I have always wanted to go to the Biggest Loser Ranch for a couple of weeks. That’s it, just 2 weeks of Bob, Dolvett and Jillian (she’ll be back next season). Seriously I would actually enjoy Jillian yelling at me. I would love the opportunity to do nothing but exercise and focus on myself for that time. They actually have Biggest Loser Resorts in Utah, California and New York. However, one week is $2695!! Um probably won’t be booking a vacation there anytime soon.

So I decided to hire a personal trainer. Her name is Tanya and she is awesome. I discovered her a couple of years ago through a co-worker. She was working as a personal trainer at my gym and then left to begin her own business. She has her own studio and offers classes at the town hall about a mile from my house. I bought a punch card and started going to Zumba classes. I also tried a Total Body Blast class. I love her energy and enthusiasm. However, my schedule didn’t work with the class schedule and I was unable to take advantage of all of the great group classes she offers.

I emailed Tanya about setting up a personal training session months ago. Something or other always seemed to come up and it never happened. I am so glad I persisted and finally made the appointment. This is exactly what I need right now.

I attended one session as an introduction to see if it would be something I was interested in continuing. I loved it and decided to sign on for 12 sessions. So on Thursday I returned for my second session. It started with a warm up and then Tanya took me through a Tabata workout. Tabata is a form of high intensity interval training which is designed to incorporate short bursts of intense training followed by a short rest. There were lunges, triceps dips, push ups, abdominal exercises and more. Tanya is motivating and encouraging. She pushes me  to do more than I think I’m capable of doing, but I tend to surprise myself.

Some of my goals are to develop a few strength training routines I can do at the gym on my own, improve my strength overall particularly in my core and improve joint stability in my lower body to help prevent injury. Tanya is on board with my goals and at my next session we will begin with a workout I can take to the gym. Two days later and I’m still sore in areas I obviously don’t usually address. It’s that good sore if you know what I mean.

I am still running. I love it and can’t stop. One of my running goals for this year was to run a 10K in under and hour. I came close in the two 10Ks I ran, both just under 1:02. Oh well I figured I would just try again next year. I decided last week not to wait for a race to run a sub 1 hour 10K. I went to the gym on Monday and ran 6.2 miles in 59:40! Then I went to the reservoir on Wednesday and ran 6.2 miles in exactly 1 hour. On Friday I ran again at the reservoir but took a detour and ended up going up this huge hill for about a half of a mile. I finished 6.2 miles in 1:00:18; not bad considering the hill. I’m so pumped to accomplish this goal. I have a feeling I’ll be running a lot of 10Ks on my own in the next couple of weeks to be consistently under one hour.

In other news, I saw that one of my favorite bloggers Bella, from Bella on the Beach, is going to be participating in the Idea Room’s December Photo-a-Day Challenge.

This seems like a fun way to stay in the moment during this very busy month so I have decided to join in. I will be sharing my photos on Twitter and Instagram via #idearoom. This was today’s photo for the theme “mail.”

2012 Christmas Card

We had a tiny bit of snow here this morning and my precocious child was outside at 7:45 in his PJs enjoying the blustery flakes as he called them!

Happy December! Have a wonderful weekend.