Category: Health

New Workouts For Spring 2017

April 20, 2017 kimberlee

I have been doing some new workouts for Spring 2017 and wanted to share them on my blog. The workouts are called Classical Stretch, by Miranda Esmonde-White. They are broadcast on many PBS stations but I had never heard of these workouts until a friend from church recently told me about them.

I found out my local library had the book Aging Backwards by Miranda Esmonde-White and I checked it out. The first half of the book is about aging and a lot of information on your muscles and cells and joints and how they age. The book goes into a lot of detail on the Eccentrics, or Classical Stretch, exercise program and how she developed it and why. It explains how and why exercising and doing the right type of full body exercises can make you feel better, prevent injuries and keep us young even in our old age. The second half of the book are the exercises with photos and explanations on how to do them.

After checking the book out I decided to order one of her dvd sets. They are around $65.00 for a set of 4 dvd’s with a complete season of Classical Stretch. I ordered season 10 – Strength and Flexibility. It is one of the more recent seasons. You can go on to the classicalstretch.com website and when you click on store on the left side there are options that you can plug in like your age and fitness level and it will give you suggestions on what workouts are best for your level. The strength and flexibility one came up as one for me so I chose it.

So far I have done about half of the workouts out of the 30 workouts on the dvds. Each workout is approximately 23 minutes long. I really thought they were going to be too easy for me since I workout regularly – like 5 or 6 days a week – using some pretty hard workouts sometimes. But, I have been pleasantly surprised that the workouts are not what I expected. They are easier than my Cathe Friedrich and P90X3 workouts but they seem to work and they are lengthening and strengthening my body – especially my waist and my hips.

I have never done Tai Chi but I believe the exercises are part Tai Chi (as she mentions that the stances are in a couple of the workouts) part stretching, moving yoga and pilates all combined. At least that is how I describe it. I have been using the workouts about 3 days per week and some days I actually do 2 of them since they are shorter than what I normally do – if I do 2 workouts then it is about 46 minutes and I really feel a total body conditioning.

The workouts are all done in bare feet with just your body weight and minimal to no equipment. They are divided into All Standing, All Barre, or All Floor. When you do the All Standing it is just your body weight. If it is a Barre workout you need a chair. The floor workouts it is nice to have an exercise mat and she also uses some risers with a few exercises that look like large yoga blocks but she also says you can use a phone book or an encyclopedia.

I would recommend these workouts to anyone who is looking to get an overall total body workout, improve their posture and get more toned. I think the workout dvd’s I bought are possibly for a more experienced exerciser but I believe there are many others that are suitable for beginners.

So, I have now incorporated Classical Stretch into my weekly workout schedule – at least 3 times per week. The other 2 or 3 days that I workout I am still doing my Cathe workouts doing cardio or weights or a combination of both using her Strong and Sweaty series and Low Impact Series.

What workouts have you recently tried?

Have a great week!

-Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Health

Tags: classical stretch, exercise, fitness, new workouts, spring workouts, workouts

Health Documentaries I Have Recently Watched

March 16, 2017 kimberlee

Recently I have watched quite a few health documentaries. Good health is important to me and I like to be informed and keep up with the latest info on health.

Here is a list of the health documentaries I have seen – some are available on Netflix and others I checked out from my local library. The library is a great source for books and dvd’s on health and well being, in my opinion.

Hungry For Change – I have seen this before in the past but it was good to review it again
Food Matters
Food Choices
Cowspiracy
Plant Pure Nation
Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue
Carb Loaded – A Culture Dying to Eat
In Defense of Food

The above, Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue I found at my local library. It is about a Texas firefighter, Rip Esselstyn, who eats a plant based diet and he goes to two different families homes to convert their pantries and their eating habits. I found it interesting and a good health documentary for someone looking to convert to better eating habits. He has also written several books based on the Engine 2 Diet. I am on a wait list at the library for his newest book called The Engine 2 Seven Day Rescue Diet. If my library has the book then I like to check it out there first and see if it is something I am interested in buying.

In Defense of Food is the most recent health documentary I have watched. I also found this at the library. This health documentary is a fairly recent release – it says 2015 on the back of the dvd case. I like the philosophy behind this which is “Eat Food – Not Too Much – Mostly Plants” -Michael Pollan. I find the information in this documentary reasonable and an easy to follow plan compared to some of the other health documentaries I have recently viewed.

Overall, these health documentaries all have a common thread – too many people are not eating the right foods and the health of our children and society in general is suffering. If more people focused on eating a plant based diet, avoiding processed foods and excess sugar then there are many conditions and health problems that can be avoided, or even in some cases reversed, according to claims in many of the health documentaries I have recently watched.

One of the reasons I have watched so many of these health documentaries lately is because I have an interest in maintaining good health and teaching my children to be healthy and be conscious of what they eat. Today there are so many food choices and lets face it – a lot of them are just really not that good for you. If I can influence my kids to have some idea of what is a healthy food and what isn’t then I feel like they are more likely to make better choices in the future as they get older.

After watching the Plant Pure Nation documentary on Netflix I found out that there are several cookbooks that go along with the documentary. I found the one above, Plant Pure Kitchen, at Barnes and Noble a couple weeks ago. I have already made a few of the recipes and they are good. (As you can see I have several marked to try with sticky tabs) My kids even like the nacho cheese sauce which is actually made without any cheese or milk and tastes great. There is a page that explains how to build, or make, veggie burgers that is informative and there are a few veggie burger recipes in the book, too. I have been making my own veggie burgers for the last six months and really do not miss beef.

The Get Healthy Go Vegan Cookbook was one I had checked out from the library and liked so I found it at Half Price Books last week and decided to purchase it. There are a lot of good recipes in this book as well and I have tried a few and enjoyed them. They are all plant based and easy to follow.

So, as far as going Vegan – as it seems many of the health documentaries suggest as being the best diet – I am not there yet. I am trying to eat less meat each week and to be honest with you I don’t really miss it. I think going without any type of cheese or dairy is a little harder though. Also, my husband and my three sons are probably not going to be too thrilled if I totally quit cooking meat or buying cheese. It is hard to change habits of others – probably harder than changing your own habits. So for now we are focusing on eating more vegetables, fruits and whole grains and I am sneaking in vegan or vegetarian recipes when I can.

-Kimberlee

Categories: Health

Tags: health, health cookbooks, health documentaries, healthy eating, plant based eating

Fitness for April 2016

April 30, 2016 kimberlee 2 Comments

This month sure went by fast. It seems like it was just the end of March. I actually missed doing a post on fitness for the month of March because I was pretty busy. I did workout – even when we went out of town for Spring Break – but I just didn’t have time for a post that month.

In the past month of April I followed my Cathe Friedrich Xtrain program for most of the month along with yoga every other day. I actually started the month just doing Cathe workouts but then the past two weeks I decided to get back into yoga more so I have been doing a schedule of cardio or weights one day and then yoga the next. So the past couple of weeks my schedule was:

Mondays – Xtrain, cardio or weights

Tuesdays – yoga

Wednesdays – Xtrain, cardio or weights

Thursdays – yoga

Friday – Xtrain, cardio or weights

Saturday – yoga

Sunday – off

The yoga workouts varied for me. I either used my Shiva Rea dvd’s or checked out some Yoga Journal magazines from my local library and used some of the sequences in those. I enjoy doing the Yoga Journal sequences and the variety they offer. I also like that I can check out the magazines at the library and not have to buy them. The library keeps up to the past two years so there is a variety to choose from.

I also found a new book at the library about the Vitamix blender. I was looking for a book about using a blender for more than just smoothies and came across the Vitamix cookbook. At the time of checking this out a few weeks ago I did not own a Vitamix blender – I just had my older model Ninja Ultima blender that I bought about three years ago.

Well, after getting this book and seeing the great recipes and then watching some videos on YouTube about the Vitamix I was convinced I needed one. There are many things you can do with the Vitamix that the Ninja will not do, believe me, I tried. Thankfully my husband was agreeable to me getting one as they are not cheap. I ended up getting the Deluxe Complete Kitchen set that comes with the 5200 blender, the smaller blending container and also the dry grinding container that you can grind your own flours in. There were also some other bonuses like cutting mats, spatulas and the Whole Foods cookbook-binder with lots of great recipes. This set was on sale through Vitamix for Mother’s Day so I told my husband this could be my Mother’s Day gift.

So far I love this new blender. I have been using it daily – at least twice or more a day – since I received it. The smoothies are really good and the green ones turn out super smooth. I have even gotten my oldest son to start drinking one daily and he likes them.

I have also used the Vitamix to dry chop some vegetables and to wet chop vegetables. I have made a frozen dessert, nut butter, salsa and soup. The soup was not a big hit with the family – it was okay. I made it directly in the blender – it was tomato soup. It seemed kind of foamy which is what my family disliked. I think next time I would just blend it in the blender for about a minute and then cook – heat it on the stove. The strawberry frozen dessert I made was a big hit and I love how it only had 3 simple ingredients and very low sugar. I have also tried out the dry grinding container and made my own oat flour to use in my homemade bread and rolls that I bake each week.

Well, tomorrow is the first of May and I will continue my Cathe and yoga workout rotation for at least the beginning of May. I may change it up to something different by the middle of the month, we’ll see. I hope you are having a great Spring so far and getting in some workouts.

-Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Health

Tags: exercise, fitness, monthly workout, vitamix blender, working out, yoga

Book Review Power Hungry

February 4, 2016 kimberlee 8 Comments

The book Power Hungry by Camilla V. Saulsbury is a collection of recipes to make your own energy bars, granola bars and protein bars. This book is something I came across at Barnes and Noble back in the Spring of 2015. I have been using it on and off to make my own protein and granola bars instead of buying them.

So far I have tried about ten or more of the recipes. As you can see from the book photo above I have a bunch of them marked with post it flags – that is how I go through a recipe book – I flag all the ones that look or sound good so I know which ones I need to get ingredients for. The book is filled with lots of different recipes and all the recipes have variations to try using the same basic recipe but with a few ingredient changes – I really like that. The recipe chapters of the book are:

Super Natural Knock-Offs
Activity Bars
Endurance Bars
Protein Bars
Raw and Almost Raw Bars

Some of the recipes are super simple and you just blend the ingredients together in your food processor and then put into a pan and refrigerate to set them, cut them and you are done. Some of the other require cooking, either some ingredients on the stove top or some actual baking time. For all the recipes in the book there are directions as to how to store them and for how long. There is a room temperature version, refrigerator version and freezer version.

The beginning of the book also lists pantry ingredients to have on hand. There are ingredients such as whole grains, natural sweeteners, chocolate and cocoa, canned ingredients, nuts, seeds and nut butters, oils, eggs, dairy and non dairy milks, all natural protein powders and extract flavorings. If you already eat a pretty healthy diet chances are you have a lot of the ingredients already. I found that there were several recipes I could make right away without having to go buy anything.

So far the recipes I have tried are:

Fitness Fiber Bars – which are suppose to be similar to Fiber One Bars – I made the chewy chocolate chip version and liked them
Canyon Crunch Bars – which are suppose to be similar to Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars – I tried the Cinnamon Pecan version and they were okay – these are kind of hard and crunchy, just like the bars you buy but mine were more crumbly – they didn’t really stay together as bars but they were still good to eat in chunks
Lucy Bars – which are like Larabars – personally I have never bought one of them but I love this recipe and the many variations. I have made the PB & J Bars, Cashew Cookie Dough Bars and the Blueberry Cobbler Bars and that is only about a quarter of the different versions listed under this recipe
Raisin Bran Bolt Bars – I made the double chocolate version of these and they are kind of like a brownie. My son and his friends came home for lunch from school the other day and they were even eating them – I didn’t tell them they were made with good for you all natural ingredients and high in fiber.
Seeds of Power Bars – this one so far is the only one I didn’t really like all that much – it was kind of plain to me
PB & J Protein Bars – these were easy to make and tasted good – they have protein powder in them so good before or after a workout
5 minute Protein Truffles – lots of variations with this recipe and I have tried a couple of them and liked them both

Power Hungry book review by Kimberlees Korner — Double Chocolate Bran Bolt Bars and Cashew Cookie Dough Bars made by Kimberlees Korner

Above are a couple of the versions of the bars I have recently made. Mine probably don’t look as pretty as ones you buy in a package but they taste good and that is one of my main goals – to have a healthy homemade tasty power bar.

Making your own granola and protein bars is really pretty simple and if you have some great recipes, like the ones in this book, you will always have healthy snacks around. The main reason for making the bars versus buying them for me is that I like to know what is in my food and I want to have control over what I put in them. Also, the cost of making them yourself is a lot less than buying them.

Have you ever made your own protein or energy bars? If so, what recipe did you use? Let me know by leaving a reply.

Have a great day!

-Kimberlee

Categories: Books Health

Tags: book review, cooking, DIY protein bars, DIY protein snacks, energy bars, make your own granola bars, protein bars

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

EOM Fitness for May 2015

May 30, 2015 kimberlee

May 2015 has come to an end and June will be here in a couple of days. I don’t know if it is because of all the end of school year stuff going on with my kids or what but this month flew by, in my opinion. My workout schedule for the past month was down to four days per week instead of five or six. I decided to dial it back a little and do like a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday schedule this past month.

This past month I also decided to change things up by using my Core workout book along with a new Yoga Journal Magazine I bought back in April. I did do a couple of my Cathe workouts from an older dvd set X-train. I love my Cathe workouts and usually include at least a couple each month.

I think I bought the Core workout book many years ago either at Half Price Books or Sams. I really like this book and how there are routines at the end to do like the one shown above, the Power Workout routine. The book uses an exercise ball, medicine ball, some weights and an exercise band for some of the exercises. I like that there is minimal equipment. It was nice to do these routines and put on some good music to workout to while doing them. As you can see by the top photo the cat likes the book and workouts in there as well. He was usually sitting by the band or on the book when I had it opened up.

The other book I used this month along with the Core book was the one above, Core Strength Training. I checked this one out from my local library. I like how this book is set up and explains the exercises and there are detailed color photos, too. I was trying to do at least four of the exercises on the days I was using my Core book. There are lots of great exercises to increase your mobility and strengthen your abs and back for everyday activities as well as sports like golf. I pointed this out to my husband since he golfs a lot and he frequently gets out my weights or bands to do a few exercises the day before he goes golfing.

This past month I have also been using a couple of other new books I recently bought at Barnes and Noble. The first book I bought a couple of months ago, it is called Raw Energy by Stephanie Tourles. I just stumbled across this book while actually trying to find another book and loved all the recipes in there. Everything is made with healthy and wholesome ingredients and most of them are pretty simple to make. The concept is that everything is made with raw natural ingredients and nothing is cooked at a high temperature so the food retains the natural occurring enzymes. There are a few recipes that use a food dehydrator but nothing is cooked over 175 degrees. This interested me since my husband bought a dehydrator about eight months ago to dehydrate the hot peppers we grow every year. I wanted to be able to use the dehydrator for more than that and apples which is about all we had tried.

This book contains recipes for cereals, dips, fruit and vegetable juices, nut milks, smoothies and a variety of snacks. I have already made several recipes from this book and they were all good. At the front of the book she explains the raw concept in detail and lists the equipment and ingredients you will need to make things in the book. The author, Stephanie Tourles, has also written a few aromatherapy and body care books and I own two of those as well. I knew when I saw this book it would be good and I have not been disappointed with it.

The other book I just bought a few weeks ago is called Power Hungry by Camilla V. Saulsbury. Again this was a book I just stumbled upon at Barnes and Noble while searching for another book that I never found. This book is all about making your own Cereal, Energy and Protein Bars with lots of variations within each recipe to create a different type of bar. So far I have tried a few and liked them. There are some recipes that require cooking some of the ingredients on the stove top or even baking some of them in the oven for a few minutes but there are also some raw recipes that do not require baking or cooking. I also like how she classifies some of them as knock off recipes for things like Fiber One bars, Kind Bars and Larabars. I know I have found, and even tried, some of these types of recipes from pinterest but they have not been as good as the ones in this book. This book is worth the money if you are interested in making your own good quality bars with natural ingredients. Also, there are tips in the book on storing the bars and how long they keep or can be frozen for, etc.

Well, so far it has been very rainy here so I have not been able to get out and ride my bike or swim like I normally do in May. Maybe June will bring some sunshine so I can start biking to the store again and start swimming some for some exercise. As far as my planned activities go I will probably stay with a 4 day a week schedule and plan to do weight training and yoga for this coming month. What are your workout plans for June?

Have a good weekend!

-Kimberlee

Categories: Books Exercise Health

Tags: cookbooks, cooking, exercise, exercising at home, fitness, fitness routine, home workout, working out, workout plan, workouts, yoga

EOM Fitness for March 2015

March 31, 2015 kimberlee

Well, I have taken a couple of weeks off blogging but I have still been working out in the mornings. I am finding that as the weather is getting nicer here I have so many other things that are taking up my time as well as three kids, a husband and a household to run so I am just not finding the time to get all the blogging posts in I had planned for the past month. Well, there is always another month to get those in.

For the past month I have stuck to a workout schedule of doing cardio or weights one day and then yoga the next – pretty much five or six days a week. I used some of my older and newer Cathe Friedrich workout dvd’s for cardio or weights and then yoga books, dvd’s or magazines that I have for my yoga routines. Below are a couple of photos from the Cathe Cross Fire workout that the cat and I really like.

As always the cat is ready and waiting to workout. Even this morning when I did a different Cathe workout with weights he was sitting by the weights.

In addition to working out regularly I have still continued to do my juicing or smoothies daily. I have been doing one or the other. I like my juices but getting that juicer out and doing all the juicing takes a lot of time so I have gone to doing that once or twice a week. I usually make up a few and store them in mason jars and label them. They keep well for at least two or three days.

I have bought a couple of new juicing books in the last couple of months and have been using them for some of my juicing recipes. One of them is the book below – The Big Book of Juices. I think I got this at Sams Club. There are lots of great recipes in this book and even some smoothies and refreshing fruit and tea drinks for summer. I really like this book and the format of it.

I have been using some of the juice recipes and incorporating them into my smoothies. This is a good way to use up any of the juice before it goes bad since I tend to make up a few ahead of time. One of my creations is this awesome Apricot Orange Smoothie. I have made it a few times and love it.

Apricot Orange Smoothie Recipe

5 dried apricots soaked in water for about 20 minutes
half of a peeled orange – seeds removed
1 Tbls chia gel – this is chia seeds soaked in water
1/2 c. orange carrot juice – from juicer
1/2 tsp maca powder – good for energy and hormones
1 nectarine cut up, stone removed

Blend all of the above ingredients in a high speed blender for about 1 to 2 minutes. Serves one.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well and starting to enjoy the nicer spring weather. I have gotten my gardens ready and ordered some plants so I will probably be spending more time outside and less time on the computer for a while. I am finding that to get things done I have to unplug more and start doing – like right now I am off to make some healthy chocolate chip muffins for my family.

Have a great week!

-Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Food Health

Tags: end of month fitness update, exercise, juicing book, monthly fitness, smoothie, Smoothie Recipe, working out, workouts

EOM Fitness for February 2015

February 28, 2015 kimberlee

This past month my fitness routine was a combination of P90X3 and yoga. I had completed the entire schedule of P90X3 last year and the whole thing takes about three months of working out six days a week. I did not want to do the entire thing so I started out my first two weeks of February doing just P90X3 and making up my own schedule with the workouts. Well, by the third week of February I decided to do P90X3 along with a yoga book I own, Slim Calm Sexy Yoga by Tara Stiles. So, I alternated P90X3 then the yoga book every other day for the last two weeks of this month.

The above photos are of the Total Synergistics workout from P90X3. I really like this workout and did it a couple of times this month.

Here is the cat – my faithful workout buddy sitting by the weights waiting to workout. He too seemed to like the Total Synergistics workout.

There are yoga and pilates workouts in the P90X3 series and I did some of those along with the cardio and weight training workouts. I decided to use my yoga book though because I was getting tired of doing a dvd workout every day. There are lots of great routines in the Slim Calm Sexy yoga book by Tara Stiles, too. I had not used it in a while and I am glad I decided to incorporate some of those yoga routines into my schedule for February. Check your library for the book – that is where I first learned about it a few years ago and I liked it so well that I bought it at Barnes and Noble.

I didn’t watch any health documentaries this past month like I did back in January but I did read an interesting book on health called Super Immunity by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. He is a doctor and I first learned about him and his books by watching the health documentaries last month on Netfilx. This book is filled with lots of great information for taking charge of your health and learning to eat better to feel and look better and not following some crazy fad diet that is the latest rage. His concept is focused on more of a plant based diet. The acronym for his eating plan is G-BOMBS which stands for greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds. These are the foods that you should be focused on consuming daily. I really learned a lot from this book and there are some interesting recipes at the end of the book that I will be trying out.

I also have another book checked out from the library by Dr. Fuhrman called Eat To Live. I will be reading that next.

For March I think I will go back to my Cathe Friedrich workouts. She has some of the best workouts on dvd in my opinion and I always look forward to using them. I have not decided yet which series or sets I will use but I will probably mix in yoga every other day since yoga makes my body happy and I love doing yoga at least a few times a week. I have also found that doing yoga the day after a hard cardio or weight workout really helps my body and my mental focus.

I hope everyone had a great month and you were able to find some time for fitness. Remember even 15 minutes a day of doing something is better than nothing at all.

-Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Health

Tags: books on health, exercise, exercise routine, fitness, working out, workouts, yoga

EOM Fitness for January 2015

January 31, 2015 kimberlee 1 Comment

This past month my fitness routine consisted of five or six workout days per week using my Cathe Ripped with Hiit workouts and yoga dvd’s or routines from Yoga Journal magazine that I have saved. I have been alternating the two doing a Hiit workout one day and yoga the next. I have really been enjoying this schedule.

Ripped with Hiit Upper Circuit with the cat — Me and the cat doing the RWH Upper Circuit workout

Another upper body exercise from Cathe’s Ripped with Hiit Upper Circuit dvd

Scheduling your workouts is part of the key to getting them done, in my opinion. If I make a schedule up on Sunday, that is usually a non workout day for me, then I am going to commit myself to getting them done. “It’s not about having time, it’s about making time.” I have seen these words before somewhere and they are very true – everyone is busy these days – even my retired parents and in-laws always seem busy – but you have to make the time and make the commitment to yourself to be more physically active. I know that I always feel better and have more energy on days that I workout.

Another thing I have been doing this past month is watching health documentaries – I know this sounds really boring but they are actually really informative about many things concerning the health of Americans and their diets and I find them interesting. Some of them can be found on Netflix and some I checked out from the library. The video in the photo above, Fed Up, is one I checked out from my local library. A friend of mine recommended it to me. This is a real eye opener about the food industry, how much sugar and artificial ingredients are really in those so called healthy foods you see at the store. This documentary also goes into detail on the health of our children and how many are becoming diabetic at an early age due to poor eating and lifestyle habits.

The other two documentaries that I thought were really informative were Hungry for Change and Fat Sick and Nearly Dead 2. Both of these are on Netflix. If you are wanting to learn more about eating better, juicing, and changing your lifestyle habits to become healthy, lose weight and get off prescriptions, I would advise you to watch these two documentaries. My overall health and eating is good but these documentaries oped my eyes to even more changes I need to make to how I eat and what I eat for it to make a positive impact in my daily life.

For the month of February am thinking of doing my P90X3 workout. I am not going to do the whole three month program again like last year, I am just going to use it mixed with some other workouts for the month of February. I have been doing my Ripped with Hiit and yoga for over a month now so it is time for a change. If I change things up then I don’t get bored – that is another key to making your workouts fun, challenging and keeping you interested in sticking with it. Also, I believe it is a key to seeing results because your body needs a change.

So check back at the end of February for my end of month (EOM) fitness update – of course you can also check back sooner as I will be sharing other posts before the end of February on various things.

Have a great Superbowl weekend!

– Kimberlee

Categories: Exercise Health

Tags: end of month fitness update, fitness, health documentaries, working out, workout routines