Feel the Burn Workout

Is it weird that I still get excited for Friday even though I’m not working? Same thing goes for those Sunday night blues…guess they’ll never go away!

But that’s just getting ahead of myself.

I started the morning with a bowl of oats and a barrel of coffee. Today is my supposed to be my ‘off’ day from working out, but I have the urge to do something anyways. What to do, what to do. Take Layla for a walk! Perfect ‘get moving’ solution. There are a TON of off leash places in Calgary, but I wanted to find one that was completely fenced for my ill-behaved loser dog. 30 minutes in the car later, and there we were.

I kept her on the leash at first to walk the entire perimeter, then I let her go. And ya know what? The dang dog stayed by my side the entire time. WTF? I go out of my way for her and then she goes and gets all obedient on me. What a waste of gas. It was still fun though, and she tired herself out a lot faster by sprinting with me every once in a while.

Once we got back, I had a little morning snack of grapes

My afternoon non-workout workout will look like this

5 minute warm up of choice (Jog around, jump rope, etc)

3 sets of 12-15 reps of:

  • Bicep curls
  • Hammer curls
  • Abduction press

Cardio (10 of each- 3x through)

  • Burpees
  • Squat jumps
  • Jumping jacks

3 sets of 12-15 reps of: (You can hold weights or rest a bar on your shoulders for added resistance)

  • Split squats
  • Squats
  • Side lunges

Cardio (30 seconds each- 3x through)

  • Mountain climbers
  • Heel tap
  • High Knees

3 sets of 12-15 reps of:

  • Side plank dips
  • Crunches
  • Leg lifts

Optional: 10 min cardio HIIT- 1 minute moderate intensity, 30 seconds high intensity

Time to get sweaty!

Tonight is date night, too!

Outdoor Workout and Recipe You.Must.Try.

Phewfsies. Another exhausting day for the books.

Bootcamp was awesome. I mean, anything involving these stairs is pretty great:

There’s 165 steps. I counted.

Our workout today consisted of supersets of a bunch of different exercises. We would do 2 back to back, each for a minute, then take a minute break. 4 sets in total. We did lunges, jump squats, burpees, plie squats, planks, russian twists, pushups and jacks.

Then, we had cones set up and divided the group in two. One group would do a cardio exercise down and back while the other would do a strength. They were:

  • Jump skips/tricep dips
  • grapevine/spiderman planks
  • shuffle/ squat pulse
  • shuffle/bench crunches

Then we did some ab progressions and jogged back down the stairs and back to the gym.

Pretty great workout. Especially outside. Except when you forget to put on sunscreen. Which of course, I forgot. I was planning on laying out in the sun tomorrow (unless it rains) to get rid of my god awful tan lines, but I was asked to attend an afternoon bootcamp (indoors. this calls for another phewfsies) and then a hi-lo/step workshop. So, it looks like it’ll be another active day tomorrow!

Lunch was a plateful of veggies. Gotta hit the daily requirement.

It was really too hot out to eat a bunch of hot veggies, but I’m so turned off by salads right now. Must be the last one I had had a nasty dressing. Who knows. Who cares, really.

Twyla and I took all our 4-legged beasts down to the river for a little walk. Which turned out to be a 2 hour walk. Which means my dogs are killing me. (Not the 4-legged ones, but the ones attached to my legs. Haha, I’m such a comedian) I forgot to take pictures because we were chit-chatting the whole time and Layla was a savage on the leash. I think my left arm is exempt from any bicep/tricep work for at least a month.

LET’S GET TO DINNER….SHALL WE?

That’s not even a question, because I AM going to show you dinner. In fact, Tyler’s still eating it. He just came in -from his video game, no less- and told me it was the best sauce he’s ever had. People, this is huge. Massive, even. Best part? He doesn’t know that it’s a healthified version. Bwahahahaha.

I found this recipe from Stephanie Cooks. I only changed one thing and added two others. Here it is:

Lighter Creamy Garlic Pasta

  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 3/4 cup 1% milk
  • 1/2 pound angel hair (I used rotini)
  • 1 cup grated parmesan (I used 1/4 cup)
  • 1 tsp dried parsley

I added

  • 6 large mushrooms, sliced and sauteed
  • 2 sausage links, removed from the casings, crumbled and cooked

Directions:

1. Heat the oil, garlic and butter in a large pot. Stir frequently. After 1-2 minutes, add the salt, pepper, chicken stock and milk.

2. Bring the broth to a boil. Add the pasta and allow it to cook according to packaging directions. Then add the cheese, mushrooms and sausage. Remove from heat, stir well. Top with parsley (I forgot!) Serve immediately.

The result:

The broth and all that creamy goodness soak into the pasta as it’s cooking, so there is no need to drain the pot. Oh man, it is good. I highly recommend this meal. I only used 1/4 of the cheese because it’s all I had left, and I think it was just the perfect amount. You be the judge though.

That’s all for now, because my eyelids…..are……slowly………..closing.

 

3 Workouts To Try

I’m going to give you a piece of free advice: If you see a hill, go up it. I don’t care how- run, walk, bike, crawl. Just do it. (Sorry, Nike). It is a fantastic glute workout and really gets your heart a-pumpin’. Added bonus if you’re at insane altitudes.

Take, for instance, this hill:

The photo really doesn’t do it justice. That hill is so steep, you have to crane your neck to see the top.

Anyhoo, as soon as I spotted that sucker, I decided Layla and I were going to get up that thing. As we started the climb, I saw a biker up ahead of us stop and sit down. He was seriously out of breath. I thought to myself ‘Ha! He is so out of shape! I am going to get all the way up this hill easy peasy!” Umm, right. Well, No sooner did we pass said wheezing dude that I, myself started to wheeze. Holy shnikeys, this hill was for serious. But, we made it with no stops. And the view, my God it was beautiful. Again, the pictures really don’t do it any justice whatsoever.

Layla celebrated our accomplishment with a massive victory poo. Don’t worry, there are no pictures of that joyous occasion.

So there’s advice for a simple little glute workout. On to the next!

Have no time or equipment? Are you tired, rundown, listless? Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular? The answers to all your problems are in this little bottle….

Whoops, started asking so many questions I dove right into some I Love Lucy dialogue. And sweet Jesus if you don’t know what I am talking about. The vitameatavegamin episode. Seriously, guys. Catch up on your black and white sitcoms.

Back to the no time or equipment thing. Here’s a quick 10-minute crossfit style workout I found on Fitsugar.

The workout is a combination of cardio and strength straining that can be done in only 10 minutes.

See? I liked it so much I did it for an extra .2 seconds. Overachiever is my middle name.

If you don’t want to click on the link above which provides a video demonstration of this workout, I’ll write it here:

  • 1 minute of shuffle squats
  • 1 minute of alternating front lunges
  • 1 minute of bicycle crunches
  • 1 minute of mountain climbers
  • 1 minute stretch
  • REPEAT

It’s only 10 minutes. That’s it. Go do it.

3rd workout I will tell you about is The Fitnessista’s Schweaty May Workout. I also did this one yesterday and I love love love it.

She goes into detail for the moves, but I’ll summarize below:

5 minute warm up

3 sets of 12-15 reps for the following (3 sets on each side, if applicable)

  • squat to overhead press
  • reverse fly and leg lift
  • curtsy lunge with bicep curl and lateral raise
  • stability ball pushup
  • stability ball back extension
  • stability ball leg lifts

optional: 20 Minutes of HIIT with 1:30 minutes easy and 30 seconds HARD.

I love this workout!

 

There ya have it. 3 different workouts you can do today.

See ya later.

 

Weekend roundup and a tabata quickie

Friday: worked out. A lot. Like, ran those dang stairs in downtown for an hour. Did you miss my photo on instagram? Probably. So, here’s a pic of my new office

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Fast forward a bit, and this is what I surprised Tyler with

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Homemade sangria, STEAK, grilled portobello and baked taters.

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Hi, doesn’t that look delish? Ok, bye.

Saturday: I did my hair and put makeup on. But that’s not all!

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Tyler took me downtown for lunch. We also walked around a bit and enjoyed the wonderful sunny day.

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Saturday night: I finished my book, we drank weird beer, and played scrabble.

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Sunday: breakfast of champions, lunch (more like snack), sunny walk and burgers

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;

Lots on the agenda today. BUT, I leave you with this:

Feeling sluggish? Have 16 minutes laying around? Way to feel awesome and maybe sweat a little bit?
(hint: the answer should be yes to all of these. Unless you dot feel sluggish… Then good for you!)

Try this 16 minute tabata workout!
tabatas are 4 minutes sets where you work hard for 20 seconds, rest for 10 and repeat 8 times
1st set: jumps- not just your run-of-the-mill jump rope. I want you to jump HIGH
2nd set: weighted plié squats- get LOW
3rd set: stability ball crunches- if you don’t have a ball, do regular crunches on the ground with your legs straight in he air..FEET FLEXED
4th set: overhead press… You’re only doing this for FOUR minutes (with breaks) so grab a heavier set of weights and really push yourself!

Feel better? I do just typing this. Hasta luego!

Fantastic Friday

Well hello there.

This Friday morning has been just as grand as Monday morning.

I got in a quick interval workout at home, watched The Pauly D Project, and took Layla for a hike at Nose Hill Park.

My glutes, quads and Hammies are super sore from yesterday’s burnin’ workout, but this hike really helped. It was a little chilly, but after a few minutes at a brisk pace, I was ready to peel off some layers. We saw lots of deer too. Actually, Layla didn’t…which is good because I would have probably lost my arm once she took off after them.

Another reason why today is good: I am now 5 days clean of sweets. Pretty awesome if you ask me. If I have a craving, I satisfy it with strawbs or mango…sweet, but not stick-to-your-hips sweet. Phew.

3rd reason: Im on my way downtown in a few minutes to get all my paperwork done for the Y then I am meeting with my Wednesday afternoon co-instructor and we are going through a mock workout. I have two different ones planned- we’ll see what she goes for!

4th: I really really really want a pair of these

Like, seriously, I really want them. Talk about a conversation starter.

5th: Since I will be teaching an outdoor bootcamp AND I have been out for long hikes and walks with Layla, I really want to get something that’s easy to carry all my necessities in (phone, keys, chapstick)

I can’t decide between a Spibelt or and Armpocket. Does anybody have either of these? Any input would be really appreciated!

Last, but not least, my new tunes for the week:

(Only two explicit songs! I’m so tame)

And on that note, I am going to whip up a smoothie and hit the road….Jack.