A couple months ago, a new gym opened up in my area called OrangeTheory Fitness.

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Instead of a traditional gym format, OrangeTheory Fitness workouts consist of one-hour sessions lead by a personal trainer.  With up to 20 people in a class, the personal trainer leads us through a workout using treadmills, rowers, suspension straps, and weights—all while wearing a heart rate monitor.

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Each individual’s heart rate is displayed on a large TV screen, and it clearly shows which “heart rate zone” each participant is in.  The goal is to be in the “Orange Zone”—82-93% of your max heart rate—for 12 to 20 minutes of the workout.

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Tonight’s workout was TOUGH:

• 25 minutes on the treadmill with many intervals and sprints
• 1 circuit of bodyweight exercises, focusing on our core, with 100 meters of rowing after each set of exercises
• 500 meter rowing race
• 1 circuit of full-body weights, with 100 meters of rowing after each set of exercises
• More core work!

While this workout may sound overwhelming, it’s tailored to each participant’s fitness level—which is why Josh, my mom, and my sisters have all been working out there!

Goodness knows, I’ll be sleeping well tonight!  If you want to learn more about OrangeTheory Fitness, be sure to check out their website!

[Disclaimer—I was not solicited for this review, and all of the opinions expressed are my own.  I just wanted to share what I’ve been up to the last couple months!]

Question—what’s your favorite way to exercise?  Are you a gym goer?  A class-taker?  Or do you like to go at your workouts solo?

• January 2011—Joshua and I celebrated the new year in Florida and visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• March 2011—vacation with the family in Mexico
• May 2011—graduated law school
• June 2011—changed the blog, moved into a new apartment, attended my friend’s wedding in Florida as a bridesmaid, and got engaged to my handsome fella
• July 2011—took the bar exam (on my birthday!)
• September 2011—started working at a law firm
• October 2011—found out I passed the bar exam (thank goodness!), was sworn in as an attorney, and ran a 10 mile race

Lots of changes in the last year! While there have been a few lows of this past year (biggest one—my job isn’t permanent or salaried, so I’m still on the job hunt!), it’s nice to see that I had a lot of fun times in the last 12 months!

So I made sure to start out 2012 well-rested, with 12 hours of sleep!  Unfortunately, this meant that I missed out on my planned morning workout, so I improvised with a 50 minute easy run on the treadmill.

I’ve been doing a lot of short runs lately (2-3 miles), so my only goal today was to “go longer.”  I’m planning on incorporating more “go longer” runs on the weekends to prepare me for half-marathon training this spring.

So what’s up for 2012?

Well first, I hope to get a permanent, salaried job that I enjoy!  I’ve got a couple of “irons in the fire” and I do hope that one of them works out.  As for my other goals and resolutions, here’s is what I hope to accomplish in 2012:

Running:

• Run a 5K in under 25 minutes
• Run a 10k in under 55 minutes
• Run a half-marathon in under 2:05:00
• Run at least 2 half-marathons
• Run at least 2 other races

Personal:

• Plan and enjoy my wedding!
• Blog at least 3 times a week
• Reduce my eating-out (for both personal and $$ reasons)
• Become a morning-person  <—this seems impossible, but so did a half-marathon a few years ago!

Money, money:

• Pay off wedding expenses
• Establish an emergency fund
• Start saving for a house

Question—what are your goals and resolutions for 2012?

Here’s a quick run-down of my meals yesterday…

Yesterday’s Breakfast

I wasn’t feeling anything too complicated, and I wasn’t overly hungry.  Surprisingly, this bowl of cereal kept me full until lunch—that never happens!

Lunch

I tried a new Progressive soup—Baked Potato.  Wasn’t really a fan, even when I tried to dress it up with some salsa and pepper.

Which is why DARK CHOCOLATE Reese’s peanut butter cups were necessary   I can’t decide if I like these better than the original…

Dinner

It’s been a stressful week for Josh, as he’s worked the past 10 days straight!  We went on an impromptu date night at The Cheesecake Factory, where I proceeded to order this enormous plate of food—Stuffed Chicken Tortillas.

I only made it through two of the tortillas and half of the black beans.  I’ve got a good lunch of leftovers waiting for me today!

Running

I also was able to get one of my 2 mile easy runs in last night—2.03 mi in 22:55.  I might do another one of my 2 mile runs today, so that I can bang out those 9 miles tomorrow morning!

Working Out with Pandora

So I’ve been using Pandora stations for my workouts lately, as I’m in a major music rut.  This morning, I discovered that Pandora has made 12 new workout stations for every workout you could imagine—cardio, strength, and yoga!

I particularly love the Yoga Workout, Electric Cardio, and the Classic Rock Power Workout.  You should check these out!

Question—what sort of music do you like to listen to while working out??  I tend to listen to a lot of electronic/techno and a lot of rock.  Anything with a good beat!

My Dad, being the generous (macho) man he is… 

took the entire family to Azul Fives in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for 7 days of R&R!

Accommodations

We stayed in Villa 9 in a large suite with 2 bedrooms.

Thumbs up for clean, simple décor…

and a large kitchen—which we barely used!  Azul Fives is part-condo/part-resort, and since we were on an all-inclusive plan, we didn’t cook at all.

Amenities

The pools and the beach were beautiful.  Azul Fives has an infinity pool, and a few windy pools that go around the villas.  Even during the height of spring break season, we had no trouble finding chairs by the pool or on the beach—major plus.

The parents insisted on trying for a Christmas card picture in the infinity pool on a very windy day—the entire time, I was thinking: “I really hope that they don’t drop my camera in the pool!!”

The swim up bars were pretty awesome, too.  Booze + beautiful clientele = A+ in my book!

I found a new favorite drink while down there—a Caipirinha.  It tastes kind of like a mojito without mint.  Because I really hate how the mint leaves get stuck in your straw—does anyone else have this problem?

I didn’t try out the spa or the workout room—I only got a few runs in down there, but I liked how the path around the resort was about 3/4 of a mile.  Big enough for me to get a few laps in—to counteract all the food/drink

Food and Drink

I don’t have any pictures of the food—but I can tell you that it was pretty standard for an all-inclusive.  Azul Fives had a buffet-style breakfast, and many options for lunch and dinner.  Options for lunch/dinner included:

• Flavors—buffet-style restaurant (the same one that served breakfast)
• Sea Olive—Mediterranean restaurant
• Tsuki—Asian restaurant
• Lizards Bar—pool bar with food

There was also room service, which was surprisingly good—especially their club sandwich!

We got kind of sick of the food after a few days.  There wasn’t enough variety, and a few of the options were just not that good.  Also, there was a serious lack of vegetarian options.  The food is really where Azul Fives lost points (in my opinion).

Drinks were plentiful and delicious.  No complaints here!

Concluding Thoughts…

Overall, it was an awesome family vacation!  It was completely stress-free, and involved lots of R&R.  Even though the food was a bit lackluster, I give Azul Fives my stamp of approval.

I’d rate it 4/5 stars!    Even though the resident lizard does creep me out just a bit…

You really can’t go wrong with a beautiful resort and lots of sun! 

(For legal reasons, I should tell you that I was NOT contacted by any companies, including Azul Fives, to do this review.  All opinions are solely my own.)

Question—Are you a beach or a pool person?  I’m a pool person, without a doubt.  Although the beach is pretty to look at!

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turned into a break from blogging to recuperate from bar exam taking…

and ended in a lost camera battery and charger!

On the bright side, the theme of the past few days has been Lost and Found.  Just the other day—I found 6 dollars on my 8 mile run!

I’m secretly hoping to continue this finding $$ streak on long runs—extra incentive, right???!

And yesterday, I finally found my camera battery and charger.  I had been looking EVERYWHERE for the past month.  On Sunday, I had finally given up and ordered a new set off of Amazon—only to find both the charger and the battery in the backseat door of Josh’s car.  Of all places.

So I’m back!  With a (mostly) working camera.  If only someone could tell me how to fix the stuck scroll wheel on it…

Question—what have you lost (or found) recently?!

Obligatory ring picture!

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I’ve been rather absent over the last week.  We started moving into the new place on June 1st, and finally finished moving on June 6th.  Then we were expecting to have the internet set up on June 8th, but some complications with Comcast led us to not have the internet hooked up until June 10th (last Friday).  I thought I’d be blogging Friday night: apologizing for the posting delays, talking about the new place, and posting pictures of some of my food eats of the last week (like this awesome salad I made with hummus dressing–in case you didn’t know, hummus makes THE BEST salad dressing).

INSTEAD(!!), Josh proposed Friday night (yay!!!), and ever since, I’ve been enjoying our engagement weekend–going out to eat, hanging out with family, watching my dad (unintentionally) light fireworks upside down (sadly, no pictures of that one!), and celebrating our butts off

Unfortunately, it is Sunday, so our celebration weekend had to come to an end.  But not until we had a little bit more fun…

I suck at bowling, but hey, I look good doing it!

All you brides-to-be, newly weds, and married folk, what advice do you have for us as we start our planning??!

• Look at the pictures of our new apartment!
• See the progress of DAY #1 of the move

Another long day, but things are really coming together!

Today’s Eats:

• Breakfast–Josh and I each got smoothies from Caribou Coffee.  He got the Mango Orange Key Lime (good but very sweet!) and I got the Pineapple Coconut (tasted just like a Pina Colada!)
• Lunch–Cheddar and ham sandwich with chipotle light mayo
• Dinner–Cucumber Ginger Mojito (so good that I ate the cucumber slices in the drink!) and the Grecian pizza (Caesar dressing, mozzarella and feta cheese, kalamata olives, and fresh artichoke hearts) from Tavern on France

Today’s Fruits (of our labor):

And it’s still not over!  We’ve got another load of boxes to bring over the new place, but we’re getting close to just being down to the furniture that will be going in our U-Haul tomorrow.

This may be adios, at least for the next couple days!  Our internet at the old apartment will be cancelled tomorrow, and our internet will not be installed at the new place until Wednesday.  I’m going to take the next few days to finish moving, unpacking, and catching up on work.  Hope you all have a good weekend!

Moving on in… (excuse my mangling of the lyrics)

Nothing can stop us!

Newspaper–nice to read, EXCELLENT to pack dishes with!

What’s your favorite part of the moving process?  I kind of like the fact that it makes me really evaluate whether I need something or if it can be thrown away or given away.

While cleaning this morning, I snacked on some grapes and strawberries, straight from the containers.

Then for lunch, Josh and I stopped at Subway while running some errands–I got a 6 inch. turkey bacon avocado sub with veggies and honey mustard.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with Subway avocado (they smash it up like guacamole on the sandwich), but the sandwich was pretty good–and cheap!

Back to work!  Some of us are working harder than others…

What’s your favorite “quick” restaurant?  Mine is probably Bruegger’s Bagels–I love a good bagel!

Welcome to our new place!

Above is the main living room area.  The accent wall came with the apartment, and the windows at the end leads to a small balcony.Kitchen area to the right, part of the dining area on the left.  The kitchen cabinetry is all relatively new, and I still get my dishwasher (I hate doing dishes by hand!).  I have a feeling this will be my favorite area of the apartment

The dining area!

Bathroom #1 (not really exciting–but I thought I’d post these pics for the mom–she still hasn’t seen the apartment yet!)

Bathroom #2 (the bathroom connected to my room)

And my bedroom–I’m loving the mirror doors to the closet!  A girl needs a full-length mirror

Unfortunately, these were all the pictures I could get in before the sun set.  We are definitely going to need 1-2 more standing lamps for the rooms, as there is only overhead lighting in the kitchen and hallway.

Dinner was quick and ‘dirty’–Josh and I stopped by Wendy’s for a hamburger (I’m not really a fast food person, but we didn’t get to eat until late).  Now I’m closing the night off some Wedding Crashers.  See you all tomorrow with more moving pics!