Whole30 - Day 1

This weekend, I spent every free minute reading this book...

I was captivated with the ideas and theories presented in it.  You can read more about it at their website.  I've found lots of great info on their to supplement what's included in the book.  

The book includes a 30 day challenge, called Whole30 where you go 30 days with no grains, no sugar, no alcohol, no legumes, no white potatoes, and no dairy--very similar to the paleo diet, only a bit more strict.  There's no paleo-ified junk food replacements allowed.  It encourages you to stick with 3 big meals a day centered around meat, produce, and fats.  

The ideas that appealed to me were the opportunity to "reset" my body and digestion, a chance to balance out my hormones, the opportunity to get in touch with my hunger signals again rather than my all-day graze-fests, and eliminate the junk from my diet...I was getting a little carried away.  I decided to go "all in" and start the challenge today.  It's only 30 days...I can do this!!  I'm curious to see how my little "experiment" works out. 

Breakfast included 3 eggs scrambled with a giant handful of spinach and half an avocado, diced and topped with hot sauce, of course.  I had half a grapefruit on the side too.  

It was filling and delicious...but I was hungry again by 11.  Hopefully that improves...but in the meantime...I downed lots of water and planned a very big lunch.

For lunch I had a turkey burger, some broccolini sauteed in olive oil, and a tomato, avocado and balsamic salad.  I also ended up eating most of the boys' leftover mango too.

I'm planning to go out to eat for dinner but already have a game plan in mind for the greek restaurant--greek salad, skip the feta, olive oil and vinegar for dressing, topped with a piece of grilled salmon as long as they don't marinade the salmon in anything crazy.  Maybe I'll throw a can of tuna in my purse just in case...haha.  Just kidding!  

Enough food talk.  We've done other fun stuff besides eating today...

We kicked off our morning at Story Time where we were supposed to have a special guest but our firefighter got called into duty so we stuck with Firefighter books instead. We read...

...and...

Both were big hits with the kiddos.  I especially liked Tony Mitton's rhymes and Ant Parker's illustrations in Flashing Fire Engines.

We hit up the gym after Story Time.  I was feeling pretty un-energetic so I took my legs workout over to the elliptical for some circuits.  Usually the speed of them keeps me from feeling too tortured.  I warmed up for a mile before alternation quarter miles on the elliptical with the following legs circuits using dumbbells.  I repeated each circuit 4 times.  

Circuit 1:

Squats - 20

Deadlifts - 20

Lunges - 20

Circuit 2:

Squat with Side Kicks - 10 each

Side to Side lunges - 20

Curtsey lunges - 10 each

I finished up with another mile as my cool down and called it a day.  Hopefully I'm feeling more energetic tomorrow.

We've spent the rest of our day around the house, getting some chores done...while keeping an eye on last night's episode the bachelorette.  The first episode doesn't require your full attention anyways :-)

2000 Reps...Phew!

If you're a frequenter of fitness blogs, you've probably noticed a new trend, at least I have...its the 1000 rep workout.  Different versions seems to be popping up here and there.  You know me; I had to take it up a notch and challenge myself by doubling the number of reps.  Most of the routines I checked out used the entire body and my plan for today was to target my legs, specifically my quadriceps and hamstrings, so I created my own version, inspired by theirs.   My goal was to work my legs, get my heart pumping, and keep it simple enough to do right at home.  My legs were definitely feeling it, so I'd say it was a mission accomplished.  Its hard not to get a little butt burning in there too when you use those leg muscles so the booty burning I felt in addition to my shaking legs was just an added bonus.  You can thank me later if you decide to give this a try... 

Here's what today's workout looked like:

1. 100 jump ropes 
2. 100 squats 
3. 100 jumping jacks 
4. 100 split squats (50 each leg) 
5. 100 high knees 
6. 100 plié pulses 
7. 100 butt kicks 
8. 100 reverse plank pulses 
9. 100 heismans 
10. 100 calf raises on step 
11. 100 cross jacks 
12. 100 bridge lifts 
13. 100 vertical jumps 
14. 100 squat pulses 
15. 100 mummy kicks 
16. 100 sissy squats 
17. 100 mountain climbers 
18. 100 step ups 
19. 100 ski jumps 
20. 100 jump ropes

All in all I felt like it was a great workout.   I'd love to know what you think if you decide to give it a try.  If it seems overwhelming, you can always try cutting the number of reps in half.  You can always repeat it if you have extra energy.  If you're not sure how to do a move, let me know or just google it. 

10 X 100

This morning I wanted to cram in a workout and family time so I entertained the boys with the following workout while they ate their breakfast in their high chairs.  Talk about multi-tasking...

• 100 squats
• 100 deadlifts
• 100 lunges (50 with each leg forward)
• 100 sumo squats
• 100 chair step-ups
• 100 high knees
• 100 butt kicks
• 100 jumping jacks
• 100 jump ropes
• 100 heismans

...and 25 squat jumps for good measure! Make it a good day!

The Last 3 Days...

After a weekend with my sister in Naples, relaxing at the pool, enjoying happy hours, trying out new restaurants, my body was ready to get back to business this week. 

Monday was legs day.  I popped in a favorite DVD--Jackie Warner's Power Circuit Training.  I did the 15 minute lower body segment and am still sore from it today, 2 days later.  Guess I had gotten a little lax with my lower body workouts.  I love her approach--3 exercises for each muscle group: hamstrings, quads, and buttocks.  Do each exercise for a minute nonstop and then do a power burn for the fourth minute, which means you do all 3 exercises one more time for 20 seconds each.  You hit your muscles hard and are finished with your workout in no time which is just what this momma needs.  I also squeezed in a 4 mile run and the usual MuTu core exercises.  I really hope to feel confident enough to wear a bikini again this summer.  We'll see.  There's still a lot of work to be done there but time is on my side. 

Yesterday was my upper body workout day.  I started off the workout with a chest and back supersets routine.  I did 10 reps of each exercise for the first round, 12 reps for the second round and 15 for the 3rd round.  There was no rest until each superset was done, when I rested for about 30 seconds.  The supersets included the following exercises:

• Flat bench dumbbell chest press and bent over dumbbell row
• Incline bench dumbbell chest press and incline bench dumbbell row
• Dumbbell pullovers and bent over straight arm kickbacks

I then did 3 minutes of nonstop bicep exercises including narrow hammer curls, zottoman curls, wide curls, rotating curls, SLOW curls, etc. followed by 3 minutes of nonstop shoulder exercises including overhead presses, reverse flyes, lateral raises, front raises, upright rows, etc.   Finally, I finished up with 3 rounds of a triceps giant set as I still try to get my triceps in line with the strength of my biceps.  The giant set included 12 reps of each of the following exercises, completed one right after the other without stopping, with 30 seconds of rest between the giant sets:

• Flat bench triceps dips
• Narrow grip bench presses with a barbell
• Lying dumbbell triceps extension with dumbbells
• Triceps rope extensions on the cable machine
• Triceps kickbacks with dumbbells

I rounded out the workout with 20 minutes on the elliptical and 5 minutes of plank exercises.  It was  a GREAT upper body workout!

After 2 days of muscle-building workouts, I made today a cardio day.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical at a challenging intensity with some 30 second sprints and some good "hill climbs."  It made me a sweaty mess.  I'm off to do my 5 minutes of plank exercises and calling it a day. 

Make yours a great day!

Hit 'Em Heavy and Hit 'Em Hard Legs Workout

It seems like the less time I have to work out, the more focused and efficient I am.  I guess it's kind of like how I felt when I was in high school and college where it seemed like the busier I was, the more focused I was.  I actually seemed to do bes in school when I was busiest with extracurriculars.  There wasn't time to slack off.  I see the same thing happening at times in my adulthood, at least in terms of my exercise.  Even though I had a limited amount of time in the gym this morning, I still got in a VERY good workout.  I knew what I needed to do, knew how much time I had to do it in, and was focused to get it done.  It was legs day and I decided to hit 'em hard and heavy.  It gave me that sweet pain which I know will lead to results.  Here's what it looked like...

Move	Weight	Repetitions	Sets
Split squats with bosu ball	15 lb dumbbells	15 (each leg)	3
Sumo squats on smith machine	70 pounds	15	3
Deadlifts – with barbell	70 pounds	15	3
Hamstring ball curls	Body weight	15	3
Glute bridges with weight plate	25 pounds	20	3
Squats on smith machine	40 pounds	25	4
Plank variations	Bodyweight	1 minute	4

*****Colors indicate exercises that were super-setted. 

It was an adaptation of a workout, shown below, which I found at pbfingers.   I get tons of inspiration from her workouts.  She has a similar workout style to mine but her legs are stronger than mine.  I'm getting there and I hate to rest so I tend to fatigue faster.  I know, I know...excuses, excuses....  What can I say, I'm a supersets kind of gal. 

I finished up my workout with 12 minutes on the elliptical.  For the first 10 minutes, I did 30 second sprints with 30 second recoveries.  I finished with a 2 minute cool down.  Like I said, I hit 'em hard.  I got in, I got it done, and I got out in less than 30 minutes.  Now that's what I call a stellar workout. 

20 Minute Leg-Core-Plyo Circuit

This morning I knew I wanted to do a workout that targeted my legs and my core.  I also knew I only had about 20 minutes to complete it.  I came up with the following circuit and was quite happy with the outcome.  My heart rate was elevated, my legs were burning, and I was all hot and sweaty--signs of a good workout. I did the following exercises for a minute each, with no rest in between each exercise. 

• Squats with dumbbells
• Deadlifts with dumbbells
• Alternate heel drops on  back
• Jumping jacks
• Lunges with dumbbells
• Sumo Squats with dumbbells
• High plank with alternate arm and leg lifts
• Running in place with high knees
• Glute bridge
• Reverse plank pulses
• Low plank alternating knees in and out, mountain climber style
• Running in place kicking butt
• Squats with dumbbells
• Side to side skater lunges with one dumbbell
• High plank with leg lifts, 10 at a time each leg
• Jump rope (with or without actual rope)
• Curtsey squats
• Front-loaded squats with heels elevated on dumbbells or a step
• Up-down planks
• Burpees

That's it; you're done.  I couldn't believe how quickly the 20 minutes flew by.   I rounded out my exercise for the day with a with a 3 mile run WITHOUT the stroller.  I couldn't believe how much lighter and quicker I felt.  Still love jogging with the boys though and not gonna give it up any time soon.