I heart my wii

Excuse me while I dork out a little.

Can I be honest? I am in love with my wii. Okay, so it's not the most intense workout in the world. Sometimes I'm all about being serious and pumping out a couch to 5k workout, or shredding myself up with a Jillian Michaels video, but then other times, I know I need to work out and I just want to have fun. That was definitely me yesterday. After my week long sicky break from exercising I was ready to get back into it, but anything to do with Jillian Michaels did not seem appealing (cue whiny voice: it's so hard!) and my honey was sleeping so the treadmill was out. (It's in another room, but it's old and LOUD.) And I just really wanted to play my wii.  Some of the kids in my mom's daycare showed me how to unlock new paths in the Basic Run on Wii Fit Plus. (Kids these days- so smart!) I liked Basic Run already, (all it is is running in place) but I was getting bored with it because it's only 3 minutes long, and it's the same every time... Or so I thought. 

With my new found knowledge I unlocked all of the short and long runs and one of the Island Runs (I think there's two). I haven't run the Island lap one yet, I'm saving the excitement for another day. :)

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Wow, I totally am a dork. But you guys like it, right?

What do you like to do for a lazy-ish workout day?

me? oh stop, I'm blushing...

I'm a little excited about this. (umm, really I'm a lot excited) Bethany from B getting hot! bestowed the 'Stylish Blogger Award' on little (big, haha) ol' me! Being in this community of bloggers who are going through a lot of the same things as me has been incredibly inspiring. Bethany's blog is really great, she has such a positive attitude and is running full force in making healthier choices in her life. (Read this post, all of the stairs made me tired just reading it. This girl is hard core, she's not doing anything halfway, that's for sure.) You must go check her out.
Okay, so for the blog award we are supposed to:

1. Link back to the person who gave the award to you
2. Share seven things about yourself
3. Pass the award on to 15 recently discovered great bloggers (or as many as you can).
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them they’ve won.

Seven things about myself, let's see...

1. I grew up in Forks, WA. Yes, that Forks. No, I don't know any vampires. (I did, however, work at the Miller Tree Inn for years, which is now the 'Cullen house' on the Twilight tour.)
2. I'm 4'10" and my husband is 6'4". That's a foot and a half difference. Comes in handy when I need things from the top shelf or the bottom of the washing machine.
3. I used to be able to quote the movie Maverick from beginning to end.
4. My favorite magazines, in no particular order are: Martha Stewart Weddings, Glamour, National Geographic, Self and Real Simple.
5. If I could go to any consert in the world, it would be Alabama. I'm hoping against hope for a reunion tour. (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease)
6. I love reading about Siberia, Antarctica, Iceland and Alaska. And also clicking around on google maps. I'll always be a small town girl at heart, (hence the blog name) and have never really loved living in the city, after being in the city for 3 years, I'm swinging way over to the other end of the spectrum and craving some isolation. (Although, it is nice to have mall 10 minutes away. Growing up the closest mall was 3 hours away, so that's still a little exciting for this small town girl.)
7. If it comes in pink, that's the one I'm buying.

I know it says 15 blogs, but I need to get off the computer and get ready for work, so I'm going to leave you with the first person who came to mind when I was thinking of who I'd list here: Nicole at The Woman in Training. Her blog is about her 'adventures on the bumpy road to womanhood'.  Her posts are so fun and she's a really great photographer. When I see a new post from her in my reader it's always one of the first I click on.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed learning a little about me. I think I could stand to be a tad more interesting, because it was really hard coming up with stuff, haha. Have a good rest of your weekend!

review: Billy Blanks Jr: Dance With Me Cardio Fit

I never thought I'd say this: I had fun doing a workout video.

I've been walking on my lunch at work, but wasn't really feeling it because I hate coming back into the building all flushed and sweaty. gross. So I was thinking maybe some days I'd just workout with a video at home. I have one workout video at home, 30 Day Shred, and it's a good one, but let's be honest- it's really hard. I wanted something that would break up the monotony and thought a dance video would be just the ticket. Enter Billy Blanks Jr.: Dance With Me Cardio Fit. There were a few dancing workout videos at Target, but I chose this one because of the reviews on Amazon and because he's Billy Blank's kid, you know, the Tae Bo guy? He's got to know his stuff if he's Billy Blank's son. (I tried Tae Bo once. Once being the operative word, it's intense.)
I'm so glad I picked this one! There are 3 different workouts, Hip-Hop, Country and Bollywood, all 12 minutes long, and then a warm-up and cool-down. The basic premise (at least for Hip-Hop and Country, I haven't done Bollywood yet) is that he shows you the moves individually, slowly if needed, then puts a few moves together, and then by the end strings them all together. Even when he's showing you the moves though, you're still trucking along at a pretty good pace. I was able to do all of the moves okay and keep up fine, though my complete lack of rhythm meant it wasn't very pretty at times. :) I most certainly wouldn't do this workout in front of anyone, because I looked like a fool, but Billy said to get into it, so I did. I was kind of grinning like an idiot because I knew I looked ridiculous, but it was really fun just letting loose like that, trying moves I never would have before. (and probably couldn't pull off in public.) It kind of felt like I was standing around with a bunch of friends goofing off, but getting a killer work out at the same time. I definitely felt it in my legs, and next time I'll use my arms more when I'm 'getting my groove on' so I feel it there as well.
I'm obviously not an exercise expert, like I said, this is only the second workout video I've really done. (Unless you count Sweatin' to the Oldies when I was a kid. haha, I love Richard Simmons.) Is this the same level as 30 Day Shred? Probably not. But I worked up a good sweat, and I'm excited to do it again. Anything that gets me excited about working out gets an A+ in my book, because it's a rare occasion. I'm not sure what more physically advanced people will think of this, but if you're anywhere near starting out, I say get it.