Today is day 20 of my Pilates/Yoga challenge at Core Studio in Toronto. By the end of today I will have done 16 different types of yoga and Pilates classes in 20 days. I still have a week to go in this 30 day challenge, but as I’m only doing the “light” option of 21 days in 30 days I think I’m going to make it! I attempted this challenge before and lets just say I didn’t quite make it.

The biggest challenge for me has been learning that it is ok to spend more time on Pilates/Yoga than on my running. As crazy as this sounds this has been a challenge for me. I don’t think if I was training for a full marathon that I would have been able to do this challenge. It would just be to much for me (for my body and for maintaining a good life/balance).

The benefits so far?

I have more shape again in my waist and my legs are looking lengthened.  I also feel healthier.

Credit: Lululemon @Flickr

Throughout the month of January I followed the adventures of someone who challenged herself to wear only two pairs of pants for the whole month. The whole idea around this challenge was to dress for your workout and your day in basically the same clothing…or maybe it was something to do with being more environmentally conscious with your clothing habits. Whatever the purpose it was a cool idea and I did check in to see how she was doing each day. However, I think I was more intrigued by the following:

Both pairs of pants that she had to live in for an entire month were skin-tight legging type material and one was a crop pant. How was she going to be able to come up with multiple outfits that revolved around this look? She definitely pulled it off and by the end of the month I had convinced myself that I too needed a pair of wunder under crops for my workouts. 

Slight problem, though.

I have hips and am not 6 feet tall. Could I really pull off this cropped, skin-tight legging look for my workouts? Doubtful. 

But a girl can dream and maybe there is a pair of skin-tight workout crops that could work for me. 

PS: I’m not delusional enough to think I could actually wear these for a full day outing…only for exercise.

Oh. my. god. That is pretty much what is going through my mind after taking a Circuit 60 class at Track Fitness.

Having a day off during the work week is a rare treat and one of the things that I love do when this happens is to take a daytime fitness class. There is just something exciting about being able to do this. So, this morning I stumbled upon a review of Track Fitness on Sweetspot (which is an awesome place to find out what is going on in your city!). The review said that their Circuit 60 was going to be one of the toughest workouts you have encountered. Excellent. This is what I was looking for and after sending them an email I was signed up for the noon class. 

By the time the class finished at 1 p.m. I had done three intervals of 10 minutes on the treadmill and various strength training exercises. Being a runner I thought the treadmill part should be a breeze. It was not and I was not even doing the “runner” workout. You have the option during the treadmill intervals to be a jogger, runner or walker and as it was my first class I chose to be a jogger. Not too sure if what I was doing should be classified as a jogger as I was doing intervals of anywhere between 4 mph and 7.5 mph with inclines. It was tough and I was dripping with sweat.

But I loved the challenge and I’ll be back. Definitely try this out if you are wanting to take things up a notch.

Track Fitness is located in Forest Hill Village on Spadina Road and first class is free.

I just came across this neat fitness challenge for anyone living in Toronto’s Bloor West Village. On Saturday, November 7th a group of health and fitness centres in the area will be offering free classes as a part of the 8-minute path to fitness challenge. Apparently all the participating studios are within an 8 minute walk of one another!

Here’s the deal:

Basically you will get to sample bite-sized (20 minute classes) versions of the fitness classes at any of the participating studios or facilities for free. It seems that all studios are running classes every half hour between 12:30 and 2:30.

Participating studios include:

• Breathe yoga studio
• Retrofit Pilates
• RPM studio
• Think fitness

Sounds kind of fun and loving the community spirit aspect of this fitness challenge! Kind of wishing I lived in Bloor West Village to take part in this!