This has been a very good week in the Potter house and especially in Natalieland! My first ZUMBA class went really well on Saturday and I got loads of positive feedback. My two running groups started last weekend and I had decent attendance figures and again, great feedback. Exercise has been spot on this week and my food (with the exception of some cookies on Wednesday) has been good.
I covered a friends aerobics class last night. It was a relatively large group of about 30 ladies, most of whom I had never met before. My microphone decided it didn’t like the hall acoustics and screamed loudly to let me know, so I had to yell the whole way through the class, sans mic, to make myself heard. Despite this, everyone seemed to have a good time and they all left looking sweaty glowing! I’m going back on Monday evening to teach Zumba and with lots of the ladies having told me how much they love it already, I can’t wait!
After teaching the class I went on to train my friend Sara. She loves to run (a girl after my own heart) and told me that she wanted to work on speed. Dream client or what! So after a warmup run we headed for a local hill and proceeded to do hill sprint repeats. The first few times we focused on a particular technique each time ie arm drives, body positioning, stride length and then for the remainder Sara just went for it. Let me tell you, this girl lets nothing get in her way. 
She has the most amazing positive attitude and never gives up. I was lucky enough to run Sara’s first race with her – the British 10k London Run. She ran every single step and even when she got to the point of wanting to walk, all it took was a gentle reminder that we were less than a km from the end and she found a new lease of energy and dashed off!
I’m beginning to think I might need to adapt my working gear now that the colder weather has arrived with a vengeance. Whilst this morning I was fine to walk through the supermarket in just capri leggings and a vest, this afternoon I needed to add a fleece and a jacket because I was so chilly. Unfortunately neither of these garments helped with my drafty ankles! Oh well, guess I really do need to dust off my long gym trousers…
Is anyone else finding all of the Christmas goodies in the shops difficult to resist? The special festive packaging keeps luring me in and tempting me to give them a try. The latest of my naughty samples was a Cadbury Wishes Star. Now obviously I bought
this because a donation is made to a kids charity with each purchase, and not because of the shiny gold wrapper twinkling at me from the shelf (have I told you that I’m part magpie?).
It is a Cadbury chocolate star (funnily enough) with a bubbly truffle centre and is absolutely delicious. It has about 165 calories and so can be slotted into a days calories if necessary. Unfortunately, if you are following the Rosemary Conley plan, you would need to save your 100 treat calories for a day in order to ‘afford’ this. Worth it though.
This evening I intend cuddling up on the sofa with my family and watching a movie, with popcorn of course. Tomorrow is another busy day with Zumba first thing followed by running club and then a training session with two of my favourite friends. Got a good un to give them too. An intense half hour of lots of different plyometrics each performed for 30-60 seconds each with sprints thrown in for good measure. What fun!
I hope all the other Hotties are having a good week – I promise that next week I will travel around a few more blogs.
Nat's Running for Life 
Christmas goodies are one of the things I really struggle with. We have to keep our eyes on the prize though. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Steve. I think one of the ways I best cope with the season is to have small portions of my favourite things during November/December before the big days arrive. That way I’m less inclined to binge on 25/26 Dec. You are so right though, at times of temptation thinking about the bigger picture and goals can really help, in much the same way that it does if you are having a bad run.
I so have to check out this zumba that everyone is talking about! Do I live in a bubble?
Ignore the goodies. Ya right. Easier said than done! You can do it! Stay positive!
I suspect you aren’t in a bubble Debbi because Zumba seems to be available in certain areas and completely absent in others, at least here in the UK. If you get a chance I’d say give it a go. The people that come to my classes seem to either love it or hate it – no middle ground!
Thanks for the encouragement. I’m doing my best! Loved the look of the butternut squash bake on your blog btw.