Happy Belated Chinese New Year, Hard Circuit Workout, and Clothes

As many of you know, Chinese New Year took place a few days ago on January 23.  As a child, I celebrated this holiday with my family who often threw big parties to ring in the New Year.  Since I left for college 7 years ago (wow, really?!) I haven’t been able to be at home in Florida to take part in the festivities, but I’ve always found my own way to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Vince and I met up with friends at Austin’s version of Chinatown, which is really just a shopping complex of Asian food stores.  It’s nothing compared to the ones in San Francisco, New York, or Chicago, but I take what I can get!

Fail

When we arrived we immediately knew where all the action was taking place.  A huge crowd of gathered around various performers.  There were some marital arts students doing routines, and there was of course, the famous Lion Dance.  The lions actually used to freak me out because if you look closely, they are pretty weird looking, but it’s amazing what the dancers can do with the costume.  I’m always impressed by how realistic they make the lion seem and how they jump around, hold each other up, and squat for so long all while balancing and holding up the lion.

The dancers made the lion dance, jump on tables, and even eat lettuce that was hanging from the roof!

This one was eating lettuce.

It was really entertaining.  At the end of the performance, firecrackers were lit off and the dragons danced through the explosions.   Holy moly was it loud.  I had to cover my ears the entire time and still felt like my eardrums were going to burst!

It was a lot of fun and a nice way to celebrate Chinese New Year with friends.

Workout

In other news, yesterday I did the hardest circuit workout I’ve ever done, which isn’t really saying much because I don’t do them often, but man it was HARD.  My arms, back and abs are sore and I barely finished the sets.  I took Sandy for about an hour long walk in the afternoon and did these:

• Jumping Jacks (40)
• Squat Jumps (25) my enemy
• Alternating Lunges (20)
• Burpees – 15
• Push-ups (20) on knees
• Mountain Climbers (30)
• Bicycle Crunches (20)

I repeated this set twice.  It was my first attempt at doing burpees and mountain climbers, but I didn’t find them too bad.  What really kills me each time is the squat jumps.  My legs are always burning and wobbly after doing just 10 of them!  This was a great, fast workout though and I’m planning on keeping it in rotation!

Clothes

Apparently the Shopping Gods are on my side this week.  In addition to scoring cheap and awesome workout gear at Old Navy the other day, I managed to find some wonderful deals at Marshalls this evening.  Every item I bought was under $15!

Dress and two shirts.