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{Video post} Not a costume

by Fitnessista on November 1, 2011

in fitnessista live,holiday,lunch,snack,workout

Halloween ended up being a fun whirlwind over here:

Teaching Zumba

doc appt

back to the casa to leave out candy for trick-or-treaters

treats2

dinner with madre and nana

fortune 

[Twist my arm, eh?]

followed by some shopping…

A lovely day indeed :)

Remember last week when I said night weeks are over? Apparently it was a joke on me because the Pilot had a late night Halloween flight. I was glad that he flew instead of one of the pilots who has kids, and I just used the evening to hang out with the fam. For the holiday, many of my friends were with their husbands taking their new babies and young kids trick-or-treating (didn’t want to third-wheel it), while my other friends were out clubbing, so mom, nana and I enjoyed a girl’s night.

Breakfast of champions:

quesadilla

Egg and sliced goat cheese quesadilla with salsa

Snacks packed up to-go:

snacks

Organic GIANT grapes, an apple, and leftover sweet potato and black bean chili.

I ended up eating the fruit, but not the chili since I forgot it at the madre’s.

Conveniently, Whole Foods is on the way home and is often my post doc appt treat:

hot bar2

Chicken, miso-almond slaw, lentil and chickpea salad, chicken and a spaghetti squash pile topped with marinara. It’s funny because since we have Trader Joe’s and Sunflower Market here, I don’t go to Whole Foods nearly as much as I used to. Our bank account enjoys this greatly.

Throughout the day I also enjoyed a few mini Almond Joy’s and a Reese’s PB cup :)

So I was a little nervous about teaching Zumba at the high school yesterday. One of my friends who teaches choir at the school asked me to do a 5 or so dances during lunch after a flash mob that they had planned, and that they’d have a speaker set up in the dance room and one outside, so the kids at lunch could hear the music. I was nervous because high schoolers can be a tough crowd- they’re either shy, “too cool,” or will have a LOT of fun and get into it (which is the dream situation). When I taught dance back in the day, my high school hip hop girls were some of my favorites to teach. Today reminded me exactly why.

I have to give major props to the girls in the front, who came in yelling “Zumba!! ZUMBA!!!!” – their energy was fantastic.  No one had seen the dances before, or ever taken Zumba and they picked it up like pros! I was so impressed at grateful to everyone for participating.

Of course things have been dialed down a little bit (I like to get a little crazy out there), but here are a couple of videos of me teaching Zumba with a 31-week baby belly:

My fave dance right now:

A classic (just a snippet since it’s not my choreography):

Feel free to dance along!

The best part was when students came up to me afterwards to ask if my belly was a Halloween costume. They thought I was *dressed up* :)

About to hop on a fun Skype conference call- I’ll be sure to post the deets (and a giveaway) tonight!

See ya later with a Family post <3

xoxo

Gina

{ 155 comments }

{Video} Focus On: Stretching

by Fitnessista on September 28, 2011

in fitnessista live,focus on

Hey friends! Happy Humpday :) Hope your morning has been lovely. For today’s Focus On post, I thought it would be fun to talk about something that we could all do a little more of: stretching.

funny-dog-pictures-important-stretch Source

I think we all know the benefits of stretching, but for whatever reason, it’s easy skip out on a regular stretch routine. We’re actually one of the only animals that doesn’t stretch on a regular basis.

[As always, talk to a doctor in your area if you have specific questions or concerns about your fitness routine and stretching]

So why is stretching so great?

-It helps prevent injury by encouraging full range of motion in your body

-By stretching, you can increase athletic performance by improving flexibility

Some tips on keeping stretching safe:

-It shouldn’t be painful. Stretching is uncomfortable, but don’t let your body feel pain as you stretch. If something is painful, back off, or skip out.

-Hold the stretch, and avoid ballistic movements or bouncing. Bouncing can actually create small tears in the muscle, which can leave you less flexible from potential scar tissue.

-Aim for 15-25 seconds per muscle group, every day that you possibly can – at least 2-3 times a week is beneficial. Focus on muscles you use the most often.

-Save your stretching for after your workout, or warm up for 5-10 minutes before stretching. This way, you aren’t stretching cold [less flexible and tight] muscles. Athletes have been shown to have increased performance when they stretched after an event than before, which I’ve always noticed, too. When I used to run on a regular basis, I always had a better run when I stretched afterwards instead of before.

-Keep up with it! Any gains you experience from stretching (increased range of motion, flexibility, improved performance) will decrease if you stop stretching.

-Check out *this article* on Sparkpeople, which includes different stretch plans and a guide to stretching.

Also, here’s a little stretch video I put together:

 

I wanted to keep it short (around 10 minutes), so I didn’t include every muscle group. It does target many of the muscles we use on a regular basis, and if you plan to use this in your stretch routine, make sure to stretch your lower back and hamstrings (a forward fold would be perfect for this), chest and front of shoulders [my favorite way to do this is to hold onto the back of a chair or a counter with one arm and slowly rotate my body away].

-It’s been a long time since I made a video, so as expected, I’m a little rusty. Please excuse the misspeaks in there, and the fact that I said “Go a little deeper” at least 48 times. Oops.

-If you try the video and would like to do it more often, feel free to mute me and play your favorite slow, stretching music.

Relaxing Noodle Playlist #1 and #2 include some of my beloved stretch songs :)

Happy stretching!

xoxo

Gina

How often do you stretch? What’s your fave stretch?

{ 60 comments }

WMOW: Dumbbell Lateral Raise

April 7, 2011

Hi friends How’s your almost-Friday going? We just got back from our lovely morning walk with little Meal and munched a morning meal (Egg white burrito with salsa, berries) It’s been a while since I’ve done a Workout Move of the Week, but figured it would be a great time to do a shoulder exercise [...]

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{Video Post} FAQs

March 29, 2011

Hi friends How are you? Hope you’re having a fabulous morning. Here’s the little FAQ video we wanted to do for you guys (The list of questions we picked from were on *this post*) The topics we chose for this video: -Our ethnicities -Do we do a joint bank account or separate? -The Pilot’s tips [...]

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{Video Post} Pros and Cons of Deployment

March 18, 2011

1. Pro: You get the entire bed to yourself. (Unless you have a puppy snuggler, but it still isn’t the same) Con: You go to bed alone, every.single.night. 2. Pro: You don’t have to worry about cooking fancy meals. Con: Instead, you end up eating a LOT of eggs cereal and soup. 3. Con: The [...]

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{Video Post} Traveling Snacks

February 24, 2011

Hey hey hey! How are you? Hope you’re having a great morning <3 Thank you so much for all of your lovely comments on the reader’s request post.  We find out TOMORROW (or so they say…) where we’ll be stationed. The anxiety is KILLING ME– I just want to knoooooooow Even crazier, I’ll probably be [...]

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WMOW: No Place Like Om

December 27, 2010

Hi friends! Happy Monday to ya! How’s your morning going? _____________________________________________________________________________________________ I loved reading about your best accomplishments from 2010. A 2010 re-cap will be going up later this week, but a little head’s up that I’ll be posting my 2010 inspiration board next Monday. If you have a blog and would like to join [...]

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No Matter Where I am…

December 9, 2010

I’m never that far from “home” Heh hehe. How are you guys?? It’s almost Friday! And we’re almost to Tucson- it’s our last day of driving Madre and I have had a blasty hanging out –I may have taught her the lyrics to the Nicki Minaj “Bottoms Up” rap- and the puppers have been amazing. [...]

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