Three Things Thursday: Body Conditioning, Giftcards and Vacation

Hi friends, how is everyone this Thursday? One more day till my weekend (even though I have to work for a few hours on Saturday morning!) Either way, I can’t wait.

Body Conditioning:

I haven’t done much strength training since October or November. As part of my New Year’s resolution to incorporate more gym classes into my workout routines, I went to body conditioning yesterday. The class is taught by Jen, who also teaches the Zumba class I take on Saturdays.  This is how the class is described on the class schedule:

BODY CONDITIONING (BC)
A great way to strengthen and reshape your muscles using hand weights, bands, balls, and body bars.  No intense aerobics, but  classes use the steps for warm ups.  This class is recommended for persons just starting back into exercise, and for those who want to supplement their cardiovascular workout with resistance training and flexibility work.

Sounds easy enough right? haha. I didn’t take the class because it sounded “easy” but it did calm my nerves a bit that it says the class is recommended for persons just starting back into exercise. Since I hadn’t strength trained in a while it sounded great.

We didn’t use bands or balls or body bars, just mats and hand weights. I used 5 lb hand weights, thinking it would be a nice way to start off the class. Most of the people in the class were hardcore and using much bigger hand weights. Still, I felt pretty good about it. I mean…I showed up. Success for me right? We started with a cardio workout , some jump rope, jumping jacks, grapevines, stuff just go get our hearts pumping. Then came about 7 minutes of squats that I was not prepared for. After the squats it was pretty much a blur for about 5 minutes. I was sweating like a beast and I got a little dizzy. I was hot and cold at the same time. I had to stop to get a drink. And this was all in the first 15-20 minutes of the class. After that, I found my groove, but it was still super challenging for me. However, after the hour-long class on my walk home, I felt great. I could feel my muscles were fatigued pretty much immediately, but I said I was going to do something and I did it! Trust me, I almost talked myself out of it. I gotta say, I’m proud of myself. Overall I liked the class and I can’t wait to improve. Today I’m a little sore and I’m sure it will get worse before it gets better, but I’m okay with that.

 Gift Cards:

I know gift cards are in impersonal gift to give (and receive) but I don’t care, I love them! The only thing is that when I have one I want to spend it immediately. I have had a gift card to the mall since Christmas and it’s burning a whole in my wallet (except it’s hanging on my fridge.) I got so many gift cards when I turned 30, it was heaven. I want to be the kind of person that saves  up gift cards for a rainy day, but I just never get that far.

Vacation:

So as you all probably know, I just got back from Disneyland this past weekend, and I’m already itching to plan another  vacation. We are going for a quick trip to Las Vegas in March, but I can’t get time off so it will just be a weekend thing for me. This summer we are thinking about some kind of spa vacation or something like that. We usually spend a week in San Diego in a beach house with a bunch of family, but this year our family has other plans. I need to drop the vacation obsession, because in reality, I’m not getting time off for a while!

What about you? What is your favorite place to vacation? How about your favorite place to get a giftcard for?