The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Reebok.

Last week I got the pleasure of attending a crossfit workout in Union Square. I went with 3 other FitFluential bloggers to experience an outdoor, FREE, workout. I have done a couple other Crossfit workouts in the past and really like them. I would definitly do Crossfit more if it fit in my schedule, but right now I can’t make it work. I know I’m going to get in a good workout when I do it, so I was looking forward to it.

The workout we did was intense. We did a warmup and then a WOD. The warm up was 20 toe taps and then 10 pushups. The WOD was 3 shuttle runs (back and forth was 1), 10-1 jump squats, shuttle run, 1-10 burpees until finished. This means the first time you do shuttle run, 10 jump squats, shuttle run, 1 burpees. Next time you do shuttle run, 9 jump squats, shuttle run, 2 burpees and so on until you complete the workout. It was TOUGH. I love/hate burpees, so I was happy when this was over…like everyone else. It was fun doing a workout outside even if it was hot and humid. The coaches were super motivating and walked around giving tips and helping people make adjustments on their form.

Reebok sent me an awesome outfit. Crossfit top, shorts and then Nano 4s. I’ve never worn them before they sent them, but since then I’ve worn them 5 times to workout and I love them.  They are super comfortable and pretty flashy! I love the colors. Nano 4′s are availiable at Paragon Sports. The RopePro over the top is made to be durable for rope climbs and there is built in shock absorption in the forefront and heel.

FREE workouts are offered all summer long on Thursdays until August 7th. Reebok Crossfit workouts are at 9 am. If you’re interested in trying a class or just want to attend one outside, then go for it. The coaches were awesome and we had a lot of sweaty fun.

Happy, happy SPRING. We’ve all been waiting a LONG time for this day…I think I woke up in an immediate good mood (even though I thought it was Friday). Now if only the 50′s+ would stick around.

Fitness! I haven’t really blogged about anything fitness related in awhile, not because I’m not exercising, because I am. More because there’s nothing really to report or talk about. I’ve been doing the Best Body Bootcamp program for awhile now, which is 3 days of strength and 3 days of cardio.

My treadmill and I have become besties since I became a mom. Is it ideal? No…but I don’t mind it and there’s really no way for me to run otherwise. Eventually maybe I’ll try stroller running again if Liv is up for it, but you all probably already know I’m quite obsessive about my routine and I prefer waking up at 5:40 and getting my workout done first thing before anything can go wrong.)

This morning I read a great blog post, Confessions of a Former Cardio Queen, from Jill Fit about doing endless cardio. I loved this post because I could relate to it 100%. I’ve written before how I used to be a cardio queen. I would do 45-60 minutes of cardio a day and anything less “didn’t count”. The only thing that really broke me of that was pregnancy and then becoming a mom. I’m so glad to be free of feeling like I “need” to do a certain amount of cardio/miles/minutes because I just don’t have time for it. Not to mention it’s not a healthy way of thinking. Like Jill said in her post, it becomes an obsession. Check out her post for solutions and tips to help get out of that obsessive mindset.

If I had the time I could totally fall into that trap again. It’s easy to feel like more cardio = better, but I know it’s not. When I participated in the FitFluential burpee challenge I had to be careful not to do it in addition to my walks or runs…and it’s exactly why I didn’t participate in the March miles challenge. I get obsessive and it’s just not healthy for me. Once I commit, I commit and I didn’t think it was smart or good for me to do 100 miles in March. (Now, I’m not saying it’s not an excellent challenge for people to MOVE MORE…people who can use it to motivate themselves! If I could do it without going overboard, which for me, this would be over board than I would have participated.)

It’s so easy to feel like you always need to be doing more, pushing yourself more. If you’re on instagram chances are you follow people who are always challenging themselves to be faster, stronger, lift more, get leaner, eat better. It can come off like people are striving for perfection when it seems like they’re not happy with where they are. I’m currently in a state of status quo. I’m not really striving for anything right now (on a personal fitness level)…and I haven’t been for awhile…and that’s okay. We don’t ALWAYS need to be working to better ourselves. I’m happy where I am right now and I probably will be for awhile.  I also feel like something’s gotta give. For me, I can’t be working on ALL aspects of my life ALL of the time. Pick what you want and need to work on and do it. Right now my family, house and work are coming in above working on anything fitness related…even though I fit it in daily. I hope this makes sense.

Disclaimer: I’m NOT saying you shouldn’t work to make yourself better…or if you are working to get stronger/leaner/faster that it’s bad. I AM saying you need to do what’s right for you..and if that means running under a 6 minute mile or deadlifting 200 pounds do what’s right for you because it’s right for you…not because the person in your virtual community is doing it.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel the pressure to be working on your fitness or to be the “perfect” version of yourself?

Wednesday…middle of the week and more ice/snow/rain. Ick. Does anyone think this is the worst winter ever (literally)? I can’t remember a winter where we got so beat down with snow week after week, or day after day at this point!

I haven’t written about fitness in awhile. Right now I’m doing Tina’s Best Body Bootcamp. I think this is my favorite round, out of all of them. It’s so tough! My arms are so fatigued from Monday’s workout.

In the past couple of weeks I got the amazing chance to workout with Jillian Michaels and then last week I attended Under Armour’s Super Bowl workout in Grand Central Station with Natalie Uhling. It was such a fun workout broken up into 3 parts. First 20 minutes was kickboxing, second 20 was boxing with gloves and third 20 was leg and core work. It was a TOUGH class and we were all dripping. I haven’t taken a group fitness class in um…over a year and a half. I’m so used to working out on my own, it was nice to hear music blasting and get energy from the others in class.

With my friends Christine & Megan! 

For awhile there I was just skating through my workouts and runs. I was getting them done, but I wasn’t really pushing myself to increase weights or get faster. That’s totally fine, but a couple weeks ago I decided I’d like to try and get faster. I’m not following any particular plan I’m just actually pushing myself to increase my pace and pick up heavier weights.

I’m totally fine with the fact that I wasn’t working on increasing speed or my weights for awhile. I feel like we don’t always need to be working to get faster, stronger, better. I was working out because I enjoyed it and I felt/feel good afterward.  There’s so much pressure on social media to always be working SO hard and getting stronger, leaner, more fit. There’s nothing wrong with that, I just worry that it can be a bit much at times.

You have to do you. Don’t compare yourself to the next person’s 6 pack, lean arms or 7 minute mile. There’s so much inspiration out there and if that’s what you need to get you moving so you can be healthy (and reach your goals) then that’s great, but it’s important to recognize when it’s not healthy and it’s affecting you in a negative way.

Going along with that, there is a FitFluential Burpee challenge. FitFluential teamed up with Under Armour to bring this burpee challenge, complete 1000 burpees by February 28th and use the #FFBURPEE. I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to commit to the challenge.

First of all 1000 burpees is a lot! It breaks down to about 33 a day (it started before Feb 1st.) I didn’t want to do 33 a day because I didn’t really feel like I should be doing burpees every single day….or on days that I run. (Again this is MY feeling for myself!) I also know myself and my workout past, which involved doing 45-60 minutes of cardio every day. I didn’t want to get in the habit of adding these burpees onto my workouts and then making workouts go 1.5 hours. I just don’t have time for that. And I didn’t want to get back into that mindset of more, more, more cardio. I only walk 20 minutes on days I strength train (M,W,F).

I decided in the end it would be fun to do the challenge, but for every 10 burpees I did, I would exchange that for 1 minute of my walking time. (So if I did 50 burpees, I’d only walk for 15 minutes after). I’m breaking it down by doing 50 burpees Monday & Wednesday and 138 on Friday. I just will do burpees for cardio on Friday and just walk for a couple of minutes to warm up/cool down.

I made it work for me…in a healthy way, for me. My workouts still are between 45-60 minutes and that’s it. No more. Again, if you are inspired and want to do this, then GO FOR IT! If it’s going to affect you in a negative way, feel free to PASS.

For different burpee workouts check out Lindsay’s Burpee or Bust post she has tons of different burpee workouts for you to try!

What do you think? Are you doing the burpee challenge?

*Something cool: I received Koss Fit Series headphones as part of a FitFluential Campaign in December. Right now they are currently on sale for $19.99 at Walgreens!  All colors and models are part of the promotion and it’s only for a limited time, so go grab them! They are made just for women, sweat resistant and come with 3 different ear buds so you can pick what fits!

Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to go to a Curves event that was led by Jillian Michaels.  I love Jillian and have been a fan for many years. I have written about how her podcast is a great way to find (free) motivation and even get to know her better.

Curves has revamped their workouts. I haven’t ever been to a Curves and I have to admit I basically went to see and meet Jillian. The way it works is they have different machines that operate with hydrolics. It’s supposed to be a one size fits all. No weight stacks and no adjusting the seats. They’re made for women.  In between the machines there is an exercise mat. It used to be you could do any move you want. Now Jillian has partnered with Curves and designed the program you will be doing. They are functional, metabolic, body weight exercises. We did moves like prisoner lunges, push ups, high knees, butt kicks, side lunges amoung other things. You do either the machine and the exercises for 30 seconds, alternatively, and then move on to the next. You go around the circuit twice for a total of 30 minutes.

I have to admit I didn’t expect to really get a workout in, but in typical Jillian style she had all of us working hard. She didn’t let anyone slack off and pushed all of us. She made me lift my knees higher and faster when doing high knees, made me do faster push-ups and made me add a jump to my air squat.

The exercises are all great moves that work your whole body and can be modified to be easier or more challenging. There is a TV (for when Jillian is not there!) that shows the moves and the modifications. Also Curves has coaches that are there to help you with the machines or the moves.

I have to be honest, I’m not running to sign up at Curves, but I do think it’s a great way for women that may be otherwise intimidated to strength train or go to a gym to get started with resistance training. I did find some of the machines to be a little un-natural, like one that works your obliques. Partnering with Jillian is basically a way to ensure that Curves clients are getting in a great workout in 30 minutes.

Jillian was exactly as she comes across on her podcast. Super friendly, fun, motivating and no BS. At the end she did a Q&A  and answered 3 questions. She wanted to answer more, but she had a flight to make (and because of a burst pipe there was a lot of traffic in the city).  I asked her, her best trick to deal with a picky eater. She explained she tells her daughter, Lu, that Katy Perry has to eat kale in order to be able to roar. She also said that she bargains with them, if they eat their healthy foods they can have their dessert (like a Justin’s organic PB cup). She doesn’t want them to grow up being deprived of healthy food, so she makes sure there is a balance.

After the Q&A, Carlyn and I hung around to get a picture with her. We weren’t sure it would happen, but after about 20 minutes of waiting, IT DID! I’m SO glad we waited. I told Jillian I did her Ripped in 30 DVD post-pregnancy and she gave me a high five and genuinely seemed excited. You can read Carlyn’s blog and Theodora’s blog to read more about yesterday!

It was a truly great day. A little time off as a mama PLUS meeting Jillian = perfect day. I was smiling ear to ear the rest of the day…okay and still am today.

I just have to make a little note of the people that helped me make yesterday happen. My sister let me borrow her car, since she has a train parking pass. My mom had to drive her to the train. Then my friend Ashley so graciously watched Olivia with her 2 kids until my mom could get to my house (she had a meeting). Then my mom and step dad watched Olivia until I got home. Then Danny had to come with me to drop my sister’s car back at the train so she would have a way to get home. It truly takes a village (aka I need a babysitter).

For more information, or to read the press release, find it here: Curves Newsroom: Jillian Michaels Partners with Curves. 

Thank you to Curves for inviting me to participate! Life dream officially checked off!