Showing posts with label fitness center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness center. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Fitness Center Rants, Sprints and Low Carb Day Eats

First, some fitness center rants:
  • locker rooms should not be hot. It's not fun to start sweating while I'm toweling off after my shower. 
  • Patrons should clean up after themselves. Throw away your water bottle, put your towel in the basket.
  • Don't hog the benches in the locker room. I don't know why more people can't share.
Rant over.

I love that I can walk to the fitness center. It's the best way to warmup. Today we were back to sprints. 20 seconds on and 40 seconds to recover for 10 minutes. It was awesomely HARD. I'm pretty sure when I did these the first low carb day, my elliptical was not working properly because it was kind of easy. 


Today's intervals sort of went like this:

1-3 - that wasn't so bad!
4-6 - oh boy, my legs are burning
7-8 - (willing timer to move faster) 18, 19, 20!
9-10 - I think I might pass out...

My legs were so toasted that I did the 30 minute cool down on the treadmill. Like I said, awesomely hard. 


Back at the apartment, I made time to work on those trigger points with my foam roller and the stick. I forgot to mention that anytime you do these, you should stretch after. I love that part.


What I ate on low carb day

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, pb&j rice cake, coffee
The best tasting meal is the one you have after a good workout. This is just one of my faves. I almost didn't have the rice cake because I was worried about the carbs in the pb&j, but then I realized how crazy that sounded.


Lunch: chocolate protein shake, turkey slices
The shake was disappointing having more carbs than protein. It's my own fault because I didn't do my homework before hand and just assumed it was good because it said protein on the packet. Lesson learned.


Snack: celery and pb, water
I guess I needed something a little crunchy.


Dinner: chicken breast and green beans, salad
I love my salads, even more with cheese and Ranch dressing. Avoiding dairy is part of this program, but I just had to. At least there were less carbs than the shake at lunch!


I think I did pretty well today. Under 50g of carbs, but also under in total calories. I wish I knew if that was a big deal or not.



What are your fitness center rants?
Do you prefer the foam roller or the stick?






Friday, June 12, 2015

I Joined a Fitness Center

Even though I haven't had a membership to a gym for about eight years, when my new friends in China told me about the Hilton Fitness Center, I had to see it for myself. It was AMAZING! State of the art equipment, sauna, jacuzzi, indoor and outdoor pools...and a HUGE price tag. Too much even for a little piece of fitness heaven.

Then we learned of a DEEP discounted (like more than 80% off) membership available and mrC decided I should have it. I didn't plan on getting a gym membership, since I've gotten by without one for so long, but the pools, the price...it was meant to be!

When mrC's car arrived to take him to work this afternoon, I hopped on my bike and rode 10 minutes to the HFC to get my membership officially started.


After a quick registration process, I didn't waste any time getting my workout started. I stored my things in the locker room and jumped on one of the ellipticals for a 10 minute warm up. The view of Shenzhen Bay and the outdoor pool below is amazing, but if it bores you the cardio equipment all come with attached TVs.


The place was empty, so after my warmup I had my pick of machines. I took my time getting reacquainted with each piece of equipment: a couple of sets on the leg press, chest press, lat pull, and seated row.


There was plenty of floor space for me to do #MeanAbsJune Day 12 using one of the provided yoga mats.


After the 45 minute indoor workout, I went to the pool and swam around for about 45 minutes.


Yesterday I bought a small blender, so when I got back to the apartment I excitedly made my first smoothie using frozen raspberries and blueberries, some yogurt, and milk. Ahhh! I still need to find some protein and pick up some spinach, but it was a pretty good smoothie.


I'm looking forward to spending more time in the Hilton Fitness Center and testing the equipment and amenities I didn't get a chance to try today.

Do you workout at a fitness center?
What's your favorite thing about fitness centers?



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