Holy crap.

It's been forever since I have blogged. When school started, my free time/relaxing time went out the window. Along with the new school year starting and new stress being added, I started my work out routine. During the summer, I always seem to fall off what I should be doing. But when school starts, I know I need to push all that towards something.

Enter...Studio B: Barre and Pilates. Robin introduced me to the class, Nancy bought me a month gift certificate to try it out-- and I was hooked. The first class I thought, "I am going to kill Robin and Nancy." But, once I started feeling the results and soreness it-- I wanted to keep going back. I was bending, stretching, and balancing my body that I didn't know I could do. Now, I'm not great at it. I've only been doing it a month. But I look Robin, who has been doing it a while, and she is still breaking a sweat, if not more, than I am. So that tells me that the class still continues to challenge and stretch your muscles.

The day I don't do barre class, I do cardio. I try to run in the mornings before school. So with all that combined, I am halfway to my fitness goal. My brother said he has noticed a little less junk in my trunk.

I love how I feel after working out. While I am seeing results in my clothes, I am feeling a difference in my energy and attitude. Last year, when I found myself newly single, I remember rocking in Robin's thinking chair after school. I was kind of whining and being pathetic, in all honestly. She then looked at me and told me to suck it up and bring my running clothes the next day. That was when we started our runs around Dorman at least three days a week. After a couple weeks of running, I noticed my attitude changed. When I don't work out or release some tension, I start to feel overwhelmed, incapable, and stressed to the max. It's not a good feeling.

However, the best feeling was today. My whole body was sore from class yesterday, plus the five hours I worked in the yard. Knowing I was having to pull up my shorts from falling down, and hearing my mom say, "Wow, Jess. You look great." That was worth it. Hearing the men next door say, "Dang-- that girl knows how to run circles around her yard." Yeah, I could have collapsed on my couch for the whole Sunday afternoon, but my yard would look like a complete mess. Overgrown, that needed weeding and some life brought back to it. So on the outside, it looks fabulous. Just don't walk inside. That's another story.