Good afternoon friends!

Today’s lunch used up some sweet potato that was on it’s last leg.  I couldn’t let it go to waste, but it was super simple to cook up.

Baked Sweet Potato

1. First rinse off the sweet potato and cut it into whatever shapes you want.  I opted for rounds, but you do sticks, or a mixture of both!
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. Place the sweet potato on a greased baking sheet.
4. Sprinkle the sweet potato with your desired seasoning (seasoned salt, salt and pepper, garlic salt, cinnamon, etc)
5. Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, flipping them over at the halfway point.
6. Once they are done, you can enjoy them immediately as “sweet potato fries” and dip them in your favorite dip (honey mustard, ketchup, ranch…) you can also enjoy them warm in your salad (like I did today) or you can even store them in the fridge for a snack or for  meal at a later date.

I enjoyed my baked sweet potato on top of a bed of greens with tomato, onion, celery, bell pepper, baked tofu, and balsamic vinegar.  Tasty if you ask me!

Planning My Workout Class

I spent the majority of my morning planning out a new-to-me class that I am teaching tomorrow called Yoga Sculpt.  This is a vinyasa based yoga class that incorporates strength training into traditional yoga poses to improve mind-body balance, body composition, and overall fitness.  I was given an outline to follow as far as what needs to be included in the class, but then it was my job to fill in the blanks.

I typed up my lesson plan, but unfortunately there isn’t a library of stick men in yoga poses, so I had to draw those little guys out.  That task is a lot harder than you think…how would you draw a stickman doing bicep curls in tree pose?

It was fun planning this class out for me, but it definitely took me a little bit to get into the mode.  I feel like I have been Body Pumping it out so much lately along with teaching the spinning classes that I used on the cruise ship that I haven’t really had to think up a group fitness class.  After I got into the groove, though, it was just like riding a bike and the exercise ideas began to flow like water.

There are two basic formats of group fitness:  Pre-Choreographed (like Les Mills and Zumba) and Freestyle (which are things like boot camp, core classes, circuit training, etc).  I can honestly say that I truly enjoy both formats.  I feel like there is definitely a time and a place for each option and, for me, it is good to keep both formats in my repertoire.

Question of the Afternoon:

• If you attend group fitness classes, do you prefer pre-choreographed or freestyle?  Did you even know there was a difference?