Hi friends!

Hope you had a great start to your week yesterday.  I have a feeling this one is going to fly by.  I have to show up tomorrow for that jury summons I mentioned a while back and knowing my luck I’ll get picked to sit for a trial.  Not that I mind serving my civic duty, I just think it’s a little lopsided seeing how MSP has never even received a summons.  :)   Actually the real reason I think I’ll get picked is because I’m totally slammed with things to accomplish this week at work and sitting on a jury will totally put me behind on my deadlines.  But I’m sure everyone feels that way when they get a jury summons in the mail, right?

Even though I was off work yesterday for MLK Day I still got up at the usual silly hour to get my workout in and get my day started.  First I did 30 minutes of yoga with Bob from the Biggest Loser (yes, I’m Team Bob.  You don’t even want to get me started on Jillian.  I have started writing many a post to discuss that particular issue of mine, but I figure I’ll get a lot of hate mail if I post it, so I always end up scrapping it! But I digress…)  So the yoga was actually pretty good – not terribly challenging though.  It is broken into different levels and since this was my first time using this particular DVD I decided to stick with level one.  I will need to try levels two and three to see if they are harder or more of the same just longer.

Since I didn’t feel like that was as much of a workout as I would normally do, I then did 20 minutes of the Exhale Core Fusion “Gluteal Toner” that I recorded from FitTV.  Similar to Physique 57, but actually a little too easy.

To wrap it all up, I added a few Tabata sets of thigh and hamstring moves to get a good burn going.

Afterward I had a terrific green smoothie.  I’ve been back to getting these in regularly again, and I can’t say enough how great I feel when I have one of these to start my day.

This beauty had banana, clementine, hemp protein, spinach, cucumber, a scoop of dried green superfoods, and a little bit of white chia seeds.  Lip smacking good!  Riley and Rascal thought so too… since they get a little bit of green smoothie in their bowl whenever I have one.  The pups need their greens too!

For an afternoon snack, I FINALLY ate some of that cute little kabocha squash that I bought recently.  I drizzled just a tiny bit of blackstrap molasses (a little goes a LONG way – it’s a STRONG flavor), and then sprinkled some cinnamon and some dried ginger on it.  (Yes I roasted the squash first!  Figured I bet put that out there, lest someone try this raw!)

I’m not sure what all the fuss is about with these.  Yes, there was a bit of a nuttier flavor than that of butternut squash but not different enough that I’ll drive all over town trying to track one of these down.  I think it was a fluke that I found it in the first place because when I went back to the store where I found it, they didn’t have any on the shelf.

Dinner was quick and easy, a usual requirement for my ‘cooking’.  Step one was opening a jar of 505 Green Chile:

(This one is even gluten-free, made with rice flour – which impressed me for some reason!)

Pour jar of chile into a small soup pan and heat over medium till bubbly.  Add egg(s) and ‘poach’ in the green chile.

I plated my egg on half of a whole wheat tortilla and then topped it with some nutritional yeast for ‘cheesy flavor’.

For extra cheese, eat while watching “The Bachelor” like we did.  ;)

***

As I mentioned yesterday, I thought I’d share with you my very simple method of keeping an eye on my level of exercise.  I have used other methods in the past, including spreadsheets and logging programs (like The Daily Plate).  However I like a very quick visual on whether I’m getting something done most days of the week.  Generally it’s pretty easy to keep track of in my head as well, but by that same token it’s also easy to “forget” some of those missed days here and there.

I print a blank calendar page and keep that page on my bulletin board just for this particular tracking.  This calendar doesn’t have anything else added to it: no appointments, birthdays, etc. For every day that I get in my exercise, I mark a star on that day, sometimes jotting a note about what I did that day.  If I don’t get a workout in, there is no star.

Now keep in mind that NOT having a star is not a bad thing, either.  I like to be sure I’m taking rest days when I need them, or at least active recovery days.  So this isn’t a matter of telling myself  “Uh oh, bad girl, no star for the day!”  This type of ‘dashboard view’ just lets me know at a glance if I’m slacking or if I’m overdoing it.

I took this picture on Friday and have since added my stars for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  So 18 days into the new year, I’ve worked out 16 of the 18, averaging a rest day about every 9 days.

One could take this a step further and color-code their days, such as one color for cardio, one for strength, maybe another for yoga/flexibility.  Or if you are training for a marathon, you could mark one color for your speedwork/hill runs, one color for your tempo runs and a third for your long runs.  Or mark the days off as you do Cindy’s 30 Day Core Challenge. :)

No matter what goal you have or habit you might be trying to change, using this type of tracking can be a good tool to see quickly and easily how you’re doing on that journey.  For example, let’s say you wanted to increase your veggie intake.  You decide you want to eat veggies with at least 3 of your meals/snacks each day.  You could start a calendar with a marking system to show the days you met that goal, and the days you didn’t.  This might also show you some trending, such as not doing as well on Fridays as you do on Mondays, etc.

Are you a “tracker”?  How do you keep track of your workouts?  Or do you skip tracking/logging altogether?

***

OK, friends!  Off to train a client and then on to the other j-o-b.  Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY!

– Shari B. =)

PS:  There is another Vitamix Giveaway going on in the blogosphere!  That is an AWESOME Giveaway!  Get yourself to Katie’s blog to enter!

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out: