It's my birthday!

Yep, it's my birthday. 27. Man, that feels old. There are plenty of things that I thought I'd have by now that I don't, and plenty of things that I do have by now that I didn't even think of! Oh, and it's J's birthday too! Yes, you read that right, my boyfriend and I share a birthday. It's one of the quirky facts about us. It's his 30th, so OBVIOUSLY he's the star of the show today. We're having a joint party at Whisky River later this afternoon (as long as Debby decides not to ruin anything).

I kicked of my 27th year right: by going to the gym and doing my strength workout. It was my first time doing this routine without my trainer Trey (he's kind of pricey and I'm trying to save here!). It is a kick butt workout:
Circuit one (repeat three times)

• 30 walking lunges
• 30 dumbell lifts with 20 pound dumbbell (15 on each side)
• 30  side plank hip tucks (15 on each side)

Circuit two (repeat three times)

• 15 pushups
• 15 kettlebell rows with a 20 pound kettlebell
• 15 throw downs (I don't know the technical name, I just take an 8 pound weight ball and slam it down 15 times)
• 30 woodchucks at 12 pounds (15 on each side)

Circuit three:

• 15 reps on one of the weight machines. Forgot the name, but I have to reach down and pull with my side muscles. I do this at 40 pounds
• 30 shoulder presses with 12 pound weight. 15 on each side.

Wow. I feel like such a kick-ass person seeing all that in writing! It's an awesome exercise and definitely gets my heart pumping.

I normally do cardio afterwards, but my brother was with me and he wanted to leave (his trainer kicked his butt!) so we went and got smoothies. My current favorite post workout smoothie is the Lean1 at Smoothie King.

They finally got the Lean 1 strawberry powder in, so I'll be going back to buy it. This way I can make my own Lean1 smoothies at home!

Off to get ready for my birthday lunch date! What kind of workout do you do?

Motivation

I joined the local gym back in May. My brother and my boyfriend keep cracking up at how dedicated I've been, because before May I had not one athletic bone in my body. I worked with a trainer a few times who really taught me how to use all the weights and machines correctly. Now I try to keep up with doing strength exercises 3 times a week and cardio 6 times a week.

But this morning when I woke up, I just wasn't feeling going to the gym. I take this awesome class called Sh'Bam on Sundays. Check out the video below:

Sh'Bam is a Les Mills class that's like Zumba but instead of dancing to Latin music, you dance to current Top 40 hits. Your burn about 500 calories doing it, and it's really the most fun workout I do! But I just wasn't motivated this morning. Then I got a text from J saying that I haven't regretted going to any of my workouts, but that I have regretted NOT going. I love him for motivating me and I realized he was absolutely right.

So off I go to Sh'Bam! Are there any motivating tips you have? What's your favorite exercise?