Sometimes I secretly wish I was one of those women. You know what I mean. One of those ladies who always looks so well put together and classy. One of those women who can take jeans and a basic tee and make it look c’est magifique. Someone who can take workout gear from frumpy and dumpy to chic and haute. But oh ho ho…I am so not one of those women.

Truth: I smell like strawberries. In an overly sweet, fake, disgusting way.

I forgot to put my new bottle of shampoo in the shower. So, when I went to wash my hair this morning my only two options were store brand dandruff shampoo (sorry to rat you out, Peter) and Makenzie’s wash. Even Sadder Truth: At least I’m clean. Which is more than I can say for all day Monday and Tuesday. I gross myself out sometimes.

Truth: I have no fashion sense.

I decided to stop at the store Charming Charlie to pick up a couple accessories for my cocktail party dress I plan to wear at Healthy Living Summit. I literally own NO jewelry besides my wedding bands. I felt lost in that store. It wasn’t pretty.

What even goes with a brown V-neck dress??? Or a black strapless dress??? Heck. I have no clue! Even Sadder Truth: I let Makenzie pick something for me. You think I’m joking. And perhaps the saddest of all? Kid has better fashion sense than I do.

Truth: I need a personal stylist…so I got one.

Although a personal stylist for me puts together workout outfits. Until someone nominates me for What Not To Wear and earns me a $5000 shopping spree, I will gladly accept someone willing to help my workout fashion. Even Sadder Truth: I would probably take a workout wear stylist over a fashion guru any day. Although I did once want to dress awfully and have my mom nominate me for What Not To Wear just so I could get a shopping spree. I doubt that would have worked though.

Thankfully, Champion offered me the chance to participate in the Shape Your Life program to try out some of their new shaping active wear. As part of the program, they sent me three different outfits put together by a personal stylist to suit my favorite activities and lifestyle. I broke into outfit numero uno right away.

This included the Shape Smoothing Long Top and the Ultimate Women’s Running Tights. Let me just say that any black leggings that can look that decent on my lower half get major props from me. And the smoothing long top was in fact very smoothing. I loved its fit and think it has great shape. I felt like cat woman – sleek, all black, and ready to kick some butt. 

Me-OW!

I wore the gear for a kickbox workout and only have good things to say about both pieces.

The top gave me plenty of girly support. It moved easily with my body and didn’t ride up on my stomach, which can happen with some form fitting tops. I truly felt cinched in, but  comfortably so. The pants felt very breathable and comfortable as well. I think they will make for great running gear when the temperatures start dropping. So far, I’m a fan and can’t wait to try out the other items. The Smoothing Knee Pants sound like a dream!

Truth: I have way too much stuff to do before I leave this afternoon, so I must now say goodbye. See you from Philly!

• Are you fashionable? If not, what fashion faux pas would earn you a spot on a makeover show?

This post is sponsored by Champion and I received monetary compensation for my participation, but my review and opinions are my own. I only ever participate in programs that I see naturally fit my blog and that allow for honest feedback. 

Oops! I forgot to catch you up on this weekend’s posts earlier. So, in case you missed it -

• 5 Minute Tropical Ice Cream
• Jump Around – fun way I spent my Saturday + the FFF Features
• Self-Love Reflection of the Week – Little Letters to the body
• One Month to Live Weekly Review – discussion on loving completely

Today was the big day. I mentioned tearing up early this morning at the thought of Makenzie starting preschool officially today. I cried a bit after dropping her off.

And then…I got home and realized the blessing of extra time to rock out some productivity. I love my little munchkin and thought about her consistently, but I can certainly see the bright side to this whole preschool thing now. Plus, her beaming grin when I picked her up let me know how happy it made her. I can’t argue with that. 🙂

Before dropping Makenzie off at preschool, I decided to keep things as normal as possible for her routine. I didn’t want her noticing me hovering extra and then thinking something was up with this whole preschool thing. That meant hitting the gym for my Monday morning weights session as usual. I did something a little different this morning and incorporated a plethora of stability training into the mix.

I coupled a bunch of exercises together in supersets with one traditional exercise and one stability exercise for the larger muscle groups (legs, chest, back) and a couple stability exercises together for the smaller muscle groups (arms, shoulders, abs).

• Legs: deadlift superset lunge on upside down Bosu
• Back: cable high row superset dumbell pullover on the ball
• Chest: flat dumbbell bench press superset alternating incline press on stability ball
• Shoulders/Biceps: side raises and bicep curls on upside down Bosu
• Triceps/Abs: dips on stability ball, ball crunches

I did three sets of 8 to 12 reps for each superset. It went rather quickly but I really felt the challenge on doing two exercises for the same muscle back to back. Plus, I have recently fallen in love with stability training! I used to think it didn’t add much of an extra challenge or benefit, but it really does. I can feel it work my body in new and different ways. Plus, from my personal training studies, I have learned the large benefits in focusing on stabilization muscles for a broad spectrum of fitness improvements. Gotta love a solid foundation to help better your fitness overall. 🙂

I have recently been loving on the following to add some extra fun in the form of stability or balance training to my workouts:

Doing Moves on an Upside Down Bosu Ball

Doing Alternating Movements (on or off stability ball)

For example: Instead of pressing both arms at once in a shoulder or bench press, do one arm at a time. Training one side at a time can increase the need to balance yourself and it can display if a side is weaker than the other.

Traditional Moves Done on a Stability Ball

Wow. The iPhone takes junky pictures. LOL

Almost any move I would use a bench for I can sub in a stability ball for an added challenge in balance and stability training.

 Staggered Moves

Having one side of the body slightly higher than the other can increase a need for balance. Another example would be doing squats with one leg higher on a step with risers.

I gotta say that I love putting into practice a few of the things I have learned. Hopefully I can stay on track to get certified sometime in November and start up with the online training stuff by the new year. Sometimes I even brain storm ideas of having an end of the year or start of the year (depending on timing) program to host for all of my blogging friends. What a fun way that would be to kick off the new venture! Who would be with me? 😉 Okay…getting ahead of myself. Sorry, but I just can’t wait!

Well, now I must get to making up lost time with my little M before settling in for an exciting night of leftover lasagna straight out of the tupperware and Bachelor Pad viewing. Peter’s Monday night meetings this month will equal high class evenings around here. Ha!

• Do you ever incorporate stability or balance training into your strength training workouts? What ways do you like to do so?
• What things do you tend to do when by your lonesome for the night?

Disclaimer: This post is not meant as advice on how you should train. I simply strive to share my personal fitness journey and some fitness ideas along the way. Use them at your own discretion. 🙂