Giant Sets, Play Time and Some Baking Fun

Our Sunday evening trip to the park turned out beautifully.  The boys are getting more and more adventurous there and had a lot of fun with the tunnel.  How cute are they???

Colton

Mason

The boys were kind enough to entertain me with lots of singing on the way home from the park...

I was smiling from ear to ear the whole walk home.  The boys may not show off their skills in music class, but they sure do share their love of music with me.  They've got skills!!  

I can't say enough good things about the Trader Joe's Whole wheat pizza crust I used for our pizza that night either.  YUM!  When is the new one going to open in Palm Beach??

We had a pretty low-key day yesterday.  Our day kicked off with a playgroup for the boys and a trip to the gym for me.  I tried out a new giant set for my lower body and I'm feeling the effects today.  Now I gotta stick with it to SEE the effects of it.  I'm teaching myself to love lower body workouts...not easy for me.  I still had a little bit of time to myself after my workout before I had to go get the boys, so I swung by home to whip up a smoothie before heading to the beach to put my toes in the sand...

The boys keep pointing out that my toes are pink and they constantly want to count them.  I painted my fingernails purple yesterday just to keep things interesting.  Now they want to count my fingers too.  Silly boys!  

We spent a little time biking outside before the boys thought it would be fun to bring the bikes inside...

Colton--You rock!

I sat my butt by the pool during most of the boys naptime.  I also made a loaf of Smitten Kitchen's crackly banana bread that turned out to be even yummier than I hoped.  Her recipes never disappoint.  The only changes I made to the recipe were to substitute agave for the brown sugar and quinoa for the millet, since I didn't have any millet on hand.  The quinoa worked beautifully.  

After naptime, the boys and I ventured out for some fresh air and a little run in hopes of keeping my legs from getting to sore from my morning workout.  

Colton couldn't travel without Cranky the crane and Mason brought along the Easter Bunny and Christmas Thomas the Train...he likes his holidays!  It was hotter than I had hoped out there yesterday afternoon so I only covered 3 miles before calling it quits.  I'm not ready for the heat that looks like it's here to stay.  There are lots of sweaty, miserable runs in my near future I'm afraid...my mileage will likely be staying quite low this summer.  Bring on the air conditioned gym and the free weights!

They talked me into some additional outdoor time with the wagon...who am I to turn them down??

Finally caught Mason smiling!!!

This morning I awoke to the sounds of a downpour so I decided to cancel Story Time...I think I jumped the gun a little because come 9:00, it was gorgeous outside.  The little break was nice and now we have next week to look forward to.  I hope people got the word that it was cancelled before loading up their kiddos to come have some fun.  

Thankfully, rain doesn't stop Music Class.  We got to get our Miss Rabe fix today!!  She must have known we all needed a break because she entertained our children extra long today.  Love that!!  One can never have enough music class in life.  

The boys let me squeeze in a quick workout on our way home from music class.  I stuck with yesterday's giant set trend and completed 2 upper body giant sets today, 4 times through with each, using...

• Reverse Grip Rows
• Chest press on the stability ball
• One-legged overhead extensions
• Lying triceps extensions on the stability ball
• Hammer curls 

AND

• Incline plank rows
• Chest flyes with a twist at the top
• One-legged reverse flyes
• Overhead triceps extensions
• Partial reps and full reps biceps curls on upside-down bosu

I finished up with quick 10 minutes on the elliptical before jetting out of there to make an appointment.  Good thing it was just blood work so I wasn't embarrassed to be sweaty.   I've never seen people move more slowly than they did at Quest Diagnostics in the 900 building.  It's worth the drive to the Palm City location, local folks.  They're much quicker there!

Today I played around with another recipe during naptime.  Since the boys love crackers and goldfish so much, I decided to give homemade crackers a try...

I did add some cheese to the recipe to up the chance of the boys liking them.  They tend to love anything that includes cheese.  I also subbed garlic powder for the onion powder...we're garlic lovers in this household.  No vampires near us!  We'll see what the boys think of them when they wake up.  Hope they give them a thumbs up.  

I asked the boys what they wanted to do when they woke up from their nap, my new tactic for getting them to go to bed is to chat with them about what they can look forward to when they wake up.  It's working for now.  They told me they want to go in a shopping cart so I guess a trip to Publix or Target is in order...or maybe the Fresh Market...decisions, decisions...

I'm hoping I can keep my eyes open long enough to make some progress on my book after the boys are in bed tonight.  It's hard to get through a book when I fall asleep every time I sit down...no matter how good the book is, and this one is REALLY good...

Upper Body Giant Sets and A Great Read

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit under the weather but I tried to muscle through a run anyways...between the heat and the scratchy throat, I ended my run frustrated and exhausted.  I'm still glad I did it but was very glad when it was over.

We did finish our run in time to clean up and make it to story time at the library, where the boys were MUCH more interested in the wagon in the corner of the room than the songs and stories.  I'm thinking I need to find a gymnastics class for the boys so they can get out all their crazy climbing antics.  Has anyone tried the Tiny Tots program at the YMCA Sportsworld?  I just found out about it this morning and am quite intrigued.

When we got home, the boys and I attempted to make a vegan carrot cake...it was delicious, but the presentation was not so hot so I'll save the photos for after I've perfected it a bit so it doesn't look like one of my boys diapers...GROSS!

The boys took a solid nap which allowed me some time to rest and get some laundry done.  Phew!  After nap time we were ready for the pool, only to discover that a storm had rolled in.  We opted for play time in the living room to kill time before Daddy got home.  The boys did allow me to squeeze in an upper body workout as long as I kept the kiddie tunes blaring and the ball rolling.

My workout consisted of 3 giant sets, circuits of multiple exercises with no rest until the whole circuit is completed.  I completed each giant set 3 times.  I did 10 reps with heavy weights (20 lb dumbbells for the chest and back, 15 lbs for everything else) for the first giant set.  For the second giant set, I completed 12 reps with a moderately heavy weight (15 lb dumbbells for chest and back, 10 pounders for everything else) and the third set used moderately light weights (10 pounds for chest and back and 8 pounds for everything else) for 15 reps.  It was a good workout.

I finished out the workout with 3 sets of 15 push-ups (barely squeaked out the last set) alternating with 3 one minute planks (had to take a break on the last plank too as I had toddlers trying to climb me which definitely makes for a more challenging workout.)   

We finished up the day with bacon-wrapped pork chops with BBQ sauce.   I'm not Vegan yet, haha!  On the side we had roasted broccoli and BBQ potatoes, simply made by tossing potato wedges with a dressing of 3 parts BBQ sauce to 1 part olive oil  and some pepper before roasting for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees.  They were yummy!  For dessert, we threw 2 frozen bananas, a splash of almond milk and some peanut butter  in the Ninja blender for vegan fro-yo.  At least we had vegan dessert, right?  all I can say is YUM!

I borrowed this photo from Hog Blog since I forgot to take a photo and they helped me out with the recipe.  It did really look just about like this and I ate every last bite.

A little time on the couch before heading to bed to read until I fell asleep rounded out the day.  I'm loving this book...

It's a light-hearted easy read that I am surprised by how much I relate to it.  I love Rachel Bertsche's style and highly recommend you check her out.  She has a pretty great name by the way.  What are you reading these days??

Shaking Things Up A Bit

I decided to shake things up this week in regards to my weight training routine.  Instead of following a upper/lower body split to organize my workouts, I'm going to break things up a little differently.  The plan for the week looks like this:

Sunday: Biceps, Triceps, Shoulders and Abs
Monday: Hamstrings and Quadriceps
Tuesday:  Chest and Back
Wednesday:  Long Cardio
Thursday:  Butt and Abs
Friday: Plyometrics
Saturday: REST DAY

I got off to a good start with some nice giant sets this afternoon.  I completed each circuit 3 times, doing 15 reps of each exercise, resting only in between each giant set.

GIANT SET #1:

• Rotating biceps curls
• Triceps kickbacks
• Overhead presses
• Stability ball plank roll-ups

GIANT SET #2:

• Hammer curls
• Straight arm triceps pressbacks
• Lateral raises
• Stability ball roll-outs

GIANT SET #3:

• Wide biceps curls
• Overhead triceps extensions
• Arnold presses
• Plank circles on stability ball

GIANT SET #4:

• Biceps 21s
• Triceps dips
• Front dumbbell raises
• Plank with alternating knee drives

It was a great workout!!  I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's circuits.

I also decided to shake things up with my diet as a kind of "experiment."  I have decided to try being a vegan for a week.  I keep reading about all these people who feel immediately healthier when eliminating animal products and I want to see what all the hype is about.  So far, the only thing I've missed is the milk in my coffee.  Soy milk just doesn't seem to cut it...  If you've found a vegan solution for "cream" in your coffee, I'd love to hear it.  I have tried almond milk in my coffee in the past and it was absolutely repulsive so I'm not about to try that again.  Yuck!

The food I've had today has been yummy.  My morning oatmeal is already vegan but I did add a scoop of brown rice protein to it.  I found the rice protein to be a bit chalkier than whey protein but I think I may be able to tweak it to my liking.  I'm thinking almond milk might up the creaminess factor.  I've also had a TON of veggies, some homemade hummus, and am marinating some tempeh for dinner.  I can't wait to try it.  If it turns out to be as yummy as I hope it will be, I'll be sure to share the recipe.  I haven't felt deprived so far and had plenty of energy to power through my workout.  So far, things are looking good.  I'll keep you posted...




 

Upper Body Blitz Etc.

Yesterday I got in a killer arm workout that has my arms still feeling the burn in a good way.  I knew I wanted to focus on my chest and back, but didn't want to leave my arms or core out in the process and I came up with this nice little workout that I will definitley be repeating again.  Hopefully it gets easier each time I do it because my arms were screaming yesterday as I tried to eak out the last reps of each superset.  My workout looked like this:

• Back Giant Set using bent over narrow rows, bent over wide rows, and bent over renegades. 
• 3 rounds:
• First round: 20 reps of each exercise followed by 100 reps of various biceps curls
• Second round: 15 reps of each exercise followed by 100 reps of various triceps exercises
• Third round: 10 reps of each exercise followed by 100 reps of various shoulder exercises.
• Chest Giant Set chest press, chest flyes and renegades, all done on an stability ball.
• 3 rounds:
• First round: 20 reps of each exercise followed by 100 reps of mountain climbers.
• Second round: 15 reps of each exercise followed by 1 minute plank with forearms on stability ball.
• Third round: 10 reps of each exercise followed by 2 minute plank.

I used 15 pound dumbbells for the back and chest exercises and 8 pound dumbbells for the arm exercises. Success!

Today's workout focused on legs.  I wasn't feeling too creative so I used the old standby--a Jackie Warner circuit workout which banged out the workout in 15 minutes.  Cardio included 40 minutes on the elliptical so I could finish up my book for book club tonight.  I highly recommend The American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. 

Tomorrow I'm due for another run.  After a 5k on Saturday, where I got a PR by the way, and a 10 mile stroller run on Sunday, my legs needed a couple of days off from running but they're ready to go for tomorrow.  Haven't decided where, how long, or whether I'll bring the stroller or not.  I guess we'll see what tomorrow and my two teething toddlers brings...

Make it a great day!

Quickie Workout

After a beautiful weekend filled with family time, two great runs (one 10-miler and one 2 1/2 mile recovery), happy hours and delicious food, it was back to the gym today.  I started off my workout with 25 minutes on the elliptical at a challenging resistance with varying inclines.  It got my heart rate up and warmed me up for the upper body workout that was to come.  My arms got a short, sweet workout that wasn't lacking in intensity and saved me plenty of time to continue to hang out with my sister.  My workout looked like this:

• Chest press and bent-over rows superset 
• 4 sets of 20, 15, 12, then 10 with weights increasing on each round
• Chest flyes and flat bench renegades superset
• 4 sets of 15 with moderate weight 
• Hammer curls, overhead presses and triceps kickbacks giant set
• 3 sets of 12 using moderate weight
• Tricep pressdown and bicep curl superset
• 3 sets of 12 with challenging weight on cable machine
• Windshield wipers and W arm extensions
• 2 sets of 12 with moderate weights (be nice to those tender shoulders :-) )
• 3 minutes of various plank exercises resting as needed

I was so glad I had my sister here to watch the boys so I could have 45 minutes to myself to get in a good workout at the gym while not having to give up my morning time with my husband.  A good sweat session truly does the body AND mind good.  I even came home to two sleeping babies.   I'm so spoiled.  Gotta love my sisters...all 3 of them!

Feeling the Burn

Today, I got in one last high-intensity weighlifting workout before my company gets here and I relax a bit and enjoy the weekend. I'm sure I'll get in a run or two this weekend, but there will be no heavy lifting on the docket as my body has earned a couple of days rest in that department. My last two workouts (inspired by workouts at pbfingers.com) looked like this:


Thursday's Upper Body Circuit:

• Bent-over Rows and Biceps Curls Superset-- 3 sets of 15 with heavy weight
• Push-Ups, Upright Rows and Side Shoulder Raises Superset -- 3 sets of 15 with heavy weight
• Chest Press and Front Shoulder Raises Superset -- 3 sets of 15 with moderate weight
• Skull-Crushers and Close-Grip Bench Press Superset -- 3 sets of 15 with moderate weight
• 5 minutes of various plank exercises
• 20 minutes on the elliptical at quick pace with a varying incline

Today's Lower Body Workout:

• Giant set using 15 lb dumbbells and 3 sets of 15 of the following exercises:
• Chair step-ups
• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Lunges
• Superset using a 35-lb kettlebell and 3 sets of 20 of the following exercises:
• Kettlebell swings
• Sumo squats
• Superset using body weight, a stability ball, and 3 sets of 15 of the following exercises:
• Hamstring ball curls
• Plank roll ups
• Stability ball planks
• Superset using body weight and 3 sets of 20 on an exercise mat:
• Side leg lifts
• Mountain climbers
• Plyometric circuit:
• 100 high knees
• 100 butt kicks
• 100 jumping jacks
• 100 jump ropes
• 100 heismans

I had an interesting conversation with a friend last night and we were discussing training approaches and injury risk. I have found that I do not get injured as long as I am training smart, which means listening to my body, giving myself rest days, not training the same body part 2 days in a row, keeping my mileage in check (I don't need to run 5+ miles every day, 2 or 3 easy miles once in a while is a GOOD thing), and I try not to compare myself to others. I'm only competing against myself and I see the biggest improvement when I train smart, which sometimes means more isn't always better. Sometimes the secret to getting stronger is getting some rest to come back rejuvenated to make some gains. Just some food for thought. Treat your body well--balance is KEY! Gotta throw some easy days into the mix. Happy Friday.