Can't sleep... Ramblings

Exciting news!!!! I finally have my 24 hour fitness membership again!!!!!!!!

Rommel and I stopped by Costco after work to pick up their 24 hour fitness deal. It's 2 years for $370. Comes out to a little over $15 per month - a GREAT deal as long as you can pay up front.

24 Hour Fitness 2-year ALL-CLUB SPORT Membership Certificate

There is also a super sport level membership available through Costco for $650 which is a good deal if there is one close to you. We didn't go for that because my fav 24 hour fitness is half a mile away from where I live - it's only an active level gym but it has THE BEST and most high energy group classes compared to all of the 24 hour fitnesses in all of San Diego, in my opinion.

Anyways, we went home, changed, I made some iced green tea to give me a little energy boost to workout, we walked to 24 hour fitness, activated our membership, and got in a good workout to end the week on a good note!

By the way.... I've used this Costco 24 hour fitness deal before. Both Rommel and I have. Mine expired a year ago and Rommel's expired 2 weeks ago. When you purchase the Costco deal, the fine print says it's for new members only and you can't use it if you've used a Costco deal in the past. But we had no issues at all. I'm not sure if it was because we went in to activate kind of late on a Friday night or if the guy was just really cool or maybe he just thought we were awesome (we are lol).

Anyways.... I should've known not to drink any tea at 8pm.... I'm pretty sensitive to caffeine... That plus the late night workout now has me wide awake past 2am....

I have a busy day tomorrow, so I prepped some food for our lunch to throw in the slow cooker in the morning. We will be having a red coconut curry with salmon, kabocha squash, lentils, kale, peas, bell pepper, ginger, onion, garlic, and cilantro on top of brown rice.

Quick-cooking steel cut oats, almond milk, almonds, dried cherries, dried apricots, ground flax,
psyllium husk, chia seeds, and banana set out and ready to go for our oatmeal tomorrow morning.

I also set everything out to make a quick, yummy oatmeal as soon as I wake up. I want to wake up with up some energy and get a run in before I start the rest of my day.

Relax....

I took a bath in attempt to relax me and get to sleep. I LOVE Bath & Body works eucalyptus spearmint stress relief aromatherapy scent, so I used their bubble bath. Now I'm at my computer with the matching scented candle and a cup of tea with lavender, chamomile, valerian root, and other calming herbs that I'm hoping will knock me out soon...

Random: this is another fav candle scent... from their holiday collection.... smells like
leather and smoke and sandalwood... mmmm.... pretty much smells like a man - in a good way

Barre Battles

So I have this obsession with buying Groupon/Living Social/whatever deals or intro specials for all these different boutique gym studios.... I just love trying and comparing them all! And... I mean.... how can you resist a deal on a great workout? :P

When I first started trying out different barre classes, I tried looking up reviews for different studios and all of them say the same thing... "It's a great workout... blah blah blah..." But it was a little hard to specifics on what made that particular barre workout different than all the other ones. In my experience, all the different companies have a different emphasis and a different style. Even though they are all based on similar techniques, they can be very different workouts!

So here we are with the Barre Battles - my reviews on different barre workouts.

I'll break down each review in to different categories and then rate each category.

Categories to review will be: strength (10 points), cardio (10 points), instruction (10 points), facility amenities (5 points), facility cleanliness (5 points), value (5 points), and other extra notes (5 points).

A few of the studios I have tried and plan on reviewing are:

I will give myself a refresher of all of these over the next few months by taking a few more classes (if I don't currently go to them regularly), so I can write a more thorough review.

In the end, I'll let you know my favs! :)

Cute/funny fitness article: "Which Barre-bie are you? 14 classmates I always see in barre class"

http://blog.rateyourburn.com/blog/post/2012/08/30/which-barre-bie-are-you-14-classmates-i-always-see-in-barre-class-1.aspx

LOVE THIS ARTICLE. SO CUTE & FUNNY!

I'll admit I'm the "overzealous hip thruster" - probably my favorite part of class... I always crack up by myself because it looks like everyone is humping the sky... hahahha. plus in Bar Method it's your last little burst of a workout to get your heart rate up and keep you burning calories after class AND it's easier to push through the burn and force yourself to push yourself as hard as possible because you know it'll all be over soon!

I'm also definitely "the after picture." Not because I'm super in shape, but because I always make my boyfriend feel my muscles and he's getting annoyed... hahahaha. The quote in the little image "OMG! I CAN SEE MY MUSCLES!" is definitely me lol. And I agree that Bar Method has been a "gateway drug" to me for loving all kinds of fitness.