Jan 28th - 34 Weeks and growing!

Being that this is my first pregnancy, it's a little weird as this is all becoming so close and real now. Now that we have completed our child birth classes, and the weeks seem to be flying by faster and faster now...I'm getting a bit of a nervous feeling.

There's no changing your mind at this point and you know that you plan to be in a pain for maybe a whole day. But this is a pain that I haven't experienced yet and can't imagine what it's going to be like either. With other types of pain we usually experience, we usually don't plan for it, it just happens.

My husband and partcipants who take my classes think I'll be popping this baby right out and jump back into shape quick. I only hope their preminitions are true...but again, you can't plan for everything. Being as active as I have been: Doing Turbo 5x a week, Doing PiYo 3x a week, and seeing a chiro now 1x a week...has kept me feeling fantastic. I often wonder if I'm "weird" as I've heard so many stories of being moody, in pain, waddling, tired, feeling super fat, can't lift anything, and that this is such a bear to be in. Yeah, I think I'm one of the lucky few then! Sure, I have those days of feeling more tired than others, since I get that pregnancy insomnia where I wake at about 3am or 4am, and start thinking about work, and then I'm up working. I get those days of more sciatic (or so I think it is) pain...but for the most part, this hasn't been terrible. I like being pregnant. No, don't get me wrong, I can't wait to be back to my shape again and be able to be as fit as I can be. It will come. Hopefully lil' Johnny will get the fitness vibe just by me doing it while he's on the inside.

We finished doing the baby's room. Just waiting on the furniture. Here's to all the hard work my hubby has done. Sadly I couldn't help paint, just taping. Blah.

Capoeira-what is it?

You've seen capoeira everywhere lately, even if you don't know what to call it. Last year, the dancelike Brazilian martial art was featured in Ocean's Twelve, Meet the Fockers and Catwoman. (In training for Catwoman, Halle Berry became the sport's unofficial celebrity ambassador.) And on warm days in public parks and plazas worldwide, you can often find capoeira players singing, clapping and showing off to a gathered crowd. Their energy is infectious.

Invented by slaves over 400 years ago, capoeira is far from your typical martial art. Two players face each other, surrounded by a circle (roda) of other players and musicians singing traditional call-and-response songs. The players kick, cartwheel, crouch on the floor and fly through the air to catch their opponent off-guard and show him his weakness without actually making contact. They swing to the rhythm, which varies from slow to fast, and there's rarely a winner or loser. Maybe they'll trip the other player or fake a heel to the gut, but those moments are followed by a laugh and a handshake.
After watching hard-bodied young men and women flip, spin and dodge one lightning kick after another, it's pretty hard for the average person to imagine joining in.

"People love watching capoeira, but they are very intimidated because it's very dynamic," says Edna Lima, a capoeira mestranda (master) who has been teaching and training for 30 years. The modified capoeira workout she teaches at New York Sports Club (and programs of its kind at Bally's and other gyms across the country) removes the scarier elements from the sport. This version gives you most of the cardio and strength-training but requires none of the combat.

After warming up with dancing and stretching, Edna teaches the same techniques she would in a regular training class. The first basic step is the ginga, a movement from lunge to squat to lunge. It feels silly but gives you a great burn in the calves, quads and butt. Ginga is the transition to kicks, most of which involve a circular motion. Meia lua de compasso begins with your hands on the floor, one leg bent, while you look back between your legs and swing the straight one in an arc behind you, drawing your body around to a lunge. Queixada is a circular kick from the side, and in armada, you whip your entire body around 360 degrees. All of this strengthens the entire lower body and torso while building flexibility and improving your sense of balance.

But if all you want are kicks, find a different sport. It's the other moves, like aú (cartwheel), that set capoeira apart. "By doing aú and other more difficult positions, you change your center of gravity and see everything in a different perspective," Edna says. These unusual positions require as much thought as they do muscle, especially when it comes time to connect them to kicks and ginga. The confidence you gain from that, Edna says, is just as valuable as burning all those calories. "In capoeira, you can't ever leave your body." Plus, these floor exercises are great for your core and upper-body muscles.

The results of this combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise are almost immediate. "You're going to start seeing the lines of the muscles, not [bigger muscles] but definition of the body," Edna says. "And you walk taller."

[ivillage.com]

32 Weeks-8 months down!

32 weeks!! wow, it's now moving fast! I'm taking all the pictures in the same shirt so that I can see the "expansion" easy. John started painting the baby's room and it's sucking up a lot of paint. We bought the house with all the bedrooms still white. BUT, it should look great. It's just taking forever as we always plan for a weekend to do it, but then always fill the weekend up with things or running around as well. Shower is set for February 4th. Best day considering the Superbowl is on the 5th and there would be no football to miss for our Sat night party.

Going into our 2nd week of child birth classes tomorrow night. They want us to bring in something that we plan to use during labor as a focal point. She gave examples of the ultrasound, a picture..etc.. So, we thought it would be funny if we bring a bottle of beer or wine. LOL..still don't really know what to bring. I'll just grab something I guess. I'm sure when that time comes, that focal point will be thrown across the room.

Tomorrow starts the day of the NEW teaching schedule for both Greece RAC locations (listed on the right side bar). I'm very excited to hit the newly built Co-ed gym tomorrow night. I'm waiting for my new round 26 to arrive and planned on teaching it tomorrow night BUT, forgot it's a holiday tomorrow, so Mr. Mailman will not be stopping by with my new round. =( PLEASE for Tues! So, I'll be hitting R18 tomorrow as I did it today for Turbo/Pump and it was a great one to re-visit. I'll have to re-work the kicking section though as it didn't flow easily off of people's feet in class today. On a training note, if you are always doing the same form of exercise, and do not change, you won't see a change. Compliment your cardio impact classes with some PiYo type classes (Pilates/Yoga). You'll notice huge "gains" in your training when you cross-train.

Vacation and 30 Week Update

So we decided to take a Mexican vacation before we are huddled in a corner filled with diapers and pacifiers. We headed down to the Mayan Riviera and stayed at a resort, Aventura Spa Palace http://www.palaceresorts.com/Resorts/AventuraSpaPalace/Index.asp
Great weather the entire time we were there. Since I'm taking pictures every 2 weeks from this point on, I had to take my 30 week pregnancy update picture, so here I am with my official first day of tanning start.

We couldn't do much other than try to suck in as much sun and sleeping as possible. Fortunately, I spotted the 2 ONLY floaty mats in the whole resort. John and I quickly snatched them as that was going to be the ONLY way I could tan my back side (other than cutting a whole in the middle of a lounge chair). The positive aspect about this location, was it was on the ocean, but they created an inlet of the ocean water. So we floated on those mats. PHEW!

We took one day to go on an excursion up through Cancun and over to Isla Mujeres. It was devesating to drive through the city of Cancun and see the damage caused to the properties and hotels. They are working hard to build that city back up. Hotels were see-through. Hoping they recover quickly.

While at Isla Mujeres, we took the time to relax, and then go on a shopping trip in which I finally found a necklace and bracelet that was unique enough for my hubby for our 1 year anniversary present. Sadly, i'm usually the procrastinator on gifts for things as I'm always looking for the perfect item. (anniversary was 10/2).

Overall it was great to get away, and I wanted more sun. Slathering on the lotion as much as I can now to preserve what I can.