T-minus 1 Month - And Counting!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen - in exactly one month today I have just woken up in our hotel, located at the fabulous Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! 

Times sure flies, it feels like we just started to plan the trip and it was still sooooo far in the future. Well, not anymore! Suddenly I feel like hitting a panic button when I'm trying to figure out everything we need to get sorted and done before the trip. Luckily I noticed well in time that my passport would have expired during the trip so I got it renewed a week ago and I don't have to worry about possible delays in that process. All of the flights between Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Iguassu Falls, Salvador and Imperatriz have been booked, accommodations have been booked... I'm getting so excited!

Since there's just one month to go until I will be somewhere warm enough to strip down to my bikini it's also time to get busy with exercise! Yes, even busier than before. Unfortunately I haven't managed to achieve a Brazilian bikini body I was hoping to achieve, since my body needs way more work for that. But I can still challenge myself to go for one final push and see what I can do in the last remaining month.

I guess one part of my countdown project can be called "Kettlebells At Dawn". In other words I'm challenging myself to a duel every morning by doing a good round of abs training with kettlebell weights as soon as I'm out of bed. Yes, before breakfast, first cup of coffee, shower (obviously) or anything else. Said training includes waking my abs up gently with planking - which they really don't appreciate that early in the morning. Then follows some pilates style abs training with an added kettlebell lifts for tease the arm muscles, russian twists with a lighter kettlebell and finally pull over double leg extensions, using the kettlebell as a counter weight of sorts.

I'm sure I didn't get the terminology right, but that was the best description I could come up with. These exercises were something that my Personal Trainer included in my training sessions and they were really hard! My abs hurt for a few days afterwards so they must effective. Hopefully they will produce some results soon, too.

Now it's time for some fat burning exercise, I'm off for another Nordic walk!

Happy & Healthy 2013!

Well well well, I think it's about time to return to blogging after a longer-than-planned break. I didn't realize that the time before Christmas was going to be as hectic as it was - and then again there weren't that much news to share with you you anyway, since a prolonged flu kept me away from the gym and most of other exercise for almost a month.

Quick recap of December: struggling with above mentioned flu, painting a few walls at home, installing some Ikea furniture, Christmas shopping, cleaning the whole house for the festive season, visiting friends, spending Christmas together with family, inviting relatives over on Boxing Day, welcoming one of my husband's best friends' to Finland for a holiday, celebrating New Year with family and friends... And that was just the spare time and holidays, of course I had plenty of work to do at the office, too. 

I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of alternative exercise though: clearing our approximately 300 m2 driveway of snow for 1,5 hours at a time (I don't even know how many times I did that thanks to repeated snowstorms), going for walks with our friend's dog Lilli when we were dogsitting her for two long weekends and downhill skiing in a nearby ski center. I went to the gym a couple of times during December but not as often as I had planned. Not. At. All.

Anyway, after enjoying some Christmas and New Year treats and being forced to have a longer break in regular gym and cardio training it's time to make this year a year to remember in fitness and health. From tomorrow on I'm going to give myself a big push in both exercise and diet and see what comes out of it. I'll tell you more about it later. :)