Speaking of King Cakes and Soldes....

I  have included a new workout below.  (See other workouts, here).

The only downside to shopping in Paris is that the sales women are absolutely relentless at trying to guess your size.  And not like the J.Crew sales girl, "0, 00?" (which, by the way....has anyone else noticed that J.Crew has thrown all general sizing rules out the window? I hope I'm wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that if you are a 6 at a J.Crew, you are actually a 10).  In Paris, it is quite the opposite.  Here, the sales assistant never fails to guess at least two sizes larger than one actually is.  I have come up with a few explanations for this:  1) To genetically thin French women, any sign of curvature = chubby; 2) they dislike Americans and are passively trying to offend us out of their stores; or 3) someone has shown them a picture of me from high school pre weight-watchers.  Whatever the explanation, I always leave the store feeling a strong need to up my weekly workouts.  (Unfortunately, this never, under any circumstances, effects my appetite).

And then there is the even more uncomfortable part of shopping in Paris.  After the sales woman adjusts to your response that you are actually a much smaller size than she has suggested (you have blown her mind at this point, just by even disagreeing with her, you have traumatized her for the rest of the day), she then thinks it is totally appropriate to walk into your teeny tiny dressing room unannounced and commence to chatting with you about whether the size is working for you.  Most likely, you have no clothes on at all.  No the size isn't working for me.  I have no clothes on yet.  Not to mention, now that you have totally immersed yourself in my personal space I am sweating bullets which means you are right, the jeans probably won't fit.   You win.

Utter and total defeat, every time. 

Yeah.... so here is the new workout (focusing on legs). 

5 minutes of cardio (this can include, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, running in place, etc... get creative)

Next do all of these strength building exercises for 1 minute each:

1.  The wall (sit in a chair position with back to the wall for 1 minute. Don't put hands on knees).
2.  Triceps extensions
3.  Squats (sumo or regular)
4.  Jumping Jacks
5.  Superman (lie on the floor with your arms and legs off the ground as if you are flying like superman)
5.  Pilates single leg lefts (sit on the floor holding your knees, with feet off the ground - extend one leg straight forward while still holding the other knee and switch. Repeat).
6.  Squat thrusters (with a 5 to 8 pound weight in each hand held down by your side, do a normal squat.  As you come up, bring the weights up and push straight above your head).
7.  Plies squats (as in ballet plies, stand on your toes with heels together and do squats while always on your toes...google if you need help).
8.  Jumping jacks
9. Karate kicks.  Hands up like you are getting ready to box someone, stand on one leg and kick the other leg straight out at your hip at waist height.  To get really intense, repeat the kicks for 10 seconds at the end without putting your leg down).
10.  Donkey kicks.  Get down on all fours, kick one leg straight up and bring back down.  Repeat for 1 minute.  Then, switch and do the other leg.

5 more minutes of cardio and repeat.  It should take about 50 minutes to complete this workout. 

And then drink lots of water.

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