FitFeat

Posts Tagged Flex-It Friday

Technology Can Drive One Insane

Feb 21

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Happy Sunday friends!  Sorry I missed you yesterday.  It’s been a weird weekend of TECHNOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES! I feel like I’m back on my RV trip in the Upper Peninsula wilderness, not in the suburbs of Denver, with the way our electronics have been behaving this weekend.

First, unbeknownst to us, our mail server was down most of Thursday, all of Friday and part of Saturday.  So as it turns out Cindy DID send me photos for Flex-It Friday.  We (or I should say MSP) just got it back up and running yesterday and most things bounced instead of storing, so if you did mail me pics please let me know via the comments section.  I will run a “Part TWO” if we have some takers – but you’ll need to resend them to me!  What an inconvenient time for the email to go out!

Next, our internet service has been slow, my IE browser has hung and crashed a couple of times and to top it all off our DVR corrupted all of the files we had stored on it.  Ah well, time in front of the TV is a waste anyway, right?

Which has left plenty of time this weekend for health food store visits.  I think I’ve spent a good 8 hours over the course of the weekend browsing/shopping at Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage and Sprouts.  I was looking for this Artisana Coconut Butter that Cindy raves about and I wanted to see for myself.  On the third stop today I finally found a small jar to try, so I’m very excited to smear some on Ezekial toast soon!

I also had to pick up cashews and avocados so I can try the hummus recipes given to me this week by Joan and Paula.  Thank you ladies for the great ideas!

And I also found a NEW (to me) Kombucha Tea called High Country that is made right here in Colorado!  Always excited when I find something to add to the “buy local” list!

Trips to health food stores also lead to baked kale and pita pizzas loaded with roasted veggies:

It’s been a delightful weekend, in spite of tech glitches.  Nonetheless, I’m taking the bad technology MOJO as a sign from the Universe that I should be getting other things done I guess, so I’ll leave it at that!  I’ll be back tomorrow for MARATHON MONDAY with this weekend’s recap.  Only 12 weeks out now!

Hope that you are enjoying your weekend! See you back here tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Flex-It Friday: The Abs Edition

Feb 19

Posted by Shari B. in Flex-It Friday | 11 Comments

Hi everyone!  Happy Friday!

Well, as it turns out, no one wants to bare their mid-winter abs.  Biceps are one thing, but it seems that abs are quite another indeed!  I was a little scared myself.  I’ve had a bit of a food fest since the middle of January and was dreading seeing my “winter abs” vs my “summer abs”.  In the dead of winter, I’m eating more grains and starchy veggies, not to mention those darn delicious vegan cookies from Whole Foods!  (I almost wish that I hadn’t discovered that tasty treat!)

But in the interest of following through with things I plan for the blog, I present to you my lonely version of Flex-it Friday: The Abs Edition.

Or as I like to call it:  “Fun with Self-Timer“.  :)

I must admit I feel a little weird doing this one alone.  But here goes…

Since we are supposed to FLEX for Flex-It Friday, I figured a side plank would be a good way to get a good shot of abs.  My first realization?  That I could definitely use a longer timer on my camera than 10 seconds!

In this one I totally wasn’t even in the shot!

Next attempt:  uh, getting closer.  A little heavy on the zoom button!

Nope, still not there.

Hey!  A body!  But no head!

And this time a head, but a BLURRY one!  This is impossible!  I want to know how Averie and Cindy get into their advanced yoga poses and take a pic!

I’m thinking Plan B is in order…

Scrap the self-timer….the camera gets to be in the picture too… Flex those abs!

Call it DONE!

I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the recent eating (bday dinner at the Melting Pot, the organic chocolate bars, caramel cream eggs, and Valentine’s Day candy) didn’t do as much damage as I had figured.  I can pinch more right now than I can in the summer, but I know that when the days are longer and warmer I’ll be right back to where I was before Thanksgiving.

For next quarter’s Flex-It Friday, what will you BARE?!! ;)   I’m taking suggestions!  Triceps?  Calves?  Your favorite strength exercise?  Favorite yoga pose?

Have a fabulous Friday friends!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

Chatty Legs

Feb 18

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Hi friends!

Thanks for the great tips you left in comments to the YAYS and NAYS post!  After this post I’ll be replying to the comments from Tuesday!  I had the busiest day yesterday – I didn’t even SEE my home computer at ALL!  So I didn’t get a blog post out and I didn’t even get to reply to any emails.  I woke up this morning and it feels like Wednesday was a total blur.

I would almost think Wednesday didn’t happen, if it weren’t for my SORE LEGS!  They are proof that I did in fact get up and workout yesterday! :)

Wednesday’s Workout:

  • 5 min warmup on TM

Three Sets in a row of:

  • High Step-Ups 15R, 15L
  • Explosive Lunges 18
  • 1-Arm Overhead Shoulder Press 18R, 18L

Two Sets in a row of:

  • Plié Squats with heels raised 10 full, 10 low pulse, 10 full, 10 low pulse
  • Static Lunge Right 10 full, 10 low pulse, 10 full, 10 low pulse
  • Static Lunge Left 10 full, 10 low pulse, 10 full, 10 low pulse

One Set Each of:

  • Thigh Dance from Physique 57 (Tabata style) 2 minutes
  • Straight Arm Planks 1 min
  • Forearm Planks with 20 hip dips

Legs = FRIED!  :) I love the day after a good leg workout when all the muscles are reminding you they are there!  The legs are TALKING TO ME TODAY!

***

I’ve had some good eats in recent days that I thought you’d like to see.

A grilled goat cheese sandwich (made on Ezekial bread, what else??) with a side salad and another WONDERFUL new soup (Imagine brand Organic Fire Roasted Tomato Bisque).  A very creamy yet DAIRY-FREE tomato soup!  I LOVED this soup… very flavorful.  A quick and tasty dinner.  I went very light on the goat cheese to keep it from being too calorie dense, about an ounce and a half in thin slivers.

I also attempted to make an Edamame Hummus, after having devoured that appetizer at Root Down last week.  I had a 10 oz package of organic frozen shelled edamame and scanned through a few recipes on the internet.

This contains lemon juice, sesame oil, sea salt, and some veggie stock.  I think what I ended up with was more Eda-mole than hummus.  It needed a LOT of added sea salt to have some flavor, so I’ll be trying a few more recipes.  This one wasn’t really worth sharing just yet.  Not bad, just not WOW.  And definitely not nearly as good as Root Down’s.

If you have a recipe for Edamame Hummus that you’d like to share (or ANY hummus for that matter, seeing how I am a HUMMUS-HOLIC) I’d love to hear from you! Drop a comment!

Speaking of hummus, we made a trip to Garbanzo’s and my hummus plate lasted for THREE meals!  Now that’s budget- friendly!  You get a big dollop of hummus in the middle and then I order all the veggies they offer, and skip the rice, pita and chips.   Then I bring it home and using an Ezekial pita, I do this:

Smear a little hummus inside the pita, add two falafel, pickled eggplant, tabbouleh, and the chopped tomato/cucumber salad.  Then I made a side salad with spinach from home, added a little hummus, some pickled eggplant and a drizzle of their tahini dressing.  THREE MEALS I got out of this for the $6 plate.  And TASTY!

And Berni,  you will be happy to know that I did in fact wash my ALL of my spinach as soon as I read your comment about doing it on the weekend.  :)   Which had crossed my mind, but I was being LAZY!

No fecal material in MY salads or smoothies, thankyouverymuch!

***

Well, I am off to take my pics for tomorrow’s FLEX-IT FRIDAY.  Send me your pics today to shari at fitfeat dot com.  If you DO NOT get a reply from me by email after sending your pic(s), drop a comment here at the blog to let me know.  Because I will write each person back when the pics come through to let you know I got them, so no return email means that they didn’t make it through.  And if you are a blogger, include your URL and I’ll be sure to link back to your site when I write the post.

Where are the peeps from Cindy’s CORE Challenge? This is for you!

Have a terrific Thursday, friends!

– Shari B. =)

»crosslinked«

Tags: , , , ,

Calling All Abs!

Feb 10

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Hi blog buds!

Yesterday in closing I mentioned an upcoming Flex-it Friday.  We had a little fun with this back in November for our first Flex-it Friday, showcasing our biceps.   We had a lot of laughs, so when Cindy announced her 30 Day Core Challenge in January I figured the end of that challenge called for another round of Flex-it Friday to let everyone show off their hard work! And the rest of us who did not do the challenge (like me) have a reason to eat super-clean for the next week and maybe slap on some sunless tanner to get our abs ready for photo time!  ;)   If anything it will help us keep our mitts out of the Valentine’s Day chocolate, right?

Here’s how it works:  take a pic of your best ab-flexin’ shot with something to let us know it’s YOU (and not Dana Torres) ;) and email to me at shari at fitfeat dot com.  (Had to write that out to keep those darn spammers from grabbing my email.)  Serious AND silly pics will both be accepted so have some fun!  If you are also a blogger, I will mention (and link) your blog with your photo, so if you are a new blogger it’s a fun way to get a little extra traffic!  I’ll accept pics through Thursday Feb 18 at 4:00 PM MST and then the blog post will be up on Friday the 19th.

***

Giveaways in the blogosphere:

  • Christy at Fit in the City is hosting her first giveaway with an autographed copy of The Blue Zones through tonight.  I’ve not had the opportunity to read this one but I did see it featured on Oprah and it’s REALLY interesting!
  • Gena at Choosing Raw is giving away a Tribest portable blender, which looks awesome and would be a GREAT way to make green smoothies at WORK!

You can bet I’ll be entering both of these and thought you might be interested too!  Who wouldn’t love to win something fun?

***

I had dinner last night at one of the coolest restaurants, so I’ll be showing you some pictures and telling you all about it!  I’m hoping to do this yet today, depending on how the day goes.

***

And because this is also a FITNESS blog, I better get yesterday’s workout on record:  52 minutes of Iron Yoga (wearing my VFFs, which ROCK for yoga) followed by 20 minutes of speedwork on the treadmill (also in the VFFs).  I am LOVING my bday unshoes.

Make it a GREAT day everyone!  See you back here soon!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

Remembering to REDUCE and REUSE

Jan 11

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 13 Comments

Hello there blog buds!

Today is the first day of Cindy’s 30 Day Core Challenge so head on over to her blog today to check it out if you are interested.  I’ll be ‘watching’ this challenge from the sidelines only because I started the Physique 57 ‘program’ to review and as such, have more challenge to my core than I can handle already!  :)

Cindy, I’m thinking I’ll schedule the next Flex It Friday at the end of your challenge (making this one for ABS) so you can show off all of your hard work!  Whaddya think??? Are you game?

I hope you all had a marvelous weekend!  Mine flew by too quickly as usual.  As I mentioned in my Sunday morning post, we were planning an outdoor run since the weather was warming up somewhat.  We did get out for a run at 7:30 a.m. but apparently “Mr. Warm Up” was sleeping in.  It was 28 degrees, but WINDY so it felt bitter cold.  But it was still AMAZING!  I just love running outside.  The sun was shining and the sky was blue.  Idyllic. We just did a leisurely 3.5 miles and then spent a good 15 minutes stretching really well afterward.

It was fan-tabulous!

You know what makes beautiful runs even better?  Getting to have your ‘post-workout’ drink at Starbucks!!  I met up with another of my best friends for some chat time after the run and had a delicious grande decaf soy no-foam latte. And the cutest miniature donut you’ve ever seen!  It was too adorable to resist.  I am a sucker for miniature things. Maybe that explains why Rascal has me wrapped around his paw… he IS a MINIATURE Pinscher!

Could you resist this little face??

Didn’t think so!  ;)

***

Switching gears:  I was thinking over the weekend about another part of The Kind Diet that really resonated with me but that I didn’t include as a part of the review.  It has to do with the phrase “REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE”.

I feel good about the amount of recycling we do in our household (vs. throwing things in the trash).  We are very lucky that our waste management company (Eagle Waste) includes recycling FOR FREE when you use them for your trash pickup.  You just have to have some marked bins.  What Alicia reminded me of after reading her book is that while recycling is great, you still want to focus on REDUCING and REUSING before you even go that next step of recycling.

I’d gotten so used to recycling that I confess I had kind of forgotten about the other two.  When I would rinse a glass jar that maybe had spaghetti sauce in it, I’d have normally placed that right into the recycle bin and felt that I was doing a good thing by recycling it.

Well, sort of.

Yes, it’s 100% better than choosing the trash bin.  But this weekend it occurred to me that there was NO REASON to recycle those glass jars when I could absolutely REUSE them. I can take my lunch in one so that I have something of glass to microwave my food in (since I do NOT like to heat my food anywhere near plastic if I can help it.)  Or I can store leftover veggie broth.  Or drink a cup of coffee out of one (or WINE!)

So yesterday when I did my weekly fridge organizing to make room for the groceries, I kept ALL of the glass containers out of the recycle bin, washed them and put them in my cabinet next to our drinking glasses.  I did the same with my Tokyo Joe’s plastic ‘take-out’ containers.  They are just as good as the GladWare that I have picked up once or twice at the store (the thin kind that is considered ‘disposable’ but that I use just like Tupperware.)

Now I know this is a health & fitness blog, but I feel that the health of the Earth qualifies for inclusion here every once in a while.  :)   Because the healthier Mother Earth is, the healthier WE can be too! And I figured if I needed a nudge to ‘remember’ to REUSE before I recycle, then maybe you might like a nudge too!

Are you a big recycler?  How do you REDUCE and REUSE? Please feel free to share any tips that YOU use for reducing and reusing in the comments section so that we can all learn and be kind to our environment!

Have a beautiful evening friends!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

Flex-It Friday: Show Me the Gunney

Nov 6

Posted by Shari B. in Flex-It Friday, Keeping Fit | 11 Comments

Hey everyone!  Welcome to the second-best day of the week!

Since Friday’s are made for “Happy Hour” I’m having a little fun with my chocolate Vega shake this morning:

The Swamptini

The Swamptini

deet deet dit  diddit dit deeet (that’s my newswire sound, for breaking news…!)

We interrupt this usually semi-serious blog for some breaking comedy.  This just in… FitFeat’s first Flex-it Friday…


img 621

OK, if you’re just joining us, you may think I’m crazy.  (It’s OK, you’re not the first.  Definitely won’t be the last.  :) )

Tray challenged me to a little “flex-off” so to speak :)   and since my readers are all fun-loving peeps, I thought I’d open it up to whomever would like to join in for a little Friday fun (not to mention motivation for a few pushups, as Cindy noted!)

Now if I was doing an ARMPIT FLEX OFF this may be the money shot (or maybe a sterno-cleido-mastoid flex-off, that crazy thing you see on my neck!!):

img 613

I have a long way to go before I can “Kiss my Guns” with the big boys…  I would need a Stretch Armstrong neck or much longer lips:

img 612

Cindy from A Sparkle A Day sent in some fun ones.  She keeps fit on her Mas (short for Maserati, aka treadmill) and bendy yoga moves!  Not to mention super healthy eating.   She is an amazing knitter too!  Where she finds the time to work, knit, run, do yoga, keep up with her kids, AND blog is beyond me.  Makes me tired just reading about all she does in a day.  Here is my favorite of the pics she sent me – hey, is she cheating??? I see a helping hand back there… ;)

Photo 451

This is what she does to cheaters so play fair, yo or she’ll give you the smackdown:

Photo 429

***

Tray from Trayn Harder has a superhuman forearm in addition to her bodacious bicep!  I’ve seen the workouts she does and would NOT want to meet her in a dark alley.  She likes hard stuff, like Crossfit!  (Ouchie mama!)  Tray is the inspiration for today’s Flex-It Friday – thanks Tray for keeping me smiling!

tray flex

***

Alison from Mama’s Weeds is a Brendan Brazier (Thrive Diet) fan(atic) like me.   She’s so dedicated that you will often find her riding her bike in the DARK!  She’s an avid runner as well.  I’m not sure which is quicker:  her feet or her wit!  Her posts always keep me laughing.  She’s also a co-blogger at Health Blog Helper, where they are kind enough to share their lessons in blogging with the rest of us.  She’s got guns AND obliques:

bicep_for_shari

Better put in a pic of Brendan’s biceps for Alison‘s sake (Brendan is her boyfriend – he just doesn’t know it yet!!  ;) )  He also doesn’t know that he’s a competitor in our little flex-off.  :)   This is proof that you can build muscle AND be a vegan.  You do not need animal protein to build a banging bod:

brendan bicep

***

And last but not least, yours truly, with the best bicep flex I could muster.  My right bicep got quite the workout yesterday!!  I better go do some curls today with the left side, or I might be typing in circles later.

img 611

I’d just like to give a HUGE thanks to my “Flex-It Friday” Contestants for being good sports, supportive blog buds, and just all around FUN PEOPLE!  I appreciate you guys having a little Friday fun with me.  Readers, show them some luv by checking out their blogs!  It’s Friday, and your boss will think you’re hard at work from the intense stare pointed at your computer monitor.  ;)

***

Speaking of blog luv, did you guys notice the cool new plug-in “CommentLuv” I added?  If you are a blogger, it shows your most recent post with your comment when you leave one (hmmm good incentive to comment often!)   Pretty cool huh?  (Thanks to Health Blog Helper where I first saw the plug-in.)

And because this blog is supposed to be about FITNESS :)   I should note for the sake of accurate journaling that yesterday I had an AMAZING 5K run with my client in the gorgeous weather.  (Colorado broke a weather record now in the HEAT direction, rather than freezing direction.  What a kooky weather year it has been.  79 is on tap for today – you know where I’ll be!)

Today’s question:  what muscle group would you like to show off in a future Flex-it Friday??   Let’s celebrate the effort we put into keeping our bodies fit!

Friends have a FABULOUS Friday!

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes