The new workout The Hammer and Chisel came out this past month. I decided on an impulse to order it as some of the people in my facebook fitness group had started it and it sounded like something I would be interested in. Also, I had been waiting on my new Cathe Friedrich workouts to arrive that I pre-ordered back in the summer and I didn’t have them yet – I guess you could say I was getting impatient to start up some type of new workout.
So, I received Hammer and Chisel about 12 days ago and started doing some of the workouts last Monday, the 14th of December. Right now I am just going on my own schedule and not following the complete 60 days listed in the workout – I plan to start that up in January, after the holidays, with my friend Kathleen’s fitness group on facebook.
The above photo shows what came in my order. The dvd workouts plus the containers that are for your food so you are eating in the right proportions. So far I have done almost 2 weeks of the workouts and I am using the containers and the Plan B, according to the booklet, for eating. I really like the containers and how they teach you how to have portion control with your food. I always thought I had a good idea of this but the containers keep you really accountable. I also made up my own worksheet for the eating plan I am on which is another thing that is really keeping me on track – especially this time of year. I will say that I have fallen off the plan and enjoyed a couple of treats or Christmas cookies here and there, but I write it down so I can see what I am eating and try to do better the next day. Of course it is harder this time of year when there are a lot of temptations. In January I plan to stick to the schedule a whole lot better – when holiday treats are gone.
Iso Speed Hammer was the first workout I tried the day after I received them. This is one of the shorter workouts in the program. Just because it is short does not mean it is easy. You do 10 reps at a slow count of one exercise then 10 reps as fast as you can of the same move – this is a great workout. Afterwards I did the Hammer Abs – which is also a great 10 min. ab workout – I was sweating a lot after both of them.
Chisel Cardio is another great and challenging workout that I did a few days ago. This one worked my whole body – I felt it everywhere afterwards and especially later that night – I knew it was working on getting me into shape in areas I never felt before. As you can see the cat liked it, too – he is sitting on the arm of the chair watching the TV. Also, not workout related but I cut my hair as you can see in these photos as compared to the other ones – it was time for a change – just like my workouts needed a change, so did my hair.
I would classify the Hammer and Chisel workout as an intermediate to advanced workout series. There is a modifier for many of the exercises but you still do the same amount of reps. The whole series focuses on the use of weights with most of the exercises – some of the weights are heavy. I am using 15 and 20 pound dumbbells for many of the exercises.
My Cathe workouts also came in the mail about five days ago. I knew that if I ordered another workout series that one would get released. I am so excited about her new ICE series, which stands for Intermediate Conditioning Extreme. So, this week I am using Hammer and Chisel and the ICE series dvd’s. I am doing Chisel, Hammer then an ICE dvd – on a 6 day a week workout schedule.
What workouts are you currently doing or planning to start for the new year? I know January is a big month for people to start getting back into shape. Let me know by leaving a reply.
It is September 20th already. I don’t know where the time goes but it seems to be flying by this month. My workouts this past week were:
Monday – T-25 Total Body Circuit + 2 Ab Moves on Ball – 28 min.
Tuesday – off/ Rode bike to store for groceries
Wednesday – Cathe CrossFire dvd – fitness blast & firewalker premix + 2 Ab Moves – 29 min.
Thursday – Shiva Rea Daily Energy – Solar Meditation & Chakra Namaskar sequence + 2 Ab Moves – 27 min.
Friday – T-25 Ab Intervals + Yoga Breathe For Joy Sequence from Yoga Journal magazine + 2 Ab Moves – 45 min.
Saturday – Shiva Rea Daily Energy – Heart-Air sequence + Core + 2 Ab Moves – 28 min.
For the next twelve weeks I will be taking Tuesday’s off or just doing a bike ride or light yoga in the evening that day. The reason being is that I am doing a group Bible Study at our church and it meets on Tuesday mornings – I don’t think I want to show up at that all sweaty and in workout clothes. I also don’t want to get up any earlier than I already do, 6:00 am, so I have decided that I am okay with taking that day off and just working out 5 days a week for the next few months.
Monday I did T-25 Total Body Circuit. I remember this one as being a tough workout and it still is for me. Lots of cardio and lots of planks and push ups in this workout. Tons of sweat at the end.
Look who was waiting to workout among the workout bands on Wednesday – my faithful workout friend. He sat there on and off during the workout.
The above photos are part of the Cathe CrossFire workout. I was able to catch some of the jump turn squat sequence in my photos. This is where you start out facing forward and then have to jump and turn 180 degrees to face the back into a squat and then repeat – many times. I really like the CrossFire workout. It is a total body workout. On this particular day I got up about 10 minutes later than normal so I only did one of the premixes that is about 27 minutes long instead of the whole entire workout that I think is over 50 minutes long. That is one thing I love about her dvd’s – lots of premixes so you don’t feel like you have to do a whole hour long if you don’t have the time.
The yoga dvd I used this week on Thursday and Saturday was the same one – Daily Energy from Shiva Rea. This dvd is set up with many different 20 minute yoga sequences that you can pick to do and also some core work, forward bend and some meditation segments to add on to one of the 20 minute ones. I really like this dvd and I love yoga days!
I am trying to continue with my weekly two ab moves after each of my daily workouts. This week I decided to use my exercise ball and do the two exercises with that – the cat approved.
I also watched this documentary dvd that I checked out from the library. I had seen the guy, Joe Cross, who made the movie on Dr. Oz a while back and I also had heard of the dvd. It was a really good and interesting documentary on his journey with following a strict juice cleanse to help himself lose weight and to get his health back as he had a debilitating condition that was causing him to have to be on quite a few medications. After watching this dvd I learned the following day that a sequel to this one was just released this week so there is now a Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead part 2.
The documentary really impressed me as to how juicing can really help you become and be a lot healthier. I had been thinking of getting a juicer a while back but decided not to since I had my Ninja blender. Well, after learning more about the benefits of juicing I decided to buy a juicer. I got a Breville one like the one in the dvd, I think. I had a 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond so I used it to buy one. I am impressed with how well it juices fruits and vegetables and how easy it is to clean. There are kind of a lot of pieces but they clean up pretty fast.
So far I have made three different kinds of juices since Friday evening. I am amazed already at how I am feeling and how the juices seem to really fill you up, give you energy and make you less hungry. I was not having any hunger or snack attacks at the normal times I usually do – like around 4 pm. I am not sure I will do a full Juice only cleanse like many people do for a certain amount of time but I am considering doing a partial diet of juices for a few days – like for breakfast, snacks and lunch and then eat a sensible dinner with my family.
Weekly Fitness Tip: Don’t compare yourself to others
– Focus on your goals and realistic exercise programs and time frames not on what others are doing
– Fitness is a journey, not a race. It is okay to start out or go slowly, just do something and don’t give up
I hope everyone had a great week and you are getting a chance to workout and cook some healthy meals.
The 37th week of 2014 is just about over and we are about halfway through the month of September already! One year ago today I was attending the all day ShaunTervention conference here in Dallas, TX. What a great event that was and I am so glad I made the decision to go – even though it was kind of outside my comfort zone. I typically do not do workouts in public or in any type of group settings – I have always been a workout at home person. I also met some really nice people at that event along with Shaun T and the people in his vidoes, like T-25.
Tuesday – Shiva Rea Creative Core Abs + 2 Ab Moves – 37 min
Wednesday – T-25 Core Speed + 2 Ab Moves – 28 min
Thursday – Shiva Rea Creative Core Lower Body + 2 Ab Moves – 25 min
Friday – T-25 Speed 1.0 + Yoga practice from Yoga Journal Magazine – 48 min
Saturday – Yoga – Shine On practice from Yoga Journal Magazine – 20 min
The above two photos are of the two abdominal moves I chose to do this week. They are yoga based moves that you hold for a count of 5 to 8 breaths versus doing lots of reps. I did pretty well getting them done every day except for Friday and Saturday, I forgot to add them in those two days. As you can see my friendly workout partner, the cat, approves of the moves.
I continued to do my T 25 workout dvd’s this week but varied the workouts I used. This week on Monday I did Alpha Cardio, again, then on Wednesday I did Core Speed. This is one of my favorites. It is really fast paced and there are some tough moves but I love it. You sweat a ton and feel like you have gotten an awesome workout when the 25 minutes are over. Photo above is of the one handed burpees that you do multiple times.
Speed 1.0 was another T 25 workout that I did on Friday. This one is cardio with each cardio move followed by a welcomed stretch. I had forgotten how I like this workout. It is another great sweat session with lots of stretching in between.
I also stayed with the schedule of doing my Shiva Rea yoga dvd’s on the non cardio days. The Creative Core Abs is great for your whole core.
The other Shiva workout I did was the Creative Core for the Lower Body. The cat of course joined me for part of this workout.
I made some homemade cashew butter this past week. After seeing how simple it is to make almond butter I decided that cashew couldn’t be that different or hard to make. For this I just heated about 1 1/2 cups of cashews in the microwave for 2 minutes. I then put them in the food processor and processed them for about 2 minutes – stopped the processing and then added 2 Tbls coconut oil and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and processed for about 2 or 3 more minutes. This stuff is really good – not quite as creamy as the Jif kind I have bought in the past but I really like it and the flavor it has.
Fit Tip of the Week: Simple daily exercise results in overall better health.
-Discipline yourself to get at least 20 minutes or more of some type of physical exercise every day
-People who stick with a daily exercise regime are more healthy and positive
-Daily exercise may not always be exciting or fun but the simple task of sticking with a routine is worth the positive results
Next week I will be continuing to do some T 25 and yoga- I may also throw in a Cathe video in the middle of the week. I hope everyone is planning to do some type of physical exercise in the week ahead.
This week I had a really great workout schedule with doing weights again and riding my bike and jumping rope on the non weight days. I also tried out some new recipes for dinner that were good and made my own almond butter. It was a very busy week with fitness, cooking, errands, knitting, sewing, daily house upkeep and laundry, and getting my kids things together for back to school this coming Monday.
My workouts this week were:
Monday – Jari Love Extremely Ripped Body Rock, Weights & Abs – 35 min.
Tuesday – Ride Bike + Jump Rope + Yoga – 35 min.
Wednesday – Body Bar + Exercise Ball books + ride my bike to the dentist – 38 min.
Thursday – Ride Bike + Jump Rope + Yoga – 33 min.
Friday – Jari Love Extremely Ripped 1000 Weights only – 40 min.
Saturday – Ride Bike + Jump Rope + Stretch – 30 min
My Monday workout was a good mix of heavy, high rep weights and some ab work. This particular dvd is not one of my favorite ones from Jari Love but I decided to use it as I hadn’t done it in quite a while. Overall it is a good weight workout.
The middle of the week I did my own mix of the Body Bar and Exercise Ball book workouts and also used my slide discs with some of the bar moves – creating my own exercises with the two together. I also had a dental appointment that morning and rode my bike the 1 mile my dental office.
The Friday workout was back to weights with Jari Love Extremely Ripped 1000. I really like this workout and how all of the moves are compound moves meaning you work your arms as well as your legs at the same time. This is a very effective workout. She also reminds you during the workout how doing compound moves really increases your metabolism and makes your body burn fat even while at rest.
I have continued to ride my bike every other day and do my jumping rope after the bike ride. I do notice I am able to jump rope a little longer this week than last week – building up my stamina, I guess. Except for on Thursday – I could only do a couple of minutes of jumping rope as I woke up with a mild sinus headache and let me tell you that you do not want to be jumping rope with a sinus, or any kind, of headache. It seemed to make it worse!
As I rode my bike this morning I realized that Monday the kids start school. I knew this of course but it was hitting me at that moment as I rode that I may not be able to keep up with as many bike rides when school starts. The main factor being that I need to be at home to make sure everyone has gotten up and gets some breakfast, as well as making lunches for the 3 boys. Also, the biking route I like to take is right near the elementary school in our neighborhood and traffic will be heavy there with carpool drop off. I might try and ride one day during the week and then just on Saturday’s and see how it goes.
A week or two ago I checked out a couple of good cookbooks from the library. I used them in the past week to try out some new recipes and was pleased with the results. The one above on the left is various different baking mixes, sauce mixes, rice and pasta mixes and other things as well. The other book on the right is a really nice cookbook with lots of recipes for using fresh ingredients and cooking in minimal time – good for those who are busy or work a long day or just when it is hot out and you don’t want to slave in the kitchen for an hour or two.
I made up several mixes from the baking mix section of the Healthy Mix book. I had good results with some and just okay with others. The ones that were okay I had to tweak some to make them better. Like the brownie mix said to make them with milk – well I have never heard of doing this but tried it anyhow and they were kind of different. Not terrible but just not like real brownies, either. I tried it again with oil and a little water like you would normally do and they were much better – the kids loved them and ate them up very fast – I did get to enjoy one which is all I needed anyhow. Also, the quick bread mix in this book was a little odd as the mix seemed very dry when I blended it. It only called for an egg or two and no milk or anything to moisten the ingredients. I took it upon myself to add some milk and it turned out much better and looked like a quick bread mix should look. My oldest son said maybe the book just assumed you knew to add the milk – I don’t know about that but in my opinion it is missing something. I tried another mix in there though and that one is fine. It is hit or miss with this one. I guess you need to have some cooking experience to figure it out.
The Cooking Light Fresh Food Superfast is a great book. The book has lots of color photos of many of the recipes and everything is pretty quick and easy to make, too. Just as it implies. I like the fact that it uses fresh ingredients too and not anything canned or boxed in the recipes, for the most part. I tried this salmon one night – photo above – it was pan seared with a small amount of olive oil with fresh sliced garlic and fresh rosemary from my garden. My kids really like this recipe – that is always a plus. Another one I tried from the book was the italian sausage calzones. Those were a hit with the family, too. I was even able to make my own crust for the calzones using the Healthy Mix book and the healthy baking mix in there. That made it take a little extra time instead of using a premade pizza dough but it was worth it.
Making Homemade Almond Butter
Another thing I made this week was something I have wanted to try for a while – my own almond butter. I saw a recipe last week on pinterest and decided to try it out. I followed some of it but had to tweak this one as well to get it how I liked it, or thought it should be. Of course I did this on a whim with not a ton of time so I improvised and heated the almonds in the microwave for about 2 minutes instead of 15 minutes in the oven and then I processed them for about 2 minutes, scraped the sides down, processed them for about 2 more minutes, decided it looked like almond meal so I added about 1 tsp. of coconut oil and processed again for 1 to 2 minutes. This was the best almond butter I ever had – really. I will never be buying it again. I made this in about 10 minutes or less. It stores nicely in the refrigerator, too. If you want the original recipe click on the highlighted link to take you to the blog with the recipe – Flour On My Face.
Weekly Fitness Tip – Variety
– Try different workouts to avoid boredom. Doing the same activity (like walking or running) can get boring and stale. Alternate your activity with some other types of workouts like weights or yoga – this also keeps you interested in continuing to workout, in my opinion, and the change does your body good.
– Give new exercises or workouts a chance, don’t try something once and decide it is too hard and you just can’t do it. Sometimes you have to do things a few times to get a feel for them. Example:Five or six years ago I started doing some step aerobic workout dvd’s. I was terrible with them at first and thought I would never be able to keep up with the people on the dvd. After watching it a time or two and then trying it slowly I got the hang of it – I also tripped or fell off the step a few times but I was determined to keep on – it got easier each time. I still occasionally step wrong and stumble but not like the early days. This makes you feel a sense of accomplishment.
I hope everyone had a great week and you are getting in some exercise.
This past week just flew by. I am a day late in getting this post in because of my dining room painting project that I worked on yesterday for about 7 hours. I painted the lower half of the room, from chair rail down to the floor, with two coats of paint. It took a while and I did have to do some laundry and eat lunch in between the two coats I applied. I had intended to do my workout post last night but I was too tired. After cleaning up I did some knitting while watching an hour or two of television with my husband. I just needed to relax and not worry about anything else the rest of the evening.
The past week I decided to concentrate on using weights and doing high reps and then alternating with my bike riding and yoga workouts. What a noticeable difference -doing three days of weight training- in muscle definition! My workouts this week were:
Monday – Jari Love Ripped 1000 Weights only workout – 40 min
Tuesday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 33 min
Wednesday – Amy Bento Slo Mo Strength NRG mix 1 Total Body Challenge – 47 min
Thursday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 40 min
Friday – Jari Love Ripped to the Core – 40 min
Saturday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 30 min
The Jari Love workouts I have had for many years. I like the results I see from using them. They are very high reps but she does vary the counts and some of the moves so you don’t get too bored. These workouts will definitely define your muscles in a short amount of time. Also, muscle burns fat and increases your metabolism while at rest. Another good reason to do some weight training.
The Jari Love Ripped to the Core workout is a lot of compound exercises – meaning you work the legs and the upper body at the same time. The cat seems to like to be around for most of this workout. I have certain equipment he loves like the long step and he will sit by my dumbbells that are not being used.
The weight workout I did in the middle of the week was Amy Bento Slo Mo Strength dvd. This is also an older dvd that I have had for quite a few years. This workout is pretty long and I chose to do one of the premixes that are a little shorter. The moves are all done with a pretty slow count and with heavier weights. The hammy rocker move in the photo above is a real leg burner. It is sort of a three part move and two of the three parts are shown in my photos.
Another move in the Slo Mo Strength dvd was for the arms called Bicep Bonfire. Your biceps are literally hot to the touch when you get done with 3 rounds of this move. It is also a kind of three part move – it is done with 8 pound dumbbells on the video but I had to go down to 5. It is really an arm burner.
Biking in the early mornings is still on my weekly rotation every other day. It is getting hotter each week though in the mornings. I like to come home and do my yoga outside but it is too hot to do that lately – especially on some of these humid days. I have had to start doing my yoga inside lately. I did manage a few minutes outside yesterday morning, though.
Last Sunday after church I went to Barnes and Noble because I had a coupon to use. I found this book on the clearance section about smoothies to boost your immune system and it looked interesting so I bought it. I have tried a couple of the recipes (with some little adjustments of my own) in the book and they are good. The one I tried is made with blueberries and grapefruit and the other was with blueberries and mango. A lot of the recipes use bee pollen in the smoothies but I didn’t have any so I left that out. I was going to get some but forgot when I went to my local health food and vitamin store the other day. I will have to add that to my list for the next time I go there.
Below is my weekly fitness tip. These tips are just some things I feel are helpful to ensure your success with working out and becoming a more healthy person.
Weekly Fitness Tip: Find a family member or friend to workout with you
-Having someone to workout with keeps you accountable and motivates you to stick with a schedule
-If you don’t have a family member or friend then find an online fitness group on facebook or even a motivating blog or fitness website with helpful advice to keep you focused. I have belonged to a small fitness group on facebook that is a “closed” group, (meaning anything you post is just in that group and not all over facebook for all your friends to see) for a little over a year and I love that group. It is only about 150 people and I think only about 25 of us are regularly on there and posting but I feel I have a lot in common with the others on there and we are all positive and motivating for each other even when one of us falls off the workout wagon or off their clean eating. I also found out that one of the members lives in a city right next to me – others are from all over the US and even Canada.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend – what is left of it. School starts here in a couple of weeks but I feel like we have already started since my oldest son is in the marching band and they have already been back at it for a week – all day long – and I have been to a band meeting one night and volunteered for the uniform fittings one day last week.
The last full week of July has past – week 30 of the year. It has gotten really hot here in Texas in the past week or two. My workouts this week are below:
Monday – Cathe LIS – Total Body Trisets – Chest, Shoulders and Tri’s – 31 min.
Tuesday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 40 min.
Wednesday – Cathe LIS – Turbo Barre – 40 min.
Thursday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 35 min.
Friday – Cathe LIS – Total Body Trisets – Back, Bi’s and Core – 34 min.
Saturday – Ride Bike + Yoga – 33 min.
This past week instead of doing cardio dvd’s I decided to do some weights for the upper body and also my Turbo Barre workout on Wednesday.
The weight training workout I used this week was the same one, from the Cathe Low Impact Series called Total Body Trisets. The workout is actually a total body workout but I chose to just do the upper body portion of this workout on Monday and again on Friday. This workout uses some heavier weights like 10 and 15 pound dumbbells and the exercise ball with some of the sets. The workout consists of 3 exercises per grouping that you repeat two times before moving on to the next set. It felt good to do some heavier weights this past week.
The cat joined me again on Wednesday for the Turbo Barre workout. (see him on the chair) This is our third Wednesday in a row of doing this workout. I did the muscle conditioning portion with the lighter 5 pound dumbbells and then on to the floorwork and then the ab work. I love the fun and challenging ab moves in this workout. You can see some of them in the photos above.
On the days I was not using my dvd’s I rode my bike through the neighborhood. I got bored with my old route so I changed it up a bit this week. I would then come back home and do my yoga outside on the patio – it feels good to do the yoga after a bike ride.
The ball exchange move is one of my favorite ab-core exercises and I did plenty of them on Friday with the Total Body Trisets dvd. This move is where you place the ball between your lower legs, lower them down while lowering your upper body with the arms stretched overhead, then raise both your legs (while holding the ball) and your arms back up and grab the ball with your hands and lower your legs and your hands (now holding the ball) back toward the floor – you don’t actually touch the floor with your legs and arms though. When you do about 25 or 30 of these for two rounds you really feel it.
What is one of your favorite exercise moves that you did this past week or recently – or maybe a favorite new workout? Click on Leave a Reply to tell me about it.
This past week seemed to go by so fast! I can not believe we are more than halfway through the month of July! It has also cooled down here in Texas quite a bit the last couple of days and we got some much needed rain all day on Thursday. July is normally really hot so it is strange to be in the low 80’s for the high temperature of the day.
This week my workouts were as follows:
Sunday – Walk + Swimming – 45 minutes
Monday – Cathe Xtrain; All Out Low Impact Hiit, Step & Disc Cardio – 25 minutes
Tuesday – Ride Bike + Yoga outdoors on patio – 32 minutes
Wednesday – Cathe LIS; Turbo Barre, Upper-Lower Muscle Endurance, Legs with Band, Planks & Abs segments – 50 minutes
Thursday – Walking + Yoga – 20 minutes
Friday – Cathe Xtrain; Supercuts – 46 minutes
Saturday – Ride Bike + Yoga outdoors on patio – 32 minutes
Normally I take Sunday’s off but this past Sunday I decided to go for a late morning walk and in the afternoon I swam some laps in our pool. It was really hot that day and a great day to go swimming.
I decided to do some Cathe Friedrich Xtrain dvd’s this week. This dvd series is a couple of years old. There are some great cardio and weight routines in this series.
Monday I did All Out Low Impact Hiit. I only did a 25 minute premix of the step and disc cardio that day as I was having some issues with a pesky sinus headache that came on Sunday evening and carried over into Monday. I was determined not to let it interfere with my workout schedule though. My cat showed up at the end for the stretch – apparently he wasn’t into working out that day either.
Wednesday I did the Low Impact Series from Cathe Friedrich – the Turbo Barre workout again. I am going to try and keep including this in my schedule once a week as I really like this workout even though its kind of long. It really seems to lengthen your whole body and strengthen and tone everything. This week I did a couple of the segments of the workout that I didn’t do last week. As you see the cat really likes this workout – he began it by standing on the floor behind the chair and jumping up over the back to get to the seat. Then he continued to jump around and chase his tail for a while. I guess that was his workout for the day.
I am also continuing to enjoy the warmer weather and ride my bike or walk in the mornings. This past week on Thursday I was going to walk again but it rained – thankfully as we really needed it. So, I decided to get out an old workout that I bought years ago. It is the Caribbean Workout Yoga For the Core. The show used to be on Fit TV and they also put out dvd’s. I think I got this on sale at Walmart. The dvd has three 20 minute segments on it. Both of my cats joined me that day for some yoga.
The other Xtrain workout I did was called Supercuts. I did the entire dvd which is 46 minutes long. It is a fun, fast paced and challenging workout that has cardio, weights and lots of core exercises. There are also several exercise that use the band with handles that are really great for the upper body and the core.
I made more granola this week since my one son ate most of the first batch I made last week. You can look at my workout post from week 28to get the link to the granola recipe.
I also read a post last week on another blog I follow called the 100lb Countdown. The post was on smoothiesand it gave me an idea to create this smoothie with carrots, orange juice and a nectarine.
I guess this smoothie came out more like a drink but I thought it had an interesting and pleasant taste. To make this you will need the following ingredients:
handful baby carrots
1 nectarine, cut up, pit removed, skin left on
2 spoonfuls plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water – more if needed
1/2 cup crushed ice
Place all of the above ingredients in a high powered blender like a ninja blender and pulse a few times then blend for about 1 to 2 min. on speed 8. You could also add a little honey if you wanted it a bit sweeter.
I have found that I like nectarines in my smoothies and have used them in a couple of my green smoothies as well. I recently read in a book I got from the library called The Juicing Diet that nectarines are good for detoxing, heart and bone health and for your skin.
This past week my workouts were a mixture of biking, cardio and yoga. It seems like every summer I tend to do more outdoor activities like biking and swimming as it gets warmer and I also like to alternate with some yoga.
Every other day was yoga this past week. The yoga routines were a mixture of magazine routines and my P90X3 Isometrix dvd, which is one of my favorite dvd’s in the X3 series. I had not used this dvd in about three months and forgot how challenging it is – you hold each pose for 45 seconds.
The other yoga routines I did were from a Prevention magazine called Yoga Life that I bought back in 2010 from Sams, I believe. There are some really good yoga routines in this magazine so I have kept it and pull it out from time to time to use it. I also used a Yoga Journal magazine this past week that I checked out from the library. I took my kids there earlier in the week to check out books for their summer reading and I also checked out a couple of Yoga Journal magazines.
My cardio dvd this week was Cathe Friedrich’s To The Max. I did a 39 minute premix that was a little less impact but still very challenging and gave me a great workout. This workout uses the step for parts of the workout and it seems my cat loves to hang out on the step when I am not using it as seen in the photo below. The core with upper body weights session of this workout is tough and one of my favorite parts of this dvd.
I also rode my bike again a couple of mornings this past week on my neighborhood route. I really like being out early and riding in the fresh morning air. After my riding I usually come in and do some light stretching and some core work with my stability ball.
This coming week I will only be working out for a few days of the week and not my usual six days. We are having some work done to our house and will have people here working for a few days. There is also a possibility that I will not be able to do my post next week if they are still here finishing the work on Saturday – we’ll see.
I hope everyone had a great week and you are enjoying warmer weather and some outdoor activities and workouts.
Wow – the first week of June has already gone by. This past week was also the last week of school for my kids and now they are on their summer vacation. I am looking forward to having a less hectic schedule with them being out of school for a while. I also try and do a little more variety in my summer workout schedule, more outdoor activities like biking and swimming. This past week I began my outdoor workout activities by adding in some biking and outdoor yoga.
Monday 6-2 – Amy Bento Ross Body Box dvd Short & Sweaty premix – 50 min
Tuesday 6-3 – Ride Bike – 22 min + Exercise-Medicine ball magazine routine – 15 min
Wednesday 6-4 – 21 Day Yoga Challenge Magazine routine – Go With the Flow – 20 min
Thursday 6-5 – Amy Bento Ross – Body Box dvd All Cardio premix – 52 min
Friday 6-6 – Ride Bike – 22 min + magazine routine – 15 min
Saturday 6-7 – 21 Day Yoga Challenge Magazine routine – Sitting Pretty routine – 20 min
This past week I did a routine of cardio, biking + toning exercises, and yoga. I really liked this schedule as it was a change from my normal dvd routine or doing an exercise book. I also took it outdoors with the biking and I even did my two days of yoga out on my back patio at 6:45 am. It was nice and peaceful outside in the early morning and a great way to begin my day.
I did use one dvd this week. It is actually a new dvd that I bought about six weeks ago and had not done it yet. It got pushed aside when I decided to do the Betty Rocker Spring Challenge in May. The dvd is called Body Box by Amy Bento Ross. I have a couple of her older kickboxing and weight training dvd’s and thought I would enjoy this one, too. So far after using it twice this week I am not sure if I like it as well as I like her older Kickbox Xtreme dvd. It is a good overall cardio workout but some of the routines are kind of hard to keep up with for me. There are intervals that can be done between kickboxing combos and I really like those intervals – they are body weight type of exercises. Overall it is a good workout but I think you need to have kickboxing experience to keep up – I do but it is still not easy to get all the combos down the first time. I guess that is true for a lot of new advanced type of workout dvd’s though. I usually have to do them a few times to figure out all the moves.
I really enjoyed riding my bike a couple of times this past week on my neighborhood route that I do. I wore my sport watch and set the stopwatch and it takes me about 22 to 23 minutes to do the route – I am not sure how far it is. I try and ride at least half of it in my hardest gear which is 3 since I have a 3 speed bike. When I got home from the ride I would do a routine from my binder of fitness routines I have ripped out of magazines I have subscribed to over the last 10 years. I have them organized in a 3-ring binder and divided with tabs as to the type of workouts. I have not used them in a while and got a couple of them out this past week. One of them was with an exercise ball, a medicine ball plus weights and the other was total body toning with 8 and 5 pound weights.
As you can see my workout buddy was present for the exercise ball routine. When not exercising he likes to sit on the exercise mat bag as seen in the other photo.
I also made a couple of more salads this week with some green leaf and romaine lettuce I grew in our little garden out back. This is only the second time I have tried to grow lettuce and the first time at actually being successful at it. The first time a lot of bugs got to it before we did so we didn’t get very much. It is really nice to be able to go out back and pick some lettuce for a salad to go with dinner.
This past week I also preordered the new Cathe Friedrich dvd’s that are to be released in the fall. The new series is called Ripped with Hiit. All of the workouts are high intensity interval training and if you preorder you get free shipping, too. You can read more about it on her site Cathe.com if you are interested. I have used her workouts for years and they are all great and worth the money.
I hope everyone had a great week! Let me know what your workout plans are for the week coming up by clicking on Leave a Reply.
Another week has come and gone and today is the last day of May. This past week I completed week 4 of the Betty Rocker Spring Challenge and I also did some Exhale Core Fusion dvd’s and a bike ride. Below is the past weeks workout schedule:
Monday 5-26 – Betty Rocker Challenge Wk 4 Day 2 + Foam Roller Stretches – 40 min
Tuesday 5-27 – ECF dvd – Yoga Energy Flow – 3 segments – 30 min
Wednesday 5-28 – Betty Rocker Challenge Wk 4 Day 3 + Foam Roller Stretches – 40 min
Thursday 5-29 – ECF dvd Power Sculpt – 3 segments – 26 min
Friday 5-30 – ECF Cardio dvd Pure Intensity – 3 segments – 30 min
Saturday 5-31 – Bike Ride + Foam Roller Stretches- 30 min
I really enjoyed the Betty Rocker Challenge for this past month. The exercises are all body weight exercises that she sends you each week. There are seven exercises and you do three rounds of the seven exercises. It takes approximately 30 to 35 minutes to complete a full three rounds for me. I thought this final week, week 4, was the most challenging and had a lot of hard exercises compared to the other weeks.
One of my favorite exercises from this week was called Sit Outs – seen in the lower left photo. It was tough but a great core workout. I would challenge myself to see how many I could complete in a minute – I think the most I got up to was 32. Typically I could do 30 in a minute.
I decided to go back to doing some of my workout dvd’s this past week. The previous two weeks I had been using some of my workout books instead of dvd’s. This week I used a few of my Exhale Core Fusion dvd’s. I love these workouts and I think I own all of the dvd’s in this series. They are done in your bare feet and are a combination of yoga and pilates moves. They really transform your body – especially the ab-core area – with some targeted moves that don’t look hard but when you try them you find out they are more challenging than they look. They also have great exercises for toning the arms and legs, too.
Another thing that I really like about the Exhale Core Fusion dvd’s, and I think I mentioned this before in a previous fitness post, is that the workouts are divided into 10 minute segments and you can choose which ones you want to do. There are typically five or six 10 minute segments on each dvd. I usually pick three or sometimes four so I do a 30 or 40 minute workout.
Today I did a little bike riding through the neighborhood on a route I like to take that I mapped out a couple of years ago. It takes me about 20 to 25 minutes to complete the route and then I come home and stretch a little while waiting for my coffee to brew. It was nice to be out early this morning and enjoy a peaceful bike ride. I saw a half a dozen or so people walking and it was nice to say Good Morning as I rode by. I am definitely ready to start incorporating more bike riding in my fitness routine. I have been riding my bike to the store some but have not been doing my regular biking in the mornings like I did last summer. It is time to start that again and enjoy being outside in the fresh morning air.
I have also been able to enjoy making salads with some fresh romaine lettuce from our garden a couple of times this past week. I have not been too successful in the past with growing lettuce but this year it has done pretty good. It is nice to eat something that you have been able to grow yourself.
What was your workout routine for the week? Click on Leave A Reply to let me know about it.
