Working Out Week 3 of 2014

January 18, 2014 kimberlee 5 Comments

This week is my second week of my P90X3 challenge with my facebook group. The exercises this week were the same schedule as last week. You can see this post on Working Out Week 2 of 2014 for the complete schedule list. The first 3 weeks of the program you do the same schedule. Each day you do a different workout for 30 minutes 6 days a week. There is an option to workout on Sunday or take a rest. I usually take the rest day.

I think CVX is still my favorite in this rotation so far. I love how you use a dumbbell throughout most of the workout. I use 5 pounds which sounds like nothing but when you are doing cardio with that in your hands it feels heavy. There is also an option to not use any weight or just use a basketball. Tony says you could even grab a cat but I don’t think my cat would like that. Although my one cat was present for most of this workout – he sat on the ottoman supervising my form. Tony is funny throughout this whole workout with his comments. I enjoy having a laugh or two while I am working out.

This week I switched Agility X and the Isometix workout days. I did the Agility X on Friday and the Isometrix on Saturday. I had a busy day Saturday with my one son and his schedule for Orchestra so I wanted a workout on Saturday morning that was not a hard cardio session where I get drenched in sweat. Isometrix is not easy by any means but I do not tend to work up a huge sweat doing that one.

Last week I did not care for Agility X but I liked it a little better this week. You have to have tape on the floor to mark where you stand, step, jump, etc. It is a hard workout in my opinion and takes some coordination with the footwork. You also really get the heart rate up and sweat a lot.

My other favorite workout in this three week rotation is called Isometrix. It is a yoga based workout where you hold each pose for 45 seconds. The poses are challenging and to hold them for almost a minute is very hard. It is a great total body workout that you can really feel in your core.

I was able to do one of the moves in Isometrix better this week called bound downdog split. You have one hand on the mat and the other on your opposite ankle and the leg that doesn’t have a hand on the ankle in the air. Last week my hand on the mat would sweat and slip a lot so this week I remembered that I had some yoga gloves that have grips on them. The gloves were a gift last year from my husband – they go with my yoga grip socks that I use in the winter. I had not ever used the gloves and decided today was the day to try them out. They worked really well for the bound downdog split and for doing the crane pose.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and keeping up with their workouts. I will post again next weekend on the results of week 3 of P90X3. Also, just to let you know I am not affiliated with the workout I am just posting my thoughts and sharing my own opinions.

Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise

Tags: exercise, fitness, fitness routine, health, working out

Knitting Scarves with Ruffle Yarn

January 16, 2014 kimberlee 5 Comments

Ruffle yarns have been around a while now. I know I have knit a lot of scarves with them in the last two or three years. I knit so many I kind of got tired of making them. Although they are an easy thing to work on especially during my knitting meeting night once a month.

Recently I designed a new scarf that has the ruffle yarn just on the edge and the rest of the scarf is knit with a worsted or sport weight yarn. The one below I made for a gift for a family member that is an MSU fan.

The idea of making a knit scarf design came to me when a lady requested a pattern for one. I have had a pattern design for a crochet version for a while but not a knit version. The crochet scarf is in the photo below – in blue. My mom has this scarf and says whenever she wears it people stop her and ask her about it.

Any type of ruffle yarns can be used for the edging on these scarves. The white one above is a Boutique Sashay yarn and the blue one is Paton’s Pirouette yarn.

The other version I recently knit for a friend is done in team colors. Another great way to show your team spirit with a pretty ruffle scarf. This one is done in Texas Tech colors since her daughter is going there.

I am calling these scarves Spiral Knit Scarf with Ruffle Yarn Edge. They are really fun and easy to knit if you have basic knitting skills and are familiar with working with the ruffle yarns.

I have also been working on a lot of other new knitting patterns and crochet patterns. Please subscribe to my blog via bloglovin, email or RSS feed to receive updates on my latest patterns.

Have a great day!

Kimberlee

Categories: Crochet Knitting

Tags: Crochet, crochet scarf, knit scarf, knit scarf pattern, knitting, lacy scarf, ruffle yarn edge, scarf pattern, scarf with ruffle yarn

Green Smoothie Challenge January 2014

January 14, 2014 kimberlee

This is day fourteen of my green smoothie challenge for January. I believe I mentioned in one of my fitness posts a couple of weeks ago how I was participating in a challenge with my green smoothie group on facebook. The challenge is to have at least one green smoothie per day the whole month of January. I actually started mine on the 31st of December so I guess today would be my fifteenth day.

I will say that since we are now about half way through the challenge I am in a habit of having a green smoothie every morning. The green smoothies have not always been good – as I have tried out some of my own creative recipes and some were a success and others not so great. There was one I made with a cooked beet that looked so pretty and I just knew it was going to be awesome but it was hard to get that one down. It didn’t taste as good as it looked. It was a very large smoothie, too, and I was able to choke down about half and dumped the rest. I decided to cross that recipe off my list.

One of the recipes I created is very good. The smoothie is a pretty green color and it has a pleasant taste to it. I am calling it Tropical Green Smoothie. Here is the recipe:

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:13]

Another recipe that is sort of a stand by for me is to just blend the following ingredients for a simple green smoothie:

handful of spinach
1 Tblsp peanut butter
1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
1 Tblsp Spectrum Decadent Blend (optional)
3/4 c. regular almond milk
1/2 c. crushed ice

The recipe above is one I usually have at least once or twice a week. Adding the greens makes it a little more healthy but it does not have a pretty color – it tastes good to me though. Like a peanut butter and chocolate smoothie.

The benefits of having a green smoothie every day are noticeable to me. I seem to have more energy, brighter eyes and better skin tone. These are just some of the physical benefits I have noticed. I know that it is also doing great things internally as well.

What healthy changes are you trying to make this new year? Please click on Leave a Reply and tell me about them.

Have a great day!

Kimberlee

Categories: Health Recipes

Tags: green smoothie, healthy smoothies, morning smoothie, Smoothie Recipe, smoothie with greens

Working Out Week 2 of 2014

January 11, 2014 kimberlee 2 Comments

This week was the start of my new workout challenge with my facebook challenge group for P90X3. This a 90 day challenge using the P90X3 program from Beachbody.

I chose to do the Lean schedule for the program. There are 4 different programs to choose from using the various 16 dvd’s that come in the set. The programs are: Classic, Lean, Mass, or Doubles. Most of the people in my group are doing the Classic or the Lean schedule.

For the Lean schedule the workouts you will use for the first three weeks are:

Day 1 – Accelerator
Day 2 – The Warrior
Day 3 – X3 Yoga
Day 4 – CVX
Day 5 – Isometrix
Day 6 – Agility X
Day 7 – Rest or Dynamix

All of the workouts are 30 minutes long. A very reasonable time that is easy to fit into your schedule. The workouts are not easy, by any means. I am glad they are challenging – that is why I like to do a variety and try new workouts – to give me more challenges.

I think that out of this weeks workouts I have two favorites – CVX and Isometrix. CVX is a cardio workout done with a dumbbell – I used 5 pounds. Isometrix is a yoga type of workout done in bare feet where you hold each pose for 45 seconds. That may sound easy but trust me it is very challenging. Especially one of the poses on one leg with your eyes closed. Try that for 45 seconds – you are sure to wobble. There is also a one hand downdog called “bound downward dog” I believe and it is hard – my hand sweats and that causes me to slip on the mat.

Below are some of the other photos from the workouts. I didn’t take any from the CVX day as it was faster paced and I wanted to learn the moves.

Accelerator is a fun cardio workout that had me sweating a lot. The donkey kick thing at the end was pretty hard.

Warrior was the workout for day 2 and another good heart pumping cardio workout.

Day 6 was Agility X and probably my least favorite. This is a pure cardio workout that has you sweating a lot. You have to have tape on the floor to mark where you jump, step, etc. My cat really liked the tape on the floor. He was either scratching at it or sitting in between the two pieces of it as seen in the one photo where I am doing the cooldown at the end. This workout will be a challenge for me to learn the moves and get better at it.

I am thinking I am going to take the rest day tomorrow instead of doing the optional Dynamix. I have already done the Dynamix workout about a week or two ago and I know I like it but Sunday is usually a rest day for me.

This information is my own opinion. I am not affiliated with this program I am just sharing my weekly workout and my experience with it.

Have a great weekend!

Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Health

Tags: fitness, fitness routine, weekly workout, workout schedule, workouts, yoga

Fleece Scarf with Crochet Trim Edge

January 8, 2014 kimberlee

I have been busy creating lots of new crochet, knitting and sewing patterns. I had to make some time to post my new fleece scarf with crochet trim. This scarf is very easy to make if you know how to crochet and can cut some fleece fabric. There is no sewing required with this scarf only cutting fabric and crochet.

Supplies needed to make this scarf:

3/8 yd of fleece fabric
worsted weight yarn in multi color – I used Hobby Lobby I Love this Yarn in Denim Plus
size US H crochet hook
applique scissors or some small very sharp scissors
fabric cutting scissors

Cut the fleece 12 inches wide by the width of the fabric. Trim off selvage ends.
Using the applique scissors poke (or make a very tiny clip) across the lower edge of each scarf end approx. 1/4 in. from the edge and 1/2 in. apart – I made about 20.

Using the size H crochet hook and a yarn that works well with this size hook follow these instructions:

Row 1: Pull yarn through one corner hole (leave a 6 in. tail to weave in later), ch 5, *slip stitch into next hole, pull up yarn and through ch on hook, ch 5, rep from * across, slip stitch in last hole at the end, turn.

Row 2: *ch 6, sc in next ch 5 sp, rep from * end with sc in last ch 5 sp, turn.

Row 3: *ch 8, sc in next ch 6 sp, rep from * across end with sc in last ch 6 sp, turn

Row 4: *ch 10, sc in next ch 8 sp, rep from * across end with sc in last ch 8 sp, turn

Row 5: ch 1, *9 sc in next ch 8 sp, rep from * across to last ch sp. Fasten off, Weave in ends.

Pattern Abbreviations: ch – chain ch sp – chain space rep – repeat sc – single crochet sp – space

I really like how this turned out. The crochet trim gives some color and fun to a plain fleece scarf. I hope you enjoy the pattern. Please follow my blog for future updates and patterns. The buttons for bloglovin, email or RSS feed are on the right.

Have a great day! Kimberlee

Categories: Crochet

Tags: Crochet, crochet project, crochet trim, fleece project, pattern for crochet trim scarf, scarf

Working Out Week 1 of 2014

January 4, 2014 kimberlee 2 Comments

Happy New Year! It is now the end of the first week of 2014. My workouts this past week were a combination of my new P90X3 dvd’s and my Cathe Friedrich dvd’s. Workout’s this week were as follows:

Monday 12-30-2013 – P90X3 Isometrix – 30 minutes
Tuesday 12-31-2013 – Cathe X10, premix 37, cardio blast & hi-lo – 37 minutes
Wednesday 1-1-2014 – P90X3 Dynamix – 30 minutes
Thursday 1-2-2014 – Cathe Flex Train, warm up, legs & shoulders, legs & biceps, disc lunges, core-abs, stretch – 40 minutes
Friday 1-3-2014 – P90X3 Pilates – 30 minutes
Saturday 1-4-2014 – Cathe Great Glutes, warm up, bonus chair-band, floorwork, stretch – 35 minutes

This is my 3rd week of alternating the cardio and the yoga or pilates and I really like this routine. Starting next week I will be doing the P90X3 for the next 90 days. I am starting the workout plan with my workout group on facebook. The past couple of weeks since receiving the workouts I have just been trying a few of them out. I didn’t want to start all of them yet since I will be using them for the next 3 months.

Below are some photos of the P90X3 workouts I did this past week.

The Isometrix workout looks easy when you just watch it but it is a challenge. You have to hold each pose for 45 seconds. That may sound easy until you try it. It was very different from any workout I have done or the type of yoga I normally do. I really liked it. As you can see from the photos my cat liked it too. He is my little workout buddy every day.

The Dynamix workout was another great dvd in the P90X3 series. There were some exercises that were very different to me and some that I have done before, too. This was another excellent workout, in my opinion, that I will really enjoy doing in my P90X3 rotation. I told my husband he should do it to help him improve his flexibility for his golf game – not sure if he is going to try it or not though.

I have also decided to do a green smoothie challenge the month of January with my friend Joanna’s green smoothie group on facebook. Here is the link if you are interested in joining: https://www.facebook.com/groups/117834925060273/ The challenge is to have one green smoothie a day for the month. I started doing this on the 31st of December and so far I have had one per day. This is a really great way to get back into a healthier diet for the new year. There are recipes on the page and I have tried a couple of them as well as my own.

The smoothie I made in the photo above was my own concoction. I am calling it Green Citrus Smoothie since it has a citrus flavor. Here is what was in it:

half a grapefruit, peeled & seeded
juice of one lemon
half a banana
2 dates soaked in 1/4 c. of water for 10 minutes (also add water to smoothie)
2 pineapple ice cubes – made from pineapple juice
1/4 c. plain greek yogurt
handful of spinach
1/4 to 1/2 c. crushed ice
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

Blend all the ingredients until smooth in a high speed blender.

This smoothie was pretty good but next time I think I will leave out the banana. I was trying to add them in my smoothies this week thinking I would like them but I just do not care for bananas. I will have to stick with other ingredients I like.

I am looking forward to the start of next week and my next fitness challenge of P90X3. Changing my workout routine and program is always a great way to keep me motivated and on track with my fitness goals. What workouts are you planning to do this year? Let me know by clicking on Leave a Reply. I would love to hear about them.

Categories: Exercise Health

Tags: exercise dvd's, exercise plan, fitness routine, green smoothie, Smoothie Recipe, Workout program, workout schedule

Sewing Leggings

December 31, 2013 kimberlee 2 Comments

Leggings seem to be coming back around again. Maybe they have been around and I am just slow to noticing. I decided that I would make my own leggings because they seemed pretty simple to make – and they really are. The way I made mine there are only 3 seams then a waistband casing for your elastic and then the hem.

I chose to make mine with a little more ease in them than those you buy. I really don’t like super tight things on my legs. I like the way these fit me and they are comfortable to wear. That is one of the things I love about sewing my own clothes – I can make things the way I want.

I did not really use a pattern to make these. I consulted pinterest first on how to sew leggings and found a couple of good blogs with this info. You can look at my Sewing board on pinterest to see these pins-blogs. This helped me figure out how to use an existing pattern for just some basic pants and turn it into a leggings pattern. What I did was take my measurements and then using the My Label pattern I have for pants, I butted the front and back pieces together on the outer sides and then adjusted the size per my measurements, making sure I added in approx. 1/2 inch for a seam allowance. I then took some pattern drafting interfacing, I by this at Joann, and laid it over the two pieces and traced around to make a pattern for the leggings. This way there is no outer seam only an inner seam and the front and back crotch seam.

Sewing these is so fast and easy! You just sew with right sides together your inner leg seams and then sew the crotch seam. Then, turn over your casing for your elastic waistband – I use 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inch elastic so the casing is fairly wide. You also turn up 1 inch for your hem on the legs. You are done! So simple. I have serger so sewing these is super fast but you could also use a regular sewing machine and a zigzag stitch. I sometimes use a twin needle for the hems but this time I chose to use a narrow zigzag to sew the hem and the casing. I think this gives it a little better stretch.

To make leggings you will need some fabric that is stretchy with a little bit of spandex or lycra in it. I think mine was from Joann and called Ponte Roma Sew Classic knits. The gray ones I made below that I use to workouts in are the Sweatshirt Performance fabric from Joann. Both fabrics have a little lycra or spandex and retain their stretch after hours of wear.

I have made four pair of leggings now and have some camel color fabric to make one more pair. Two of the pair I use as my workout pants in the morning.

I have lots of other sewing projects and ideas for 2014. Please follow my blog via bloglovin or RSS to receive future updates. I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Categories: Sewing

Tags: sewing, sewing apparel, sewing leggings, sewing project, sewing with knits, sewing workout leggings

Workouts Week 52 of 2013

December 28, 2013 kimberlee

This is the final full week of 2013. My workouts this year have been a variety of different activities and dvd’s. I think that is what keeps me motivated to wake up and workout every day, well – at least five days a week. Variety is the key. I also think finding an awesome and friendly facebook fitness group has helped. I really enjoy my little group on there. Sometimes I just log onto facebook to see my group and their posts and skip my personal page of posts. There are some really positive and dedicated fitness people in our Team Krazy Fit.

This past week I worked out most every day except Christmas day and on Sunday. I usually take Sunday as a rest day. My schedule this past week was:

Monday 12-23 – P90X3 Pilates – 30 minutes
Tuesday 12-24 – Cathe Party Rockin Step #2, premix 1 – 33 minutes
Wednesday 12-25 – off, rest day
Thursday 12-26 – Cathe X10, Cardio Blast – 25 minutes, also walked 1.5 miles
Friday 12-27 – P90X3 Yoga – 30 minutes
Saturday 12-28 – Exhale Core Fusion, Energy Flow Yoga – Energy Flow & Chi Gong + Hip Opener Stretches – 20 minutes

Last week I got my new P90X3 in the mail. I had to try out a couple of the dvd’s this week. They were awesome – to put it in one word. The Pilates was a challenging 30 minute workout that worked muscles in my glutes I didn’t know existed. My back side was sore for two days afterwards. I love that dvd! The yoga dvd was really great too. Not the same as I am used to with my Shiva Rea dvd’s but it was nice to do a different type of yoga workout.

This past week I also did my Cathe dvd’s mixed in with the P90X3. I can’t wait for my fitness challenge group to start on January 6, 2014 for the P90X3. Right now I am just trying out a few of the workouts, there are 16 of them, before the challenge group starts.

I hope everyone has had a great week and a wonderful Christmas! I am ready to get back into the normal routine of things but that will probably have to wait at least another week until my kids go back to school in 2014.

Have a great weekend and a Happy New Year!

Categories: Exercise

Tags: exercise schedule, fitness, fitness routine, pilates, working out, workout schedule, yoga

Burlap Gift Bags

December 24, 2013 kimberlee

Recently I saw a cute idea on pinterest for wrapping gifts with burlap. The idea came from the craftsalamode blog. I remembered I had some leftover burlap from a project I made several years ago. I pulled the burlap out of my fabric closet but decided I didn’t really have enough to actually wrap many gifts. So, I put my scissors and sewing machines to work and came up with these simple and very easy to make gift bags.

If you have a serger or sewing machine and know how to make a simple crochet chain you can make these bags in less than an hour – both of them.

Supplies needed:

1/2 yd burlap
fabric scissors
yarn – just a bit of scrap yarn or ribbon
serger set up for 3 thread overlock
sewing machine set up for straight stitch

Directions:

Cut your burlap desired size of bag you want to make. I cut mine 12 in. by 12 in. or 12 in. by 10 in.
Use your serger to serge up sides and bottom of bag OR you can use your regular sewing machine if you don’t have a serger but you will want to go back and zigzag the edges
Sew the lower bottom corners to “box” the bag, if desired – approx. 1 in. on each corner
chain 65 to 75 chains with a size K, L or N crochet hook – or whatever size fits the yarn you are using – with your scrap yarn
Fold crochet chain length in half and sew at that halfway point to one side of bag, approx. 1 1/2 to 2 in. from the top edge Note: you could also use ribbon in place of the yarn if you wanted to

I took a white elephant gift to a party recently in one of these little bags and was surprised when it was the first gift picked. Everyone thought the bag was a cute idea and were amazed I had just made it that afternoon. They are really simple to make.

I also thought they looked cute with the other bags I made in the past couple of years out of Christmas fabric. These bags were created totally on the serger. The pattern came from a great book I have called Ready Set Serge by Georgie Melot. This book has lots of fun serger projects in it.

I like the idea of the burlap gift bags since they are rather simple but can be used for any type of holiday or gift. You can always put a different color of yarn or ribbon to coordinate with the occasion. I know they also have colored burlap and I think I will get some of that in the future to make some in various colors.

Well, all of my gifts are wrapped now and ready for Christmas day. I hope you have a wonderful holiday – Merry Christmas!

Categories: Crochet Sewing

Workouts Week 51 of 2013

December 21, 2013 kimberlee

This past week I decided to do a routine of cardio one day and yoga the next day. I really liked this workout schedule.

Monday – Cathe Friedrich Party Rockin Step #2 premix 1 – 33 minutes
Tuesday – Shiva Rea Daily Energy – Earth & Shavasana – 25 minutes
Wednesday – Cathe Friedrich Party Rockin Step #2 premix 2 – 32 minutes
Thursday – Shiva Rea Creative Core Abs – 24 minutes
Friday – Cathe Friedrich X10 – Step – 26 minutes
Saturday – yoga book – Tara Stiles-Slim, Calm, Sexy Yoga – 15 minutes

These were the dvd’s I used:

The Party Rockin Step #2 dvd was a great workout. I realized I had not done this dvd yet after receiving it a couple of months ago. There is also a Party Rockin Step #1 and I have used that workout. For some reason I had not attempted the #2 dvd but decided to this week. I think I like it better. Although there was a little complication with the foot work on Monday. I had previewed it on Sunday – my rest day – and was all ready. I have found it is best to just watch the step workouts and get familiar with some of the moves before you actually do them. For some reason on one of the moves I missed a step somewhere which sent the long step off the riser – thankfully I did not fall or hurt myself – which I have done before on some of the step workouts. It did scare my cat out of the room though and scared me a little too.

I love the Shiva Rea yoga dvd’s and own quite a few. This week I did Daily Energy one day and the other day I did Creative Core Abs. I was going to do her Yogini dvd on Saturday but just decided to do my yoga book since I got up a little later than normal and my husband was using the TV to watch the morning news. I have a few yoga books and decided to use my Tara Stiles – Slim, Calm, Sexy Yoga book. There are lots of great routines in this book and all the photos are in color, too.

This week I also tried out a new smoothie recipe that I made up. I really like how it tasted. I am calling it Cherry Vanilla Eggnog Smoothie. Below is the recipe:

Cherry Vanilla Eggnog Smoothie

10 frozen, pitted, dark cherries

3/4 c. Silk Eggnog

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

1/2 c. crushed ice

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender 1 to 2 minutes or until smooth.

I bought the Silk eggnog for my sons since they all like eggnog. When we went to the store after church on Sunday they didn’t have any regular eggnog so I thought since they like Vanilla Soymilk they would like this. Wrong! They informed me they didn’t think it tasted good. So, I decided to use it in this smoothie recipe so it wouldn’t go to waste. I also like the fact that the Silk eggnog has less calories and fat than regular eggnog. A 1/2 cup of the Silk eggnog is only 2 g. of fat. I don’t have any regular eggnog right now to give you the fat grams on it but I am sure it is over 2 g. I really enjoyed this smoothie and am looking forward to making another one soon.

I also decided to order the P90X3 new workout dvd’s last week. They arrived yesterday in the mail. I have not had chance to look at them much as I have been so busy with holiday things the past couple of days. I am hoping to be able to preview a couple of the dvd’s today. I will be joining a facebook challenge group on my Team Krazy Fit on January 6, 2014. This will be a 90 day program of working out 6 days a week.

I hope everyone is doing well and trying to get in a little fitness in between all the holiday activities. Even if it is only 15 minutes a day it is better than nothing.

Have a great weekend!

Categories: Exercise Health Recipes

Tags: cardio, exercise, fitness, fitness program, weekly workout, workout routine, yoga