---your younger sister (like my big sister always does for me), your neighbor, the girl down the street, or the one running on the treadmill beside you!  

And just for fun.... a few college throw backs:

(Im on the left) 

Track & Field (5k, 1500, Javelin) 

High Point Equestrian Team

Lax #3

Quick Leg workout

The husband and I went to he gym his morning for a quick workout because we had a lot to do today. It's going to be a big week/month in the Bender household and this weekend was huge!! 

We got to see both of our parents this weekend which was awesome, I got to speak at the Charlottesville track club meeting last evening and had some other super secret events happening and of course rounded out the evening with the Super Bowl! 

So after the workout and grabbing lunch, I took Georgia on our usual hike. It was a bit chilly but nice enough to enjoy the day. :) 

I hope everyone had a great weekend!!