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Happy Saturday! I started mine with a 6:30 a.m. wake up call. I had plans to check out an 8 a.m. class at the Y and then meet up with a group of blogger friends for a workout at Metro Fitness. In preparation for two and a half hours of strength training/Cross Fit/athletic conditioning, I ate this.

Banana oats topped with strawberry jam (made with love by SARAH!) and half of a pumpkin apple muffin. I used major restraint with the nut butter and only used about one teaspoon of almond butter on top.

I attended a class at the Y this morning so that I could learn more about the format – I’m going to be teaching it next Saturday morning.  I feel pretty good about it. So very excited about these new classes!

After class at the Y, I headed over to Metro Fitness to check out the gym and get a taste of their CrossFit and Athletic Conditioning classes. I have been dying to check out CrossFit for the last couple years so I jumped at the chance to attend this blogger event when I was invited a few weeks ago.

Overall, I was extremely impressed by Metro Fitness. The facilities were excellent and the staff were friendly, motivating and very educated. They were probably so over me by the end of the day – I asked a ton of questions about their experiences and certifications (wanting to learn more about the fitness industry).  And my favorite thing about Metro Fitness? It is female owned. I love to see women operating this type of facility in a male-dominated industry! 😀

You could totally tell that this was female owned because the facilities were beautiful. I loved that the cardio area faced the windows and overlooked the street below.

In addition to the traditional cardio, free weights and weights area, Metro Fitness also has a very cool training area where they do all of the CrossFit and Athletic Conditioning.

Love the astroturf. I felt like such an athlete! 😉

The tour didn’t last long – it was time to get to work. We started out with a CrossFit workout with Jimmy. Here we are, lined up and scared about what was to come.

What was to come was burpees, lots of rowing, box jumps and wall balls.

What is CrossFit?

“CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.” – crossfit.com

After we finished the CrossFit portion, it was time to move on to some athletic conditioning with Thea. I think this picture pretty much sums up how we were feeling after CrossFit and facing the rest of our workout.

Seriously Thea? You want us to do that?  The machine that we are all standing around was some crazy total body athletic conditioning tool that had us doing all kinds of crazy, crazy things. I can honestly say that this part of the workout was extremely humbling. I am not bragging but I consider myself to be a pretty fit with decent upper body strength for a girl. I really struggled with some of the exercises that Thea had us do. It is amazing to me how much changing up your routine can challenge you. We get so comfortable in our everyday workouts and routines and sometimes lose sight of the value of doing something different.

It was all over before we knew it (well, I was counting down the seconds in the last two-minute hover that I held) and we gathered for a sweaty, celebratory picture.

My blogging workout buddies included…Katie, Brittney, Nicole, Cassandra, and Kelly.

We did what healthy living bloggers do after a hard workout – ate! Zoe’s Kitchen was nice enough to host our whole crew (+ the Metro Fitness staff) for a delicious lunch. Zoe’s is a small chain and actually started in Birmingham, Alabama. We used to always order food from there at work when I lived in Birmingham. I was excited to try the new Charlotte location.

We started out with pita and hummus for the table.

I was feeling a heavy dose of veggies (um, and apparently carbs!)  for lunch.

I chose the Veggie Stack – portobello, zucchini, grilled onions, tomatoes, cheese and more on foccacia. A cup of tomato bisque on the side.

We took one last group picture with the Metro Fitness staff before parting ways.

This was pretty much my idea of a perfect morning – great workouts, fun friends (old and new) and good food!