I'm a Zumba Instructor!

Hola amigos! Guess who is officially licensed to teach Zumba classes?!

This girl!

Just a tad excited.

That's one big ol' checkmark on my 2012 goals!!

On Thursday, I worked half a day so my mom and I could get on the road to Winnipeg. I had stopped by Dad’s Organic to pick up some snacks for the road and Friday’s zumba class:

I have a sligh obsession with all things chocolate. And this granola is amazing! It’s almost all gone...

And off we were to Winnipeg!

Driving on the prairies is soooo interesting and fun! NOT.

A lot of my mom’s family lives in Winnipeg so we shacked up with my grandparents for the weekend. That night, my grandparents took us to a lovely restaurant called The Gates. I highly HIGHLY recommend this place if you find yourself in Winnipeg. SO good, and a beautiful property. It would make a gorgeous wedding venue if any of you are looking for a wedding place in Winnipeg.

The next morning, I woke up nice and early so I could be at the Bronx Community Center for 8am for Zumba! I registered, got a nice little package, complete with 2 instructor DVDs, a CD, and a DVD with the Rush workout on it (which my instructor is in!). I was so relieved that they gave us DVDs and a CD so we could do follow along practices at home.

The course started with a masterclass lead by our instructor, Amanda Grant. She was AMAZING. I honestly hope to be even 50% of the instructor she is. She majorly kicked our butts in the master class and I was giving myself a big BIG high five for bringing a change of clothes – my UA Armor bra and tank top were completely soaked (yummy, right?). If I had to last from 9:30am-5:30pm in my wet clothes, I would not have been a happy Zumba camper.

Side note: the UA Armor bra did amazing in Zumba. It held “stuff” in during multiple shoulder shakes and body rolls. Big fan.

After the master class and a quick wardrobe change, we went through the background of Zumba (which is pretty interesting – click here to read about it), and learned some basic merengue steps.

A quick lunch break was followed by a lecture about ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network, which I signed up for – totally worth it in my opinion), learning basic steps for salsa, cumbia and reggaeton (aka more working out), and some more lectures on cueing (SO HARD. I will need to practice this fo sho), class planning, and the importance of music. Then we got our shiny new license :)

By the end of the class, I was exhausted and starving! It was a full day of activity and lots of information processing. I slept well that night.

The next morning, I worked up a sweat in the gym at my grandparent’s retirement complex:

I completed the phase 2 week 2 shoulders workout from LiveFit as best I could with the equipment available (aka lots of modifications). For cardio, I popped in the Rush DVD we got in our Zumba package and zumb-ed my heart out in my guest suite.

For the rest of the weekend, I visited lots of family and assaulted Polo Park - namely lululemon, sephora, and Bath and Body Works. I picked up 2 tanks (this one in hot pink and this one), a pair of running crops, and a bunny hug for Mike (aka hoodie for you non-SK peeps) from lulu, my regular NARS bronzer and blush from sephora, and two of the big 3-wick candles from B&BW (Tropical Spice and Coco Lobo, on sale – 2 for $25!). I was burning Coco Lobo last night and the condo still smells like coconut. It’s pretty much the best thing ever.

And guess what was waiting for me when I returned to Regina?

My tank from Tone It Up that I had ordered a while ago! So basically, my closet is overflowing with workout tanks now. This week at the gym will be a fashionable one.

So it was a pretty rockin’ weekend, if I do say so myself. I’m going to be Zumba practicing my butt off so I can put together my first class! I still plan on keeping running as my cardio of choice for LiveFit - I’ll just be adding my Zumba practices to a few days in the week.

How was your weekend? How many of you ran the Saskatchewan Half and Full Marathon in Saskatoon?  I know my girl Alison did and rocked it! So proud of you :)

I’ll see you later this week! Yay for consistent internet! We are now back to regular scheduled postings :)

PS: I think I hit the world record for typing the word "zumba" in a blog post. Wow.

The Week In Pictures (and a video)

Hey gang!

Stopping by with a quick picture post for you! We're all moved in, but still no Internet at the new place :( It is being hooked up this afternoon...but I'm leaving today for Winnipeg for Zumba instructor training all weekend!! SO if you wade through all my excuses, what I'm trying to say is hi, I miss you, here's a bunch of pictures from the past week and things will be back to normal next week!

This trailer helped us IMMENSELY. I didn't realize how much stuff we actually had...

We are officially in debt homeowners!

Sadie on her way to the condo

Lovely flowers outside our door thanks to Costco. What can't you buy at that place?

Living room...begging to be decorated.

My favorite part of the new place...the glorious kitchen! <insert women in the kitchen joke here>

This is Sadie's favorite place to be in the new place. Right between the wall and the couch, so she can survey the complex.

The farm road we are walking on in the video. New running trail!

 Post workout red face. Sexy.

Mike rocking some lat pulldowns.

Have a great weekend! I know I will be zumba-ing my littler heart out. I'll see you next week!

Catching Up - SFW, Condo News, and RUNNING!!

Hello friends! I feel like I haven’t talked to you in quite some time...a week between blog posts seems like forever! I’ve missed you.

How about a quick catch up?

~I volunteered at the first ever Saskatchewan Fashion Week.

I werked*the front door for 2 of the nights and luckily got to see most of the shows for free. I have to say, I was quite impressed with the Saskatchewan talent! I had NO idea that we had that many awesome designers here in Sask! It was an amazing event and I will hands down be participating in it next year. I sense a fashion post coming up sometime soon...as of right now, this is the only picture I have of one of my outfits:

Self-portrait car picture like a loser winner. Because I am (a winner, that is). Also, do you see my sad attempt to curl my  hair? Giant fail. If anyone has tips on how to get big waves on a person with a TON of long hair, feel free to share. Please. Help me.

*I feel like this variation of the word is necessary since it was fashion week and I was a fierce door girl.

~It’s been GORGEOUS here! Lunches in the park have commenced!

The weather is bringing the downtown crazies out hard this year. I love sitting in the park at lunch and getting some quality people watching time in.

The weather has also allowed for some awesome dog walks...and more opportunities to take a trillion pictures of the dogs.

These dog pictures aren't stopping any time soon.

Sadie even had her first swim!

Ignore the dog drool all over her face....she's a classy one.

Well, kind of. She saw a bunch of other dogs jumping in the water at the dog park and decided to jump in at full tilt. She completely submerged herself and immediately swam back to shore. I think it scared her a bit because she wouldn’t go near the water the next day. Time for swimming lessons at the cabin! I'll leave that up to Mike because I don't feel like getting all scratched to hell if she freaks out in the water. Lucky him!

~I’M RUNNING AGAIN!! We are on phase 2 of LiveFit trainer so that means CARDIO!

I tested out my New Balance shoes that I got a few weeks ago and they are heaven. Feels like I’m running on clouds. And I’m pretty excited that my endurance hasn’t completely deteriorated – I was able to get through 30 minutes of medium intensity running and felt like I could go for another hour. I was so worried that the month off would diminish my running endurance.

I hadn’t been up to the cardio area of my gym in a month, so I felt very out of touch when I saw these weird machines instead of the usual bikes:

Has the fitness world changed that much in the one month I wasn't doing cardio??? Please tell me what these are if you know. I have yet to see anyone use them and the instructions printed on them made no sense.

~Our walk through of the condo went fantastic! We get the keys this Friday so I’m going to be extremely busy packing up all our stuff. We’ve moved so much in the past year that we have belongings scattered throughout the city in 3 locations...that might not have been the best idea. I really hope I can get all my workouts in this week. There may be some 5am workouts in my future...

I promise this blog will be back to regular scheduled programming after this week...I’ve got a million post ideas but no time to do them! And I still have to get that damn park workout done!! Plus, I want to film that grocery haul video I mentioned a while ago in my new kitchen (excitement!!!!), and do a review of the Under Armour Bra (LOVE). Oh boy. Let’s just inject the caffeine straight into my blood stream, shall we?

How has your week been? Tell me one awesome thing that happened to you this past week!

PS: I guest posted for my amazing friend Annica over on her site last Friday! Check it out here – it’s all about staying fit when you’re fresh out of university aka when you’re broke as <insert colorful adjective here>. While you’re there, check out the rest of her site. I think you guys will love Annica just as much as I do – and she literally JUST graduated university! Big BIG congrats to her <3

Weekend Catch Up

Hi friends!

First thing: I have a feeling these next two weeks might be a little light on the blogging side since its POSESSION WEEK!

Soon to be ours!

We do our walk-through this Friday and get possession next Friday! There will be lots of boxes, packing/unpacking, driving, and cleaning in my future so please forgive me for lack of posting. If you REALLY miss me that bad and need a dose of Erin, I’ll most definitely be tweeting up a storm of the new place over on twitter.

Notes from the weekend

*I scored Tosca Reno’s eat-clean vegetarian cookbook at Costco for $15! I’ve flipped through the whole thing a few times now and can’t wait to make EVERYTHING. Seriously. Everything sounds and looks delicious!

*I attempted mashed cauliflower for the second time in my life with this giant head of cauliflower from Costco:

Sidenote: I’m a slave to Costco. I go in for a few things and end up with a cartful. I think this is similar to how Target effects people in the States? I can only imagine how I badly I would get distracted in Target.

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ANYWAYS, it didn’t turn out too well. I ate it, but it wasn’t smooth enough. Once I perfect this recipe, I’ll probably post it here a trillion times and reference it in every other post I write. You see, one of my goals in life is to replace Mike’s half a plate serving of mashed potatoes with cauliflower without him catching on. Well for the first bit anyways. It’s still a cauliflower – I don’t expect to fool him for his whole life....:)

*On Saturday, I headed out with the girls to celebrate my friend Ricki’s birthday!

It was my friend Christy’s birthday a few days before Ricki’s, and since Rick is a lover of all things costume, she made gave her some birthday sunglasses to rock.

We went out for drinks first and I discovered my second* favourite alcoholic beverage of choice:

Vodka, soda, with a ton of limes!

Girls have been ordering this for YEARS but I just got the memo.

*Wine will always be number 1. Duh.

We went to a bar that was not really mine or Christy’s scene, but we made the most of it. And by “made the most of it” I mean we sat at the stools that surrounded the d-floor like creepy men and watch the Drunk Theatre.

Classic entertainment.

*It poured all day Sunday. The dogs did not care so out we went for a walk.

Nothing like that wet dog smell. Yum.

*Yesterday was a brutal work day but was INSTANTLY made better when I came home to this:

I can’t wait to see how it holds up in tonight’s workout!

Speaking of which...we’re now officially on phase 2 of LiveFit Trainer! YAY CARDIO IS BACK! I can’t wait to run for 30 minutes tonight! I'm so excited I could scream!!

How was your weekend?

I’ll see you later this week!

Rainy Days and Under Armour Women - What's Beautiful?

Happy Friday! I woke up today to some pretty heavy rain which initially made me kind of blue, but then I remembered that this meant I could wear my rainboots!

I got these when I was living in Glasgow, Scotland for a semester abroad. Very necessary for living there – Saskatchewan, not so much. So I jump on the opportunity to wear them whenever I can! I love my rainboots and wish I lived somewhere rainy so I could justify buying a pair of green ones.

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Oh well.

Last night, I had my last (I think!) classroom portion of my group fitness instructor certification class! We were learning all about how to plan your classes, the right music to pick, and what to do when you’re teaching (ie: eye contact, be happy, giving proper cues). I am SO pumped to begin teaching! We all get certified to teach group resistance classes because that’s what the majority of fitness classes are. After that, we can chose different streams like cycle, yoga, and choreography so we can teach those types of classes. You KNOW I’m all over the choreography stream so I can teach Zumba!

It never gets old.

I still have to go and get Zumba certified in order to teach it, so I’m super happy I registered for that Zumba certification way back when. Three weeks until I’m officially certified to lead others in shaking it!

Under Armour Women - What’s Beautiful

I’ve mentioned a few times on Twitter that I’m participating in Under Armour Women’s What’s Beautiful campaign. If you haven’t checked it out yet DO IT! I love seeing all the fierce female athletes. Some of the goals that these women have set for themselves are amazing and inspiring!

My goal is to run a personal best at the 5K and 10K distances. Yesterday I got my Starbucks and settled into my favourite filming places

Creeper alert.

The Starbucks parking lot. I filmed a quick video stating my goal. Check out my profile page here to see it. I’ll be completing some of the challenges this weekend, so you can click “follow athlete” on my profile to stay up to date on my progress.

I feel like this goal can work alongside the LiveFit Trainer program. This is the last week of phase 1 and the last week of no cardio (THANK GOD). Next week we start phase 2 and that includes adding 30 minutes of cardio to our workouts. I’ll obviously be choosing running :). In phase 3, there’s some HIIT training included. So I think that with the re-addition of cardio, the continuation of strength training and HIIT, I should be able to set new PRs.

Plus, they have an app for this challenge.

You guys know how I love my apps.

Have you set a goal in the UA Woman challenge? Link me to your profile and we can cheer each other on!

Have a fantastic Friday!