I am trying to do hot pilates/hot yoga classes about 2-3 mornings a week. Other days I go to Zumba or Bootcamp classes. I am inspired by all of these teachers out there like Rachelle at Forblognesssake who are doing great going to the gym and working the equipment on a regular basis. I admire them...I really do. I, however, do not successfully workout that way. I think it is perfectly healthy to be honest with myself and know my limitations. I have accepted that with work and graduate school, my schedule is crazy. I like to do fitness classes. I like to show up, have someone tell me what to do, and go home. I don't want to have to go to the gym with a plan and decide what to do.
I also love to go to classes with friends. I have a membership at Sunstone Yoga here in Dallas, which is awesome. I can actually take a friend with me for free every time I go. It has worked out great. I take friends, my sister-in-law, and even my husband a couple times. I also like going to Zumba with friends when I can. I usually text some of my friends at the beginning of the week to see who is available when, check studio and gym schedules, and then schedule my workouts on my Google Calendar. Then, my workouts show up on my phone calendar and can even be linked to friend's calendars.
I love my instructer at my Bootcamp Fitness class and the women who go. They are awesome! My Bootcamp instructor goes to yoga with me too, so she encourages to push myself further in my practice. It gets a bit pricey to do Bootcamp 3 times a week with my yoga studio membership, so I have been doing Bootcamp once a week. I just went back to bootcamp this last week after almost two months because I had hurt my shoulder about 6 weeks ago, so I took a break from weights. This was me all sweaty and red-faced after that Bootcamp class on Saturday. I am thinking about trying some other classes with weights at the gym too since they don't cost me extra.
I have a lot of autoimmune diseases in my family, so I get a lot of inflammation easily (hence, the red face). I try to listen to my body and make sure I get enough rest and do enough stretching. I am trying to experiment with more anti-inflammatory eating. I try to avoid sugar, dairy, and gluten as much as I can. The last few days I ate all of those things though because we celebrated my husband's birthday and I went to a gender reveal party. This was my husband and I with the brownies my sister-in-law made, which were very yummy.
I have been trying to eat more quinoa and experiment with other gluten-free goodies. One of my favorite lunches lately is a black bean quinoa salad over spinach. It is gluten free, dairy free, and vegan. It is so yummy.
You can't go wrong with black beans, quinoa, onion, corn, bell pepper, and garlic. The time I made in the picture above I also added fresh squash and zucchini.
