Weekend, Bulleted.

We had a weekend chock-full of fun. And now I'm hurting b-a-d (we'll get to that).

Here's the weekend, bulleted.

+ Friday post-work drinks with best friends at Mellow Mushroom

+ The old standby Friday night dinner on the couch: pizza with pepperoni, black olives, red onion

+ Watched Rush and gained a new perspective on narcotics officers (scary)

+ Saturday morning: first pumpkin spice latte of the season

+ Visited a pumpkin patch with friends and got a cute, bumpy pumpkin

+ Parents came into town for a visit and to see our Halloween decor

+ Mall trip with Mom (always fun)

+ Cookout at the house with friends

+ Stayed up WAY too late, past midnight (yawn)

+ Apple cake (this one) and coffee for breakfast ... a perfect pairing

+ Sunday afternoon Flywheel class - OUCH OUCH OUCH

+ Long Island Medium marathon (hooked. I'm a believer)

+ Hubby-made wings and coleslaw for dinner with Breaking Bad

+ Kindle reading and 10pm lights out

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Okay, so here's the Flywheel deal. Two of my girlfriends take this class and I've always been too intimidated to join (history: I have taken one spinning class in my life and I walked out of it halfway through which I have NEVER done!). 

en route to Flywheel. nervous.

Yesterday our Flywheel studio hosted a special first-timers only class. It was completely free and only open to those who had never taken the class ... everyone on the same page. They had us to come early and get a studio tour, hooked us up with our clip-in shoes, and gave us help getting on the bikes and adjusted for our comfort. 

This class is NO JOKE. I was sweating and huffing and puffing and going way under the suggested RPMs, and today my buns are so incredibly sore (not as much from the exercise as from the hard seat!). My knees are crazy sore as well. Oh, and all of my other muscles too. I'm hurting bad but it truly was a lot of fun -- a great instructor, a jammin' playlist, and a heck of a workout. Plus they had a leaderboard up at the front of the class so you can see your stats and compete against your fellow spinners.  Very cool.  I'll be back ... after my body heals from yesterday's class!

Workin' On My Fitness

Working in a health-related field, you would think that I make workouts a priority every day.  Well -- let's just say that I have a little room for improvement.  Staying healthy overall is a daily goal I strive to meet, but sometimes I find myself in a predicament like I did last Friday ... it was 2pm and my calorie tracker on My Fitness Pal showed that I had 127 calories left to consume to stay under goal for the rest of the day.  Yikes.

Double yikes was that I'd already planned on having copious amounts of red wine and Chinese takeout that evening to soothe a bad day.  So, that happened.  And it was more than 127 calories.

The easiest way to offset that situation would have been to get in a post-work workout, which didn't happen this time around, but it's something that I'm vowing to make a priority this week.

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Arms are a big priority to me, especially after I stumbled upon some wedding photos last night, reminding me what they are capable of looking like (most certainly different than how they look now).  

I do keep a 5lb and 10lb free weight under the couch for commercial breaks, but I need to improve the frequency on using them.

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One thing that I truly believe is that a gym membership can make working out easier, but it's not a necessity. There are so many exercises you can do at home using your own body weight as resistance. I need to print out this chart below as a reminder of a 6-minute workout that can be done at home or in a hotel room on a towel while I'm traveling.

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So, this week I vow to do the following:

// Do some sort of workout every day, logging any neighborhood walks on my Map My Run app

// Make a concerted effort to eat healthier and log my calories on the My Fitness Pal app

// Always have my water bottle nearby

// Stick to our detox Monday and detox Tuesday schedule (no alcohol these nights)

If you are on My Fitness Pal and want to see what I'm logging for exercise and nutrition, you can find me there under the username April8228.

To keep me accountable, I'll share my week's progress on Friday's 5 On Friday post.  Feel free to join along!