Fun Fitness Friday

Fun Friday!  At the gym.

Kirsten came super prepared tonight with a plyometrics workout that kicked my ass.

We started with 10 minutes of cardio, but this time, she made us pick one machine we don’t use frequently.  We had to split our 10 minutes into two different machines, so I did five minutes on the stairmaster (kill me) and then finished my last five minutes on the treadmill.

We made our way into an auxiliary room which was cool because we had it all to ourselves and could really spread out.  Kirsten produced pieces of paper which she put on the floor around the room, each with two different exercises listed.  The goal was to perform the exercises for 45 seconds with 15 seconds of rest in between. Let me just say I’m going to be sore tomorrow, my arms are still shaky.

Hardest exercises for me?  The mountain climbers and the squats.  The rest were just challenging, but not difficult coordinate wise.  Overall it was really good.  On a few of the breaks I definitely needed more than 15 seconds to get it together, but A for effort.  We ended the session with some suicides carrying dumbbells and two sets of planks.  I was a hot and sweaty mess and it was awesome.

Oh, and remember my post the other day about recycling?  Kirs bought the large recycling bin we had our eye on, but it was too large for the space they wanted to use it.  Guess who has inherited said recycling bin?  Hooray!  Our recylcing efforts look much nicer with the white bin as opposed to the hideous blue bin.

Newly Green

I have a confession:  I’m not the greenest person on earth.

Recycling and being “good” to the earth have never been a priority for me and I never really gave it a second thought.  Nothing about paying attention and recycling was interesting to me, so it was just easier to throw stuff straight into the trash.  Also, previously living in an apartment wasn’t so great for recycling efforts, so that didn’t help the cause.

When we bought our house and picked up our trash bin from town hall, we were presented with a bright blue bucket with the recycling symbol stamped all over it.  Chris was pumped and wanted to get on recycling, but with moving, numerous projects and life, the bin ended up in the bottom of our pantry covered with recyclable bags (ha, ironic!) and was forgotten about.

Chris recently pulled the bin out and it made it’s way into the backyard, but not quite into the house.  Last week, we were talking about it, and the next day when I got home from work, it was sitting in our kitchen, begging for contents.  Chris made spaghetti that night, and when I went to toss the cans of sauce into the trash, I stopped myself and looked at the bin.

“Oh, we can recycle these, Chris!” I said as I held up the can of sauce.

“Yup,” he replied.  “Lemme clean it up before you throw it in th”

Too late.

I eagerly threw the can into the bin before Chris could finish his sentence about cleaning up the bin.

Then, I spotted the diet soda that Chris had with dinner and threw those in the bin, too.

I felt like I was shooting basketballs and was making 3 pointers.  It was fun.

Still dirty, but at least the bin has friends!

I didn’t take a picture, but last night, I tossed in the milk jug and it felt so good.  I somehow feel like I’m getting  points for things I toss in the bin.

Today at work, I came across this sign and couldn’t believe it.  Insanity!

If that isn’t motivation to recycle more, then I don’t know what is.

I took my excitement a little further by doing some research on a more aesthetically pleasing recycling bin and I came across this little guy from Crate and Barrel.  While I love the blue bin staring at my from across the room, it’s hideous and needs to hang out in its home outside.  I can’t wait to use the Crate and Barrel bin!

Do you recycle?  What motivates you to recycle on a regular basis?  What tips do you have to encourage others to recycle?