Hi friends! How are you today? Thank you so much to those of you who checked in with me regarding the safety of my family in Florida. We’ve been following the path of Hurricane Irma closely and receiving constant updates from my parents, sister and brother-in-law and Ryan’s parents. None of them live in an evacuation zone and while they are all among the 5+ million who lost power, they are all safe and we are incredibly grateful. It is devastating to see the destruction the storm has caused so far in Florida and the Caribbean and we are all absolutely keeping everyone in the path of Hurricane Irma in our prayers.
Today is also an important day in our country, and I am taking time to think of the lives lost and forever changed 16 years ago on September 11. You are in my prayers and I join my fellow Americans when I say we will never forget you and the horrific events that happened on this day.
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Our weekend included a lot of updates from family and friends as we checked on the safety of those we love in Florida. We had beautiful weather in Charlotte which felt almost unsettling as we kept our eyes on the weather and the ever-changing path of Hurricane Irma. We had a lot of quiet moments this weekend – a boat ride on Friday night, an early night at home on Saturday, tossing rocks into a pond on Sunday morning – and I definitely felt an extra sense of gratitude for the things in life that are so easy to take for granted.
Friday
Our Friday night was a relaxing one. Earlier in the week, I requested a sunset boat ride on Friday evening and thankfully the weather cooperated, so we loaded our little gang up onto our boat after dinner and cruised around Lake Norman. I know our opportunities to get out on the water will soon becoming to a close for the year and we’re determined to make the most of the remaining weeks of boat season. Something about being on the water relaxes me in a way that seems to only be mirrored by the way I feel when I am in the mountains. It’s a peaceful calm and I love it so, so much.
As always Sadie served as our enthusiastic little lookout during our boat ride. Watching her ears flap in the wind and seeing her excitement basically explode every time we step out of the car and head for the boat dock brings me so much joy. She’s a water dog through and through!
Saturday
Saturday morning began on the slow side, which was very welcomed. Ryan went to the gym, Chase shocked us by sleeping in until 7:30 a.m. and I was able to curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee and my devotional and enjoy some uninterrupted quiet time. Once everyone was up and done eating breakfast we headed off on our adventure of the day!
For Chase’s birthday, his friend Carey gave us tickets to Discovery Place Nature Museum which I thought was such an awesome gift. You guys know by now that I am all about experience-based gifts for Ryan so I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this for Chase and his toddler friends, too. I LOVE this idea!! Discovery Place Nature was a lot smaller than I anticipated but for a two-year-old the size was perfect and we spent a solid two hours at the museum. (For the locals: Most of our time was spent in the outside play area and we easily made it through the inside of the museum in 45 minutes.)
We kicked off our visit to the museum with a walk through the butterfly garden before it was time for the 10 a.m. show in the planetarium. I wasn’t sure how Chase would handle the dark room, dome ceiling and the booming narrator’s voice but apparently he inherited his grandmother’s love for space because he was all about it and very into the show about the autumn sky and constellations.
I’m sure sharing a beanbag with Ryan helped increase his bravery level but the show seemed to be a good one for kids of all ages. Since the majority of the people watching the show were children, no one minded when kids yelled out the constellation shapes and had a little fun with the show which Chase also seemed to enjoy.
After the show, we made our way through the rest of the museum and our little animal lover enjoyed checking out the turtles, snakes, chipmunks, owls and more. Since the weather was so gorgeous on Saturday (low 70s and sunny) we were anxious to get outside to enjoy the museum’s play area and trails and spent over an hour watching Chase have a ball.
Our time in the outside play area lasted as long as it did because Chase fell in love with this little push-toy digger thing that he carted all over the place and through the trails.
Truthfully pushing that thing around seemed completely miserable to me but he was all about it. Whatever floats your boat, bud!
We arrived back home in time for lunch right before Chase went down for his nap. Ryan had plans to go mountain biking with a friend while Chase slept and I did some work. The rest of our Saturday was pretty low-key. We attended the evening service at our church, ate breakfast for dinner and rounded out the evening with Thursday’s episode of Big Brother that we missed last week.
Sunday
Sunday morning began the sweaty way! On Saturday night, I signed up for my first CycleBar class, a new boutique indoor cycling studio that recently opened in our area. (They have locations all over the United States but it’s new to our area.) So many people have been absolutely raving about it so I wanted to see what it was all about and couldn’t pass up the $5 rate for a first-time rider. I signed up for the 8 a.m. class and anticipated an experience similar to SoulCycle which I’ve tried a couple of times in the past when I visited New York City. (Fun fact: Chelsea Clinton was in my first SoulCycle class!)
The class was super high-energy and a lot of fun. It was a 50-minute ride that incorporated hills, sprints and some light arm work with a four-pound bar. Truthfully I have mixed thoughts about incorporating arm exercises during a spinning workout – specifically doing the exercises while you’re on a bike. Through my Spinning certification, it was pretty well ingrained into our heads that doing arm exercises on a bike (especially while pedaling) can be dangerous and lead to injury. When I did SoulCycle in the past, it was before my training and so I wasn’t sure what I would think of CycleBar since I have a bit of a new perspective on the format. (Yes, I know the workouts are quite different but from an outsider’s perspective, there are many similarities.)
So what did I think? To be honest, I liked it. Would I consider CycleBar a full-body workout? No… but they definitely don’t claim to offer a full-body workout on their website or promotional materials which focuses heavily on CycleBar delivering a good cardio workout. Do I wish we would’ve just stopped our bikes and hopped off for the arm portion of the workout? Absolutely. (The instructor did and I was hoping he’d tell us to as well!) But would I consider CycleBar a fun cardio workout? Yes. Would I go back? Yes. Would I recommend it for someone brand new to fitness? After my first experience, I wouldn’t. Honestly, I think CycleBar is best for someone who is already comfortable on a bike (no one came in to help me get set up on a bike or review the various positions which was a little shocking and – I’m hoping – unusual for CycleBar) and someone who also has the knowledge that upper body workouts and indoor cycling probably shouldn’t go hand-in-hand for the most effective combination. (Basically if you’re looking for an upbeat and intense indoor cycling workout and are prepared to pretty much take the arms part of the workout with a grain of salt, you’d probably like it. ) The workout was fun and there’s no denying that CycleBar completely nailed the energetic ambiance I love in a fitness studio. To really be able to give the workout a full and complete review, I would definitely need to take more than one class, but I still wanted to share my initial impression with you guys and would love to hear what you think if you’re a CycleBar fan or have ever taken a class in the past.
Once my workout was done, I chatted with some people at the studio before heading home. (Everyone from the woman who checked me in to the instructor was very, very friendly and welcoming and I didn’t get that “too cool for school” vibe I’ve seen at other small studios.) Chase and Ryan were playing with trains when I walked through the door and when Chase saw me, he immediately ran over to his kitchen helper stand and said “help cook!” I figured I’d use his interest in cooking to my advantage and we whipped up a batch of banana muffins before spending the rest of the morning at a local park.
We played on the playground for a bit, but the highlight of our morning occurred at a nearby pond where throwing rocks into the water entertained us for a little too long!
Clearly Ryan and I are way too into Big Brother these days because we ended up making up our own mini Head of Household (HOH) competition while we were tossing rocks. We said the first person to get a rock to land on the wooden platform floating the lake would be HOH (and win a massage!) and it was WAY harder than it looked!
Even though Ryan hit the platform a lot more frequently than I did, I’m happy to report that one of my rocks stayed put first and I was crowned HOH. Yessss!
(Ryan snapped that pic before I could put up the number one… and I think that was on purpose.)
Once we made it back home, we ate a quick lunch, put Chase down for a nap and Ryan went off to the gym while I worked on this blog post. Chase woke up crying less than an hour later and seemed really fussy. Chase rarely wakes up crying so I took his temperature and was relieved when he didn’t have a fever. He also didn’t seem to want to go back to sleep so we just laid low for a bit at home while he calmed down and started to act more like himself.
The rest of our Sunday was pretty relaxed. Our friend Ben came over and we grilled out, threw toy airplanes around outside with Chase and called it an early night.
Plans for today include preschool in the morning for Chase and a doctor’s appointment for me. I had some blood work done two weeks ago and apparently the lab didn’t get enough blood for the tests they needed to do, so it’s back to the doctor I gooooo.
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I love CycleBar for the cardio, but even though I am a seasoned exerciser and have been plenty of times, I still hate the arms portion. It doesn’t feel like a true upper body workout (because it’s not) and I’d rather just focus on the pedaling. They have a class called “Performance” where they focus a lot more on numbers like power and RPMs, and they take the arms portion out of most of those classes because you can’t get your numbers as high during it. Whether you like that or not depends on your relationship to quantifying your workout, but I don’t mind it or place too much stock in it. And with regard to setting up your bike, I’ve always had people offer, even when I’ve been in the studio a bunch! They also usually offer a beginner class each week for first-timers to get comfortable. Despite some of the flaws, I like the vibe of CycleBar a lot better than some other cycling studios, and adore the sweatfest 🙂
It sounds like you had a great weekend! I’ve only taken one indor spin class before at the gym I used to belong to and didn’t think it was that great of a workout. Maybe it was because I was trying to figure it all out and work on the resistance. Once I join a gym again, maybe I’ll give it another try! How annoying that you have to go for more blood work. As someone who hates needles and shots, I would be stressed ha.
Have a great day Julie 🙂 So glad that both your family and Ryan’s are safe!
Glad to hear your family is safe and sound. I love CycleBar because it feels like a dance party and the work out flies by!
So happy to hear your family is safe! We moved up to Virginia from Jacksonville a little over a year ago and I’ve been constantly checking in with our friends to make sure they are okay!
Your hair looks awesome in those pics from the museum by the way! How do you get your waves to look like that?! I struggle so bad with hairstyles it’s not even funny :/
Enjoy your day!
That shot of Sadie on the boat just cracks me up — she looks like the captain of the sea!
I am with you – I spent a lot of time this weekend and this morning being so grateful for what I have. I take the normalcy of my life for granted all too often, but I really am so thankful that things are so low-key and easy for the most part. I am so glad that your family is safe.
Your weekend sounds so fun though! I have never tried CycleBar, but I have quite a few friends who have, and they honestly had a very similar first reaction to yours. I am not a fan of spinning to begin with, so I’m not sure if it’s a workout I would try.
On a totally different note, your hair looks amazing in those pictures! Have a great day. 🙂
I have similar thoughts about cyclebar. I’m not new to fitness but I am to spinning. I don’t feel 100% comfortable with the bike so adding extras stuff adds to that uncomfortableness. Looks like a fun weekend!
Your family is in my thoughts! So glad they didn’t need to evacuate, and can keep close contact with you! Have an awesome week, and excited to hear more about Chase’s preschool!
I hate when it takes multiple pokes/draws for blood work! Hope all comes out well and glad to hear your family is safe!
Sounds like you guys had a fun weekend. I totally agree with you on the spin classes, I’m there to bike and get a cardio workout in, I don’t want to be doing weights.
I’m glad to hear that your family in Florida is doing well. From the news coverage we’ve had here it looks pretty scary.
I am so happy to hear that your family is safe! This hurricane is so scary, I couldn’t stop watching the news all weekend. I have been really worried about everyone in Florida.
It looks like you guys had a great weekend! I am obsessed with your hair! It is so long and so beautiful!!! 🙂 I’ve always wanted to try a spin class, they seem like so much fun. I hope your doctors appointment today goes well, I am terrified of needles and have never gotten blood drawn, seriously…I am like such a baby. Yikes! Have a great Monday! Xoxo
I tried out CycleBar last December when I was visiting home and it was a new studio to the area. I have only been to maybe 2 cycle classes in my life so I am still new to the set up and everything. There was someone to help me get set up and comfortable at the studio I went to. The workout was tough as I am not used to cardio or cycling, but I enjoyed it.
I’m glad your family is safe in Florida. Thankfully my friends evacuated.
So glad to hear your friends evacuated and I really hope their homes are okay. Also, glad to hear someone helped you get set up at CycleBar — I was hoping my experience was an exception and not the norm!
Glad your family is safe. Looks like a fun weekend, I had not heard of Cyclebar, I will have to keep an eye out for it.
THANK YOU for your comments about the arm workouts while cycling. I always skip that part (just keep cycling) because it’s not natural. I wouldn’t do it on a road bike, so why would I do it on a spin bike? 🙂
I’ve been thinking about your family and friends back in FL! I’m happy to hear they are all ok! Sounds like a fun weekend to me! I’ve never heard of Cyclebar before but wouldn’t be opposed to trying it!
I just loved Sadie’s ears flapping in your Instastory, she looked like she was in heaven. Very happy to hear that your family is safe & sound.
You look too cute in your celebration pic!!
So random but I have been on the hunt for the perfect for me curling iron lately… which on do you use? You have the perfect loose curl!
Agreed! Following this so I can get the updates too. 🙂
Thank you!! Here’s a link to the curling iron –> http://bit.ly/2wXklw2 <3
Also following! And also would like to know where you got your gray cross body bag?! So glad to hear you read family in Florida is safe!
Thank you, Kathy!! Here’s the curling iron: http://bit.ly/2wXklw2 and here is the cross body: http://bit.ly/2wWIMK3 (I have the mink/gold color and got it on sale through RueLaLa!)
You may laugh at this but it’s a super old Hot Tools curling iron (bright pink!) that I got at ULTA a long time ago. I just wrap my hair around the outside of it like a wand, hairspray the heck out of it and then brush it out. I also straighten my bangs and the ends so it looks a little more undone. Here’s a link to the exact curling iron: http://bit.ly/2wXklw2 — I think any 1-inch iron that gets super hot or a wand would work well!
Hi Julie! It looks like the Jacksonville area is in for some flooding today! Scary! My parents had to evacuate their home in Southwest Florida, and they ended up in Orlando, where the storm also passed through. Everyone is okay, but it was NOT fun trying to keep in touch and updated all weekend. No thanks, hurricanes! But on a lighter note — I have a few comments. I TOTALLY am not in agreement with the arm portions of SoulCycle or FlyWheel (I haven’t done Cyclebar), however, like you, I find the classes super fun. I do wish that we did the arm work off the bike, so people could focus on it more. But I also realize that sometimes these trendy classes bring people into a gym setting to exercise, when maybe they wouldn’t otherwise. And maybe they wouldn’t do anything with their upper body at all, if they didn’t have this portion in class. So part of me kinda lets it slide, even though the fitness professional in me, knows that it is not exactly sound movement. Nonetheless, glad you liked the class. Have a great Monday, Julie! 🙂
Regarding your thoughts on indoor cycling workouts that incorporate upper body — you stated that perfectly!! Totally agree!
I recently met a lady who was an instructor at cyclebar at my church (I go to meck! Which is worth checking out if you ever need a new church, just saying) and have been wanting to check it out but I can NOT ride a bike so I’m so glad that you’ve reported on it first! Im pretty new in my fitness journey and I think I’ll work my way up to that. Also your Sunday outfit is just the cutest!
Who do you like on Big Brother? I cannot believe the way everyone allows Paul to control them! I just do not like him! Sooo excited for Celebrity Big Brother!
Spin classes are so hit or miss for me! I’ve never been to one that incorporated arm workouts while on the bike, but now I’m wondering how I’d react to that. My gym offers some fun spin classes, but right now, I’m going through a HIIT phase and 30-minute or less strength workouts, so the 60-90 minute spin classes just aren’t calling my name as they used to!
That young boy of yours has such a photogenic face and expressive!! He has turned from cute baby to such a handsome toddler. That blonde and the smile will get him out of trouble, for sure
Also want to comment about your photos: Do you and your husband take your photos? Some of them are so incredible (ok, most of them)–the focal zone, the depth of field…amazing. I especially love the one of you behind your boy, slightly out of focus to keep him as the center, but clearly in the frame! Amazing.
Thank you!! Yes, we take all the photos! 🙂 Really appreciate your kind words, especially since I still feel like I’m pretty horrible at photography!
I went to CB a few weeks ago, and have the exact same takeaway experience as you! I’ve been teaching spinning for 15 years, so I’m old school in terms of the fundamentals taught during that cert. It’s so hard for me to adapt to change and go along with non-functional movements on the bike, but I know they’re everywhere now. It definitely was a fun atmosphere to take a class in, though, and the lighting/stadium arrangement made it high-energy.
Glad your family in Florida is ok! My family was thankfully spared from damage outside of downed trees in Ft. Lauderdale.
I agree on the arm workouts on the bike! It’s so awkward and I do not find it to be effective. Music is the key to a good spin class for me- it can make or break it!
loved gifting experiences!! so much fun!! Looks like you had the perfect outdoorsy weekend!
I’ve been taking classes at my local CycleBar for about a month and a half now and I love it. I took SoulCycle once before and really didn’t enjoy the experience. I have found a much different vibe at CycleBar which was a nice surprise. I still find myself struggling to go fast enough out of the saddle and would love a post on some cycling tips and tricks since you have the background and experience! Another post that would be awesome is strength training workouts that compliment the cardio aspect of cycling. I thought the arm portion was working my arm muscles but maybe I’m wrong!
I’m with you on the weights while on a bike. As a Spinning instructor, I’m most concerned about form, and there’s no way you’ll get everyone in class to maintain proper form AND lift weights at the same time. Injury is inevitable. I hope these types of cycling chains are a fad.
I’m so glad you gave CycleBar a chance (and a review)! I’ve been working and riding at the flagship studio in Cincinnati for over three years now. I loved hearing that you enjoyed the high energy of the workout! That’s really important to us. I am disappointed to hear that the instructor didn’t go over the positions on the bike. It’s sounds like this newer studio is still working out the kinks and hopefully won’t make that mistake again. One thing that’s emphasized at our studio is choice. The instructor is your guide, but you are ultimately responsible for your workout. So you can easily opt out of the upper body routine if you want. I’ve gotten some good definition from it without any injury, but I can totally understand your concern. I hope you return to test out plenty of instructors and enjoy it even more!
Yes! Omg my husband and I turn time outside with out daughter into Big Brother games all the time! Last time, we had to catapult a rubber ducky on her water table into a bucket nearby. I believe he won, but my 1 year daughter thought we were both nuts 🙂
Coffee + Devotional + Sleeping Baby = This BEST mornings! I love my little guy but my day just starts better with a quiet time. I get up at 430 just to have this time.
Take in all the boat days you can. You seriously make me want a boat because it sounds so nice to go out for morning sunrises or afternoon sunsets on the water. Something so magical and peaceful about it. And I have been considering getting my spin certification. I teach Les Mills Bodypump and my gym is looking for spin instructors. I’m definitely going to read your post, as I’ve heard good things about Mad Dog.
I feel exactlyyy the same way as you about CycleBar! Appreciate your review 🙂
Now I’m craving a warm banana muffin!
Hi Julie!
I got to your post due to googling Cyclebar reviews and came across your blog. I know this post was from 2 years ago, but I thought I would post my thoughts on Cyclebar. I’ve been going there for 2 months now. I think it is a great cardio workout; however, I share the same thoughts you had in doing the exercises ON the bike! I didn’t like that and don’t get a good workout during it, especially when you are pedaling and doing arm exercises at the same time. To me, that just feels dangerous and the instructors never really tell you to correct the form. I just did push-ups the other day, and I felt soreness in my upper body. When I first started, they did set me up on the bike. But later on, it seemed like different instructors would always change my setting in which I got frustrated because no one knew that I already had good form and felt comfortable. My stamina improved, but it’s not a total body workout.
Anyway, your blog looks intriguing and just subscribed!