FitFeat

Posts Tagged cardio

Keeping the Treadmill Interesting

Jan 23

Posted by Shari B. in FitFeature, Keeping Fit | 7 Comments

Good morning blog buds!

I posted this to the FitFeat FB page this morning but the mobile app thinks I was posting as a fan of the page and not as the admin, so it won’t hit your news feeds. Hopefully the WordPress mobile app I’m trying now for the first time works a little better!

I came across this article for treadmill workouts and the tips were almost identical to how I keep myself from getting bored when I have to do indoor cardio, so I thought I’d share it. Another trick I utilize is when I am watching recorded TV programs on the treadmill, I’ll walk on a high incline during the show to keep my heart rate high but then kick it up to running or sprint intervals during the commercial breaks.

Treadmill workouts

Have a great Monday & a FIT week!

– Shari B. =)

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Review: OrangeTheory Fitness

Jan 4

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit, Product Review | 2 Comments

Hi blog buds!

How is 2012 starting off for you?  I still can’t believe it’s January already. It feels like it was just yesterday that Cory and I were at the Haunted Forest for Halloween!

On the workout front, the year is off to a great start and my “no slacker tracker” is all filled in so far!  I’ve kicked up the intensity for the start of this year as I need to build back some of my missing fitness.  I let some of it get away last year (in both strength and cardiovascular endurance ability) so I’m currently splitting out the body parts in a more traditional bodybuilding fashion, rather than a full body Tabata workout as I’d done a lot of last year.  I plan to continue this for the first quarter and assess my progress.  It looks like this for now:

  • Chest/Shoulders/Biceps
  • Cardio (some intervals, some steady state)
  • Legs
  • Back/Triceps/Core
  • Cardio Legs (hi rep routine w/ lots of lunges, squats and light plyometrics)

I’ll fill in the other days with yoga/hiking/walking/social-cizing, whatever feels fun in the moment.

And maybe some more classes like this:  last week, I had the fun opportunity to workout at a new OrangeTheory Fitness location that will be opening for business next week.   I was invited to attend one of their free mock classes prior to their Grand Opening and I was excited to do something different (and truth be told, have someone tell ME what exercises to do for a change).  It’s a group fitness session that incorporates cardio intervals and circuit training.

It was a really fun workout and the hour flew by.  They provide you with a heart rate monitor and your heart rate is posted on big screen monitors, along with all of your fellow exercisers’ heart rates.  We started out on cardio equipment to warm-up:  half on rowers, half on treadmills.  Then the rowing group moved to the gym where were did giant sets of exercises.  For example, 10 reps each of weighted squats, then dumbbell rows, then chest presses, then lunges, then back extensions and repeat a few times.  We went through three different giant sets along those lines, and it gets your heart pumping.  Next thing you know, 30 minutes has flown by and it’s time to trade with the peeps on the treadmill.  The instructor then led us through a running interval session (or power walking at an incline if you prefer) for the remainder of the class.  Then we cooled down and did a quick round of stretches.  The energy was great and the staff was really friendly and supportive. They also had a lot of fun fitness toys, like BOSU balls and TRX suspension trainers.

If you have one in your area and you are looking to switch things up, give it a try!  I haven’t found any info yet on what the cost is for membership or whether they offer drop-ins.  I’ll update this post when I get that info.

Have you been to an OrangeTheory class?  Or do you have one nearby but haven’t yet tried it?

Have a GREAT day friends!

– Shari B. =)

»crosslinked«

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The Start of Year 3 and a 3 Week Challenge

Aug 29

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 11 Comments

Happy Monday blog buds!  I hope you had a fantastic weekend.  Ours was very nice – and our weather couldn’t have been more beautiful.  It’s been warm, to say the least. In Denver, we have tied the record for the all-time hottest August and we are poised to actually break that record over the next few days. I love it!  Summer is welcome at my house anytime!

This weekend marked the end of YEAR TWO for FitFeat!  Wow, 2 years! It’s flown by!  And I’ve had such a blast along the way.

I’m definitely looking forward to what the next year brings!  In honor of FitFeat turning 2 and starting its 3rd year, I figured it might be time to bring back a little of what this blog was all about when it first started.  I initially created FitFeat in order to share with readers, clients (and maybe even potential clients) how I eat and exercise to stay “fit”.  Then the culinary school journey began and my focus become more about my natural chef practice.

A lot of the food I have been eating lately hasn’t been my typical “Shari fare”.  That’s mainly because I am constantly in a recipe testing mode and those recipes are built around the needs of the personal chef clients at the time.  Most of these recipes have been freezer recipes and let’s just say a lot of casseroles have been consumed.  More grains than I personally want to take in and a lot less in the way of RAW, fresh foods than I want to be eating.

With Borders book stores going out of business, they were having 50-70% off sales so this weekend I bought FitFeat a little token birthday gift:

I can’t wait to dig in and make some new veggie recipes.  My dehydrator has been feeling very neglected!

I also have a visit with a beach location coming up in the near future, so I figured this would be the ideal time to get back to my FitFeat basics.  Using my “10 Commandments of FitFeat” as the guide, I’ll be getting back to my simpler nutrition style, with maybe a few recipe tests along the way, but back to a lot more RAW food consumption and a definite increase in vegetables.

For the next three weeks (because ‘they’ say it takes 21 days to break old habits and make new ones), I’ll be challenging myself to cut out a lot of the refined foods that have weaseled their way back into my world.  I will have a “snack to savor” on the weekend – and I can already tell you that this coming weekend it will be a piece of wedding cake on Sunday night!  :D

And during those weeks, I’ll post more of what I am doing with food and exercise so that you can follow along if you’d like, à la early FitFeat days.

Anyone want to join in the fun for the next three work weeks?

So let’s begin shall we?

My workout this morning was UPPER BODY, ladder-style.  To do a ladder workout, you select an exercise, then work your way up through numbers of reps (to the top of the “ladder”) and then work your way back down to the bottom of the ladder.  So your first set is one rep.  Then you rest a beat.  Your second set is 2 reps, then rest 2 beats.  Third set is 3 reps, and so on, up the ladder.  I did today’s workout with a goal of 10 being the top of my ladder because that would actually total 100 reps at the end of it.

Here’s how it looks:

1 rep
2 reps
3 reps
4 reps
5 reps
6 reps
7 reps
8 reps
9 reps
10 reps
9 reps
8 reps
7 reps
6 reps
5 reps
4 reps
3 reps
2 reps
1 rep
100 total

I did this routine for four exercises: pushups, pulldowns, chair dips and horizontal pullups.

Then I did a cardio ladder, setting my treadmill at 4.0 mph for a good walking pace.  I did 1/4 mile intervals, raising the incline each time working my way up then down the incline ladder:  2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%, 8%, 6%, 4%, 2%.

I was done with all of the above in well less than an hour. And my arms are toast!  I think applying mascara today will be dangerous – I have shaky arms!

Let me know if you try it!

Before my workout I had my half-caff coffee (sans Coffeemate today, wahoo me!) with almond milk and stevia:

And post-workout, for breakfast, I had a green smoothie with some RAW Code plant protein powder.

It’s still early, so that’s all I’ve had so far.  I’ll include more of today’s food in the next post.

Have a great day friends!  Thank you SO much for continuing to visit me at FitFeat and for bringing so much love and friendship into my life! I’ve so enjoyed the conversations we’ve had out here over the last 2 years and am so excited for the coming year as well!

– Shari B. =)

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Yardio Time is Here Again!

May 27

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Happy Friday FitFeat Friends!  It’s time for a long holiday weekend – oh yeah!  I’m very excited!

The sun is finally out again today so I took the chance to get in my YARDIO just in case it decided to hide behind the clouds again.  It was a very productive morning.  Before 8:30 I’d had a cup of coffee, made a delicious (and HUGE) glass of green juice, picked up land mines (aka dog doody), and got the yard edged, trimmed and mowed!  This is only the second yardio session of the year, because our grass hasn’t been growing much.

Green juice and grass clippings:  mmmm

Oh I should add to my list of productivity “clean up kitchen post-juicing” – what a mess!

It felt GREAT to get back to doing yardwork – I especially LOVE to run the weedwhacker (trimmer).  I need to devise a contraption or exercise that mimics running the weedwhacker because it works my rear shoulders like nothing else I’ve ever done.  Or maybe I just got really out of YARDIO shape over the last year, since I didn’t really do any last summer while I was still working at the securities firm.  :D

I also got to spend some extra yardio time moving river rocks last week.  I’m saving the big rocks…

…because we are finally (and begrudgingly) having our driveway replaced.  We could have purchased a small car (or a nice vacation to Italy or replaced all of our carpeting) for the cost of this project, but it had to be done or we were certain to get a letter from the HOA.  It’s been disintegrating at the seams for about 3 years.  And since we are adding a couple of sidewalk extensions, I’m saving the bigger river rocks to put down somewhere else.

The concrete guy is pretty cool and he has FUN yardio toys!

He even helped us pull out some overgrown bushes.

Bye bye crazy juniper, bushy spirea (or whatever you were) and dead aspen!  If we ever move into another house, we will make sure there are NO juniper bushes – this thing spread “creepers”  quite a ways into our neighbor’s grass.

So tonight as soon as MSP is off of work, we are heading to the local nursery to start looking at plants to consider installing in their place.  We need to do a little homework to find out which ones won’t grow like weeds, will work in the Colorado climate and most importantly won’t COST a fortune.  Then we have to sketch it out and turn it all in to our homeowner’s association architectural committee to see if they’ll even approve it.

Um, Dear HOA: I already ripped out those crazy bushes.  I know I didn’t ask for permission first.  But it’s your fault those crazy plants were there in the first place since you approved them for the previous owners! ;)

We can’t wait to have a fresh new driveway.  Partly because we haven’t been able to use our garage for a week, and it will be another 2 weeks before we can get back in!

And last but not least, we finally got our FIRST veggie garden planted!

(Is my husband a handy guy or what?  Check out that raised 4×8 garden bed on STILTS!!)

We planted red peppers, tomatoes, kale (of course I planted KALE – the best veggie on the planet!), cucumber, zucchini, mint, basil, scallions, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts.  We can’t wait to see how it grows!  If only staring at it would cause the plants to grow faster, we’d be set!  Because we have both been out there hovering over it every day in the week since we planted!

Have you done any YARDIO yet this season?  Planted any veggies?

I hope you have a MEMORABLE Memorial Day weekend, blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

P.S.on the subject of veggies, if you are looking for something to do this long holiday weekend:  find a viewing of  Forks Over Knives at your local theater (in all of Denver it’s only showing in ONE theater, so look for places that show indie films and documentaries).  I really enjoyed it and you really come out of it wanting to take your nutrition to the next level and improve your health.

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Midterms Behind Me, Homework Ahead of Me

Dec 4

Posted by Shari B. in Do Something Daily, Natural Chef Culinary School | 5 Comments

Hi friends!

Happy Saturday!  Midterms are finally done (oh thank goodness) and I’ll get my grade for the whole week sometime on Monday.  I’ve seen grades for the written and identification portions (rocked ‘em!) and the knife skills portion (rocked it!) but I don’t know my grades for the improv cooking segments.  Yesterday I used two leafy veggies for my salad that weren’t what I thought they were and so it ended up CRAZY bitter.  Apparently I used radicchio thinking it was red cabbage (oops) and used escarole thinking it was green leaf lettuce (another oops).   Guess I need to hit up the produce section and get a little more cozy with random leafy veg! :)   My instructor gave me credit though for taking a risk in the kitchen, even if it didn’t turn out as I’d planned – that was a very kind thing for her to say.

Then last night was the big benefit event that we Bauman students were working for externship credit.  By 10:30 last night I was ready to drop after having been on my feet (and awake) since 4:20 in the morning.  It was an interesting evening.  As it turns out, we weren’t cooking on the line as we’d thought – we mostly did food prep, plating, food running and clean up.  It was a really great learning experience and I have to say that I have SERIOUS respect for people in the restaurant / catering industry.  It is hard work and requires a LOT of stamina and a LOT of “go with the flow” mentality.

Here are a couple of pics snapped with my phone.

The event was held at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art:

However, we were set up in a tent behind the building.  Check out the huge rental oven!

Food prep before the dinner service started (all of the electricity was provided by a generator just outside the tent and when I got home last night, MSP said I was talking extra loud!)

The chef on the left is Kyle Mendenhall, Executive Chef of The Kitchen restaurant in Boulder, and on the right is Hugo Matheson, Co-Owner and Executive Chef of The Kitchen.  It was really an honor to get to work alongside these men – one thing I noticed was how CALM they were during the all of the chaos and excitement.

By the time I drove all the way home from Boulder, it was almost midnight.  You guys know this fuddy duddy is usually in bed at 9:00.  (When I’m really tired I get about as whiny and cranky as a 2 year old toddler that missed a nap.)  Some of the other students were staying to dance and enjoy the benefit once the ‘work’ part was done.  I just didn’t have anything left in the energy tank.  I realize that I missed out on an opportunity to spend some fun quality time with my classmates but it was all I could do to keep my eyes open on the drive home.  I even missed an exit on the highway and ended up just lost enough that I had to pull over and get out my iPhone to Google Map myself back to civilization.

I had only water to drink yesterday, but feel hung over this morning.  I often feel that way when I stay up too late the night before, which is partly why I’m such a stickler for getting to bed on time.  Does that happen to you?

Tired as I was this morning, I got up and WORKED OUT!  I have to credit our “December DSD challenge” for staying on track (otherwise I may have given myself a pass).  I got up a bit before 7, had my coffee and lounged around and then we strapped on our heart rate monitors to do some Wii dancing.  High heart rate today was 173!!  We did that for 45 minutes and I just have to say that MSP took me to SCHOOL in “Just Dance” today.  Usually this is one game that I can beat him at – but he was on fire this morning!  And unfortunately I will have Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” song stuck in my head the rest of today….

And now, the weekend of homework begins…. so far I’ve dreamed up:

Northern Italian Eggs Benedict on Sage Polenta with Porcini Mushrooms and Yogurt “Hollandaise”

and

North African Crepes with Almond Fig Filling and Sweet Balsamic Reduction

I have four more to come up with, one to prepare, run the ingredients through nutrition software, write 2 pages about one of the regions, and write a recipe analysis of the one I prepare.

I think this will require more coffee…  ;)

See you on the other side of the homework!  Thanks for posting your exercise info – keep it coming for the challenge!  You are all doing a FABULOUS job!

– Shari B. =)

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I Dare You Not to Laugh

Nov 4

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Mornin’ blog buds!

I’ve been a little lacking in the cardio department lately.  With the shorter days, I haven’t been outside to run in the mornings and I’m just not ready to face the treadmill yet.  So I decided to do something FUN to shake things up!  I’ve talked about getting my cardio time in via dance before… and how much we love doing “Just Dance” on the Wii because it feels like a workout.  This morning I finally decided to actually make it my workout and wear my heart rate monitor.

Interestingly enough, the “Just Dance 2″ game has a “Sweat” setting so you can just pick songs (rated by drops of sweat for level of difficulty of course!).

First the song selections!

The results? 45 minutes with my heart rate right in the cardio range I’d do on the treadmill.  During most of the songs I was in the 140s to 150s.  During “Jump” I was up to 170!!  And can I just say – I was grinning like a fool during “Jump” – ahh the memories of music from when we were younger…

In the mood to grin like a fool with me?  Check out their video from 1992.

Then picture me trying to dance to that song – and I guarantee you will giggle.

There, I just gave your abs a little workout from the laughing at your desk!

;)

– Shari B. =)

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Circuit Training for Upper Body and Core

Sep 25

Posted by Shari B. in Exercise Instruction, Keeping Fit | 12 Comments

Hi friends!  Happy weekend to you all!

As promised, I am back to share with you a little workout I put together last week for one of my ‘in-person’ personal training clients.  She gets a lot of lower body work outside of our in-studio sessions, so we focus on upper body, cardio and core movements.

She enjoyed this one a lot so I thought I’d post it here as well.  Every once in a while I should show you FITNESS stuff in addition to just healthy FOOD stuff, right? ;)

Be sure to warm up for a minimum of 5 minutes (and preferably 10 minutes) in order to get blood flowing to your muscles and raise your core body temperature.  Action pics are included after the list of circuits, to give you an idea of the movement involved.  Get your timer ready because you’ll perform each exercise for one minute!

A1: 1 Minute Punch Presses on the Ball

A2: 1 Minute Seated Rows with Exercise Tube

A3: 1 Minute Reverse Plank Posterior Lifts

A4: 1 Minute Cardio Interval (we ran on a treadmill)

A5: 1 Minute Rest 1 minute

Complete “A” Circuit twice through before moving on.

B1: 1 Minute Pushups (as many as you can full pushup style then drop to modified style on your knees if you need to)

B2: 1 Minute Squatting Punch Rows

B3: 1 Minute Upright Rows into Overhead Presses

B4: 1 Minute Cardio Interval

B5: 1 Minute Rest 1 minute

Complete “B” Circuit twice through before moving on.

C1: 1 Minute Dumbbell Flyes with a ‘Twist’

C2: 1 Minute Swimmers

c3: 1 Minute Bicycles

c4: 1 Minute Cardio Interval

c5: 1 Minute Rest

Complete “C” Circuit twice through before moving on to your cool-down (in the second set, C5: rest should be replaced with cool-down activity.)

Cool down with light cardio or walking for at least 5 minutes to bring your heart rate back down and allow your blood flow to normalize.

Action Shots to give you an idea on the movements:

Punch Presses on the Ball
Head and neck supported, abs and glutes tight, palms facing each other
Alternate arms pressing upward similar to punching

*NOTE* I prefer to keep my upper back, neck and shoulders on the ball and use my core muscles to stabilize my low back.  If you have any issues with your back, roll further onto the ball to ensure your back is being supported, or perform this movement on a weight bench instead.

***

Seated Rows with Exercise Tube
Rowing movement, keeping torso steady

***

Reverse Plank with Posterior Lifts
A Jackie Warner special ;) You’ll feel the whole backside of your body
Notice that the arms stay straight – these are not tricep dips.  You are lifting your butt up and down (squeeze the glutes!)

***

Pushups

***

Squatting Punch Rows
Palms are facing up on this one, alternating quickly right to left arms

***

Upright Rows into Overhead Press
Four step motion here.

***

Dumbbell Flyes with a ‘Twist’
the ‘twist’ here is that you start with your palms facing toward your head and as you lower into the flye, slowly rotate the wrists so that the palms face each other at the bottom of the movement.  Twist again on the way up back to the start position.

*NOTE* I prefer to keep my upper back, neck and shoulders on the ball and use my core muscles to stabilize my low back.  If you have any issues with your back, roll further onto the ball to ensure your back is being supported, or perform this movement on a weight bench instead.

***

Swimmers
Opposite arm/leg flutter to simulate swimming.

***

Bicycles
Fingertips are lightly touching head, NOT pulling on it.  Take elbow across the body to the opposite knee, then switch to other side.

Before beginning any exercise program, it may be recommended that person first consult a physician or other qualified health care provider. A physician or other health care provider can determine what type of exercise, the frequency, and the intensity are appropriate for each individual. A physician or other health care provider may be able to recommend an exercise program that will cater to a person’s specific heath concerns and needs.

Let me know if you have any questions on the workout or what your thoughts were after completing it.  Was it hard for you?  Or too easy?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Review: Physique 57

Feb 12

Posted by Shari B. in Product Review | 11 Comments

Yes, I’ve been talking about this forever and now it’s finally been long enough that I feel I can fairly review the Physique 57 DVD.  They currently offer 3 DVDs.  The one I have is the “Classic 57 Minute Full Body Workout”.

First let me share what I like about this workout.

  • It accomplishes a lot in 57 minutes: an efficient use of time including warm-up and cool-down with stretching here and there throughout.
  • It uses muscles you might not hit with traditional strength training: a big part of why this DVD held my interest for as long as it has.  The first time I tried to do “The Pretzel” I realized a definite imbalance between the strength on my left side vs. right side. This move looks so simple and yet I found it to be incredibly difficult.  Here’s a quick video of Tanya instructing this move.

  • It’s well-organized into segments: You get a fast upper body workout right at the start, move on to thighs, then glutes, then core.  So if you feel one day like you want to give your upper body a rest, you can skip over that and go right into thighs.  Personally, I find that I don’t like to work core every day or every other day, so I would often do the upper and lower portion and then add the core segment once or twice during the week.

***

Next I’ll share the few things I didn’t like as much:

  • Typical cheesy ‘fitness DVD’ moments: they actually use the line “you got a license for those guns?” in the video.  That alone was enough to make me want to hit mute.  Also a lot of “uh-huhs” and sing-songy “Cell-u-lite, Bye-Bye”.  Yowza.
  • Form: as a personal trainer we get it beaten into our brains that knees should never go beyond the toes (if you were to draw a line straight up from the toes).  There are a lot of ballet-style squatting movements that have your heels together and your knees way past your toes.  I’m fine with this if you’ve never had knee problems but would be a little worried otherwise.  You also heard me complain a few times in January about my toes hurting from being ON them so much in this workout.
  • Big promises: The instructor says during the DVD that this workout WILL change your body, and quickly.  I have to be honest and say I don’t SEE a difference.  While I know I’ve strengthened some core and stabilizer muscles, this workout alone won’t change your shape so don’t order it for that reason.  I know Kelly Ripa credits this program to her fit figure, but you know she is also eating right and she runs.  If you’ve never lifted a weight or performed a squat in your life, yes you may see a difference.  But first and foremost if you want to change your physique, you have to eat well to do it AND exercise.

***

Conclusion:  I would definitely recommend incorporating Physique 57 into your routine.  I think it is a quality workout with a strong focus on muscular endurance and some focus on muscular strength (like pushups and dips).  I’d still recommend some heavier strength days and cardio to supplement this program.  The upper body portion of the DVD uses dumbbells which allows progression to harder (heavier) movements, but you don’t get that option for the legs.

Whenever I’d take a few days away from the DVD to do something else, I always looked forward to the next workout (the sign of a good video to me!)  It’s definitely fun and challenging.  If it’s a program you’ve been thinking about trying, go for it! It’s worth $24.95.

– Shari B. =)

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Green Smoothie Grinch

Dec 23

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Good morning!  It’s my FRIDAY!  Wahooo!  Love it when you get to have Friday on a Wednesday!

Let’s cover the FEATS today before the EATS, since I glossed over them in a hurry yesterday.

To further expand on my Tabata workout from Monday:

Weight Training – Tabata Upper Body:

  • TM Warm-up – 5 minutes, followed by arm circles and muscle-specific warm-ups
  • Incline DB Chest Press – 4 minutes
  • Bent 2-Arm DB Row – 4 minutes
  • Rear Delt & Back Extension Static Holds – 4 minutes
  • Overhead Shoulder Press (seated on FitBall) – 3 minutes (by this time my arms were already toast and holding them above my head became problematic!!)
  • Bicep Curls with ExerBand – 4 minutes
  • Tricep Overhead Extensionwith KB – 4 minutes

With warm up, this workout was only 30 minutes total.  And I felt it!  I am hopelessly crazy about Tabata for my weight training it seems – I really LOVE getting in an effective workout in a short amount of time.  However, I ordered something online that I’ll be discussing in a future post – after it arrives and I’ve had a chance to try it out long enough to give a review.  We’ll see if it changes the way I work out or not!  :)

Then for my Tuesday exercise, I did another round of “See Shari Dance“.  I warmed up to Run This Town by Jay-Z.  Then got busy with the wildly jumping around dancing to get my heart rate good and high.

The playlist also included:

  • Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
  • Make Me – Janet Jackson’s latest (GREAT song for cardio BTW – click here to check it out)
  • Damaged - Danity Kane
  • 3 - Britney Spears
  • Single Ladies – Beyoncé
  • Calabria 2008 – Enur
  • Get Back – Britney Spears
  • Ring the Alarm – Beyoncé

With cool-down, it was a little over 40 minutes – truly an incredible way to start the day.  It’s not possible to be in a bad mood when you start your day with a little boogie-ing!  Between dancing for cardio and Tabata for weights, I may be in a bit of a workout RUT but I’m having a blast!  I suppose if one gets stuck in a rut, a WORKOUT rut would be a good one to get stuck in!

Afterward, I went upstairs to make a post-workout smoothie.  And there was a little cutie waiting in the kitchen with his question-mark ears.  Apparently I’ve created a monster (of the green smoothie variety).

“Puppy mommy, I’m ready for my greens please..!”

Unfortunately I had to tell him that I was using my new protein powder so there’d be no greens for him this time.

So then he threw me his “Whatchu talkin’ bout, Willis?” face, complete with sideways eyes:

I’m the Grinch of Green Smoothies in Rascal’s eyes. :(

I had a BEIGE Smoothie instead, using aforementioned protein powder (almost ready to provide a review)…

Then I packed up my lunch for later:

A green smoothie was consumed at my desk (leftover from the previous day):

A veggie sandwich for dinner (toasted Ezekial with fat free Nasoya Soy Mayo, sea salt, pepper, pepitas, roma tomatoes, sprouts):

***

Today is essentially our Christmas.  MSP and I are like little 5-yr olds when it comes to Christmas.  Or maybe it’s just me and he plays along.  It used to be that our tradition was we open our presents on Christmas Eve, after driving around to view holiday lights.  We’d come home, put on a fire and turn on our tree, then start opening.  We liked the ambiance of an evening Christmas as opposed to the first-thing-out-bed in the morning.   Then we tried  opening ONE gift on the evening of the start of our long weekend and last year we lost control after opening one and ended up opening everything! :)   So tonight when we both get off of work it will be the start of our 4 day weekend and we anticipate that we will likely open our gifts tonight.  This way we have all weekend to play with our new toys!

MAYBE we’ll be able to hold off until tomorrow night, but I doubt it!

I’m really hoping that Santa brought me a veggie spiralizer!  It was at the top of my list!

Then on the actual Christmas day we always go eat at a Chinese restaurant and see a movie.  This year the movie will be “Sherlock Holmes”.

How about you?  Do you have any fun, NON-traditional traditions?  Got any fitness- or health-related items on your list for Santa?

Speaking of fitness items, it’s time to go get my workout in!  Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Ice Ice Baby, Dance Dance Lady

Dec 11

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Well hello there FitFeat friends!  Happy Friday to you!  Second-to-last shopping weekend before Christmas – are you on schedule? 

I’d say it’s beginning to look a little TOO much like Christmas inside our house.  I present exhibit A.

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No, that is not a freezer in dire need of defrosting.  Look very closely – zoom in!  That would be the INSIDE of our guest bedroom window.  This next photo might make a pretty postcard if only the ICE were on the OUTSIDE!! 

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This is apparently what a few days of below-zero nights and days in the single digits does to our windows.  We’ve lived in this house for 4 years and have never seen this happen – it was 1/4″ thick at the bottom, at least!  Need new windows much?  (Know any blogs giving away windows instead of VitaMix blenders?)  You’d think we lived in a house that was 100  years old.  It’s only 12 years old!  

I am showing you these pictures so you have proof of why I haven’t been outside running.  Or dog-wogging. 

(And as a side note for the record, yes it is true – Heather is giving away a VitaMix - you have until Sunday so get on over there and enter!)

Speaking of blending, someone is anxiously awaiting their green smoothie … and it’s NOT me!

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Rascal now knows that when he hears the sound of the blender, he gets a little green smoothie poured into his bowl.  (And judging from that roll of pudge behind his neck,  you can see that he could use a few green smoothies in place of his “lean” dog food… I think I want our money back.  It’s making them FATTER!)

26 ounces for me… 3 oz for each of the pups! 

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Lunch at work today was a vegan Sunshine burger patty topped with 1/4 avocado, a slice of tomato and a drizzle of peppercorn ranch.  It was perfect.  If I can’t SEE sunshine, at least I can eat some.

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A tall soy steamer on my way home.

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A quick-n-easy veggie wrap for dinner (Nasoya FF mayo, 1/4 avocado, tomato, spinach, sea salt & pepper on a whole wheat tortilla. 

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I also had a GINGER cookie that has been taunting me since Sunday.  Just had to do it.  :)

Thursday’s exercise was a TOTAL BLAST.  As usual I bored of the treadmill after 32 minutes and had to move on to a little BOOGIE session!  And the songs that were coming from Pandora.com were so good I couldn’t stop!  So I got another 40 minutes of DANCE  DANCE CARDIO in my basement.  Too .. much .. fun .. to actually be counted as exercise!  But my heart rate stayed in the 150′s so heck yeah it counts!

During my training client’s session Thursday morning, we saw an ad for the new Wii game called “Just Dance”.  Have you seen this???  I am SO going to rent it.  It looks silly yet insanely fun!  Now I won’t have to hide in the basement to get my dance on … I’ll be able to do it right in front of the TV!

If this is the only way I can get MSP to dance with me, I’ll take it!  :)

Have a FANTASTIC Friday, friends!  Make it a FEATful day!

– Shari B =)

 

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