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Jennifer Tries....Cycle Bar!
March 9, 2018
Hey there with your bad self! It’s Fri-Yay! Whoop Whoop! I
am so ready for this weekend. I’m going to spend some quality fiasco time with
my sister and niece. It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a real fiasco day.
What’s a fiasco day you ask?! I think I may have explained this before but
there is always room for a recap. So, I am the youngest of three girls. The middle sister of the three and I….well…..we’re the fiascos. At least according to my mom, anything
we do turns into a fiasco. Hence, fiasco sisters were born. And then there’s my
niece, the future fiasco. Every so often we get together and go on an adventure.
We have had some fun adventures, gotten lost, seen some interesting things,
stolen a lemonade stand. You know, typical. Oh, if only I had started this blog
a few years ago. Crazy times.
I’m hoping it stays pretty sunny and warm Saturday. The
weather has been crazy lately. Just when I thought Spring was making its
appearance it was 40 something Monday morning. Um…no. It was certainly weird
since this past Sunday was so nice out. Cool enough not to sweat but you didn’t
need a jacket. So nice. Speaking of this past Sunday, let me tell you about
what I tried! So last week, I received an e-mail from Cycle Bar, a spin studio,
offering me a free class for my birthday. Who knows how they got my e-mail. I
have never been to their studio or their website but I was curious, so I hopped
on the world wide web to check them out. Come to find out, everyone gets their
first ride for free.
Oh wait, I guess I should explain what spin is in case you
aren’t familiar. Basically, spin is riding a stationary bike in a group setting
on steroids. Did that paint a picture in your mind? I think you get the gist.
OK, back to my Cycle Bar experience. So, your first class is free. Great! I
looked at the schedule online, which is very detailed by the way. You can see
who your instructor will be and get their bio, they give a brief description of
the type of class and music they will play. Very informative. We were doing
family things on Saturday, so I thought Sunday morning was the best option.
I texted the hubs to see if he would want to join me. I
totally thought he was going to say no. If you know my husband, he doesn’t
share the same enthusiasm about exercising as I do. Once he’s in the workout, he kills the
game, he can't be beat, but he’s not usually the one to seek it out. To my surprise and joy he said yes! Sweet! We
decided to go to the Sunday 9:30am class. We would get to sleep in a bit but still
get a good workout in and have the remainder of the day.
Saturday evening a friend of ours came into town so Sunday
morning we dragged him to class too. We’re great hosts. LOL. Cycle Bar is
located on Dale Maybry just South of Kennedy boulevard. Not close to where we live but centrally located and easy to get to. When we arrived, we
were greeted by the front desk staff. They were each welcoming and helpful. We
each received a free water bottle. And it is a nice water bottle ok! Quality!
We checked in on iPads and were given cycle shoes. Yes, cycle shoes. The last
time I took a spin class I just wore my regular tennis shoes. This was hard
core.
They directed us to the locker area. The studio where the
bikes are located is a cell phone free zone. We had to leave all of our stuff
in the lockers. While we waited to enter
the studio, we filled up our bottles from their filtered water they have on tap.
I noticed they had body wipes you could help yourself to after class to freshen
up after your ride.
Once the prior class let out we were able to enter the studio. I noticed the prior class looked like they all could use a body wipe or two. What were we getting ourselves into? The studio was dimly lit and each bike was labelled with the number you chose on line
when you signed up. We were guided to our bikes and given the run down on how
to adjust the bike and “click in” our shoes. Once you’re on this bike you are
locked in. No losing your pedals here.
Each Bike was adorned with a sweat towel and a small
weighted bar. Oh yes, there is more to this spin class than just spin. The
class was almost full. I was in shock. Who wants to get up on a Sunday?
OK…..me….but still. We all know by now that I’m a different animal.
When the class started all of a sudden it was Club CycleBar. The music was loud, the instructor had a headset and she was loud. It was
very loud. Almost too loud at points, like I’m too old to listen to anything
this loud and should have brought ear plugs…loud. There were times I couldn’t
understand what she was saying so I just had to watch what to do next. The
music was good though. I caught myself singing along from time to time. I just
think they need a little better balance between the music and the headset
volume…..or I just need to stop being old…I dunno.
During the class we were in control of how difficult it was
to pedal. She would give us different ranges we should be in and we would
adjust the resistance accordingly. We were down on our seat, up out of our seat, we did core
work, we did sprints, we did a lot! Towards the end of the class we used the weighted bar to do
some shoulder, arm and chest work…..all while still pedaling. Crazy! I felt
like such a weiny in that moment because who knew a 4lb bar could cause such
fatigue?! My poor shoulders. Do I even
lift bro?
We finished the workout with a cool down and then got off
the bikes to stretch. We were drenched in sweat. Body wipe please! I have taken a few spin
classes before, many moons ago, and I NEVER sweat like that. I felt so
energized after that class. It was a great way to start a Sunday morning and a
great change in my workout routine. And to top it all off you get an e-mail
following the class with your stats. I came in 8th out of a bunch of
people…..like maybe 20. I was impressed since it was my first class. Go me,
it’s my birthday, not really but go anyway!
I would definitely
recommend giving Cycle Bar a try. If even to add some variety to your workout
regimen it’s totally worth it. Luckily it’s not far from where I work so if I
want to get a class in before or after work I have that option. Maybe I’ll see
you there! If you're old like me, don't forget your ear plugs!
Don’t forget, if you wanna try it out your first ride is
free! So go sign up online and go Rock Your Ride!
If you go, leave me a comment and tell me how you liked it!
Click below to follow me on the socials!
A Little Olympics With Your Carrot Loaf?
March 2, 2018
Hey! How’s it goin’? Did you have a good week? I sure hope
so.
Well, the Olympics have ended. Did you watch the Olympics?
I’m pretty sure that is all we watched in my house for the past few weeks. Can
we all agree Curling is boring? I mean, it’s glorified sweeping right? Whenever
I Swiffer mop my kitchen I should just post that I’m training. Oh curling,
maybe your fun to “play” as opposed to watch. That is how I feel about soccer,
tennis and pool. Boring to watch, fun to play.
Our men’s curling team look like members of the Water
Buffalos. If you ever watched the Flintstones growing up you know that
reference, LOL. They did win gold
though! That was exciting, especially since it doesn’t really seem like the
U.S. has the winter Olympics on lock like we do with the summer Olympics. Maybe
it’s because the winter Olympics are so un-original?
During the summer Olympics there is such variety; swimming,
gymnastics, pole vault, golf, skeet shooting. The list goes on and on. In the
winter Olympics it’s 12,000 varieties of figure skating, 100 different
snowboard events, Skiing events for all occasions such as long slalom, short
slalom, medium slalom, curve slalom, uphill ski, down hill ski, ski around a
track, ski around a track and shoot stuff while wearing retro sun glasses. Yo,
biathlon, the 90’s called, they want their eye wear back. WHAT THE WHAT! I need
more variety Winter Olympics! It would up your viewership for sure.
I really can’t complain because I now want to go out and
become an epic snowboarder. Even though I have never skied, hate being cold and
I’m 34. But you know…..chase your dreams and stuff. My luck I would break
something on my first run. Speaking of which, did anyone else notice there
seemed to be a ton of injuries this Olympics? What was going on over there in
Pyeong Chang? Some dude broke his pelvis, a snowboard chick totally ate it at
the bottom of the half pipe…..like literally….mouth, meet snow. OUCH! I saw so
many little stretcher people picking up athletes and skiing them to safety.
Sheesh.
The Olympics, summer, winter, doesn’t matter, always fire up
my competitive side. They make me want to race the person on the treadmill next
to me, out squat the dude that just left the squat rack, I love it. And I miss
it. I miss swimming and I miss running purely for the competitive nature. But,
what would I possibly compete at now? Maybe powerlifting? I think I could do
that. Recreational sports have been in the back of my mind like kickball or
something. Who knows. As I discussed in my last post I have started taking
Yoga. I have to remind myself from time to time that we are not competing in a
pose off. There are no winners or losers in Yoga. LOL, I mean really, what am I
going to accomplish by trying to win at Yoga? #yogasohard #yogaharderthanme
#zenmaster
Ok moving on from the Olympics. Since my schedule has been a
whirlwind since September of last year I haven’t had time for many things
especially one of my favorite past times……baking. I love to bake. Baking makes
people happy. Has anyone ever given someone a homemade brownie, or cookie or
cupcake and they were sad about it? Nope! But baking takes time. I used to bake 1-2 times
per week. Now I’m lucky if it’s once per month. Well, I subscribe to the
PaleOMG newsletter. If you don’t know PaleOMG get on my level! LOL j/k, she’s
(Julie Bauer) just awesome and you should check her out. Anywho, I received her
recent newsletter and she had a recipe for Frosted Carrot Loaf. I saw her deliciously beautiful picture of this bread and I
had to try it. Luckily, I only had two ingredients to pick up. Everything else
I had on hand at home. The recipe called for Kite Hill Almond Cream Cheese.
Amazon was sold out, so I went on the Kite Hill website and used the store
locator and found WholeFoods sells it. I picked it up on the way home. Cheap?
No, but I really wanted to make this bread.
I was so tired and just cranky by the time I got home last Friday evening the idea of baking a bread, that I had been so gung ho about earlier, did not sound enticing BUT I followed through. Well….even in my exhaustion the bread turned out great! And the cream cheese frosting……DELISH! You would never know it wasn’t Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Even the hubs was obsessed with this bread. PaleOMG knocked it out of the park, again, with this one. You should check out this recipe and her other yummy recipes on her blog.
I was so tired and just cranky by the time I got home last Friday evening the idea of baking a bread, that I had been so gung ho about earlier, did not sound enticing BUT I followed through. Well….even in my exhaustion the bread turned out great! And the cream cheese frosting……DELISH! You would never know it wasn’t Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Even the hubs was obsessed with this bread. PaleOMG knocked it out of the park, again, with this one. You should check out this recipe and her other yummy recipes on her blog.
I took my mom a couple slices of the bread on Sunday when I
went to visit with her. She absolutely loved it. The best part is the recipe
has shredded carrots in it. Any way I can find to get more vegetables in my moms
diet I’m in like Flynn! What is it with older people? They seem to operate in
two extremes. You have those that walk everyday and eat a clean diet then you
have the other half that only eat carbs. Its like the first half want to live
forever and the other half says “Aww to hell with it,” and they just eat crap.
I think based on my earlier comment you know which camp my mom is in. ::Sigh::
If I do nothing else with this nutrition degree my goal is to help my mom live
a healthier life style for the simple fact it will make her feel better. And
show her there are delicious foods outside of cookies and bread she can enjoy. Parents…am
I right?!
The next recipe I have on deck….flourless chocolate cake! I
have been trying to make this recipe for months now and it never happens. And
let me just say, not enough restaurants offer flourless chocolate cake. What’s
up with that? Flourless chocolate cake is amaze-balls! It should be on every
menu. Just sayin’. I have a couple
recipes for it I found on Pinterest that I want to try. Whichever one I choose
should turn out well. Out of all the recipes I have tried from Pinterest I
think only 2 have failed. Maybe i'll do two or three and do a taste test for ya.
Oh dear, I’m getting too ambitious. I don’t even have time to make one cake let
alone 2-3. We’ll see.
Have a great weekend!
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