My whole life, I’ve mostly chosen to participate in activities that I can do alone. Yoga, running, and bodybuilding are three prime examples. I guess I treat exercise as a form of meditation – going to the gym is my alone time.
With that being said, when I go to the gym with my boyfriend, he helps me by suggesting new exercises or by spotting me while I do the last reps of heavy lifts. Having him as my occasional workout buddy made me realize that maybe working out with other people isn’t the worst thing in the world. 🙂
So when goodnessknows challenged me to try something new in 2017, I decided to buck up and try a group fitness class – a spin class in particular. I’ve never taken a group fitness class that wasn’t yoga, and spin class has always terrified me. So yeah…this was waaaay outside my comfort zone, to say the least.
The whole week leading up to the spin class, I complained about it to anyone who would listen. I was scared. I didn’t want to work out with other people. I didn’t want to embarrass myself by being bad at something (I HATE being bad at things).
To my surprise, when I got to the classroom that Saturday morning, the instructor saw that I was new and came up to me to introduce herself. She helped me adjust my bike to the right height settings, and she even encouraged me a few times throughout the class.
Not gonna lie, spin class wasn’t easy. I got sweaty, my legs got tired, and my butt was sore from sitting on that tiny bike seat. But I pushed myself, and the good ended up outweighing the bad.
I appreciated that someone else was pushing me through the workout, because I usually have to be the one to push myself – and when I’m low on carbs and feeling cranky, that’s not the easiest thing in the world to do.
And look at all the calories I burned! Spin class is going to be the perfect complement to my bodybuilding competition prep regimen. (Yup, spoiler alert: I liked it so much that I’m going to try to go back every Saturday.)
Long story short, I’m thankful that goodnessknows challenged me to try something new this year. I truly NEVER would have tried spin class if it hadn’t been for this little nudge and hey, every try is a step to being your best, right? Plus, I found out about goodnessknows snack squares and have been loving them as a pre-workout snack!
I’ve been grabbing a pack on the way out the door and eating them in the car on the way to the gym. Each pack has four snack squares inside and is 150 calories and 21C/3P/7F (that’s grams of carbs, protein, and fat). They’re gluten free and full of whole ingredients like nuts, berries, and oats so they don’t upset my stomach before a workout like some other snacks might.
I’ve tried four flavors: cranberry, almond, dark chocolate (their classic flavor), mixed berries, almond, dark chocolate, blueberry, almond, dark chocolate, and strawberry, peanut, dark chocolate (their three newest flavors) — FYI, the cranberry is definitely my favorite. Visit the goodnessknows website to see all their flavors (there are more!) and CLICK HERE to find out where to buy goodnessknows snack squares near you. They might be the perfect complement to your New Year’s resolution!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of goodnessknows. The opinions and text are all mine.
