Strength training – Fervent Foodie

Fitness Challenge

November 20, 2011 6 Comments

Normally at 11pm on a Sunday night I’d be curled up in the fetal position on the couch swaddled in a big fluffy blanket praying to all that is holy that time could somehow remain still and allow me to savor a few more hours… let’s be honest.. DAYS of weekend. This evening, however, is one from a different tale because I’m in the midst of an extended Thanksgiving holiday back home in the Motherland. There’s still a couch and a big fluffy blanket but that typical Sunday anxiety for the impending workweek is delightedly absent. Instead I’ve got thoughts of plans with friends, family festivities out the wazoo, lasagna, the upcoming Turkey Trot I signed up for (my first race EVER EEK!), MORE lasagna, oh and of course the mental preparations for my annual Black Friday Blitz.

When I started preparing for this long trip home, I knew in my gut that it would involve a ton of food and a ton of exercising… wait…. shopping counts as exercising, right?! Right. So what my gut was REALLY saying was that the trip home would involve a crap ton of food and next to nothing in the physical exercise department.

Ugh.

I came up with the idea to challenge myself to a 14 day fitness challenge to ensure I kept my butt in gear (literally) over the holiday.

14 days of back-to-back fitness.

Here’s what I’ve accomplished in the first 7 days:

Day #1: Ran 3 miles
Day #2: Body Pump!
Day #3: 30 minutes of high intensity interval training
Day #4: Body Pump!
Day #5: Ran 5 miles
Day #6: 1.5 hours of Strength Training & cardio randomness
Day #7: Ran 3 miles

So far so good! This challenge really helped me to stay on track during a rather stressful week that included MANY instances of trying to talk myself out of going to the gym. Too tired. Too much to do. Too far behind… etc. Too, too, too. Blah, blah, blah. Each of these days I’d remind myself of the challenge I posted on this here blog and how extremely disappointed you all would be in me if I did not hold up to my end of the challenge. Am I right? Just the thought of your sad faces has gotten me out there doing SOMETHING physical every day.

To that I say THANK YOU!

Oh by the way, did I mention I have this whole week off of work? Oh… I did?

Hmmm… well I guess there’s nothing else to say then. EXCEPT to announce the winner of the NuGo slim giveaway!

The winner is….

Katie! Congratulations!! Please email me with your mailing address!

Fitness, What I ate

Run and done(ish)

June 28, 2011 6 Comments

The low down: This week marks week four of my self-proclaimed Kick the Knee Pain running program. I started off this new program with intervals of 2 minutes walking 1 minute running, and each day I run I bump my run interval time up by 1 minute. Sunday I completed 3 intervals of 8 minutes running and 1 minute walking.

Status: Other than some mild tightness in my knees, I haven’t had any knee issues so far!

Contributing “Success” Factors:

Buying new running shoes BEFORE starting to run.
Running primarily on softer surfaces (trails, paths, etc.)
NOT running every day and giving my knees a chance to recuperate
Being conscious of my natural tendency to heel-strike and focusing on NOT
Strength training. Building up the muscles in my legs and my core supposedly takes stress of the knees.

Conclusion: Boo ya.

*Note that stretching is not on the list above… feel free to leave angry comments about the importance of stretching. Maybe that will get it through my stubborn brain.

Short-Term Goal: Be at 30-minute running only intervals (i.e., no walking) with no knee pain by August 15th.

And now on to more exciting things… like this lovely tuna wrap I had for dinner Smile

Isn’t it perdy? This was a quick hodgpodge I threw together after work and consisted of:

1 can chunk tuna in water, drained
1 tbsp light HELMANS mayo (none of that miracle whip crap )
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 small dill pickle, chopped
Handful of romaine lettuce
Handful of grape tomatoes
S&P
Dried Dill
1 light Italian Flat-out wrap

This made for one gynormous wrap, that I basically inhaled. Along with some cucumber salad:

This should be called the Lazy Girl Salad. It consisted of 1 sliced cucumber, some white vinegar, and some dried dill. Easy peasy!

Tomorrow is Wednesday! And for the 92nd week in a row, I’m going to attempt to NOT forget it’s What-I-Ate-Wednesday. I even put a reminder in my phone Smile

Question of the evening: How do we feel about my giant head on the right hand side of the page?

Fitness, Ramblings, Restaurants

So fresh and so (not) clean

June 13, 2011 5 Comments

I’ve been in Charlotte for nearly 2 months now, yet my place is still in disarray. So, my primary goal for the weekend was to be OOBER productive. Looking back I’d say I did a fairly good job of meeting that goal—good enough that I may even be able to post some pics of the apt in the next week or so Smile

Amidst all my oober productivity, I squeezed in a Body Pump class Saturday morning and a “run” (Ah! more on that to come) Sunday morning.

After the Body Pump class, the instructor called me a “real regular”. I know it seems silly, but her little comment and acknowledgement that I’ve been body pumping on a regular basis gave me this sense of pride and accomplishment. I guess it’s because I’ve NEVER been able to stick with any sort of strength training program. I’ve tried. I’ve failed. Annnd repeat. I mean, you all remember my strength training powerpoint, right? Fail.

The hard part for me was finding something I could stick with, and something that I KNEW wasn’t a waste of time. I’m happy to report I’m four months in to Body Pump and going strong! So strong in fact, that today without thinking I flexed my biceps in the bathroom mirror at work. Who does that?! Luckily no one walked in on my “which way to the gym” routine Smile

Anyway, after body pump Saturday I headed home for a quick shower and scooted out to run some errands. I was about 5 centimeters down my street when I realized that I had not only forgotten to shave my armpits, BUT I’d also forgotten to put on deodorant. I slowed the car down to a crawl contemplating on whether or not I should turn around. On one hand I had my goals of oober productivity. On the other hand I had my newly formed goal of not ruining my chances of making new friends in Charlotte because I smell like B.O.. Now if it had been my cell phone I’d forgotten, you’re darn tootin I would have turned that car around. But hairy au naturale armpits? Not so much. I guess we all have our limits Be right back

I hit up Lowes, Target, and Trader Joes before rolling my famished self (neglected armpits included) into my first ever visit to Zoe’s!

Simple.Tasty.Fresh!
My strength training obsessed BF tells me I need to make sure I get bookoo protein in after body pump, so as I perused the menu for something meaty I giggled when I saw they had a dish called The Protein Power Plate. Really?

REALLY??

As unappetizing as the name sounded, the description really hit a special place in my heart. Flat-grilled chicken, caramelized onions, and slaw. Say it with me. CARAMELIZED ONIONSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

I was also pleasantly surprised that the dish was sprinkled with a bit of feta. You know what they say. Feta makes everything betta.

This was one DELICIOUS dish. One that I’d eat again regardless of my body’s protein replenishment needs. Zoe’s has a ton of other things on the menu that look worthy of a taste – several sandwiches, kabobs, salads… not to mention the hand-made chocolate cake and homemade cookies. Can’t wait to go back!

After lunch, I headed back to the apt where I unloaded my booty… as in all the goodies I scored shopping… not as in #2… ummmm moving on….

One thing I scored was this lamp shade from Lowes:

I love the color and pattern. Yes, I plan to take the plastic off. Please note the pile of crap on my nightstand. Now envision a 1,000 square foot apartment filled with similar piles of varying heights. That’s what I’m working with, folks.

Slowwwwllyyyy but surely Smile

Fitness, Ramblings

Beef Cake Mary

May 17, 2011 6 Comments

I’ve NEVER been into weightlifting. I’ve tried. I’ve researched. I’ve made spreadsheets. I even made a fancy pants powerpoint slideshow. To date, each of these tactics has failed. I just can’t get into it. I admit (somewhat shamefully) to the list of reasons why I thought I hated the idea of weightlifting:

1.) I (thought) I’d burn more calories doing cardio

2.) I didn’t want to get big and beefy cakey or she-manish

3.) It’s boring

4.) I don’t understand it

5.) If I don’t see results or some sort of numerical indicator of my success (i.e., miles ran, lbs lost), then it’s clearly not worth my time.

On and on.

Despite this apparent disdain for weightlifting, I HATE how weak my body is. I have internal anguish every time I have to ask for help carrying, lifting, opening, hauling etc. I’m a strong independent women, so why can’t I carry a 75 pound entertainment center by myself? Why can’t I open this friggin jar of banana peppers? Who says I can’t rotate a queen size mattress by myself? My baby muscles, that’s who.

For months I’ve been hearing about Body Pump. Body Pump is an full-body strength training class that utilizes a bar bell and “rockin music” … It sounded interesting, but my gut told me it wouldn’t hold my interest. When I finally got my YMCA membership lined up, I felt like the pass was burning a hole in my pocket. I HAD to try Body Pump. STAT.

This past Saturday was my very first class. I was pretty apprehensive, but I went in there and gave it my all (as shockingly little as that was). As I left class, I felt pretty excited. It went by crazy fast and it was definitely challenging. Two steps into my exit I realized my legs were not quite so excited. I was literally week in the knees. I had to physically concentrate on stabilizing myself so that they didn’t give out from under me!

When I got home, I jumped in the shower and quickly realized washing my hair was extremely difficult. It took everything I had to lift my arms high enough to touch the top of my head… And all I had, whelp, it wasn’t enough. I actually had to scrunch my head down to meet my hands half way. Later, I realized sitting was difficult. As in sitting in a chair, sitting on the toilet… actually anything that involved any sort of movement was difficult… borderline impossible actually.

The next morning I went shopping, and actually went home EARLY because my arms were too tired to carry bags. WHAT?!?!?

Holy hell I was sore.

This much SORE must mean I did something right. Maybe there is something to this weightlifting thing after all…

to be continued….

Fitness, Recipes

Strength Training & a Breakfast Sandwich

January 15, 2011 8 Comments

Last spring, I found a new love in running, and shortly thereafter I found out I have crappy knees that can’t handle too much impact.

Sadness… Sad smile

Then, a few months back, I joined a gym.. That’s right, a gym. And since then I’ve pretty much become BFF’s with the elliptical. Feeling like a hamster is better than feeling like a sloth. Am I right?

While it feels good to get some cardio in during the week, I noticed I’ve been feeling kind of weak lately. Slightly feeble. (could be the cold weather?) Plus my posture has definitely declined in the past couple of years, and that is not a trend I’d like to continue on.

With all this weighing on my mind, in my down time over the past few weeks I’ve been working on putting together my first-ever strength training routine. I’ve NEVER EVER been into weightlifting or any of the machines at the gym. It’s just, well, too complicated. Plus, I’m a numbers gal. If I can’t see the numbers adding away right in front of my face, I feel like I’m not accomplishing anything.

So one morning, I tried out a few different exercises I found in the pile of fitness magazines I’ve been hoarding in my office and was immediately discouraged. I just really didn’t know what I was doing, I had no plan of attack, and it felt like a big fat waste of time.

Well that is until I woke up the next morning and literally had to lift my legs out of the bed because they were so sore. Perhaps it is possible that doing these silly strength training moves DOES actually impact your body…

Perhaps.

The next day, I went through ALL of the fitness magazines I’ve been accumulating over the past year and snipped out the strength-training exercises that looked promising. Using this data, I pieced together the exercises I actually understood and/or those that appeared somewhat feasible and that could be done in the comfort of my own home…

Thennnnn I found images and instructions for each exercise and then decided to take things to a whole new level of crazy by organizing all the data into a PowerPoint presentation.

What? You don’t put your strength training workouts into PowerPoint?

Open-mouthed smile

After ALL of this research and organization, I had about 30 exercises but still no plan of attack. I knew what the moves looked like, how to do them, and… well, that was about it. So I sent my PowerPoint to the BF, who has a heck of a lot more experience in this area than I do, and asked him to please help me because I’m to the point of extreme frustration even though I had found pictures for each exercise, detailed descriptions, and picked out a really pretty color scheme!!!!

Hehe…

Pretty, right?

Luckily, he obliged and did help and also did agree that it was a pretty color scheme…. (your darn tootin it’s pretty) all while I got to work on breakfast!

FINALLY!!

Cue the turkey pepperoni breakfast sandwich please!

Easy peasy, I tell ya. This is 1 egg seasoned with S&P topped with 4 slices turkey pepperoni and 1 tbsp reduced fat Mexican cheese:

My cheese was being stubborn and would not melt, so I popped a lid on for a bit to coerce it.

Mellllltttttt I say!

Then I slid the egg onto a toasted whole grain English muffin and added some Ketchup and some Franks Red Hot:

How ridiculously good does this look?

Mmmmmmmm….

Get in my belly.

Smash em together:

Annnnddd the sandwich was gone 13 seconds later.

Stats on the sandwich: 221 calories, 31g carbs, 9g fat, 15g protein, 8g fiber