The Core Challenge Workout

Hello there friends!

There are a few things that I really, really enjoy. I love food. I love books. I love exercising. I love nail polish. I also love clothes. A lot. Which is why I decided to attempt to pilot a new 5ks & Coffee Beans feature. Which we will cover after the daily recap.

So first up, this morning I tackled the Precor machine at the gym. This is probably a confession that I shouldn’t make, but I honestly don’t understand these machines. They’re some sort of combination of the elliptical, stationary bikes, cross-country skis and a machine made to make me look like a fool. Today instead of my typical tunes, I was watching an episode of Gilmore Girls on the Precor TV and it actually helped the time to fly by. I will have to keep that in mind!

Even though I didn’t really feel like I was working up much of a sweat, I kept at it for about 40 minutes and according to the little calorie-burner-reader-thingy I was scorching some major calorie-age which is just fine by me!

After that, I completed a core workout that I’ve seen floating around on Pinterest for quite some time now.

This one:

Source.

I really “enjoyed” this workout and even though I’m not entirely sure it’ll be burning in the morning by any means, it was a good challenge! The instant I saw the three sets of 50 crunches, I knew that I’d have to get rid of my mental block against completing any reps higher than 25 or 30. It’s easy enough to overcome, if I simply complete two sets of 25, I’m just fine. Even if I do it without a break in between and just re-start my counting after 25. I know it sounds silly, but something about doing the same motion that many times and reaching such a high number kind of psychs me out a little!

Overall verdict? Glad I tried it, but it won’t be a go-to workout for me!

After some serious gym time, I made my way to Starbucks with Chloe for a snack and some coffee:

I haven’t had the Starbucks oatmeal since the spring when I was school (mostly because it’s a bit of a rip), but it was certainly filling. It also was a much better choice than the raspberry scone that was actually calling my name after my hard work! I also hit up a café misto that one of my school friends introduced me to years ago and I kind of forgot about until recently! I love me my Starbucks, but I definitely can’t do that everyday! $$$$

The rest of the day was spent chilling at home with some babysitting in the evening. (Which is where I procured a nifty little Cinderella sticker that I lost somewhere along the way! Major upset.)

Other newsflashes and revelations:

• Taylor Swift has really been speaking to me in recent days (what does this mean about my life?) 
• Taking down the final traces of holiday decorations is endlessly depressing
• A lot can happen in a week!

And now for the Fashionista Friday feature of 5ks & Coffee Beans!

As I have mentioned many times before, I love clothes, bargain shopping and putting outfits together. (That includes workout gear! Chances of me going to the gym when I have a new outfit waiting for me? 100%.)

I am working to figure out the best way to include this interest into the blog in some way as I know many of you share my excitement for clothes (and even better, for a good deal!). So let’s see how this goes. I have created a “Fashionista Friday” tab at the top of the blog’s home page. Each week, I’ll be posting something on that page that is either a collection of outfits from the week, recent deals I’ve procured, new fashion finds… something like that. I’ll be sure to post a link when there”s actually something there to read so that you can follow along that way!

Let’s hope this works out! 🙂

Have a great night and happy weekend!