Coffee Talk Tuesday #76

Good morning! Grab your cup, let’s have another Coffee Talk Tuesday chat!

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I had a super fun and fit weekend! It all started with Zumba on Saturday morning at Aquafit (I looooove our energetic group, it’s SUCH a great way to start the weekend). I’ve been choreographing super high energy songs lately, and this group meets the challenge!

Then, on Sunday, which is usually my rest day, I made last-minute plans to attend a BBG meet-up in Baltimore. I found out about it on Friday and made the decision to go. Why not? It’s a great way to find a community around the awesome BBG program. I drove to Baltimore, to this super awesome yoga studio in an old church (crazy fitness people do things like drive 3 hours round-trip for a 45-minute workout). It was awesome and worth every second! I even got to see someone from my admissions days, she works for another college. How awesome?!

We had an amazing group, and worked HARD doing a special BBG full-body workout, a partner challenge, and a total move challenge at the end. One cool thing I noticed – since I’m doing the BBG Stronger workouts now, the movements without weights were easier. I remember starting this program and thinking how am I ever going to get through another round of these crazy moves, and now it’s super fun! I can’t sing the praises of BBG enough, I’ve loved every moment of the past year doing these programs. We’re in the middle of the 12 week challenge, and then I think I’m going to try the newest workout – called PWR. It’s also using weights, but way more cables and different movements. I’m a total Sweat workout junkie!

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that in the spirit of the upcoming transition to spring, I’m hosting a two-part fitness challenge–my own March Madness, if you will. The first part is a 2-week, 5-move challenge that you can do anywhere. Here is all the info! Videos and daily motivation will be posted on my Fit with Aundra facebook page. Part two will be revealed soon! I’m working on the final details.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I signed up for a 10k! It’s a race I’ve run a couple times before – Get Pumped for Pets. I haven’t been in a running groove since October/November. It’s been awesome to focus more on my own resistance and HIIT workouts. To make sure I could still run the race (in two weeks!), I went on a run this weekend for the first time and hit 7 miles! It’s amazing what the body can do when it’s treated well. Even though I haven’t been running, I’ve been keeping all the high energy cardio with teaching classes and I do 3 different workouts a week–usually BBG arms and legs resistance workouts plus at least one Buti Yoga workout/week. I want to add barre back into the mix at least once a week, so my next challenge is figuring out when to add it!

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that things are hectic, but going well with my MBRT gig. I was caught off guard this week when a new colleague asked me if I miss working at the College. I actually (maybe too quickly) said no! meaning that it was absolutely time to move on from that office/job/place. With it also being my alma mater, I felt like I saw too much ‘behind the curtain’ and that shifted my perception and relationship with the school. [I originally wrote a little bit of a rant here but realized it was a little on the negative side, so I’ll end the thought here.] My new job involves much more time working with students, and though we’re all learning as we go since it’s a new program, I like the pace and the flexibility with the hours. I typically get Fridays off, and have a few hours in the afternoon before teaching classes to prep, plan, and do work for my fitness business and my newest job with a local gym. It’s a new approach to living, and it suits me super well. I enjoy getting to chat with middle and high school students about the future.

On that note, a question for you to ponder! What job or career did you think you’d have when you were a teenager? One of the questions I ask my students is which jobs or careers interest them today. Are you following the path that 13-year-old you thought you’d take?

(I wanted to be a history teacher when I was 13, but that changed when I realized I could simply study history and then do whatever else I wanted; teaching wasn’t the only option for a student of history! Fun fact: I was an American Studies major and eventually picked up a business minor).

Your turn!