Today I went on a little road trip for my FWOM workout. All the way to sunny Nottingham to check out the free "Meet me at the barre" barrecore workout at the Sweaty Betty store.
First of all, Sweaty Betty is one of my favourite ever sportswear brands. When I arrived I instantly saw about 5 things I wanted to buy on the spot:
Everything in the store is carefully designed with super soft fabrics and cute feminine details :)
When it came to the actual workout I was a little nervous. Unsurprisingly, it was an all girls group which was good but 18 people had turned up instead of the maximum of 13 and we did the class in the store which isn't huge, so it was a little cramped and uncomfortable at times.
The barrecore was a combination of yoga movements and stretches with pilates/ ballet elements mixed in.
I think I enjoyed the yoga poses the most, which made me want to take a straight yoga class!
These were my favourite poses:
Today's FWOM was a 10 Minute Solutions DVD : Belly, Butt and Thigh Blasters with a resistance loop (included with DVD)! I have mentioned 10 Minute Solutions before they are really great if you are pressed for time as you can either do one 10 minute section or 2 (as I did today) or all of them, and you can select the order you want them to play in to create a custom workout.
Today I did the Better Booty Camp and Trim & Toned Tummy. The toning loop took some getting used to but the workout was really fun and I liked the novelty of doing familiar ab and lower body moves with the added resistance.
The instructor is good and the presentation easy to follow. Will definitely add this to my go-to quick workout shelf :)
A little video to give you a taste of the moves.
Lunch today was great, inspired by the yummy cafe lunches I have been having lately. I made a salad with leafy greens, carrot, cucumber, kiwi and roasted seeds. With sides of homemade Cannellini bean hummus (recipe from the veg everyday book) and half a warmed chapati and some slices of Cheshire cheese with apple and chutney.
I don't usually have such elaborate lunches...it was delicious! :)
Dinner was "vegeree", again, taken from the Veg Everyday Cookbook. Kedgeree (with fish fingers) was a childhood favourite but this 'grown up' version included oven roasted aubergine and courgette with onion. To be honest, I was disappointed with this dish, I thought it was going to be great but it was a bit dry. I added the spice to the veg not the rice and it ended up a bit bland. My boyfriend makes amazing pilafs and so I think I was judging this by a too high standard..would maybe be better with a curry paste not powder. Still the rice and eggs were yummy!
I have been in a very covetous mood today. I really fancy some new tshirts for working out and some new strength training trainers and some cute but comfy shorts. Hmmm...
It's no secret that I love the American Biggest Loser programme. Or that I love Jillian Micheals exercise DVDs but I have never, until today, tried a Bob Harper workout. I thought the 25 minute beginner section of his Pure Burn DVD was a good place to start. The workout is based on strength exercises using dumbbells with a constant progression through sets, the main focus was on the upper body and some ab work.
I really liked the format of the workout, Bob explained the moves well but didn't talk too much and there is a bar on the bottom of the screen which shows you which move you should be doing and how much time you have left which was really helpful.
Here is a little taste of the kind of exercises you do in Bob's workout.
Today I had two slightly weird but delicious food combinations.
For lunch I had two toasted crumpets with baked beans.
And for dinner I had pasta shells with chickpeas and cheese with oven roasted ratatouille. Both from the veg everyday cookbook. I admit a slightly weird meal, but yummy!
Do you like any slightly strange food combinations, that shouldn't go together but are super tasty?
