Working out on the weekends always works for me.  There are no time restraints, I can fit it in during whatever part of the day I choose, and I because I have more time, I can try new things.  Enter today’s workout:

 I have never been a Stairmaster fan.  Just climbing and climbing doesn’t really do it for me, but for some unknown reason this weekend and I was up to give it another go.  No, I did not spend my entire workout on this piece of equipment, but I did spend a relaxing amount of time where I just kind of focused on mentally thinking about hiking a really picturesque mountain and the time flew.  When I was in college, I studied music and a big part of that study involved performance.  A lot of the music that I focused on centered on nature and I found I did my most convincing and moving performances of these types of pieces when I visualized being in nature away from the concert hall or theatre I was actually performing in.  By mentally disconnecting, I was able to tap in to another area that provoked a different kind of emotion than just standing in front of people performing.  I use this technique often when in the gym.  As much as I love just staring at people or bulky pieces of machinery when I’m working out, the time passes much more quickly when I take myself somewhere else.  If you haven’t tried this technique yet, I highly recommend it.

Post gymming, I returned home in dire need of a little pick me up.  Coffee and I have never really been friends.  Love the smell, hate the taste.  Plus, the first time I tried coffee it was in attempts to be all businessy at my first big internship my junior year of college.  I went way overboard drinking four cups in the span of about 45 minutes and was out of my mind.  Never again.  Instead, I opt for the benefit rich, green tea.

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The University of Maryland Medical Center recently compiled a list of green tea benefits which you can find here.  The benefits include lowering cholesterol (which is huge for me since high cholesterol runs in my family), controlling blood sugar levels, preventing different types of cancers, boosting your metabolism, and a variety of other things.  If green tea itself isn’t your thing, you can always spice it up with some honey or sugar, or pills are available if you would still like to reap the benefits.   But there really is nothing quite like curling up with a panda mug full of green tea and a warm blanket to stave off this crazy cold winter.

-sj