Holiday Fitness and other Randomness

I love this time of year! Everyone is so festive and there are lights and decorations all around. We even manage to put up a tree here in Hong Kong. It's that whole what you can way of decorating!

The week leading up to the big day is always filled with hustle and bustle, so I signed up for the 12 Days of "Fit-mas" presented by Fit Mom Strong Mom (which totally looked like a great program) and then promptly failed to participate. It was a combo of being busy with other activities, being tired, being lazy...you've heard me say all this before.

I was ACTIVE though. Here's a quick look at last week's highlights:

Monday - Mountain Monday - Lookout Point Loop hike in my new North Face Litewave Explore hiking shoes. I've worn them a couple of times now and they do the trick, but on longer hikes I might need a gel insert.

Tuesday - Hong Kong Trail hike with my friends from SWIC (recap here). One of my favorite parts of hiking is looking back to see where we started. In the photo below, our starting point was back by the large apartment buildings and we weren't even halfway yet.

Wednesday - We took a Christmas lights walk around the neighborhood after dinner.

Thursday - IMI treatment for my pesky heel ---> but the osteopath is working wonders and thinks yoga is in my future. That led me to sign up for the 31 Day Yoga Revolution hosted by Yoga with Adriene. I love, love, love her challenges. It starts January 1. You can join here.

Friday - Bodypump. I really need to learn my body's weight limits. I was really sore from this class.

Saturday - Christmas Eve sprint workout at the fitness center. After Mass and dinner in Central we enjoyed as much of Winterfest as we could.

Sunday - Took my new bike on 2 mile Christmas Day ride to the grocery. It's a really nice bike! Then I made some more protein bars because I already ate the first batch!

Today - Another Mountain Monday hike on Lookout Point Loop. Tonight we are meeting mrC's friend, who is in Hong Kong for work, for dinner.

Have you ever signed up for something and then completely dropped the ball?
Do you go Christmas light peeping?
Any holiday workouts for you?

Mountain Monday & Leap Day Fun

Winter might be over here in Shenzhen. We officially sweated our butts off climbing the mountain today. We were met by our local park employee who loves taking group pictures for us. Getting to the top of Nanshan wouldn't be the same without a photo to prove it.

It was so nice to be greeted by such amazing weather on Leap Day. No one had to twist my arm to get my #OiselleLeap on and show off my favorite #flystyle for a chance to win a head-to-toe Oiselle outfit. 

Lately I have been really enjoying my Yoga Camp daily videos, but I've also been missing Pilates class at the studio. The instructor is having a baby, so they have taken the class off the schedule and I don't know when it will be back. This afternoon I popped over to Booya Fitness and found an awesome 30 minute Pilates video to do at home.

If you haven't tried Booya Fitness yet, now is a great time to do it. Today they are launching the Cardio Blast Challenge. Check out these great prizes up for grabs.

To enter all you have to do is sign up for Booya Fitness (free trial, monthly, quarterly or annual subscription) and complete a cardio workout! That's it. You're going to work out anyway. Why not enter to win an awesome prize too? I did!! Click here to sign up.

To round out all this fitness, I made another batch of my banana peanut butter protein bars.

How are you spending Leap Day?

This is not a sponsored post, but Booya Fitness will compensate me for any referrals. So, if you signed up using my link, thanks!!

How I Survived the Big Chill + Some Workouts

It seems like everyone is dealing with winter weather lately. Blizzards in the US and the coldest temperatures on record in Shenzhen. This tropical climate city even had some freezing rain! Apartments in China are not built for cold weather. We have single pane windows and tile floors. But we are one of the lucky ones who have a combination AC/heating unit.

This morning we were up early (4AM!) to watch the Patriots vs Broncos. During half time, I warmed up a little by doing a 10 minute inner thigh video from Pop Sugar. Going to feel that one.

Since the sun was shining, I ventured out to meet the hiking group, even though the feels like temperature was only 28 degrees (F). A few layers plus a few stairs and we warmed up nicely. It was a great hike on a new peak (recap to follow).

When I got home from the hike, the obvious choice for lunch was a big bowl of chili followed up by curling up the couch for some Netflix. It wasn't long before I took a little nap.

After my cat nap, I layered on some fitness gear and warmed up with my day 3 Yoga Camp video. The cold tile floors wore me down and I had to put on a pair of Zensahs.

I also did a plank workout that I created a few days ago. My goal is to do this at least 3 times per week to try to get back my core strength. I set my gym boss timer to 30 seconds work and 3 seconds rest. I struggle through the last set of leg lifts, but that's how I'll get stronger, right? If you try it, let me know what you think.

The forecast for the rest of the week is rain, so mrC took me out for dinner when he got home from work. We spotted Chinese New Year preparations.

To give you an idea of how people here are dealing with the big chill, our favorite Mexican restaurant provided this version of indoor heating!

 Fun day!

Now we're off to watch this week's Downton Abbey!