Tag: baking bread

Fitness for August 2015

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This month I have been working out using my P90X3 workout again.  I think this is my third time doing the program.  I am not actually doing the whole entire 13 week schedule like I did back in Jan to April 2014 but I am using P90X3 about four times a week and doing my own yoga routines a couple other days of the week.  I have found it to be a great schedule for August.

cat workout buddy using the bands

 

As you can see from the above photo my faithful workout buddy – my cat – is really into P90X3 and using the bands.

workout cat - loves weights

On another workout day he was into snuggling with my weights.  At one point he was actually laying over the top of them stretched out but he moved before I could get his picture.  He never misses a morning workout with me.

One of the things I love about P90X3 is that all the workouts are 30 minutes long and there is a lot of variety.  There is cardio, cardio with weights, weight training, isometric exercises, kickboxing, yoga and even pilates.  You do not get bored with these dvd’s.

The reason I chose to only do them four days a week instead of six like on the program is because I wanted to either ride my bike or do yoga on off days which is what i did.

I have also been making my own bread a lot lately.  One of my sons wanted me to make cinnamon rolls so I found a cinnamon bread recipe instead from my Make Ahead Bread book and it turned out really well.  My son really likes it too and I have made it two or three times now – it makes a large loaf.  cinnamon bread from make ahead bread book

As I mentioned in a previous post on baking homemade bread  this book has a neat concept that makes baking homemade bread very simple.  You make your dough ahead of time, like the night before, and refrigerate the loaf, get it out in the morning and bake it for like an hour and you have the best loaf of bread ever.  I have used many recipes from the book, a lot of them are whole grain types of recipes, and they have turned out well.  This cinnamon roll bread was another success.

water line redone, photos of trench

We had some homeowner issues this past month.  We discovered back at the end of July that we had a water line leak since we had a terribly high water bill.  We had to do a lot of investigating and my husband had to do a lot of digging around but we discovered two leaks in our front yard – one up by the house, the shut off box and one by the water main by the street.

Well, lots of money later we now have a whole new water line installed thanks to Legacy Plumbing.  It was about a four day process though to get the leak accessed and a temporary fix, get the permit, have a professional digging company come and hand dig the trench you see in the above photo and then another day for the plumber to come and do the whole line.

There was one day when this first happened that we did not have water for about 24 hours.  You don’t realize how much you need and use water.  I went to the store and bought gallon jugs for us to use to brush teeth, wash hands and dishes and we bought bottled drinking water.  It makes you really appreciate having running water in the house.

I will say that Legacy Plumbing was a great company to use and if you live in my area of Plano, Texas and need a plumber call them.  They are very fast to respond and do a very professional job and their plumbers are friendly and knowledgeable.  We also used them back in May to get a new hot water heater – lots of plumbing issues for us this year.

Well, my boys are back in school now -this was their first week so things are busy around here again – actually they are always busy but now there is more of a routine to things.  I was kind of sad to see their summer break end but it is nice to have the house be a little quieter during the day again.

I hope you are able to get some workouts in for the fall.  I am planning to use some of my workout books for the month of September.

Have a great weekend!

– Kimberlee

 

 

Working Out Week 36 of 2014

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This week was kind of short since there was the Labor Day holiday.  I kept thinking Tuesday was Monday and Wednesday was Tuesday.  Therefore when Friday got here I was wondering how the week went by so fast.

For week 36 I decided to pull out my T-25 workouts and alternate those with yoga.  So my schedule was one day cardio and the next day yoga.  This was similar to last weeks schedule but I used different workouts.  I really liked my schedule this week and the workouts I chose.

  • Monday – T-25 Alpha Cardio + 2 Ab Moves – 28 min.
  • Tuesday – Shiva Rea Yoga – AM Energy dvd – bonus segment Heart Salutation from Radiant Heart + 2 Ab Moves – 22 min.
  • Wednesday – T-25 Ab Intervals + 2 Ab Moves – 28 min.
  • Thursday – Shiva Rea Yoga – AM Energy dvd Shakti Flow + 2 Ab Moves – 22 min.
  • Friday – T-25 Lower Focus + Find Instant Calm Yoga workout + 2 Ab Moves – 50 min.
  • Saturday – Ride Bike + yoga + 2 Ab Moves – 35 min.

T 25 Alpha Cardio workout

The cat and I have missed Shaun T and his T-25 workout.  I forgot how much you can sweat in just 25 minutes!  I did the entire workout last year from August to October – the whole 10 week schedule with my facebook fitness group.  Most of it is written about in my past blog posts.  I also attended Shauntervention here in Dallas last year around this time.  It was an awesome all day event where I got to meet Shaun T and learn more about him and his positive motivation.

Shiva Rea AM Energy Yoga

Tuesday we (the cat and I) did the Shiva Rea AM Energy dvd that I own.  This one contains three different 20 minute segments plus one bonus 20 minute segment from the Radiant Heart dvd.  We did the bonus Heart Salutation and it felt awesome after the fast paced cardio the day before.  I love the Shiva Rea style yoga and have many of her dvd’s.  I guess the cat missed doing her yoga too as he was around on and off my mat for most of the workout.

T 25 Ab Intervals workout

Ab Intervals was the second T 25 workout of the week.  This one is a combination of floor abdominal work and then some cardio in between.  A great session for the abs and the back to strengthen the whole core.

Shiva Rea yoga AM Energy dvd

The photos above are from my second session of Shiva Rea’s AM Energy dvd.  This time I did the Shakti Flow session.  This one has a free flow yoga dance at the beginning and then goes into the yoga poses.  Another great workout the day after T 25 and my lower abs were really feeling it after Ab Intervals the day before and the core work in this yoga workout.

T 25 Lower Focus

Friday I did T 25 Lower Focus, a combination of leg cardio and toning moves.  Another sweaty workout session.  After this I did a 20 minute yoga workout from a Yoga Journal magazine called Find Instant Calm.  This was a good way to stretch out and “calm” down after the cardio.

Abdominal MovesThe entire week I also included these two abdominal moves at the end of my workouts.  You can see the cat liked those as well.  I found these two moves from a popsugar video last week and decided to make it a goal to do 20 reps of each every day this past week.  I almost forgot to do them yesterday but got them in – even though it was a couple hours after my finished workout.Baking Sourdough Bread

Last Saturday I made some really good sourdough bread using some starter I made earlier in the week.  My oldest son has discovered he likes sourdough bread for sandwiches so I decided to make the dough in my bread machine and then bake the oval shaped loaves in the oven.  It made two loaves so I was able to freeze one.  Everyone has decided (all 5 of us) that the bread is really good.  I will be making it again in the near future.

Baking Sourdough Bread

 

Endurance Discipline Determination

Weekly Fitness Tip:  Endurance, Discipline, Determination – Keys to Daily Success

  • Starting an exercise program and then sticking with it are one of the keys to becoming more fit and healthy – Endurance
  • Getting your workout in regularly is not always easy or enjoyable but the end results are worth it – Discipline yourself to Just Do It and you will be glad you did
  • Remember that exercise daily repeated over time will get you results – Determination

-I think that once you begin a regular exercise regime and stick with it that it becomes part of who you are and what you do.  There are days I wake up and feel tired (didn’t sleep well) or just not very motivated to do my scheduled workout – but I choose to get up, get going, and get it done – which makes me feel so much better afterwards.

I hope everyone had a great week.  The weather here is still hot so I am not sure about getting ready for fall yet but it looks like I need to start thinking about it.  I have started stocking up on cans of pumpkin to try some of the new recipes I recently found on pinterest.  I also need to make a new fall wreath so I will probably work on that later this coming week.

Take care,

Kimberlee