Workouts and Heat

Two things that make me super duper happy!!  Workouts and Heat!!  I so wish I would have taken a picture of us sitting at our boys football game yesterday.  Torrential downpour and wind.  My core temperature slowly dropped as I sat on a wet bleacher for 2 1/2 hours.  Luckily, my friend brought a giant tent to cuddle under, but STILL it was pretty sad.  Another luckily, our son played several times and they WON!!!  I am NOT used to the cold at all!!  It took me hours to warm up.  I kept my coat and scarf on for the rest of the night and sat by the fire helping my kids with homework.  I didn’t warm up until I decided to take a shower in the steamer with my portable heater blowing out heat as well!  I’m pathetic and I’m moving to ARIZONA (:

Today, the rain is gone and the SUN is shining BRIGHT!!  I’m instantly HAPPY!!  Fridays are my hard day to work out.  I’m usually beat and would rather curl up on my bed and read a book!  That did not happen!  I made it to the gym and I had a GREAT workout!!

500 m on the rowing machine

The kettle bell and ab workout I posted 2 days ago!  SUPER AWESOME!!  Go heavy and fast!

15-20 minutes of SHOULDER exercises!  My favorite!!!

500 m row again!

That was it!!  I felt so much better after that.  I wanted to take off and run!  I didn’t, because tomorrow I’m running a relay race in Park City!  It’s 75 miles split between a team of 6.  Each of us are running 2 legs.  My first leg is 4.49 and the second is 3.99.  Both of them have a lot of uphill, but after my downhill marathon I’ll be in the mood for an uphill climb!!

I promised a few recipes today!!  A cute friend of mine at the gym has the best foodie blog.  It’s simple, healthy, and family friendly.  Her site will be my NEW cookbook!!!  LOVE IT!!!  She even has several yummy desserts too!!  This week I made White Bean Chicken Chili

and Shannon’s protein salad to go!!

Both of them were amazing!!!  My daughter especially loved the chili and said it’s her new favorite dinner now.  Her website is called soshantastic.com.  Check it out!!

Now, I really am going to go curl up a read a book on my bed until I fall asleep that is.  No matter how busy I get, I know how to stop everything and relax.  Here is another way to relax that I might try this weekend.  I found this on Pinterest!

Once a week for 20 minutes, sit in a hot bath that contains a handful of Epsom salts, 10 drops of lavender essential oil, and a half cup of baking soda. This combo draws out toxins, lowers stress-related hormones, and balances your pH levels. 🙂

Have a heavenly weekend!!!

  

What gives you energy?

I should feel completely re-energized with the new year and kids back in school.  What I really feel like doing is climbing back in my bed with a million blankets and the heat on and going back to sleep for several hours.  My workouts have killed me.  I think the 11 mile run and chest and abs workout yesterday did me in, especially with only 5 1/2 hours of sleep the night before.  I need to have a little bit more control of my life!  Soooooo, another NEW YEAR’S goal will be to get more sleep!  In bed at 10:00 p.m.  JANUARY blessed JANUARY 🙂  I will not say anything negative about this month except I wish I could be running outside in this outfit!

Runners Legs-Awesome

We were few in numbers at our workout this morning.  Everyone is probably working on the GET MORE SLEEP goal.  We had fun though and it was a TOUGHIE LEG DAY!!!  Here it is:

WARM UP  

RUN 1 ladder

30 Seal Jacks

Repeat

WORKOUT

50 Mountain Climbers

40 Thrusters

30 squats with weights

20 Walking barbell lunges

Ladder and 30 Seal Jacks

REPEAT

50 Jump Squats

40 Stiff Leg Dead lift

30 Dumbbell Step ups

20 Lateral Dumbbell step ups each leg

Ladder and 30 Seal Jacks

REPEAT

50 Hip Raises with weight on hips

40 Lunge Switches

30 Calf Raises

20 Burpees

Ladder and 30 Seal Jacks

REPEAT

100 Sit ups holding a weight and reaching as you sit up!

We’ve been talking food a lot lately too.  Here are a few favorite recipes I’ve posted in the past and some ideas on what to eat for the new year!

BREAKFAST: Oatmeal with flax, protein powder, berries, cinnamon, unsweetened coconut, almond milk, and a few almonds OR a Banana, peanut butter, chocolate protein powder, spinach smoothie (I have one of these EVERY day.  I love them!)

LUNCH: Salad (a huge one) with black beans and a little low fat poppy seed dressing.

SNACKS: fruit, cashews, protein balls, yogurt and berries, popcorn.

DINNER: Veges with sweet potato, brown rice, quinoa, or a big bowl of soup.

Meal 1: Banana, peanut butter, chocolate protein powder, and spinach smoothie

Meal 2: Muscle milk

Meal 3: HUGE salad with chicken, cottage cheese, nuts, or beans for protein

Meal 4: Protein ZONE bar and an apple

Meal 5: Chicken or fish, veges, brown rice, sweet potato, quinoa, or salad.  Soup is a good choice too.

Meal 6: Cottage cheese or greek yogurt with blueberries or blackberries (optional meal)

Drink a big glass of water with every meal.  Stay away from bread or pasta, sorry!

Baked Oatmeal

Combine: 2 c. oats, 1/2 c. agave nectar or honey, 1 t. baking powder

Add and stir: 1 1/2 c. water, 1/2 c. applesauce, 1 T flax, 1/2 scoop protein powder

Scoop into greased muffin tins and add raisins, nuts, and coconut on top of each one.

Bake at 375 for 20  minutes.  Freeze in airtight container.  

Heat up in microwave and add almond milk, berries, and cinnamon!

Chocolate Fudge Bites

3/4 pitted dates

1/2 t vanilla

dash of salt

2 T. cocoa (I’m going to try 1 T. cocoa and 1 T. chocolate protein powder)

2 T. unsweetened coconut

1/3 c. raw pecans

Blend all ingredients together very well (food processor).  Squish dough in balls and store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

CHOCOLATE COCONUT CHIA PROTEIN BALLS

1/2 c. Natural Peanut Butter

1/2 c. Agave Nectar

2 scoops Chocolate Protein Powder

1/3 c. Oats

1/2 c. Unsweetened Coconut (plus more to roll them in)

1 T. Chia Seeds

Microwave peanut butter and agave nectar and stir.  Add everything else and mix.  

Form into balls and roll in coconut.  Store in airtight container in the freezer or fridge.

This last recipe is what I gave my workout girls for Christmas.  I found it at browneyedbaker.com.  I LOVE this blog.  Not everything is healthy, but good stuff and I can always change it up a bit.  Here is my modified version of the Cliff bars recipe.

Granola Bars

1 cup pitted dates

1 1/4 cup crisp rice cereal

1 cup oats

1/4 cup crushed pecans, walnuts, or almonds

2 T ground flaxseed

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup agave nectar

1 t vanilla

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

•  Spray an 8×8 pan with non-stick cooking spray.

• Place the dates in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.  Combine the dates with cereal, oats, nuts, flaxseed, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
• Combine the peanut butter and agave nectar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until melted and completely combined.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
• Pour the peanut butter mixture over the oat mixture and stir until well combined.  Let cool.  Gently stir in the chocolate chips.  Turn the mixture in the prepared pan and press firmly to pack the mixture into the pan.  Cool and let set at room temperature for 1 hour.  Cut into bars, wrap individually in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

So, my question again, what gives you energy?  I’m thinking eating clean and getting more sleep!  Also, being with my favorite people and laughing*  Have a GREAT day and stick to your GOALS!!!  I love this motivational poster!

  

 

 

Burst Cycle Diet…not for the faint.

I’m writing this while eating my precious 3rd meal of the day.  Turkey meatloaf muffins and a TON of veges!  It’s amazing how good food tastes when you’re completely depleted!  Yes, I have a short diet I’ve been following for the last 3 days and I’ll continue through all of next week.  I’m a diet connoisseur as much as I am a dessert connoisseur, go figure.  I think this is the ONLY website you will see with an extreme fitness fanatic posting diets and workouts and the next day posting FAVORITE halloween candy!  Oh well.

I found this diet through one of the MANY gyms in my town.  It’s called GPP FITNESS.  I LOVE their gym.  I would be a member if I wasn’t already a member of two gyms, taught my own class, and ran 4-5 days a week!  It is much like CROSS FIT.  They have a GREAT website too where they post daily killer workouts!!  Check it out.

The diet is VERY simple yet VERY hard.  Here it is:

Burst Cycle

by Neil Anderson

This diet program has been responsible for more lost weight than any other food program I have ever come across. I developed it in 2001 after reading some research on keeping metabolism high during low calorie dieting. You will lose 5+ lbs per week if you are able to stick with it.  You will also keep that hard-earned GPP muscle if you are doing the workouts daily.

This program is very effective. It works. Be perfect with it and you will make great progress. Only do this program for 6 weeks then take a break. You may go back on it after giving you body a 2 week break. Good luck…Write to me with any questions.

Breakfast

1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 banana

or a protein shake (1/2 banana, 1 T. peanut butter, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, ice, water, spinach)  This is what I’ve been eating for breakfast.

Lunch (if you are out and about this is a 6” sub)

Sandwich: 2 pieces of bread, 1 oz. of cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, pickles and 3-4 oz. of meat – (ham, turkey, roast beef, chicken)

Dinner

4-6 oz. chicken breast, 1 cup vegetables

BCD Rules

1. 3 days on (1000 calories), 1 day off (up to 2000 calories females/3200 males).
2. Must take daily multi-vitamin.
3. Must drink 64 oz. of water per day.
4. Must do GPP workouts daily.
5. Cannot cheat; if you cheat you must go off this diet.
6. This diet can be counterproductive if misused.

This would be super hard to do for 6 weeks!  ARGHH!  Mostly, I’ve felt great and on day 3 I already feel and look leaner.  I’ll take tomorrow off and then be at it 2 more times next week.  I did notice a small weakness in my running.  On day 2 I ran a fast 7 miles and lifted weights later that day.  Then today I ATTEMPTED to run 10 with my FASTY friends.  I was so completely empty I had to turn around early. ):  We’ll see the end results next week with my body fat test.  One thing I LOVE is a CHALLENGE!!!  Here’s a few motivational quotes and bods.  This is what I want to look like.  AWESOME!!  I LOVE lifting!

I cheated just a tiny bit since I went to lunch today with my high school friends at Olive Garden.  I ate salad, chicken, and veges.  I think that’s still legit.

My good friends for a lifetime!

Have a GREAT weekend!!

 

Add a Roar

O.K.  I hope I can explain this workout!  This week we met at a pavilion next to a church for our workout.  Our high school track has been closed and it’s buggin’ me. We still had a great workout and used a near by hill for an added BONUS!

1 MINUTE WORKOUTS (3 ROUNDS)

Complete AMRAP (as many reps as possible) in 1 minute.

OVERHEADS (1 minute)

15 sit ups

THRUSTERS (1 minute)

15 sit ups

DEADLIFTS (1 minute)

15 sit ups

REPEAT TWICE

BICEPS (1 minute)

15 pushups

SWITCH LUNGES (1 minute)

15 pushups

FRONT SQUATS (1 minute)

15 pushups

REPEAT TWICE

Then, we ran up a hill and bear crawled down (I’ll take pictures next time).  I think the girls thought I was crazy!  At the bottom we held PLANK for 1.5 minutes.  We ran up a total of 4 times and bear crawled back down.  We alternated planks and v-ups with weight after crawling down.  SUPER FUN!

We finished with ABS

25 side ups (Left)

25 side ups (Right)

50 Reverse sit ups

REPEAT

Here are a few of my STELLA outfits.  I always get compliments on them.  They are comfortable, good coverage, and flattering.  What more do you need?  Click HERE to go to their website.

Food for yesterday:

Protein ZONE bar

1 whole wheat toast, 1 egg, 1 bacon, cheerios and skim milk

chicken, berry, nut salad from KNEADERS

1/2 ZONE bar

Chicken and rice, carrots, corn on the cob, 2 biscuits

I weighed 133 after my run yesterday.  I was fine with that.  Here is a great WORKOUT song for you all and a FUNNY video.  I hear this song all the time at the gym and want to start singing it like I’m still in high school…but I’m NOT!!!  ENJOY!!!  Have a GREAT weekend!!