Category Archives: workouts

Throwback Thursday (not that kind)

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Happy Throwback Thursday (usually people refer to throwback in the sense that they post old pictures or play old songs. But me, I ‘throw back’ a few brewskis. Umm it’s Thursday, so there’s football. And when there’s football, and a football loving dude that I just so happen to live with…..there’s beer)

Oh funny story: I have been saving all the booze bottles (and milk cartons and kombucha bottles) for the last couple of months and I returned them today for $23! Hells yeah I can buy practically nothing in Canada for that.

1. My Avon order arrived today! Woo hoo

 

(More than $23)

 

 

2. So did my new coat!

 

(Way more than $23)

 

(That’s my crazy i-look-like-crap-silly-face) Gimme a break, I didn’t put makeup on today because I am about to go to the gym, and I wanted ‘naked’ skin when I went to my Avon lady’s house just in case I was going to put a lot of samples on. But I didn’t) Layla doesn’t judge.

3. We also got some dimmer switches that Tyler ordered, but I didn’t open the box because those aren’t as exciting to play with…..until they’re installed.

*Have we noticed that I am useful being stuck at home? I answer the door for all the deliveries!

Yesterday’s HEAT class had a whopping ONE person in attendance. PEOPLE, DON’T SLACK OFF ON GOING TO THE GYM JUST BECAUSE THERE’S SNOW ON THE GROUND. I hate snow and I still trekked through that shi*

I did a 10 minute progression cardio set on the elliptical before heading to the studio for class, where I did:

(The first few rounds were taken directly from one of Athena’s workouts that she posted the other day. I used to hate being in her class when she did count downs only because I seemed to be the only grunter by the time we got down to 4’s. Oh wait, I think I liked it because I was the only grunter. Ahh, potayyy-toes, potahhh-toes.)

Countdowns (10 of each move, then 9, down to one…Athena explains it. Then one minute of the cardio, and about one minute of the core move)

Round 1

  • Bicep Curls/Overhead Presses
  • Jumping Jacks
  • Alternating crunch/toe touch

Round 2

  • Pushups/bent over rows
  • Jump rope
  • Side plank w/hip raise

Round 3

  • Tricep Kickbacks/Upright Rows
  • High Knees
  • Heel Taps

Then, I had to get a bit creative because my one participant was a little limited in her movement due to an injury.

Round 4

  • Donkey Kicks (each leg countdown)
  • Weighted left squat to left side lunge (45 seconds) to right squat and right side lunge (45 seconds)
  • One minute wall sit with a front raise

Round 5

  • Crunches/Supermans
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Leg lifts
  • One minute wall sit with lateral raise

Round 6

  • Weighted reverse lunge with 3-count pulse and 3-count hold (90 seconds each leg)
  • Weighted Squat to overhead press
  • Laying weighted hip abductions with 3-count hold

It doesn’t look like a whole ton of cardio, but since we were doing those countdowns like quickfire, we were both breathing hard and sweating lots.

Today’s workout will consist of 40 minutes steady state cardio, and a few moves that were in my workout from Best Body Bootcamp that I was supposed to do yesterday (but didn’t squeeze them in my class)

Peace out.

ROOF!

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I think my new favorite exercise (at least for this week) are TRX tabatas. They are no joke. I formatted yesterday’s class to incorporate 2 moves on the band (to fatigue), then do two moves with dumbbells that use the same muscle groups. After those were complete, we would do a 90 seconds cardio burst. We did this for 5 rounds, but I snuck in two different tabatas to really get our blood pumping. The first was TRX squat jumps and the second was Swimmer Starts (shown at minute 1:20).

I originally planned to get in a quick run after class, but since my muscles were pretty much dead after class, I just walked back to my car and headed home. I got a pretty sweet sunset shot on the walk to my car

 

Today’s funny story is brought to you by….ME!

I am still pretty much a child in that when I see something, like a duck, I’ll either shout “duck!” or “quack!” Or I read signs aloud as we drive by. Stuff like that. On an unrelated note, we are getting our roof done (they came and delivered the materials 2 weeks ago, we are just waiting for them to come back and actually do it.) Anyways, because we were in the process of picking out what color roof, we would point out ones we liked when we were out walking Layla. So, the other day when we were in the car, I noticed a lot of houses in a row were getting their roofs re-done. So I yelled “roof!” and Tyler goes……”you saw a dog? What kind?”

Hhahahaha, does anyone see the humor in this? My idiot self shouting ROOF sounded like WOOF. I really need to grow up and not proclaim things as I see them.

Read this post about plateauing. You will laugh.

I found some REALLY BAD pictures from college. So I thought I’d share some of them with you. This is prior to he existence of facebook, so these are what I like to call ‘rare finds.’ Enjoy. Or barf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a LOSER.

So I’ll leave you with something a little bit cuter to look at. Layla.

 

Do you like TRX? Tabatas? Have a terrible college picture you’d like to share?

The Funk Phenomena

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1. I forgot to mention yesterday about this sort of cool thing. Tyler ate McDonalds. No, that is not the cool thing, but I’m getting to that part. You see, when I’m not in the house around dinner time, Tyler cheats on me. I came home from teaching at the Y last week and I asked if he wanted me to make him a smoothie. He said no, he wasn’t hungry. I asked him if he had any dinner and he said he snuck to McDonalds when I left. My jaw dropped and my head started to shake, but he had what he thought was a legitimate excuse: the Monopoly game was back. AND he won. I asked if he won a McMuffin, which is basically not winning, and he said no, he won 2 free 5×7 prints from snapfish.ca. 

“Ok” I thought to myself, “I can use this!”

So yesterday, I got online (shocker) and ordered two prints. And shipping was free.

2. Naturally, I followed up this venture with a trip to Michael’s for some craft frame project, but I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. I had a coupon, too! Wahhh.

3. I made these puppies to accommodate dinner last night (which was salad topped with spicy pulled chicken)

 

Cornbread Jalapeno Poppers

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 6 jalapenos
  • cornbread mix (I used the entire box, and baked the rest as muffins to freeze for later)
  • 1 cup corn
  • 1.5 cups shredded cheddar
  • GLOVES

Here’s what you do:

  1. Put on gloves and cut each jalapeno in half (lengthwise). Remove veins and seeds.
  2. Mix the cornbread according to box directions (ugh I always make mine from scratch, or use Jiffy mix, but I couldn’t find Jiffy anywhere here! Another sad face for Canada), mix in the corn and one cup of cheese.
  3. Scoop the mixture and place in each jalapeno. Top with remaining cheese
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

 

(Tyler didn’t like them. I’m thinking he was secretly hoping they were full of cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. That’s for next time!)

4. I had a really sweaty at-home workout last night.

 

(The stability ball followed me into the bathroom, apparently)

I started with about 40 minutes of kickboxing, and rounded out with a 20 minute full body strength session. I started laughing at the beginning of my kickboxing workout, because the first song was The Funk Phenomena (I linked to the YouTube ‘video’ so you can listen to it if you have no idea what I am talking about). I went through the song 2x because I was laughing so hard.

“Jen, why were you laughing?”

“Because he sounds like he’s saying Tha Fu Fa Na Ma Na instead of The Funk Phenomena!” (Leave it to me to make everything childish.) I was also super hyper, so I was adding some crazy hip action to this routine.

5. When I went back home in August, I dedicated a full day to take care of formally important stuff. I had to contact every insurance company I used for car insurance (to provide Tyler’s insurance company with proof that I have been driving x-number of years with 0 claims- so that my payment would be reduced) I had a lot of insurance companies, because I was always reviewing to see who could provide me with the cheapest rate. Oh, and the coverage I had under my parents when I was in college- that company doesn’t even exist anymore, so that was fun trying to track down.

I also had to deal with all the health insurance bills that SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN A PROBLEM. You see, my health coverage from my employer in the states covered one annual physical and one annual ‘lady exam’ (cough cough, yaknowwhatimsayin, cough cough). So, I went for my lady exam in September 2011 and was billed $289. UM THAT’S NOT ACCEPTABLE. So I went to my HR department to bitch about it, and they just told me to call the doctor’s office, who then told me to call the billing office, who then told me to contact my health insurance company…blah blah blah. This went on for almost a year. Finally, I was contacted by someone in HR who said they screwed up and incorrectly entered my social security number. And that’s why I kept getting billed.

I also went in for a routine check up at my doctor and was billed $110. For what? She basically took my blood pressure and asked if I ‘felt safe at home.’ Dumb questions that doctors ask these days.

Long story short, I spent 6 hours on the phone when I was home in August, trying to straighten everything out. I had people send me receipts and confirmation that everything was settled.

And then this weekend, my dad messages me saying I had another bill from them in the mail.

NO, AMERICA. YOU ARE SO SUCKY AT HEALTH INSURANCE.

YAY, CANADA. YOU GIVE ME MEDS FOR FREE AND ARE NICE TO ME.

6. Since I love to tell funny stories, I’ve got another one for you today. You see, I used to be fat.

 

(Source)

Ok, well not ‘fat’ but I ate a lot of calzones and chocolate covered raisins and drank a LOT of beer in college. And I broke my foot junior year which didn’t help, either. My highest weight was just a hair under 200 pounds. I kid you not. So to all you boys out there I made out with in college- you’re welcome. You must have been drinking a lot of beer then, too.

I went through phases of over-exercising, and no exercising, and weight watchers, etc. It wasn’t until after I graduated and moved into my own place did I realize the importance of what I was eating. And it wasn’t until I got certified in group fitness did I get the importance of my fitness.

And now, I am more than 50 pounds lighter than I was in college. Hooray! (And I still drink beer and eat Nutella, imagine that!)

7. My dog is crazy.

 

Tell me something random in the comments!

(Don’t forget to like my facebook page, follow me on instragram and twitter @nutcaseinpoint)

Giveaway Winner!

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Hi people of the world.

The snow is gone. PHEW. Yesterday, Tyler and I took the pup for a walk and I think she rolled in the snow in every front yard we passed. And we passed a lot.

Oh wait, I forgot to start off with “It’s FRIDAYYYYYYYYY!” But that doesn’t really matter because every day is Friday for me and Tyler is on vacation all week, sooooo yeah.

So you know how people have a really tough time getting to the gym in the winter months? Like, yeah it’s sometimes hard even during nice weather, but the cold, winteryness just makes it that much worse. Especially when it’s to do your own workout, and not be in a class where you’re told what to do for an hour. Well, last night I OVERCAME. All day, I was all “blah I am sore and tired and I just want to chill out with Tyler because he’s home” We even had dinner and fondue and were watching the football game, and all of a sudden it hit me.

I JUST GOTTA DO IT.

(little bit different from the Nike slogan)

So, I got dressed and dragged my butt to the gym. You know what? I pushed myself HARD. It was awesome. It felt awesome.

 

I did sprint intervals for a full hour. GLORIOUS. I don’t even remember the time- it passed so quickly. I vaguely remember listening to quite a few Flo Rida songs and maybe the new Ke$ha, but it really was a blurry blur blur.

Let’s insert some more internets randomness:

1. I love this video clip.

2. Runder Unders. I am in love. I want a pair. Like now. But I refuse to go to the store and try them on until I get rid of this holiday/vacation bloat. It makes a HUGE difference.

3. I posted about teaching TRX the other day. If you had some questions or were interested in trying TRX, here’s some info you should know.

4. My current TV faveys:

  • The Amazing Race
  • Vegas
  • Guys with Kids
  • Modern Family
  • SOA
  • Duck Dynasty
  • Ben and Kate
  • Go on
  • The New Normal
  • Survivor
  • The Neighbors
  • Breaking Amish

5. Can’t post any more, I have to make Tyler breakfast! (1. I don’t have to, I want to, and 2. It’s more like lunch time, but he’s on vacation!)

Oh hey, guess what?! It’s time to announce my facebook page giveaway winner! Using the random number generator, the winner is……..Caitlin Schlesier! Yay!!!! (email me or fb message me your address!)

 

Check In

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Hey! (I have been watching too many episodes of Duck Dynasty lately. Uncle Si kills me!)

(Source)

Just a quick little check in, I wanted to remind all of you that today is the last day to “Like” my facebook page to be entered in a little intro giveaway! What’s the harm in a little mouse click with the possibility you might win something for free? Seriously.

Yesterday’s HEAT class was a combo of strength circuits and cardio blasts. I’d type out the whole class, but I’m not really in the mood. It basically went like this:

6 strength stations

Round 1 was one minute at each station, followed by a 2 minute cardio blast

the stations were:

  • alternating lunge with med ball twist
  • decline pushup
  • tricep dips
  • bosu squat hops
  • stability ball chest press
  • plank

then the cardio was 30 sec jacks, 30 sec high knees x2

Round 2 was another set of 6 stations each done for a minute

  • pendulum lunges
  • walking plank pushups (HOLY BALLSACK these made me SORE today)
  • tricep dip toe touch
  • bosu squats
  • stability ball chest flys
  • crunches

then another set of cardio that was a lot of down-and-back stuff: run x2, skip jumps x2, shuffle x2, and frog jumps

Round 3 was the same as round 1, this time with only 45 seconds of work. After 3 stations were completed, we did a 2 minute cardio burst like before) Then when all stations were completed, we did the down-and-back cardio as before

Round 4 was the same as round 2, except again at 45 seconds of work AND after each station, we did 30 second cardio bursts (plank jacks and jump twists)

I finished the class with a lot of quad/hamstring work on the bosu and abs.

Whoops, guess I did just write out the whole class.

Now go Like my page and get in the running for this giveaway!