Fitness Friends Weekend!

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well hello there.

The weekend is winding down, so I thought I’d sit and push through a post via my iPad. Since the last time I checked in, my Boston gym friends Athena and Ashley drive out to stay with me for the weekend. I had so much fun. And I think they did too. I seriously just really loved having a healthy dose of girl time- filled with good food, drinks, a workout, and fitness talk (my secret favorite indulgence).

Once they arrived Friday afternoon, we headed over to Davidson’s for some food and drinks. We split nachos and I had a bison burger (I keep wanting to ‘moo’ when I say Burger, but since it’s a bison..I’m a little lost as to what noise to make. Ok wait, I just googled it- YUP I’m making this noise and this face every time I say Bison. From now on.)

Saturday, we went to the gym. Obviously! I didn’t take any pictures, so…..sorry. But Athena did and she will probably post them on her blog soon! We chose to do 2 ROUNDS of the deck of cards workout. For the first round, we designated the following:

Diamonds: push-ups
Clubs: burpees
Spades: reverse crunches
Hearts: weighted squats

I shuffled the deck, then got to flipping. For each card, we would do that number of reps for the designated suit. 10 reps for Jacks, Queens, and Kings; 11 reps for Aces. (If you do the math, that’s 94 total reps for EACH move.) 52 cards later- we were only halfway through our workout.

After a quick break, we broke into round 2. For that, we switched the exercises:

Diamonds: tricep dips
Hearts: kettle bell swings
Clubs: jump pliés
Spades: V-ups

We were sweaty. We were shaking. We were tired. we were happy ~~to be done~~. Phew!

Sidenote: just the day before- Friday, before the girls came- I had done Workout C for this phase of Best Body Bootcamp. It was an endurance strength workout which had us doing super sets of exercises repeatedly until we reached 100 reps for each- then we would move onto the next superset. It included weighted squats, lunges and push-ups (among several other exercises), so I was already feeling the burn by the time we did our two deck of card workouts!

Late lunch was at Rock Hill Bakehouse. One of my favorite lunch places to hit up when I am back home. Vegetarian black bean chili and a spinach salad.

Last night, we had my parents drive us down to Saratoga. (Responsible adults, since we knew we would be drinking!!) We stopped into Cantina. There were a few rounds if Pomegranate margaritas first…..then dinner. and another round.

And the only photo I got of the three of us:

We managed to stay there for a bit, but did go to another bar were I had two of the best beers ever.

After the girls left today, I managed to have a nice salad plate topped with eggs, some melon, AND-although being incredibly sore from yesterday’s workout- I used my ‘off’ day from workouts as an active rest day and walked 4.5 miles on the treadmill.

That’s all I have for now! I wrote this entire post with the towel still on my head, so on top of nearly my entire body being sore, my neck is as well!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Question: have you ever done the deck of cards workout? If so, what exercises did you do?

Pocket Full of Sunshine

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

1. Yesterday’s workout was a sweaty interval workout on the bike. 35 minutes and I was done! Only two more workouts for this week and I can ‘rest’ while I sit on a couple of flights on Sunday. (I’m no stranger to lunges and squats by my gate…)

2. We sampled only one beer from our first batch of home brew and it was super good!

3. I started packing. It’s a good thing my drinking pants are also my workout pants. Saves room to bring stuff back.

4. Took Layla to the park this afternoon. Pup was a mental beast with all the fresh snow. I took about 04957203957209 pictures, but will only bore you with two.

5. I am making these tomorrow. Insert evil laugh and terrible victory dance here. I will DEFINITELY have to do Airport Gate Lunges if I have too many.

6. I posted this video on my personal facebook page yesterday and I still think it is hilarious. I had my iTunes playing pretty loud while I was doing stuff throughout the house, and the Natasha Bedingfield song Pocket Full of Sunshine came on. It immediately made me think of this video clip because the montage is EXACTLY what I was doing yesterday. SO. FUNNY. Seriously people, laugh with me on this one. I got like no feedback on facebook and I was just dying for someone to comment something like “hahaha wow Jen you are so funny to be dancing with your dog and doing chores while singing that song!” But no such luck.

moving on..

7. Wait, there is no 7. I can’t think of anything else to write. Perhaps I should workout to clear my head. OK!

(PS: follow me on Instagram @nutcaseinpoint. Samesies with Twitter. And like my Facebook page)

This post has a little bit of everything.

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I’ve been up since 4am. Involuntarily.

I thought I’d be able to sleep in a bit since I had a LONG day yesterday. Here’s what my Sunday looked like:

6 am wakeup when dog started fidgeting and crying. Butt problems again, you know how it is. And obviously it would be a Sunday because that’s the one day my vet is closed so of course I had to go to the ER clinic and spend even more money on a routine procedure.

I’m sick of spending money on a routine anal expression, so I had the vet teach me how to do it. Luckily, my dog is totally comfortable with fingers up her butt because I REALLY practiced.

Baked these brownies. I honestly had a little too much fun making them. And that’s probably why the scale registered a slightly higher number this morning.

Put Christmas away. 😦
Ran 32 minutes of intervals at the gym (didn’t want to do strength because TODAY is the first day of Best Body Bootcamp! And now that it’s Monday, I can tell you that I already did the day 1 workout. They consisted of pretty easy moves, except they were slow and controlled rep counts. I’ll let you know how THAT feels tomorrow). Oh, and the dog joined in on every move.

Made chicken salad sandwiches for dinner. Best part: it was on a Whole Wheat Farmers Loaf from Cobs Bread. Yummo.

And then I did a ton of other boring little things that don’t deserve a bullet point. The end.

Did you see my post from yesterday though about the special Pv.Body 30 Day challenge? You should check it out. *I* can save *you* 20% on awesome fitness gear. *You* with then thank *me*. Plus, if you sign up, you can join the challenge and win some sweet prizes.

Did you watch the premiere of Buck Wild last week? Because I did. What did I take away from that show? A ‘Holler’ is a place where you can holler to any and all of your neighbors and they’ll hear you. (a little red-necky if you ask me) Also, this song- LOVE IT.

I have also taken to this song as of late:

I always try to sound like her when I sing it. In my head, I’m spot on. In other people’s heads, I sound like a chicken.

Did you know that my wedding in is 6 months from yesterday? Also, my birthday is in 6 months from today. TO RECAP: The first week in July will be EPIC. My favorite holiday (4th of July, my wedding, AND my birthday within four days. Excitement cannot be contained.)

Did you also know that I’m going back to the States this Sunday?

(Source)

So far, my dance card is pretty empty, so get your requests in if you want to be graced by my presence (assuming I somewhat know you and you are in the Upstate NY area. I’m talking to you, silent high school classmate readers. Actually no, not you. But you will find my mother and I sitting at the bar at the 99 in the mall at some point in the next two weeks. Or me at the Y. One of the two.)

If you just did some math from the above paragraph, you will have concluded that today is my half birthday. Woo hoo 26.5!

I have decided to drive out to Banff on Wednesday. I will be on the lookout for bears, wolves, and moose. I might also buy some fudge, Lululemon, and a Canada sweatshirt while I’m there. (Haha, I totally just typo-ed it to read sweatshit)

(Source)

Looking for a new deal site to add to your daily email? Honest to God, Rue LaLa is like my favorite site for deals- they have EVERYTHING. Sorry, Canada, they don’t deliver to you, so I suggest to chum up to an American friend or you set up a PO Box in your closest American town. Check that site out, yo.

Or you can check out Zulily. They ship to Canada. Pretty sweet.

Tell me something you did yesterday. Or Today. Or will do this week.

Observations, Pvbody update and a Workout

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Observations at the gym

Wear shoes with laces. Keds never have been and never will be acceptable at appropriate gym attire.
Same goes with tank tops for guys. Especially if I can see your nipples.
Please don’t wear perfume/cologne. I don’t want to be on the bike and you walk by reeking of Abercrombie. But DO please wear deodorant. THAT can be scented.
The cardio and weight floor should not be immediately next to the cafe. Especially when smells of coffee and cookies are present.
Teen night is stupid. It allows teens to congregate around machines I need to use. And they’re probably infecting the machines (and each other)
There should be an appropriate distance between each individual in the stretch area. I do not need you to do squat holds 6 inches away from where I am doing core work. Especially if you have gas, which you probably do.
Please control your toddlers in the locker room. Also, you don’t get free reign in there just because you came in with babies.
Speaking of babies. I think going to the gym during normal business hours is really good birth control. I cringe when I see a room full of those brats in their Spiderman outfits with dirty hands and a screechy laugh.
NO SNACKS!
I can see you when you flex in the mirror.

Perhaps those aren’t observations, but more like what annoys me. Anyhoo….

Now back to pv.body (yes, I’m pimping it again)

They started the new year with a 30 day challenge- and you can take part! Hint: THERE ARE PRIZES INVOLVED!

The pv.body 30 day challenge provides you with your own personal dietitian and trainer to help you meet your fitness and health goals. Everyday, our pv.body babes will be given a new challenge that they can share with friends! Challenges include workouts, recipes, meal plans, group activities and more!

You can update your progress through Pins, Tweets or Instagrams by using the hashtag: #pv30daychallenge

(In case you haven’t heard of pv.body yet- and I don’t know how you haven’t since it’s all over the blogging world- they are a monthly subscription service that send you one athletic/workout top and bottom each month. The best part is that they are high end quality brands that retail for significantly more than what you pay for the subscription- only $49! BUT, you can get 20% off that price if you sign up through me!)

Here’s how to take advantage:

1. Sign up here through my link and receive 20% off: 20% off through Nutcaseinpoint

2. Take the pv.body 30 Day Challenge here to kick start your New Year resolutions and receive tons of fun prizes: Challenge

(IMPORTANT: Please note that you will not receive the discount though the ‘Challenge’ link; you have to sign up through my link above to receive the 20% off.)

Not only am I going to write about what bugs me at the gym AND provide you with a sweet hookup for some awesome activewear and prizes, but I am also going to leave you with a sweet workout!

WORKOUT

Cardio: your choice. Incorporate INTERVALS. >It’s only for 20 minutes< Go at a moderate intensity with rest periods, then shorten the rest periods and increase the intensity. Before you know it, you’ll be huffing and puffing, but you’ll be DONE.

Strength: Lately I have been concentrating my strength workouts to specific areas (upper body, lower body, core), but this workout will be a total body one. You’re welcome.

Single Leg deadlift (using body bar)
Standing hamstring extension (same leg)
Single Leg deadlift with overhead press and hamstring extension (building on the original moves)
Bosu ball weighted squats (I do these for the length of a song- incorporating different counts to change up the effectiveness of the move. For example: 4 count on the way down, 1 up; 8 count down and up, 2 count each way, etc…)

Go through set with other leg

Stability ball concentration curls (10) and half curls (to fatigue)
Overhead presses
Tricep Kickbacks
Arnold Presses

Go through set again with curls done on other arm

Plank up-downs with toes on bosu ball
Side plank hip dips
Single Arm over head press and reach with side knee crunch

Done 3 x thru

Phew! All this fitness talk makes me want to go to the gym now! 😉

A Tabata workout

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Many of you probably won’t read this until the new year (totally fine by me). Here’s a great workout I did the other day that really kicked my butt. Hint: It incorporates a mat, stability ball, weights, gliders, and TRX bands.

The entier workout was done tabata-style (20 seconds of WORK, 10 seconds of REST, repeated 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. In each of the tabatas, I alternated between the coupling of moves (i.e.: 1st round pushups, 2nd round tricep extensions, 3rd round pushups….etc.)

Round 1

jump squats
TRX jump squats

Round 2

TRX tricep extensions
Pushups

Round 3

Stability ball jackknife
TRX plank crunch

Round 4

Plank jacks
TRX bicep curl

Round 5

Reverse glide lunge L
Weighted Lunge Pulse L

Round 6

V raise
Stability ball rollout

Round 7

Reverse glide lunge R
Weighted Lunge Pulse R

Round 8

Single Arm Overhead Reach Press L
Single Arm Overhead Reach Press R

Yesterday’s workout consisted of a 48 minute interval run. I repeated a set that looked like this:

1 min run
1 min walk
2 min run
1 min walk
2 min run

With each set, I would shorten the ‘rest’ (or walk) time.

I also do sets of single leg dead lefts and arnold presses.

Today’s workout was a 30 minute spin at the gym followed by a walk with the dog and some full body moves with the TRX bands.

I guess I’m ready to put on a sparkly shirt and celebrate NYE.

I have noticed in the blog world that just about everyone is posting things about their 2012 and goals for 2013. If you read my blog, you pretty much already know what happened in 2012.

Quit my job in Boston
Flew to Florida for 10 days
Drove from Boston to Calgary
Moved in with boy
Engaged to said boy
Submit application for Permanent Residency
Do nothing
Bake
Eat
Workout
Sleep
Walk Dog
Volunteer at YMCA
Visit NY/Boston
Stop volunteering at YMCA

The end. Totally not as exciting as others.

Hmmm, what else is there to say?

– I made chewy chocolate chip bars that are THEBOMB.COM—-> so tasty.

– I started a new book called An Embarrassment of Mangoes. So far so good.

– I go home in 13 days!!!!!!!

– I tried growing out my eyebrows, but couldn’t take it after about a month. P.S: Do the girls on Survivor get to shave? I mean….they ARE all wearing bikinis all the time….just a thought.

That is all. See ya next year.

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