Tag: juicing

Working Out January 2016

January 26, 2016 kimberlee 10 Comments

The month of January is almost over – it seems like this month went by very fast to me. I have now completed three full weeks of the Hammer and Chisel workout program and started week 4 yesterday. So far I am really liking the program and seeing good results.

The workouts are classified as Hammer workouts or Chisel workouts. Basically you alternate one day of a Hammer workout with Sagi and the next day a Chisel workout with Autumn. I am not sure which workout I like the best so far. I do know that Total Body Hammer, Hammer Conditioning and Total Body Chisel are probably my top three picks as of now. Most of the workouts involve heavy weights at some point in the workout but there are a couple that do not require any weights. I also bought the Deluxe workout dvd’s and this week, week 4, some of those are being incorporated into the workout as an option if you have them. It is nice to change it up a bit.

The workouts are all pretty much an intermediate level form of exercise. They range in time from 26 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on the workout. Some days you add on one of the 10 minute ab workouts after completing the workout for that day – there is a 10 minute Ab Hammer and a 10 minute Ab Chisel workout on each dvd.

There are some great motivational quotes and sayings throughout all the workouts from Autumn and Sagi. One of them from Hammer Plyo workout from Sagi is “Pain is Temporary.” Hammer Plyo is a very intense workout and the quote fits the workout – it is tough but the pain is temporary and the results are worth the effort. Another one from Sagi and Total Body Hammer is “Never Ever Give Up.” A quote from Autumn that I really like is “No one ever got chiseled by sitting on their butt.” This is so true – if you want to get in shape and feel better about yourself you are going to have to put in the effort and time and workout – do something every day to become a healthier person. She also talks in one of the workouts how you have to choose your “hard.” Working out every day is hard but so is being overweight and unhappy about your health – you pick your “hard.”

Grapefruit Sharp Juice – juice 3 grapefruits, 2 lemons, 2 limes

I have also been trying to use my juicer at least once or twice a week to help me get more fruits and vegetables in my diet. With Hammer and Chisel there is an eating plan you follow and for my plan, plan B, I need to have 4 vegetables a day and 3 fruits. The program comes with the containers to measure your food – as seen in the photo above at the beginning of the post. You really begin to understand portion control and see how much you should be eating per serving whether it is protein, carbs, vegetables, fruits or condiments and dressings. I think that by using the containers and following the eating plan pretty closely the past month plus using the workouts six days a week I have been able to lose inches around my hips and thighs – so far I have lost one inch from each area (hips and thighs) in just one month.

One of the other benefits of the workouts is how much stronger I am getting and I notice I am starting to be able to go up in my weights for some of the exercises. I am looking forward to another month of Hammer and Chisel for February and to see my end results.

What workout are you currently doing? Let me know by leaving a reply.

-Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Health

Tags: fitness, hammer and chisel workout, juicing, working out, workouts

Fitness for October 2015

October 30, 2015 kimberlee

The month of October is almost over…tomorrow is Halloween and the time will fall back this weekend. This past month I followed a pretty intense workout schedule using my Cathe Friedrich programs – Xtrain and Ripped with Hiit and doing yoga. I am trying to ramp up my workouts some and get ready for her new series that I have already pre-ordered called ICE which stands for Intermediate Conditioning Extreme. The title itself makes it sound like the workouts will be a challenge. The workouts are coming out the end of fall 2015.

I alternated my weeks in October with one week Xtrain mixed with yoga a couple of days and then the next week Ripped with Hiit and yoga. I averaged a 5 to 6 day a week workout schedule with 2 of my days being yoga.

For my yoga routines I used this older Yoga Journal magazine I bought back in April 2013. I also used my new crocheted yoga props that I made myself on many of my yoga days. For more on the crochet pillow and strap see this post.

I love doing yoga on my non cardio days. I really enjoy yoga on Saturday mornings, too – it is a great start to my weekend to get up early Saturday, before 7 am, and do 20 to 30 minutes of yoga. Yoga also helps keep me flexible after the intense cardio and weight workouts I do.

I have also started juicing again this month. I kind of put my juicer away a few months ago and got out of the habit of using it. I decided it was time to start up again. I love buying the produce and looking through my juicing books for interesting juice combinations. I think the reason I don’t keep up with it on a daily basis is because of the clean up involved with the juicer parts – it doesn’t take that long but it is something else to have to do when you are done juicing. I find it works better if I make two or three juices up and store them in mason jars in the refrigerator so I don’t have to drag the juicer out every day.

A benefit I notice with juicing is how good I feel and how much more focused I am. I also think it helps influence better eating choices. My goal is to have a fresh juice at least 4 to 5 times each week.

The fresh kale, in the photo above, is from my garden. This was something else to motivate my juicing. I grew some last year and used it with my juicer and remembered how much better it tasted and juiced than the kind I buy. I grew some again this year, from seed, and it is doing really well lately. It tends to not grow so good in the hot Texas heat in the summer but does very well in the spring and fall weather.

So, what kind of workouts have you been doing lately? Let me know in the comments below.

Have a great day!

-Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Food Health

Tags: Cathe workouts, exercise, fitness, juicing, Kale, ripped with hiit workout, xtrain workout, yoga

Working Out Week 44 of 2014

November 1, 2014 kimberlee 1 Comment

The first day of November has arrived along with much cooler temperatures here in Texas. I am glad though – I am ready for a seasonal change. It seems like the weather was cooler for a few days here and there in October but for the most part it still seemed like summer.

Workouts this week were all from my Cathe Friedrich X-train dvd set. They were as follows:

Monday – Cathe – Hard Strikes – 46 min.
Tuesday – off
Wednesday – Cathe Supercuts premix 10 – 39 min.
Thursday – Cathe – Legs – Barre, Ball and Chair and Floorwork – 48 min.
Friday – Cathe – Tabatacise – premix 2 – 37 min.
Saturday – Cathe – Bi’s and Tri’s – premix 6 – 32 min.

I once again changed my pace of workouts from the past week. The X-train dvd’s are all great and provide a challenging workout for your body. I also like how these dvd’s have so many premixes on them so you can do a longer or a shorter workout.

Hard Strikes is a super fun kickboxing workout that uses weighted gloves or actual boxing gloves. I don’t have any boxing gloves so I just use the weighted gloves. As you can see the cat likes this workout and is making sure I get it done.

The Supercuts workout is a total body workout using weights and the slide and glide discs. Another cat approved workout.

The Cathe Legs workout was one I had not used in a while. I chose to do the Barre (uses a chair), Chair and Ball and Floor portions of this dvd. This was certainly an excellent workout for all parts of the legs and rear. I was feeling it well into the next day. The cat loves the chair and has to sit on it whenever I have it out.

I usually do yoga on Saturdays but decided to stick with the X-train workout dvd’s and chose a heavy weight workout called Bi’s and Tri’s. As the name implies it is a bicep and tricep workout. You alternate and do a bicep exercise and then a tricep. There were a couple that used the band with the handles and also a 5 pound weight with the band – those were pretty tough. Once again my faithful workout cat is there to cheer me on.

I am so glad fresh cranberries are in the stores again. I use the above combination of apples, cranberries and a lemon to create a really tasty juice in my juicer this past week. I juiced 2 apples, one granny and one gala, 1 lemon, and about a cup of cranberries. I also tried this recipe heated and it was really good for a warm and healthy drink on a chilly morning. To make it even more healthy I stirred in a teaspoon of manuka honey that I recently bought at Trader Joes. The manuka honey has lots of health benefits and is also suppose to strengthen your immune system.

Weekly Fitness Tip: Don’t Weigh Yourself So Frequently

– Quit obsessing over how much you weigh – everyone fluctuates a little for various reasons

– Consider getting rid of the scale -mine broke years ago in moving and I never replaced it, one less things to have in the bathroom

– Measure your progress in how you feel, how your clothes fit and in measuring inches lost not a number on a scale

I hope everyone had a great final week of October and you were able to find some time to workout and create some healthy meals. Remember it is important to plan meals and stay on track especially during the holiday season – which is now here since all the stores are stocked with Christmas decorations!

Take care,

– Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Food Health

Tags: exercise, fit tips, fitness, juice, juicing, working out, workouts

Working Out Week 42 of 2014

October 18, 2014 kimberlee 9 Comments

Well, another week has flown by. I can’t believe we are more than halfway through the month of October. This week my workouts were:

Monday – Cathe Friedrich – Rockout Knockout – 38 min.
Tuesday – off
Wednesday – Cathe – Greatest Hits Step bonus circuit workout – 45 min.
Thursday – Cathe – Lean Legs & Abs – 37 min.
Friday – Cathe – Great Glutes – premix 4 – 46 min.
Saturday – Shiva Rea Yoga – AM Energy Vira Flow + Shavasana – 26 min.

All of the workouts this past week were with my Cathe Friedrich dvd’s that were part of a series I bought last fall. The exception was my Saturday workout which was a yoga workout using one of my Shiva Rea dvd’s. I love doing yoga on Saturday mornings.

The Greatest Hits Step workout is a combination of several different Cathe step workouts and compiled together on the one dvd. The premix I did on Wednesday also used some weights mixed in with step cardio – the cat joined me for most of the workout. He was either on or next to the step.

Lean Legs and Abs dvd is one of my favorites. Even though most of the emphasis is working out the legs and core you still work the upper body a little with having to use the 8 pound dumbbells and doing a lot of compound moves.

The day after Lean Legs and Abs I did the Great Glutes workout. This really works your back side and the hamstrings. I was definitely feeling it by the end of Friday and into Saturday morning (and into the day Saturday). The workout uses minimal equipment and is a combination of light cardio and toning moves that use the 8 pound dumbbells. The cat of course was around to supervise my form. I think he is scared of the new rug I bought for the room though as he won’t walk on it.

I bought this new Juicing book a couple of weeks ago at Barnes and Noble in the sale section. I think it was $10.00. There are lots of great recipes in this book and I have made at least a dozen of them in the past week. I like how the book is set up – it is alphabetized by the name of the fruit or vegetable and gives at least two recipes per one fruit or vegetable. There are also color photos – not of every recipe but at least one or two per page. I have been trying to make up about three or four recipes every other day and store them in mason jars in the refrigerator so I only have to get the juicer out once a day or once every other day. This is a real time saver. It is also helpful to label the juices and put the name and page number of the recipe so you can remember what it was and note if you like it or not.

The above recipe was from the book and called Peach Spice Pie. It was just a peach and 3 carrots juiced and then you sprinkle a little cinnamon on the top. I LOVE this recipe. It is very good! I always feel so healthy and energized after drinking a juice each morning, too.

The other recipe I just made this morning from the Juicing book was called Orange Beet. It is made with the ingredients of the title – 2 oranges and 1 beet. In the one I made my beets were sort of small so I used 2 oranges, 2 small red beets and 1 small golden beet. I love how you can add or take away something from the recipes to create something a little different. This juice here had an earthy flavor to it because of the beets in it. I also felt so great after drinking this juice. Fresh juices are really the way to better health, I think.

I also finally tried a juice with some red cabbage in it. The verdict is still out on that one. It is okay but not one of my favorites. I think I will have to try it again in a different combination of ingredients to determine if I like the red cabbage. The juice was a really pretty color though.

I have fallen of the green smoothie challenge I was doing. I think I had a few at the beginning of the week but I am really into juicing lately and not so much the smoothies. I did try to drink at least one “green” juice a day for an afternoon snack to make up for not having the green smoothie – so I am thinking I didn’t completely drop out of the challenge. I am just having a green juice instead of a smoothie.

Fit Tip of the Week – Eat Well for Better Health

– try out some new healthy recipes

– go to the library for some healthy cookbooks or magazines – or look up some recipes on pinterest

– make it a goal to eat only whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean protein and limit sugar, caffeine and avoid alcohol for at least 5 days and notice how much better you feel

– try out juicing to see all the health benefits

– try out green smoothies to increase your daily intake of greens and fruits

I hope everyone is enjoying the nice fall weather in their area. It is finally cooling down here and the past few days have been beautiful.

Have a great weekend!

-Kimberlee

Categories: Books Exercise Health

Tags: exercise, exercising, fit tip, fitness, fitness tips, juice recipe, juicing, juicing book, step workout, weekly fitness tips, working out, workout with weights, workouts

Working Out Week 40 of 2014

October 4, 2014 kimberlee

This week was not exactly a working out week for me. I did manage to fit in a few workouts and a bike ride but we were in the process of redoing the floors in my dining room and living room so the whole week was spent living in a construction zone. The below photo shows what the room looked like when we ripped out the carpet last weekend.

You can see in the left in the background of the photo the boxes of wood floor that were waiting to be installed. Of course that didn’t go exactly as planned since our house is over 30 years old the floors were not completely level – they had to add some more concrete day 1 of install and then let it dry.

The above photo is day 2 of the install – things did not go well as the floor was not locking in place correctly – so we decide to get rid of the underlayment (that black and red stuff) and go with a glue down. Of course this requires more time, supplies and money so it will now be a couple of more days, they say, before they can finish.

cat ready to workout on new floor — Cat is ready to workout on the new floor

View of dining room into living room of new bamboo floor

The above photos show our new, almost, finished floor. They still need to come back tomorrow and nail in the trim – they didn’t have the right kind of nail gun with them today for that part. I am so glad it is finally finished and in a couple more hours I can get all of this extra furniture out of my sewing-computer room. It has been very crowded in here for most of the week!

So, in dealing with all of this the past week I was able to get in a few workouts but not the normal amount.

Monday – workout with exercise bands with door attachment – 25 min.
Tuesday – ride bike to store for groceries
Wednesday – off
Thursday – yoga in evening before bed – 15 min.
Friday – yoga in morning – 20 min.
Saturday – off

I was very stressed out this week on Thursday when things were really falling apart with the floor installation. The yoga really helped calm me down that evening – so glad I decided to do a short routine before bed. I think it also helped me to sleep better.

I did keep up with my juicing this past week. I tried several new juicing recipes. There are a couple of them below but I made so many different ones this week I can’t remember what these were called. I know the orange one had carrots in it. My kids are even starting to like the ones with carrots in it – especially if there is pineapple in the juice. The pineapple makes the juices really sweet.

One of the other juices I made was this green one above. I have found that if you get out the juicer and make a few of the juices ahead of time and store them in 12 oz. mason jars they keep well for at least a couple of days. I like the juice cold better, anyhow. You just need to shake it up good in the jar before you go to drink it. Also, it saves me from having to haul the machine out more than once a day.

I also started the 30 day green smoothie challenge this past week on Wednesday. The challenge is through a website (click on the highlighted green text to go to site) and if you sign up they give you free recipes to try. So far they are just okay with me. I think I have gotten used to juicing and prefer the juice over the smoothie but I am trying to do this to increase my fruit and greens intake. So, I am having a green smoothie a day and at least one juice, usually with breakfast or as a snack. The one I made yesterday, on the right in the photo below – was strawberry lime and it was pretty good and refreshing – a great afternoon snack. I am not sure if it is the type of spinach or kale I have or the fact that I am using some frozen fruits in the smoothies but mine are not turning out very “green” – more of a brown to me.

Fitness Tip for the week: Fit exercise in where you can

We all have days or weeks when regular scheduled workouts are not possible. On those days or weeks try and get workouts in during your day. Here are some ideas:

– Go for 20 or 30 minute walk after lunch or dinner

– Ride your bike to the store for a few groceries

– Walk your kids to and from school if possible – this is also a great time to talk to your kids about their day

– Do a short yoga routine or stretching before bed – you will also sleep better

– Do some ab exercises while watching TV

– Do some stretches while waiting for your morning coffee to brew

Also, if it isn’t possible to squeeze in any type of physical activity don’t stress about it – just start up again the next day or week to get back on track.

I hope everyone is having a great week! I am so glad my floor is mostly complete. I am also looking forward to working out in there on Monday!

– Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Health

Tags: exercise, fit tips, fitness, fitness tips, green smoothie challenge, juicing, new wood floor, smoothies, wood floor installed, workouts