Kickin' It Up a Notch

When you're a stay at home mom, like me, some times it's easy to just sit back and take things as they come.

There really isn't much that comes along to break me out of my comfort zone. When I was working, it seemed like projects came up all the time that were challenging and I'd learn something.

But since I stay at home, those opportunities are fewer and farther between. Sure, I could volunteer more for the PTSA, but that's not really my cup of tea. I'm more than happy as Room Mom (and that was a big stretch for me last year), and doing little bits and pieces, but it's not really breaking out of my comfort zone.

This weekend, I took a page out of the CrazedParent Notebook and "dove in" so to speak. I did something that I thought would break me out of my comfort zone and at the same time do something for me.

I signed up for a kick-boxing preview class. I took the class today.

This was not a class at a fancy gym with juice bars and all sorts of fitness equipment and girls wearing make-up and boys pumping iron to impress.

No.

This was a class at a boxing gym. I had visions of me walking into a "Rocky" style gym with hard core men training for boxing matches.

Thankfully, that was not so. The people there were so nice. They took the time to explain everything to me, how to do the punches and kicks. The class was mostly women, but there were some guys too.

And it Kicked.My.Bum!

I really didn't know if I was going to make it past the 5 - 10 minute warm up that they had! During the class the instructor would come up and work with me (and the others that didn't know what they were doing) and show us what we needed to do and how to do it.

It was, hands down, the best, hardest, sweatiest work out I've ever had.

I am already feeling the effects of the class. My muscles are tired and achy and I'm exhausted!

I know I will sleep well tonight, but boy oh boy will I be paying for it tomorrow - and Friday too.

New Year's Resolution

I'm just a few days short of my 1 year "Blogaversary" and this post marks my 200th post!

My first post was mostly pictures from our Christmas trip to Perdido Key. My best friend let us use her condo and it was fantastic!

I've had lots of fun blogging this year and I've meet some really nice people through blogging and Maya's Mom. It's been lots of fun! One of my favorite Bloggy People is Elizabeth over at Table for Five. She's such a fun person, she's so helpful and nice! I was really excited when we met this summer at my parent's house. I hope to catch up with her again next July when the boys and I are in Michigan.

Elizabeth has a New Years Resolution Blogroll thing going on over at her blog. She and her family have made a resolution to only eat out one night a week this year. They are saving money for a family trip in December. And, because she's such a nice person, she's decided that she'll host a blogroll for those that also decide to make resolutions and then we can support each other.

So, my Resolution this year is going to require training for most of the year. Remember back in November I wrote about a community event we have here called the James R. Sargeant Legacy 5K Lung Cancer Survival?

Well, next year I want to run the 5k. I know, to those of you that run regularly 5K is nothing. For me it's a lot! So right now I can run 4.5 MPH for about 23ish minutes. My goal is to get that up to 40 minutes which should bring me to right around 5K. And then if I can bring the speed up to 4.8 or so that would be good too, but my "main goal" is to get to 5K.

I'm fairly confident I'll be able to do it. I have until November to work my way up. We have the best treadmill ever here at home so I figure once I get up to speed on the treadmill, then I can start running our "circle" which is the 5k route.

I'm a bit nervous about this, but also excited to have a reason and purpose for my Goal. It's much better than "going on a diet" and "exercising more" and "losing weight." While all those are good they are just too vague. This way I have a tangible reason for my resolution and a goal to achieve it.

So, there. Now I've put it out there, I have to do it.

Wish me luck!