And some yoga on top of that

Today is my forth day in a row I am working out. I feel great.

After a 15 minutes warm up of running I attended one hour of yoga. It was some time ago I did do a yoga class and I had almost forgotten how great it is. It is the mix of training static strength, flexibility and balance at the same time that I enjoy the most.

As I work out quite a lot I am getting stronger and I felt at its best while doing yoga today. As I carefully do stretching at least 15 minutes after each training session I am also getting more and more flexible and that also made itself visible today.

But there is one thing I really have to keep on training and that is my balance. Sure, it is not bad, actually better than most of the class, but that is not good enough for me. I have been better and I don't really understand why I struggle now? However, not balance training will be taking part in my everyday life. Lets see if in two-three weeks I will be getting any better...

After four days of training I feel more thrilled and motivated than ever. In training it is always the start which is hard, when the routine is on going it is harder to stop. At least for me.

My four days of training has been great thought.
- Hard total body group work out plus extra long stretching on Saturday
- Zumba dancing on Sunday
- Aqua (gym) combat on Monday
- And yoga today.
Try to beat that perfect variety if you can :)

xoxo

Be violent!

Be violent is what our aqua combat teacher told us tonight. He is a professional kick boxer and his classes are totally mad. He actually looks quite scary but also funny and Silvia and I laugh a lot during the class.

As everything we do at the aqua combat class is underneath the water the risks of getting hurt are minimal in confront when doing normal kick boxing. Under the water we can just give our all, kick and box the hardest we can without hurting ourselves or anyone else.

I can hardly feel my arms right now but at least I feel I have been working out well! :-)

xoxo

Picnic and aperitivo in Sempione

Just what I needed after a long night and a hard start at the gym this morning, a great relaxing day in the park with a sweet friend. We had picnic, sun bathed for a while and catched up on all the latest. Later on we moved on for an aperitivo on the terrace of Bhangrabar.

Now I am full, tired and happy and I gonna bring the mac to bed and end this great day with a good movie.

Zumba masterclass

For no special reason, I think, today they added an extra and special zumba class to the schedule. Obviously I had to attend it. 

Second day in a row, after just few hours of sleep, I put the alarm and got up in time just to go dancing zumba. I started to think I was crazy when I tired like a zombie walked all the way to the gym and who knows maybe I am? 

But it was worth it. 90 minutes of intensive zumba cheered me up and now I am fit for fight to... relax in the park the rest of the day :) The only thing is, it is 25-26 degrees outside and my summer clothes are still looked away... Well, a pair of jeans and a t shirt should be just perfect?

xoxo

Radio Italia Live Show

How cool is this picture? I haven't done any photo editing at all, just straight from my phone....

Silvia and I tired but happy after 4 hours of concert

Picture from a newspaper

This was one of the best concerts I have ever seen, and it was all free.

The great radio channel "Radio Italia" yesterday orginized a live concert with some of Italy's most famous and most selling artists in the last year.

I saw:

Antonello Venditti - My absolut favorite

Eros Ramazzotti - Mr charmig with the fantastic voice. He was for sure one of the best last night.

Marco Mengoni - The one who's going to Sweden next week for the big Eurovision contest. He was the biggest surprise. He was just great!

Other famous names that I saw yesterday are: Zucchero, Faf, Negramaro, Cesare Cremonini, Alessandra Amoroso, Fabri Fibra, Nek and many more.

I was standing up for over six hours last night, six of the best hours of the year so far. The concert was really great.

xoxo

Smile, exercise, stretch and relax

Saturday morning and finally Silvia and I managed to put on the alarm, meet up and go to the Virgin village. 

Started off hard with a terrible nike fusion class. Just to make sure to burn off every single calorie we had for breakfast.... Afterwards the same really good instructor had the stretching class so we did 45 minutes of well needed stretching too. And after that it was time for some SPA obviously. The picture is taken outside the fitness studio, I so much like that smiling face on the glass smiling to us hard working people all day long :-)

What a great start of the Saturday!

Now I gonna have lunch and then get out in the beautiful 26 degrees sunny day. 

xoxo

A little rainy evening tragedy

Steffi and I were supposed to go to the big Virgin Fitness Club party tonight. I got home from work, got ready and Stefii picked me up by car and we went towards the park where the party was ... On the way it started to rain, but just a little bit so we went on. We parked the car, paid the parking and started walking towards the bar. Then. Suddenly. The heaven opened up and it seemed like someone was holding a hard shower over us. In less than a minute we were completely wet, even if we had an umbrella. We waited for a couple of minutes under a tree but realized quickly that we couldn't go to the party with wet feet.

So we went back to the car, took off all the wet clothes and drove to my place half naked. I made a quick cherry tomato, prawn and chili pasta and we stayed in. The dinner was nice and obviously the company as well but I am a little bit disappointed as I really was looking forward the virgin party. Well well, now we are having a movie evening instead.

Below you can see a picture I took quickly when it just started to rain. The usual Milanese flooding.... The one and only bad things with the summer, these weird and heavy kind of tropical rain storms.

xoxo

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

One of the best books I have read in a very long time. One day was a book that directly hit my heart and the book Little Bee did as well.

It is a tragic story but characters are lovable and the book is written with elegance and humor.

An important topic in the book is how the United Kingdom treats people fleeing violence in other countries. I don't say that other countries are better, I actually don't know much about how it works in neither Sweden or Italy but I happen to know, even before starting reading this book, that UK treats feeing and innocent people in the worst kind of way, worse than murders and other criminals are treated.

This is a truly special book and I would recommend you all to read this book. If possible, read it in English as the Chris Cleave's language and writing style is brilliant. I got the book as a present in Swedish and it was great as well but I would guess it is even better in its original language.

I think the original title is "One other hand" but I have seen that also some of the English books has the title "Little Bee", not really sure why.

xoxo

The great feeling of relief and content after finishing a good workout

Today has been religions holiday in almost all Europe. Italy, the most religious country of them allh as been working. I do wonder what, for example Sweden or Switzerland actually are, celebrating? The ascension of Jesus, but most people are actually not celebrating this religious event so why should they be off from work? At the same time, if all other countries don't work, why do we do it? Not like I care a lot, just wondering...

All day today I been kind of tired (maybe caused of the allergy tablets I have started to take) and when walking out of the office I only fancied going home and straight to bed but instead I was choosing between going for an aperitivo or to the gym.

I choose the gym to be able to do my four times a week I have promised myself.

I began with a 20 minutes run. Puh. Though I would die but I didn't.
Then I did some arm, back and abbs training. As much as I love upper body training I hate doing lower body training. Yesterday the body pump class focused on the lower body so today it was time for the upper body.

My motivation grow up during the zumba class I did afterwards and I danced around like a little ballerina for an hour.

Now at home I feel very satisfied. I had a big and nice dinner and I know I gonna fall asleep quickly as soon as lying down in my bed. I just love the feeling after a good training.

xoxo

Pump and Jump

Summer is running up which means everyone has started their summer diets. I haven't but instead I will change my training.

My main goal is to add running to it. I hate running but for sure it is one of the best training forms to get in shape. Adding just 15 minutes of running to my normal training schedule should give me some kind of change. That is the plan for May.

However tonight I finally managed to get to the gym and I only did 5 minutes of running. Bad girl.
Instead I did body pump and the Jump class. I thought it would be really hard training but it was "Papete" that held both classes, and more than making the group giving its best he made us having fun. Attending his classes feels like attending a party.

Well, tomorrow is a new day and I will give my best then instead.

xoxo