Happy Thursday!  I’m glad you all enjoyed the BLEND 2012 Recap and now we don’t ever have to talk about BLEND again.

;)

Colorado life update – We went up to Estes Park yesterday and hiked 6 miles to Deer Mountain.  It was BEAUTIFUL! 

Coincidentally, Deer Mountain used to be the “easy” hike that we would take visitors on, since they weren’t acclimated to the altitude.

It kicked my butt. 

Of course back then, I wasn’t carrying a child on my back.  But still.

Realization: I’m in gym shape.  I’m not in hiking shape.

There will be no Tuesday Trainer this week.  Instead, you get the privilege of meeting Clare, one of my super cute, super well-dressed friends.  I seriously want to steal her wardrobe. 

Then hire her to dress me.

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Hi Everyone! My name is Clare and I blog over at Fitting It All In. I mostly talk about my workouts, quick meal ideas, and my daily outfits. But occasionally I get all deep about some spiritual book I’m reading or decide to be stupid and talk about why I love m&ms so freaking much. It’s fun. Stop by!

Since Lindsay is all buff (um hellooo Body After Baby photos!) and a personal trainer and stuff, I figured I should talk about exercise today. So here goes:

I quit weight training.

About two weeks ago I just stopped. I have still been working out with things like spinning, running, and yoga, but I haven’t picked up a weight.

See I had jumped on the Live Fit Trainer bandwagon at the start of the year. I was a pretty big cardio junkie and had almost no muscle, so when I was starting to get a little burnt out on running I decided the trainer would be the perfect new challenge.

At first I ADORED it. I saw progress in my strength and I sometimes didn’t even have to shower after the gym. Awesome.

But as the weeks went by and the workouts got longer, I started to resent being strapped into my Live Fit calendar. I was getting up at 5 am to fit everything in and with focusing so much on lifting my body felt really tense and beat up.

I don’t like being a quitter, but finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to go for a run in the nice spring weather! I wanted to take a spin class! I wanted to do ANYTHING except lift another weight. So I stopped. And it was so freeing.

In the past few weeks I’ve started to enjoy working out again. I’ve been trying new yoga classes at my gym, enjoying sunrise jogs on the trail, and all while being able to get a little extra sleep.

I will start weight training again some time. I know it’s really important to include in any workout routine, so eventually I’ll get back to it in some way. But for now I’m doing what my body is craving and having FUN working up a sweat.

Lessons learned?

Listen to your body.

Don’t let working out become a chore.

Don’t feel like you have to do what everyone else is doing.

But also don’t be afraid to try out something new. I’m really glad I tried the Live Fit Trainer because I learned a lot about weight training that I never knew, and now I can incorporate that when I create my own workouts.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for letting me post Lindsay!

QUESTION:  When’s the last time you “listened to your body”?