Weekly #Workout Plan

As you may or may not know, we just got a puppy, so it’s going to make our workout lives a little different. One of us should be with Noke as much as possible as she really shouldn’t be left alone for more than 2-3 hours, so that means we split up more. Which means we don’t get to go to the gym together (womp womp) and we have to take turns! This went okay over the weekend, but now comes the work week and I’m not exactly sure how it’s going to pan out. All in all, we just have a lot less time and flexibility to workout. But here is our plan…

Hungry

Monday: Legs, get some power and explosiveness back, hit the jump rope and box jumps hard
Tuesday: Core, focusing on strengthening my lower abs, which have always been weak
Wednesday: Back and biceps, trying to peak out my biceps and strengthen the lower back
Thursday: Shoulders, packing some strength and size onto my front delts, side delts, and traps
Friday: Chest and triceps, building that inner chest from top to bottom, thickening the triceps
Saturday: Legs, getting some size and strength back, balancing the hamstrings and quads
Sunday: Core, focusing on full core exercises such as planks and hanging medleys

Fit

Monday: Core and Elliptical
Tuesday: Circuit Training and Run
Wednesday: Yoga and Swim
Thursday: Chest and Run
Friday: Legs and Elliptical
Saturday: Back and Swim
Sunday: Arms/Shoulders and HIIT

And all those days will be supplemented with additional walking with the new pup. Who knows if we will hit every workout. I’m sure there will be days where we just want to flop down because of puppy exhaustion, but I believe it is very important to make a plan! Create a workout schedule to stay hungry and fit!

Question of the Day: What’s your ideal time to workout?

BONUS PUPPY PIC

Feb122014

What’s in Your Gym Bag? Part 1

This is labeled “Part 1” because you will get Fit’s gym bag in a few posts later! There is no definitive answer to this one since I have so many gym bags for different gyms and types of workouts. I stock different bags depending on what and where I plan on working out. We have a huge amount of our own workout equipment and once again, depending on my goals and plans, this can change greatly. I will, however, say what I always have in my gym bag… 90% of the time.

Creepy picture of my gym bag!

Tiger Balm. A lot of it. Ultra Strength tins and Muscle Rub tubes. Whenever I am sore or stiff, I like to apply some muscle rub to my muscles and/or ultra strength to my joints. I have a pocket that holds about two of each.

The other side pocket has a few locks. I usually keep a combination lock and a key lock, with the key in it. I workout at a few facilities and most of them provide lockers but no locks. I don’t typically bring a wallet to the gym and I keep my phone on me for music and recording my workouts but I would rather someone not steal my clothes while I am swimming so I have to drive home in my towel.

The front section, in my normal gym bag that I have been using lately (one of Alana’s old soccer bags), holds my staple swimming gear for my post-workout recovery swims. I have my towel from Korea, a size 30 Dolfin ugliezzzzz drag suit, Speedo contoured paddles, and prescription Speedo vanquishers with a bungee.

In the big section, I usually keep my Flexsports elastic wrist straps, an old leather belt, a heavy resistance band, two utility jump-ropes, a clean gym towel, my Big & Little’s snapback/trucker hat, some knee wraps, two Captains of Crush (right now a Trainer and Level 1), a Lacrosse ball, ProGryp circle grips, 3B Kinesio tape, an Aylio heavy hand extensor band, and a pair of Madgrip utility gloves.

Those are the staples. Clothes change, supplements change, footwear changes, and additional gear changes, again, depending on the workout. I might bring a weight vest, ankle weights, wrist weights, different grips, fins… who knows… we have a lot of stuff.

I didn’t include all the details such as color, brands, sizes, etc but there is a lot of information here. I usually try to workout with as little equipment as possible, but it is nice having it available if I decide to use it. So there you have it, that is my current staple gym bag.

If you are looking for something specific but you are unsure, feel free to ask and we can point you in the right direction! Remember any additional equipment should be used a tool but never a crutch! Use it to improve but use it in moderation and don’t let it use you! And as always…stay hungry and fit!

Question of the Day: What do you have in your gym bag?

BONUS KITTY PIC

Feb102014

Monday Meditation

I teach a Meditation every Monday and I believe it’s a good way to set up and shape the week ahead. I can’t think of a better thing to do on a Monday, before the madness and stress of the week totally grabs you. You can either let the week rule you, or you take control of the week. It’s the difference between stress and happiness. And it can only take 5 minutes. When I wake up to face the day, I either go for a morning walk or I do three sun salutations and meditate for a few minutes. It leaves me refreshed, calm, and ready to take on the week with a smile. Here’s the meditation I did today, very simple:

Beautiful nature always helps for meditation!

Start by sitting upright in a comfortable position
Then begin your active breathing…using the counting method, inhale for four counts, hold at the top for four counts, and exhale for four counts. Do this for a few minutes until your mind and body calms down
To move to the focus of this meditation, I want you to think of kindness and inhale the kindness, and exhale entitlement. Inhale kindness, exhale entitlement. Do this for a few minutes until you have a smile on your face.
Finish with three big stress relief breaths. Use your body and raise your shoulders as you inhale, and exhale with a loud breath (as if sighing), slumping forward. Do this three times.

And that’s it. Only takes a few minutes and really sets a beautiful tone for the day. I focused on breathing in kindness (because we all need more of that) and exhaling entitlement because I believe entitlement always leads to other problems like greed, anger, frustration, and so forth. I hope you do this meditation sometime this week! I promise it will be worth it. And as always…stay hungry and fit!

Feb052014

At-Home Abs!

Alright, folks, no excuses here! Let’s get a core workout out on the table so we can beast our way to the health we want! This workout is designed to be done at home, though you can obviously do it anywhere. The world is in need for more home workouts to prevent excuses of time, lack of gym, or lack of energy. Whenever I’m feeling meh, I know that I can motivate myself enough for a home workout whether it be arms, shoulders, core or so forth. So let’s get going! (My apologies for the absolutely terrible lighting!)

1. 3 sets of weighted crunches. Hold a weight, lift up your feet, and reach for the sky. Until failure (until you can’t complete another rep)

2. 3 sets of weighted russian twists. If these are too hard with a weight, drop it. Sit on your bum, lift your feet so you’re balancing, and twist from side to side, turning your shoulders completely. 12 reps on both sides.

3. 3 sets of jackknife. Use a stability ball for this one. Place your shins on the ball and get into a push-up position. Using your feet, bring the ball in towards your chest and then back out. This one is one of my favorites. Until failure.

4. 3 sets of stability ball crunches. Put the small of your back on the ball and simply do a small crunching motion up. Keep your abs activated. Until failure.

5. 3 sets of side touches. Stand up tall and reach side to side, creating resistance for your obliques (or love handles). 20 reps on each side.

6. 3 sets of Spider Man planks. Get into a typical plank position (forearms and toes on the floor). Now bring your knee up near your arm and then the other. It looks like Spider Man crawling up a wall. Until failure.

7. 3 sets of 6 inches. Lay on your back, put your hands under your bum and raise your legs six inches off the floor and hold for 30 seconds.

8. 1 set of plank. Forearms on the ground, core strong, back straight, and toes touching the ground. Go for 1 minute.

For me, I threw on some “timed abs” on at the end, but even without it, the above is an incredible workout for your core! If this seems too long for you, just reduce the number of sets. I usually like to do them in supersets, meaning pairing two exercises together and do them back to back. No excuses! Do this workout to stay hungry and fit!

*Question of the Day: What’s your favorite core workout?

BONUS KITTY PIC

Can’t get over the adorable-ness of this picture…and yes they did that by themselves

Feb042014

Healthy, Delicious Kale Dip Recipe

This past week, I bought way too much kale. Chris was so nice, he didn’t say anything, but seriously–there’s only two of us! The Super Bowl was nearing and you’ve got to have dips while watching football, can’t get much more American. I do love spinach artichoke dip, but neither were in my fridge and I believe in using what you’ve got! So I grab my enormous bag of kale and set to work on a dip! It was adapted from this recipe. This dip recipe is simple and, more importantly, delicious! It tastes like spinach and artichoke dip, but with more of a sharp flavor mixed in with that garlic creaminess. Oh, did I mention that it’s healthy too?! Read on.

Total Prep & Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients

3-4 big fistfuls of chopped kale
6 oz of nonfat greek yogurt
2 tsp lemon juice
small pinch of red pepper flakes
1 garlic clove
salt to taste

Directions

First, chop up your kale and garlic into very thin pieces. Try to get all the stems of your kale out.
Heat up a pan with some olive oil in it and then toss all your kale and garlic in. You can put the salt over it now. Cook until kale turns its dark color, about 4-5 minutes, stir now and then.

Pour the kale garlic mixture into a food processor if you have one, or if you don’t (or don’t know how to use yours yet–cough, not me at all) then just put it in a bowl and get ready to use a beater! Before you start beating, blending, or mixing, put in the greek yogurt, lemon juice, and pepper flakes! Stir up that mixture as much as you can until it’s relatively smooth!

Beat it! (Thanks, mum, for the hand mixer!)

And…serve. Yeah, it’s that simple. Once you get a hang of the chopping, then it’s a breeze.

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I would serve warm or luke warm, although you can refrigerate for a few days if you aren’t going to be using it right away. I liked this dish so much I made two batches! The garlic creaminess mixed with the sharp flavor of the kale is a winner in my book. And unlike with other dips, there’s no sense feeling guilty about it because it has all great ingredients! This one will come up again, I can assure you. Try this recipe out to stay hungry and fit!

*Question of the Day: What’s your favorite dip?

Feb032014

Workout Challenge and Weekly Round-Up

Happy Monday all! Well…not if you’re a Broncos fan. That game was painful to watch. Anyways, onto the good stuff. Another week has gone by (happy February!), and we are hungry for more workouts! First, let’s see how we did last week. You can see in this post, what our plan was for this past week. May not actually match up completely, but maybe we didn’t do so badly.

Hungry

Chris and Piper (a dog we babysit)

Monday: Rest day (stress and rescue scuba class)
Tuesday: Rest day (stress and rescue scuba class)
Wednesday: hour long lower body strength workout, hour long lower body circuits focusing on box jumps and jump rope
Thursday: filmed two hours of swimming instructional videos, arm strength workout using circle grips to increase forearm strength
Friday: 75-90 minute shoulder strength workout focusing on pre-exhaustion and the shoulder support system (hurt right shoulder, somehow, and couldn’t lift arm rest of day!)
Saturday: Was Hangry & Fat (lots of video games, pizza, soda, and cookies)
Sunday: 60 minute chest and triceps strength workout

Fit

Getting ready to chow down at our favorite gourmet pizza place

Monday: Legs and Elliptical
Tuesday: Arms/Shoulders (at home) and long walk
Wednesday: Core (at home) and elliptical
Thursday: 1 mile run
Friday: Chest/Back and 20 min elliptical
Saturday: Rest day (being Hangry and Fat, lots of pizza and video games)
Sunday: 2.75mi walk

So maybe we didn’t hit our mark exactly on the dot, but we didn’t fare too poorly either. I’ll let Chris write his workout plan for the week, but I’m going to be doing something a little different this week. This is the Workout Challenge. My friend, Jamie (you can see pics of her in this post), sent me this link of various workouts in “Superhero” formats. At my job, I’ve been creating a Superhero workout program, so it definitely interested me. Before I can critique or properly review it, I must try it. It’s 8 workouts so I’ll be doing it Monday to Monday. It slightly screws up my own workout split, but I’m okay with it because I’m still going to add separate cardio and do certain exercises (like squats, bench press, and pull-ups) when I would have anyways. I’m excited to tell you guys all about it at the end! Do it with me!

Hungry here…Last week didn’t work out so well because of a nagging cold, with lots of congestion, some shoulder issues, and being attacked by a dog, so I won’t set the bar so high this week. Maybe I’ll just try to get better, get rid of my cold, rest my shoulder and knee, etc.

Hungry

Monday – Back and biceps workout, using circle grips to activate forearms more in every exercise
Tuesday – Isolated core workout focusing on all the abdominals, lower back, and hips.
Wednesday – Recovery day, easy swim, hot tub, sauna, eat a lot
Thursday – Shoulders and arms, working on strengthening those shoulder as always
Friday – Lower body, lots of hamstring work and pickup basketball, if the knee is feeling better
Saturday – Chest and core, lots of planks and pushups
Sunday – Back attack!!!

Fit

During a morning at-home core workout!

Monday: the “Flash” workout, heavy squats, and elliptical
Tuesday: the “Jedi” workout and run
Wednesday: the “Batman” workout, pull-ups and swim
Thursday: the “Thor” workout, bench press, and run/elliptical
Friday: the “Spiderman” workout and swim
Saturday: the “Stormtrooper” workout
Sunday: the “Arrow” workout and elliptical

So that’s the plan for us, I’m betting we will stick to it pretty well. Mine is perfectly prescribed which makes it easy to stick to and Chris’ week isn’t as crazy as last week. Remember that making a workout schedule for the week really helps keep you on track. Is anyone with me to try the week of these “themed” workouts? It’ll be fun! Make a workout schedule to stay hungry and fit!

Question of the Week: Do you ever do themed workouts?

BONUS…SNAKE PIC!

Dovah wants to be brass knuckles

Feb022014

Seriously Guilt-Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Seriously. We all want to get our yummy cookie fix but without all the grams of fat and sugar that weigh us down, especially around the Super Bowl where we are already going to be stuffing our face! I felt super experiment-y in the kitchen today between playing bouts of video games. This recipe is based off one of my previous ones, but it’s more healthified (yes, that’s a word) and still tasty!

It’s as good as it looks

Prep Time: 5-7 minutes
Baking Time: 10-12 minutes
Makes: between 12-18 cookies, I didn’t count

Ingredients

one half of avocado
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup oats
1/2 cup raisins

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease up a baking sheet

2. Mix together the avocado, applesauce, sugar and egg

I know it doesn’t look appetizing… but it turns out great

3. Literally just mix the rest of the ingredients of the above list

Before I added the raisins…can’t say that I didn’t eat some of the dough

4. Scoop them out with a spoon and place them apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes

No sense feeling bad about eating these..

And that’s it. Yeah–four steps. Four steps of guilt-free cookie munching. Yes, please! Perfect for last minute party ideas, whip them up in under twenty minutes and wow your friends with how yummy they taste and how guilt-free they are! Try this recipe out to stay hungry and fit!

Question of the Day: What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

BONUS KITTY PIC

^.^

Jan302014

Weekly Challenge: Time Journal

Despite our busy schedules and lives, I feel like I definitely have some “time-suckers” in my life whether it be tv or pinterest (sigh) or cuddling with my cats. It’s not necessarily wasted time, but I wanted to just be able to see where my time when I wasn’t working, working out, blogging, etc. was going! I was reading this article and it inspired me to try a time journal. I love experiments, making schedules, so I was thrilled to take the challenge. It’s just a Monday through Sunday thing.

My intolerable written-out schedule for Wednesday as I was writing this

I convinced my friend from the joy scout to join me in this endeavor. Chris too but he hasn’t had time to do it yet…ironic. Basically you can format it however you want, I know my friend used her Notepad app and I preferred to type and print out a table chart that I could scribble in as my day goes on. I still may revert to the Notepad at the end to make it prettier to present. I’ll just show you one day so you can get the picture, and don’t worry I will type it out so you don’t have to endure too much of my chicken scratch.

Monday, January 27th

6:30am- woke up, but stayed in bed to cuddle
7am- showered and made oatmeal
7:30am- ate, posted blog, made lunch, and got ready
8am- wiped off car (got a bunch of snow the night before) and drove to work
8:30am-3pm- worked
3pm- drove home from work
3:30-5:30pm- gym
5:30pm- got dinner for Chris (he had scuba lessons and no time to get dinner)
6pm- made and ate dinner, fed cats
6:30pm- watched food network, showered
7pm- (and this is when my stomach started to hurt) watch food network, plan schedule, clean up
7:30pm- watched food network, cleaned litter, did dishes
8pm- watched food network (see, this is on in the background this whole time), went through emails, formatted post
8:30pm- slight story edits, YouTube, Twitter (ugh)
9pm- YouTube, Twitter, wrote
9:30pm- wrote, talked to Chris
10pm– talked to Chris
10:30-11:30pm– caught up with some Downton Abbey
11:30pm- got ready for bed and went to sleep

So you probably know more about me than you wanted, perhaps, but there it is! Each night is different depending on workouts, dinners, and how I’m feeling. Obviously for Monday, I could have avoided TV and YouTube/Twitter to save more time. And it’s just about being diligent and meticulous filling the time journal out. I love doing things like this. Join me! You could always do a Thursday to Thursday! I will be posting my entire week once I finish. Let me know if you want the time journal file, I can send it over! Fill out a time journal to stay hungry and fit!

Question of the Day: Have you ever tried a time journal?

BONUS KITTY PIC

Nymeria being cute, nothing new

Jan272014

Weekly Workout Round-Up and Plan

We’ve come to a beginning of another week now and let’s see where we are at! Here is the post with our workout plan from last week…let’s see how we match up. This is what actually happened:

Hungry

Chowing down on a Reuben from the Sink!

Monday: back workout at lunch
Tuesday: leg workout and short IM swim
Wednesday: arms workout focusing on isolation
Thursday: shoulder workout
Friday: chest workout and very easy pick-up basketball
Saturday: very slow back workout
Sunday: rest day?

Fit

My life living with Chris

Monday: slightly less than 2 mile run outside and a BEASTLY leg workout (found and modified from here, you will see this in a post form soon)
Tuesday: just about 2 mile run outside and a home arms and shoulders workout
Wednesday: morning 30 minute swim and afternoon core and back workout
Thursday: Ashley Conrad circuit training
Friday: long evening walk
Saturday: frisbee golf and then late chest and swim workout
Sunday: Rest dayyyy aka plate full of cookies!

So there’s our match-up…I think we did pretty well sticking with the plan. Much better than it could’ve been! It’s so easy to divert from the plan due to life and such. Here is our plan for this week:

Hungry:

Scared

Monday: 15 minute leg cardio, 45 minute leg workout
Tuesday: 10 minute arm cycle, 50 minute arm workout
Wednesday: 60 minute shoulder workout, 15 minute swim and sauna
Thursday: 60 minute chest workout, 15 minute swim and sauna
Friday: 60 minute back workout, 60 minute easy pickup basketball
Saturday: 40 minute core workout, 40 minute machine cardio
Sunday: 30 minute leg cardio, 60 minute leg workout

Fit

I swear I don’t know any gang signs, no clue why my hand did that

Monday: Legs and Elliptical
Tuesday: Arms/Shoulders and Swim
Wednesday: Core/Back and Run
Thursday: Chest and Swim
Friday: Ping Pong and Circuit training OR Run AND/OR Yoga
Saturday: Frisbee golf and Rest or Total body
Sunday: Legs and Elliptical

It’s extremely helpful to plan your workouts each week because it leaves much less room for excuses and gives you a schedule. We try to stick to ours as best we can. Plan your workouts to stay hungry and fit!

Question of the Day: What is your workout plan for the week? Post it here!

BONUS KITTY PIC

Someone was a bad boy…

Jan232014

And Don’t Forget Your Morning Walk!

From when I started college and probably before then, my mum has woken up bright and early (before the sun in the winter) and goes for between a 2-4 mile walk. She will put her “winter woolies” on (because it’s 50 degrees and that’s cold for Los Angeles folk!) and sneak out of the house just as dawn arrives. She will walk down to the beach and then along the path (an absolutely beautiful walk). She rarely misses her walk, even on the weekend. And boy is she a walker. Even for me, it’s hard to keep up! I don’t know how those legs move so fast. Must be her Kiwi blood. My dad will also go for his walks and bike rides in the morning, knowing that it’s an excellent start to the day.

My mum with my aunt’s new puppy!

My brother and dad

What I’m getting at is that they taught me a great lesson which I am just starting to follow. And I think New Zealand was also a positive influence on this as well because much of my family will do walking for their primary exercise. Since I’ve gotten back from New Zealand to good old Boulder, Colorado, I have tried to walk more. Now I usually did before, I would walk to the grocery and to the gym. However, now I am really trying to get at least 15 minutes logged in the morning. Sometimes I don’t make it out of bed in time (I blame cuddles with cats and Chris), but when I do, I’m thankful for that quiet time and brisk exercise to wake up my body. I enjoy it more than running (I am not a morning runner–I wish I was but let’s face it) and it really wakes me up more than a splash of cold water in my face. It makes you feel good and is an excellent form of exercise for all levels. I find a good tool is to lay out my shoes and warm clothes so I have no excuse.

Lurve my new shoes, which doesn’t hurt the process 😛

I challenge you just to try morning walks for at least 15 minutes. Wake up just 15 minutes earlier. I dare you! You feel so great, energized, and refreshed for the day! You also know that you started the day right with exercise. So if you don’t get to a workout for the rest of the day, at least you had your morning walk. I wouldn’t lie about this–I’m becoming a huge proponent. You also catch killer views and get to experience a more quiet city (or wherever you live)–it’s quite serene and peaceful. So some time this week, just try for that morning walk. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Take your morning walk to stay hungry and fit!