Getting the ball rolling

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well, last night ended terribly. I committed a crime, a very bad crime. I weighed myself at the end of the day- at the end of a holiday weekend. The verdict? You don’t want to know. Ugh, I was so mad at myself. Hated myself even.

You’d think after 25 years I’d have learned to enjoy food and fitness in balance. But every once in a while- it takes a mean turn and I cry myself to sleep over a stupid number on a stupid scale.

After a huge sobfest and a good nights sleep, I started today with a clean slate. Breakfast was a bowl of oats w/honey, almond milk, almond butter, raisins and toasted coconut.

Today’s workout included a 3 mile run- the first ever since moving to 3500 ft altitude. I think I did pretty good

Sub-10 min miles. I’ll take it, thankya. And the route I took was hilly. Another high five for me.

I listened to a new playlist for my run- it’s a weird mix of genres and old/new stuff, but it hit the spot for a run today!

Oh, and Nicki Minaj’s new CD? Fantastic. She does a lot of the rap that she’s known for, but here and there she actually sings and she has a great voice. And great lyrics. And great featuring artists. Most of the songs talk about b*tches and d*ck, though. Hell, one song’s even titled Come on A Cone. For serious. But I really like the music- I’ll just have to watch my potty mouth for a bit 😉

My heart was a-thumpin’ by the time I got home. Theeeen, I did a quick at home circuit that consisted of

Oof!

15 minutes of those moves, and I broke my second sweat of the day. Very pleased with my workout on day 1 of post-scale horror.

Lunch was a smoothie with an interesting list of ingredients.

It included: 1 frozen banana, 2 handfuls spinach, orange juice, frozen raspberries, Oikos Greek yogurt, and 2 medjool dates. Totally delicious.

Dinner was quickly and easy- another round of healthy chicken tenders with broccoli and spinach citrus couscous.

Dessert was an orange.

I finally got around to trying out another way to get hard cooked eggs. Rather than boiling them, I baked them!

In the oven they went at 325 for 30 minutes, then I plunged them in ice water to stop them from cooking. They actually turned out! I’ll be eating them over the next few days! Yum.

Thursday Sharefest

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Lots of random things to share with you tonight:

First off. Read this article and then give it a round of applause (or if you are in a public place, mentally golf clap). Honest to God, first thing I did was to go online and check for any wine specials at our local liquor store.

Second, this article gives sound advice at what not to do while working out (Spoiler alert: Donuts and free hugs are mentioned). Sadly, his last pointer is probably something I should do. Regardless if I am working out or not.

Third, I just made these cookies. And ohmygawd are they good. And I feel slightly less guilty for eating them because there is no flour. Did you hear that, mom? No flour. Click on the link for the recipe. If you can’t figure it out, call me and I’ll show you. Honestly, they’re super good. Bring a batch over to Sheila’s. I expect a thank you card in the next 7-10 business days. (I made mine with almond butter, because Costco sells that shizz for 6 bucks a pop. Hells yes)

If you eat too many of those delicious cookies, try this workout. I did it when I was home for Christmas, and I loved it. She explains each move on her site if you have any questions. These are my results from when I did it in December

Hmmm, now that I’ve dug this up, I think I’m going to have to do it again tomorrow to compare results! (This altitude change/baking-a-lot situation might have hindered my ‘scores’. I’ll let you know tomorrow.)

To Sum Up: Don’t be at the gym while you drink wine and eat flourless cookies. And squat a few times after.

You’re gonna sweat

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

My intention to be more proactive this week is proving to be very beneficial- I am getting so much done!

Last night, Tyler made burgers on the barbie. I needed to cut some carbs, so please guess which plate is mine:

(Hint: It’s not the first one)

It hit the spot!

We watched Survivor (how Tarzan is still in there, I’ll never know. But, the game is afoot..) then watched the 2nd Harry Potter movie.

Oh, and it snowed last night, but I don’t want to talk about it.

Today got off to an early start. Same breakfast as yesterday (english muffin topped with almond butter and a sliced pear on the side) then I headed off to the Y for some cardio intervals then a Bosu class. The class was 75 minutes and it was a FULL BODY workout. I have wanted to buy a Bosu for a while so that I can add another element to my home workouts, but they’re so dang expensive. Why is it that I can get a stability ball for $19.99 but a Bosu costs $109? I am so confused. Until I win some sort of lottery, I will continue to go to the gym for any Bosu workouts.

The past two days of workouts have been so intense, I will probably not be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning. I’m wiped! The long walks with Layla afterwards have been helpful- they keep my legs loose and my dog happy. Double win.

After my workout, I had to go run some top secret errands (to be revealed some time within the next week). I actually had some Canadian cashola on me, and guess what? It’s see-through!

Crazy right? It feels like Monopoly money. (Yes, I know my nails have been green for too long. I am making that change tonight– going to be Easter festive!)

That money went straight towards my secret errands but the coffee-THE COFFEE- was free. My favorite word. Well, free for my anyways. I had a gift card. Grande medium roast- black. Mmmmm, good.

I thought my errands were going to be quick, but day-umm Canadians are slow. It took one cashier about 40522985 minutes to scan one item. ONE. Then, at Starbucks, it was like the coffee was Molasses- couldn’t be poured any slower. Perhaps I am just too used to the bang-bang-boom pace of Americans. Perhaps that’s not how people like to roll here. But I do. Unless it’s like a super-hot cashier and I have the potential of getting a bigger discount (Sorry Tyler, but if it saves money..)

Lunch was spinach topped with a leftover mini-burger, scrambled egg, onion/poppyseed dressing and ketchup. Yum to the 10th power.

More things to do: ~~Play Draw Something, watch Mad Men,~~ laundry, cooking, painting..

I will leave you with a great, sweaty workout you can do at home (I did this a few times down in Florida last month on the balcony of my parent’s condo. So it really is a workout you can do anywhere)

These are four different tabata sets, each with two different moves. So: move 1 for 20 seconds, rest for 10; move 2 for 20 seconds, rest for 10; move 1 for 20 seconds,rest for 10…and so on. You will complete that 16 times, so each move in the set is done 8 times. Then move to the next set.

Set 1

Side shuffle with high knees (two shuffles right STAY LOW, then 4 high knees, two shuffles left, 4 high knees, etc.)
Wall sit

Set 2

Quick feet with pushup (quick feet in place for a few seconds, down for one pushup, quickly get back up and repeat)
Lunge hop (start in lunge position, ex: right foot forward, left back, putting your weight into your right leg, bring the left leg forward, bringing you left knee into your chest and hopping simultaneously, with your left leg landing back into its starting position. Do each leg 4 times in the set)

Set 3

Pilates pulse (feet in the air or heels on the ground, lean back to feel core engage, arms at your sides with the palms down, and pulsing your arms)
Leg lifts

Set 4

Squat thrust jumps
Mountain Climbers

You’re welcome.

Eats, sweets, and sweats

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hello, lovahs! I have been making today a great day, so win for me! Imma get to the blog title. First up, eats and sweets.

Yesterday, I made a batch of beer bread to go with dinnah. I used this beer

…added a few other ingredients, and 35 minutes later, I got this

Yup, it was good. Too bad I had two slices of this stuff before dinner. No carbs to be had on my dinner plate! But for Tyler’s sake, I whipped up some chicken sausage with roasted mushies and zucchini ~~to accompany the bread.~~

I got even more creative in the kitch-kitch and threw together a fruit crisp. I had frozen strawbs and about 4 apples leftover in the fridge from a previous Costco run.

It was super simple. I just mixed the fruit with a few tbsp of honey then topped with a butter/brown sugar/oat/whole wheat flour/cinnamon mixture. Popped in the oven for 45 minutes and shizzam, dessert is ready

We enjoyed our dessert while watching the first Harry Potter movie. Since Tyler and I are on a series kick, we decided we are going to get through all 7. I might start referring to people as muggles and yell out spells (petrificus totalus) rather than swear. Not a promise, but I wouldn’t doubt it from happening.

Blah, blah, blah, cut to a bunch of hours later and this was my breakfast

English muffin topped with almond butter and a pear. ( I don’t know bout y’all, but I like my pears super ripe. Like, no crunch. Also like, I bought these pairs 9 days ago and they’re finally ready. Hit the spot.

Last eat to mention in this post is my post workout lunch:

Spinach topped with cooked sweet potato and onion poppyseed dressing. Then, a piece of beer bread topped with melted chocolate chips and banana slices

My favorite part were these little guys:

Ooooh, that makes my mouth water.

K, enough with the eats and sweets -sheeze, it looks like I eat a lot– I’m going to move on to the sweat part of my day…

I went to the Y and did a 20 min HIIT workout on the elliptical ( need to rev the metabolism like whoa) then took a 60 min Muscle Blast class. confession: I haven’t taken a class in A MONTH. Who am I?!!? I was really excited that I was able to add more than my usual weight to the barbell. Means I’ve been doing something right in my own workouts! 🙂 plus, I’m really loving these clean and jerks..

I then finished my Y workout by doing another 10 min HIIT session on the elliptical. About a 90 minute workout today…so far. I’m off to take Layla for an adventure before it snows ( we’re supposed to get a foot?! Say whaaa?!) and do a little at-home sweat sesh that I’ll post later.

Hope everyone is having a great day!
anyone accomplish/learn anything new in the gym recently?

Pyramid Workout

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Today’s workout was inspired by this video (if you need an explanation for any of the moves, check out the video). Each move (obviously not the cardio) will be done once each, then 2x each, 3x, 4…all the way to 10.

5 min cardio warm up (I used the spin bike. moderate intensity for 45 sec, work for 15, repeat)

chest press, sit up w/bicep curl (1 chest press, sit up w/1 bicep curl; 2 chest press, sit up w/2 bicep curl..)

chest fly, sit up w/hammer curl

7.5 min cardio (45 seconds of moderate intensity, work for 15)

wide row to tricep kickback

close grip row to headbanger

10 min cardio (1 min moderate intensity, work for 30 sec)

squat w/shoulder front raise

deadlift w/lateral raise

The UFC (squat to knee drop) for 10

Plank up downs for 10

-repeat the UFC for abother 10 and planks for another 10

Cool down cardio (moderate to low intensity for 10 min)

This workout should take under 90 minutes.

******

I was an awesome girlfriend this am (pre-workout) and decided to slap on the final coat of paint on one of the walls by myself. Since it was so labor-intensive, I worked up an appetite and munched on a chia brownie with natural pb

I took a pic of only part of my hair this am to show you the natural curl I rock when I wake up with bed head.

If you saw the whole head, you’d think I had a lion’s mane. This picture actually makes it look quite pretty though. Anyone have tips on how to hold natural curl? I hate putting too much product in because it either weighs it down too much, it’s sticky, or it gets crunchy. And those are about the last two things I want my hair to feel like.

******

I thought this was a funny little comic. Reminds me that I really need to talk in kilometers now, because people are really looking at me funny when I say ‘Oh, you know, it’s about 20 miles.”

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