Today is exciting because it is the official first day of summer.  Woohoo!

I think the official start to summer happens on Memorial Day Weekend, but today is still pretty cool.

Let’s rewind to last night!  Lots to talk about!

Pre-Workout Eats

I’m SERIOUSLY low on food this week, but don’t want to go grocery shopping since I’m leaving for Colorado on Friday.  Random salad for dinner it was!

Spinach leaves with a scrambled egg, sliced red pepper, chopped avocado, some shredded mozzarella, and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds.  I actually really love the combo of scrambled eggs with avocado.  You should try it so you can love it too.

Two A Day Tuesday

Last night marked my return to kickboxing.  HOORAY!  I wasn’t able to do everything as big and full-out as I normally do, but at least I could go.  That made all the difference in the world to my mood.  After Kickboxing, I taught Circuit.  It was a pretty crowded Circuit class because it’s Group Exercise Open House Week at my gym, and my class was one of the featured classes.  It was great to see some new faces though!

FYI if you are wondering about Group Ex Open House Week, you can drop in and try out the featured group ex classes for free this week!  We are running a lot of fun giveaways with water bottles, bags, and iTunes gift cards.  The other night in Core Strength we gave away a bag to the person in class who had been a Y member the longest, but tonight I incorporated the giveaways into my lesson plan (noted below).

For the workout, I adapted Fitnessista’s Summer Shape Up Week 2 Workout into a Circuit Class format.  I used her Week 1 Workout last week and loved it, so I decided to keep up with it this week.  I’m going to write out how I adapted and changed the workout below, but her original one can be found (with video demonstration of moves) in the link above.  Do whichever way floats your boat!

Here’s the main circuit I used tonight:

Here’s how I adapted from the original and some notes for some of the moves:

• After the warmup, I immediately did our Challenge #1 — who could hold a plank the longest.  We had a tie!  And boy do I think I need to start making planks harder.  Everyone ROCKED them.  So as people started getting up one by one, I had them jumping rope and doing other cardio moves for way longer than 30 seconds as indicated in the first move above.
• The alternating front lunges with dumbbells by the side were in lieu of split squats — no step.
• **The side plank with leg work** — This was new to me, and it was TOUGH!  We came into a side plank with a light weight in the raised hand.  For round 1, we made the letter “T” so the lifted arm extended straight out from our shoulders, then we brought the arm forward and leg forward like we were kicking for 10 reps on each side.  For round 2, we raised our top legs up and the weight down to touch the leg.  Next week maybe I’ll try the combo like the original workout has!
• In Round 1 of the Circuit, I did our pushup challenge instead of the diamond pushups as prescribed.  Since I had the class doing cardio again as they came out of their pushups, I opted out of the side to side hops after.  In Round 2, we did the 10 diamond pushups.
• We didn’t use stability balls, so I had everyone do single leg deadlifts for hammy work instead of the stability ball curl.  Also adapted the stability ball ab lift with just regular crunch + leg lifts.

Final class looked like this:

Warmup
Round 1 of Circuit (keeping in mind notes above)
Tabata Cardio — alternating between jumping jacks + burpees
Round 2 of Circuit (keeping in mind notes above)
Floor Work — Triceps/Glute Combo and Ab Ladder
Cooldown

What did you guys think of tonight’s class!?

The “Yay It’s Summer” Workout Playlist!

To honor the start of such a fab season this week, I pulled out an oldie but damn goodie themed workout playlist last night.  Every song had to do with something “summer” related.

Don’t be jealous of how cool I am!  By that I mean when I used this last year Jen was the only one who laughed in class.  Last night was a bit better, since I could actually hear chuckling!  I do have a confession though:  I decided since it was Open House week that I would take off the “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” song in fear of nobody ever wanting to come back to my class again.  🙂

Some crowd favorites:  Miami, Hot in Here, Will Smith’s Summertime (LOVE that song!), and LFO — duh.  For those who came to class last night, what did you think of the playlist!?  I’ll be using again in class on Thursday morning.  And next week is my Michael Jackson tribute, so definitely come!  It’s going to be super fun!

Post Workout Treat

Slesh made scones.  Enough said.

Summer 2012 Bucket List

Phew!  Back to what I set out originally to write about.  The first day of summer!  Usually at the start of every season I get really excited for all the potential fun things the upcoming months have to bring.  This usually results in me making some sort of list and annoying Tim talking with my boyfriend about ALLLL the things I want to do.  This year, I’ve decided to share with all of you my Summer 2012 Bucket List!  I know I won’t be able to do everything on here because there’s clearly not enough weekends in the summer, but that’s okay.  Here goes!

– Have a date at Tia’s by the waterfront
– Enjoy roofdeck drinks at Daedalus in Harvard Square
– Watch a Free Friday Night Flick on the Hatch Shell
– Take a day trip to Provincetown
– Visit the Cape Cod Brewery
– Go to the Boston Chowderfest
– Go hiking on a new trail 
– Go on another picnic!  
– Read outside more often 
– Redesign the blog
– Go to the beach at night
– See the sunrise
– Build a sandcastle at the beach
– Make s’mores
– Kick a lot of butt at mini golf 
– Go to a Boston Harbor Island
– Draw with sidewalk chalk and take pictures
– Canoe or kayak on the Charles River
– Make homemade popsicles
– Another gym girls night out that I can actually go to!?  With Jen!? 
– Splurge on lululemon
– Buy produce at a Farmer’s Market or Haymarket
– Have a date night (or double date or group date night) at Providence Waterfire
– Take advantage of brunch!  Two I want to try are the Devlin’s Seafood Brunch and the Captain Fishbones Brunch
– Have lunch or at least visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
– Make at least 3 homemade sangria recipes (check off 1/3 of this!  See this morning’s post!)
– Go dancing with the girls at Zuzu
– More TBD, I’m sure!

Does anyone else love making lists?  I am slightly obsessed with lists, to the point where sometimes I’ll even add something to my to do lists that I’ve already done for the mere satisfaction of being able to cross out an extra thing.  I think this may be borderline crazy, but I don’t care.  Bring on the lists!

Anyone else excited for the start of summer?  Who liked the Summer Playlist last night?  What’s on your Summer 2012 Bucket List?  Anyone else share in my list obsession?  I know you’re out there.

Busy day ahead between PT, heading into the office, and a work outing tonight.  Won’t be back until tomorrow!  Have a fab day 1 of Summer 2012!