FitFeat

where daily feats & eats can be adventures in themselves

Posts Tagged Weight training

9 Tips to Ease the Pain of a Killer Workout

May 24

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

Hi friends!

Oh boy am I sore today from Saturday’s leg workout.  After having been sporadically following the Insanity program over the last month, I have used my legs more for sports drill workouts and apparently they forgot what it was like to do a solid strength session!

THE WORKOUT:

Tabata Sets:

  • Smith Machine Squats (8 sets, 4 minutes)
  • Leg Extensions  (8 sets, 4 minutes)
  • Leg Curls (8 sets, 4 minutes)
  • Plyo Lunges (6 sets, 4 minutes)

Followed by:

  • High Step Ups (2 sets per leg)
  • Front Curtsy Squats (2 sets per leg)
  • 11 minutes of ‘dance cardio‘

And all I’ve been saying for the last 36 hours is “oh my legs, my legs!!!”  My hamstrings are so sore, that it is almost painful to stand up completely straight!  Yes, I like to be sore after a good workout.  But I’ll admit this is a step beyond that.  So I figured this would be a great time to share with you the tips I employ when DOMS sets in (DOMS: delayed onset muscle soreness).

1. Move the sore muscles:  blood flow to the muscles will help to speed the repair and move the toxins out faster.  By “move” the muscles, I don’t mean you should strength train those muscles again while they are sore but getting in some light to moderate aerobic activity will do the trick.

2. Light massage of the sore muscles: keyword here is light.  This is not the time to get a deep tissue massage – my massage therapist says at least 24 hours before a deep massage after a tough workout or you risk releasing toxins too quickly.  So I will lightly rub sore muscles by hand, or else I’ll do some easy foam rolling.

3. Light stretching of the sore muscles: again the keyword here is light. You don’t want to cause additional microtears to muscles that are already in the process of repairing.  The idea here is to just get some blood flow in there and keep them from stiffening up.

4. Ice up: I like to use frozen peas wrapped in a thin towel applied to the sore muscles for 10 to 20 minutes every few hours.  This also expedites blood flow to the area.

5. Soak: After (or between) ice applications, take this opportunity to pamper yourself with a hot bath with Epsom salts.  (I usually toss in 1/2 cup.)

6. Ginger root capsules: I got this great tip from Joan, who knows I won’t take ibuprofen.  She introduced me to ginger root capsules to fight inflammation when I had a stiff back and the stuff works!  It doesn’t have the ‘immediate’ relief you get from OTC drugs, but you don’t get the toxic liver either!  And I have noticed a difference when I take two in the morning and two in the evening.

7.  BioFreeze: I’ll use this as a last resort (because I aim to minimize products that contain paraben) but this stuff works wonders when I do choose to use it.  It’s like an extra strength IcyHot.  A chiropractor recommended this to me years ago and I’ve kept a bottle around ever since.  I’ve used it on sore joints, aching muscles, and it also clears the sinuses right out for you!

8. Water: the lactic acid and toxins need to go somewhere and if you aren’t hydrating they won’t move anywhere very quickly.  Be sure to increase your water intake (especially when muscles are sore) and minimize dehydrating beverages like coffee and soda.

9. REST: when you work out hard, rest is extremely important in order to allow the body to repair, adapt and grow stronger so that the next time you do that same workout, it won’t seem as hard and you can do a little more.

What favorite tips do you utilize? Drop a comment!

– Shari B. =)

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Healthy Eats = Healthy Teeth

May 18

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Hi friends!

I hope your week is off to a fantastic start!  Mine is going great! :)   It’s been a “rain sandwich” kind of day.  Meaning that we started off with sunshine this morning, then thunderstorms and now sunshine again!  I’m hoping the sunshine lasts into the evening so that we can get the crazies out this evening for a walk.  And the dogs too… ha ha!

Did you try putting BEETS or some other fun veggie into your smoothie yet?

It was a perfect morning for an outdoor run with one of my clients – we did 3.61 miles of hills and valleys including 8 sets of hill repeats at the end (and I got to take my Vibram FiveFingers for a good spin too).  Yesterday I did a good old fashioned upper body strength workout:  no Tabata timer, no Insanity.

  • Smith Machine Bench Press – 5 sets
  • BB Bent Row – 5 sets
  • Pike Shoulder Presses – 2 sets
  • Overhead 1-Arm DB Presses – 2 sets
  • KB Side Lateral Swings – 1 set

It felt FAN-TAS-TIC!

***

So today was DENTAL DAY in the FitFeat household.  Rascal and I both had our teeth cleaned (fortunately mine was at the dentist!)  ;)   I take our dogs to an anesthesia-free practitioner so that they don’t have to be put under.  I know how terrible I feel after anesthesia so I don’t like the idea of the dogs having to do that unless it is for some sort of life-saving surgery.

You know your dogs need their teeth cleaned when they are riding in the back of an SUV and when they have a barking fit you can smell their breath all the way up in the front seat!

Now Rascal has fresh breath and is once again eligible to receive mommy-kisses.

While trying to snap a pic of these kisses, Rascal turned his head and I was left looking as if I am howling at the moon!

This was a little better…

Riley has her turn on the 27th.  I learned early on not to take them both at the same time.  If you want to see a visual representation of mass mayhem, that would be it.

And the great news of the day is NO CAVITIES for me!  Wahoo!

Back in 2005 in the middle of my high protein and competing days, I went from having great healthy teeth to a dental visit where I was told I had 5 cavities.  Three of which each took a downhill turn one at a time shortly after the fillings, resulting in 2 abscesses, 3 root canals and 3 (crazy expensive) crowns.   I truly believe that the high intake of protein (and low intake of fruits/veggies) leeched minerals from my teeth, resulting in their disintegration.  For a lot of my ‘dieting’ years I ate between 40% and 55% protein which came solely from animal sources.  Since switching to a primarily plant-based diet, I have had no cavities.

If you’ve followed FitFeat for any length of time,  you know I feel strongly about health from the INSIDE out.  Getting a “good grade” from the dentist deepens my resolve that I’ve been doing a good job of taking care of the inside of me!

How about you?  Have you found any changes to your diet that affect your teeth? Did you start/stop soda and see a difference?  Switch to more raw foods?  Cut back on sweets?

Also, does your dentist take your blood pressure before your cleaning?  This is something new at my dentist over the course of the last year.  I love that they do this, because I geek out on knowing my numbers like resting heart rate, blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol, TSH, etc.   I was tickled today to see my blood pressure at 93/67.  Excellent!

Have a FIT and HEALTHY day, blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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Meat Mallet Muscles

Mar 6

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 11 Comments

Happy Saturday fit friends!  I started a post Thursday night to put out here on Friday and then when Friday actually arrived the day took off like Seabiscuit and flew by so fast that I never had a chance to get back out here.

Have you been picking a few of the 10 Commandments of FitFeat to try on for size?  (not the religious ones.. see Thursday’s post!)

Commandment #2 is an easy one for me… this girl loves her greens and this smoothie was PERFECT.  Red grapes, 1/2 banana, 2 clementines, spinach, cucumber, celery, sprouts, hemp protein powder and flaxseed oil.  I could feel this silly cold dissipating as I sipped on my smoothie!

A BEET salad for lunch:

A raw and natural afternoon snack – a banana-phone!  :)

We made an old favorite for dinner this week that we “spiffed up” a bit, CINDY style.  Whole wheat and sweet potato gnocchi, that was lightly pan fried in coconut oil before serving to give it a slight crunch.  Oh Cindy, MSP and I BOTH loved this…!  The pan frying made an AMAZING difference!  Thanks for the great idea!  We also added some of our homegrown basil to the saute pan.  I served mine over sauteed mushrooms and spiralized zucchini topped with Muir Glen organic marinara and nutritional yeast.  It was delicious!

Since I’m getting back to my basics in the food area, I figured why not do the same with some of my training.  So yesterday’s workout was a more traditional weight-lifting session, as opposed to doing something like Tabata or Physique 57.   All I can say is OUCH.  But this is the “good ouch” — I really love to feel a little muscle soreness after a good strength workout.

Friday Chest, Back, Shoulder Workout

  • Upper Body warmup with arm circles, light stretching, moving light weights around
  • DB Bench Press 2 warm-up sets + 4 working sets of 12
  • DB Incline Chest Flyes 1 warm-up set + 4 working sets of 12
  • Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns 1 warm-up set + 4 working sets of 12
  • One-Arm DB Rows 4 working sets of 12
  • Seated Overhead DB Press 1 warm-up set + 4 working sets of 12
  • Side Lateral Raises 4 working sets of 12

Today, my chest muscles feel like someone took a meat mallet to them – I’m talking Tender with a capital T.  :)   The change back to my usual style of training felt good.  I wonder how long it will take me to get bored and switch it up again!

Then this morning I did a 10-mile jog, which I’ll be recapping in the next Marathon Monday post.  No hints as to how it went!  :)

Anyone have big plans for the weekend? I’d LOVE to go see the new Alice in Wonderland, in 3-D!  However, the sun is shining and it’s around 60 degrees, so I don’t want to waste any of it holed away in a movie theater so I’ll either save it for a late show or wait for the next rainy day.

I hope you are having a FIT and HAPPY weekend!

– Shari B. =)

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The 10 Commandments of FitFeat

Mar 4

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 7 Comments

Hi Fit Peeps!  It’s Friday-EVE!

The sun is shining and supposedly it’s going to hit 60 degrees today.  I can’t even describe how happy that makes me!  Spring is just around the corner! You all know I run on solar power, right?  ;)

I took the day off from working out yesterday.  I want to get past this mini-bug as quickly as possible, so I’m saving my body’s energy for immunity rather than for recovering from exercise.  I’ll have to take a trip to Whole Foods today and pick up some Kombucha tea and maybe some of the other cool supplement ideas you all suggested for me this week!  (Thank you for all the great ideas!)

As I mentioned in the last post, since I started training for the marathon a little over 6 weeks ago, my appetite has been a bear and I’ve also allowed more sugary items to creep back in.  Part of that is thanks to the season of Cadbury Caramel Cream Eggs which I love, love, love!  Part of it is the increased expenditure of energy from the long runs, yes, but not nearly as much as you may think.  (The rest of my week has LESS exercise in it than it used to because I spend a day or two ‘recovering’ from the long runs and then minimize leg work as I gear up for the next run.)  So my weekly calorie expenditure isn’t that much more than it was when I wasn’t training for this event.

I’ve been working at such a high heart rate in every run that I’ve been burning mostly sugar as fuel and not much fat.  This leads to a cycle of craving carbs, burning carbs, craving carbs, etc.   When our bodies feel wiped, we crave foods that will give us instant bursts of energy.  And unless you are planning to be running sprints in the next couple of hours, you know right where that sugar’s gonna go:  to your trouble spots!

I eat for weight maintenance.  Over the course of a lot of trials and many errors, I found what works best for me to feel healthy and satisfied, with the added bonus of fitting into my skinny jeans! :)   Enter an endurance sport, and my ‘natural rhythm’ gets thrown a bit off balance.

From a speed perspective I have a target weight in mind that I would like to race at on May 16.  For every 5% of weight you lose, you gain about 5% in speed.  If I want to increase my speed by 30 seconds per mile, I’ll need to get a bit lower than what my ‘summer maintenance weight’ is.

Here’s what I’m NOT going to do:  be obsessive or restrictive about it.  If I make it, great.  If not, I’ll just be 14 minutes slower over the 26 miles.

Here’s what I AM going to do:  get back to the basics of what I know works for me, both from a nutrition standpoint and an exercise standpoint.

With that said I thought I’d share the basics I follow (and coach my clients on) for losing (or maintaining weight) and healthy living in general:

10 Commandments of FitFeat

1.) Eat when hungry, stop when full. Never walk away from a meal feeling stuffed.

2.) Eat a green smoothie every day.

3.) If hungry between meals, choose natural (and preferrably raw) snacks.

4.) Eat a HUGE salad every day, chock full of veggies and fun things like dulse, nutritional yeast and healthy fats.

5.) Chew every bite until it’s practically liquefied – good digestion starts in the mouth!

6.) Eliminate (or greatly reduce) foods that cause nutritional stress (primarily refined flours, refined sugars, trans-fatty acids, artificial chemical additives).

7.) Plan, plan and plan some more.  If you don’t have the right foods within your reach, it’s much to easy to grab the WRONG ones.

8.) Save and Savor: SAVE the once-in-a-blue-moon foods for special occasions (like birthday cake and wedding cake) and when you do treat yourself to these indulgences, SAVOR it. And maybe have some fun with it.  ;)   For the not-so-special occasions where you need a treat, pick those that have some nutritional value like red wine and dairy-free dark chocolate.

9.) Choose exercise that energizes you and that you enjoy doing.  Let each workout leave you wanting to come back again the next time.

10.) Love yourself and your body.  Appreciate what it does for you and treat it with respect.  When you put that thought first, the choices you make will come naturally.

***

Today’s discussion:  how many of these 10 commandments do you already ‘obey’?  If there are some you don’t, which will you implement first?

– Shari B. =)

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Hot and Cold Salad

Feb 23

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Hi blog buds!

I am SO tickled that you are enjoying the Marathon Monday posts.  I can’t THANK YOU all enough for that.  When it’s icky outside or I’m facing a long run, you have no idea how much it helps to know that YOU are right there with me!  Because I pay more attention when I know I get to write about it for you each time!

Oh the healthy eats I have to share with you today… makes me hungry just thinking about it!  But FEATS first then EATS, since I owe you some recaps.  Otherwise you might start thinking that all I do is EAT and only exercise on the weekends.  :D

Sunday we had even SNOWIER weather than we’d had for the Saturday run.  So MSP and I bundled up in our snow gear and took off for a little ‘snow hike’ on the hills around our house.  The view out the window:

Ultimately we only ended up with 3.75 miles, but it seemed so much longer trudging around in the snow.  We had such a good time.  It was so peaceful – no one was out.  The perfect start to our Sunday.

For Monday’s exercise I did more weight training Tabata-style.

  • 5 min warmup on TM
  • Squats with Overhead Press 4 minutes
  • Chest Flyes with tubing 4 minutes
  • Rear Lunge off Low Step PLUS Bicep Curls 4 minutes (alternating legs each set)
  • 45° Upright Row 2 minutes
  • 2-Arm Bent DB Row 2 minutes
  • Glute Bridges on Ball 4 minutes  (Can you say OUCHIE??)
  • Triceps Pressdown 4 minutes
  • Ball Crunches 4 minutes

I am crazy about my Tabata timer (the one I use is an app on my iPhone).  I LOVE working out this way. I’m NEVER bored and it ALWAYS burns!

Now about those EATS!

A tasty snack on Sunday:  baked kale chips with a small side of Buffalo chips and a few slivers of raw goat cheddar.

Sunday night snack (because I was itching to try this Artisana Coconut Butter).  Ezekial Cinnamon Raisin Toast + Coconut Butter = DREAMY.

Monday morning after my workout I had my daily green smoothie!  Mmm I love when I have avocado and pumpkin seeds (pepitas) for my smoothies – they end up SO creamy.

A mid-morning Larabar while at my desk – the awesome “Chocolate Coconut Chew” that to me tastes like a brownie with nuts in it.

Now let me just preface my lunch a bit here.  When it is cold out for days, like it has been, I find it a bit of a challenge to want to eat my usual humongous salads because COLD GREENS are refreshing and when I’m chilly ‘refreshing’ is not on the top of my list. All I want is something warm (and often full of carbs.)  Here’s what I’ve been doing lately that has really helped keep  my salad intake up. I’m topping my salads with ROASTED VEGGIES.  I took the time Sunday to pre-roast some stuff I could use during the week (kale, mixed veggies, squash) and have available to take to work.

I packed a large spinach salad in one container topped with sundried tomatoes, a few kalamata olives, nutritional yeast, dulse and balsamic vinegar with a teaspoon of olive oil for dressing.  In another container were my roasted veggies:  red pepper, zucchini and mushrooms with balsamic.  I reheated the roasted veggies and plated them next to my salad.  After I took the picture, I mixed them all up.  And it was LIP-SMACKIN’ GOOD.  The HOT veggies + the COLD spinach makes a really delicious meal.

It looks a bit small in the picture, but this was one HUGE dinner plate.

For my mid-afternoon snack I had half of a “Go Raw” pumpkin seed bar.  This was my first try with this brand and I LOVE it.  I’ll be getting this one again for sure!  I’ve already been looking for them online to order in bulk.

Dinner wanted in on the fun veggie action too.  Another find while at Sprouts:  Golden Flax “roll-ups”, made with flax flour and soy flour.  It seems to be a cross between a flatbread and a tortilla.

So I made this with it:

Lightly ‘grilled’ in a pan to give it a panini feel.  Inside was Tofutti (non-dairy cream ‘cheese’ spread), avocado, tomato, clover sprouts and a bit of romaine.  The rest of the romaine went into my side salad.  Then I poured a little Annie’s Lite Honey Mustard Vinaigrette on the side as a ‘dipping sauce’ for the wrap.

It was really a finger-lickin’ good kind of day.  Mondays can be rough, but not when I have tasty (not to mention ultra-healthy) meals like these to look forward to!

Wow writing this post made me hungry.  I think I need a snack! Do you mix your hot and cold veggies?  Any favorite combos to share?

Have a terrific day!

– Shari B. =)

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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. =)

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Review: Physique 57

Feb 12

Posted by Shari B. in Product Review | 6 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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Miss Sissy Soles

Jan 23

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 8 Comments

Happy Saturday everyone!

I hope that you are enjoying your day and that your Friday evening was nice.  I rushed out after publishing yesterday’s post because MSP and I had an impromptu ‘date’ at a local wine bar so that we could share a budget-friendly meal during their happy hour.  I like to eat off of appetizer menus because the portions are (usually) more in line with what a normal size should be and the prices are more reasonable.  Especially during happy hour!  I had a $5 glass of pinot grigio, shared some hummus with MSP and then a delicious Mushroom Gnocchi (from which I STILL had leftovers to bring home.)

Did you get some exercise in on Friday?  I had an efficient upper body workout:

Tabata Upper Body

  • Warmup on TM followed by arm circles
  • Straight-arm Planks (4 min)
  • Tricep Dips on floor (4 min)
  • Side Raises for Shoulders (SLOW, no momentum – 4 min)
  • DB Rows top half of movement only (4 min)
  • Biceps Curls with arms out to side (4 min)
  • Rotator Cuff movements (no weight) and stretching

I woke up yesterday morning worried that I had come down with a cold.  My nose was runny, my throat a bit scratchy and I felt the stirrings of a headache.  I made sure to take a double dose of probiotics and followed that with a BUBBLY (Raw Kombucha Tea).

And a super green smoothie.

I felt good as new in NO time flat – pretty much by 10:00 AM.   YAY!  No cold after all.  Or if I had the beginning of one, I gave it a good ol’ probiotic/nutrient power punch and nipped it in the bud!

Then this morning I met up with one of my running partners for a 7.6 mile run through two of Denver’s scenic parks.  He runs faster than I do which is good because it pushes me to be better.  But man alive was my heart rate high in my attempt to keep up.  I saw 186 quite a few times and my Garmin told me that I averaged 175 through the ENTIRE run.

Back when I was running a LOT I had built up some pretty good (not to mention ugly) calluses on the balls of my feet.  Since I backed way off my distance over the past year, I have prettier feet again but no more tough skin.  About 5 miles into today’s run, I felt like the bottoms of my feet had been rubbed raw with sandpaper and now I’m hobbling around trying to keep my weight into my heels.  I have sissy soles at the moment!  A few more long runs and I’ll be well on my way to having feet that have no business being seen by eyes other than mine.  :)   That’s OK – I know those calluses are hard-won so I see them kind of like a little badge of honor.

How about you if you’re a runner?  Do you get calluses on your feet?  Blisters?  Black toenails? What’s your running ‘battle scar’? Fortunately I’ve been blister-free since having discovered the Wrightsock.  And as of yet, no black toenails.  But this could be the year!

Make it a GREAT night!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Stop, Drop and Roll (Your Shoulders)

Jan 16

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Good morning friends!  Happy Saturday!

Did you all have an exciting Friday night? Mine was SO exciting that I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30!  Haha… I’m so lame!  :)   MSP and I did go out for a fun dinner and then wandered around Bed Bath and Beyond for a bit.

Dinner was at the Grand Lux Cafe, which is owned by The Cheesecake Factory.  Grand Lux used to be one of my favorites and we hadn’t been there in a really long time (over a year, at least).  They have such a huge selection of things to order you feel like you could eat there every week for a year and never have the same thing twice.  That was the case when I was a meat-eater and didn’t pay any attention to the vegetarian selections.

I thought for SURE I’d have tons of amazing veggie dishes from which to choose seeing how they have such a diverse menu.  I was really shocked to see ONE dish under there vegetarian section, which was stir fried veggies with tofu, WHITE rice and orange sauce.  Or your other meal option would be to choose up to 4 of their butter-laden side veggies and have them served on a plate (again with white rice).  This menu option had a very original name “Vegetables as a Meal”.

I can get great veggies and tofu at Tokyo Joe’s any day of the week (for a lot less money) so I ended up choosing from their tapas menu instead.  I went with the Vegetable Tempura (carrots, asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini) with a mustard dipping sauce and a Roasted Beet with Goat Cheese side salad.  Not the healthiest from a ‘waistline’ perspective, but both were very tasty.  Or they were made better by the Pineapple Basil Mojito I was drinking.  ;)   That could be the case!   (BTW, I did snap some pics on my iPhone but it was SO dark in there that you can’t even tell what you’re looking at, so I’m not even going to bother including them here.)

I don’t want to slam Grand Lux too badly because I still like the restaurant and the food is good.  But Grand Lux, you do need to get with the times a bit.  The rest of your menu is so creative, so why the unoriginal tofu/veggie stir-fry?

Regardless of the food, MSP and I had a wonderful time chatting away and relaxing, ran a few errands, then came home to relax some more with our long-lost pals from Grey’s Anatomy.  Grey’s has been gone so long I couldn’t even remember what happened on the last episode (which was in November, I think?)  So glad to have it back now!

***

To rewind a bit to Friday’s FEATS, I started out on the treadmill for 20 minutes of intervals before moving on to some Tabata-style leg work.

  • Penquin Squats heels in toes out (4 min)
  • Wide Plié Squats low half of movement only (4 min)
  • Seated Thigh Raises (I was on FIRE after 2 min so I’ll have to work UP to 4 on this one)
  • Right Glute Work in external rotation (2 min)
  • Left Glute Work in external rotation (2 min)

Ouchie. Mama. But in an “oh so good” way.

***

I think it will soon be time to give in to spending a little extra money and getting some massage done.  I’ve definitely got some tight spots and can feel some of the trigger points in my neck and upper back acting up a bit again.  I used to get a massage every couple of weeks because I truly believe it is a necessary part of keeping our muscles fit and healthy.  It’s just one of those things that quickly gets cut out when I have to “tight the budget belt”.   I have a tendency when I’m at a desk too long to lift my shoulders up toward my ears and hold them there, without realizing I’m doing it.  I catch myself doing it all the time.

I do this:

When I should be looking more like this:

Do you tend to wear your shoulders as “earrings” like I do when you are working at a desk? When I do catch myself, I’ll take a few minutes to do some shoulder rolls (forward and back) to get some blood flow to the traps/shoulders and then perform this trapezius stretch to bring my shoulders back down.  Or I’ll stay seated, grasp one side of my chair and pull away, dropping my head down and to the side until I feel a good stretch.  Hold for up to 30 seconds, then repeat on the other side.  Like this:

I did those pics on the fly with my webcam and I still have all my running gear on, POST RUN.  That’s just PURTY right there, eh?  ;)   Guess I better add SHOWER to my Saturday TO-DO list!  ;)

Have a super Saturday friends!  See you again soon!

– Shari B. =)

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My Style Miso

Jan 10

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 5 Comments

Hi friends!  Happy Sunday!  It’s going to be 50 degrees today and I couldn’t be happier!  MSP and I are going get out for a REAL outdoors run!  Oh yeah!  Then on to meet one of my best friends for some SBUX action.  A great start to the day!

Since I posted the book review yesterday I didn’t recap much from Friday, so I’ll rewind a bit.

Friday’s workout was 30 minutes of intervals on the TM (5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 mph for a minute each then repeat) followed by 20 minutes of shoulder strength (KB overhead presses, KB side raises, rear delt rows, YTI).  Shoulders are truly one of my favorite muscle groups to work on.  I’ve had a heck of a time getting my rear shoulders to grow so I’ve really given them a lot of attention lately.

Saturday’s workout was another round of Physique 57 on DVD.  I’m getting better!  I even increased my weights on some of the moves!

***

Friday eats were of the usual sort for me.  I made “Now and Later” smoothies:

One to drink "NOW"

And one to drink "LATER"

The combination of greens, acai and a purple to-go container do not make for pretty food photo ops, that’s for sure.  That’s one UGLY smoothie!

Both smoothies had a couple of clementines in them and I would like to know who has the fun job of having to put one of these on EVERY single one:

I had leftovers again for lunch, so no exciting photos at my desk.  But what WAS exciting when I got home was getting to try my first Umeboshi Plum!

Raw veggies, raw goat cheddar, dollop of hummus and UMEBOSHI!

You know that face you might make when you bite into a lemon?  It was kind of like that at first.  It’s sour and SALTY.  But then you get into the flesh and you can kind of tell it was fruity before being pickled.  Definitely interesting.  They are highly alkalizing, but high in sodium too, so one every few days is plenty.  This is not an item that you pile onto your plate.

After posting my blog Friday I moved on to iTunes to see what I could spend a giftcard on.  My latest favorite cardio song is “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. Yes, I’m still listening to music for teens.  Not sure how I’ll ever break that habit.  Although, her lyrics are definitely NOT appropriate for teens, I quickly found!  But for $6.99 on iTunes I couldn’t resist just getting the whole album.  She has some great high-tempo beats to run with!

It's a party at my PC...!

I made some My Style Miso for dinner, meaning I didn’t follow a recipe I just kind of threw in what I wanted.  Thought I’d share it with you in case you’d like to make some too!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup vegetable broth
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/3 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 1/2 sheet Nori (folded and cut into strips)
  • 1-1/2 tsp barley miso
  • 4-5 shakes nama shoyu
  • handful fresh organic spinach

Bring broth, water and dried mushrooms to a light boil.  Simmer with bubbles for about 7 minutes, letting the mushrooms reconstitute.

Fold the nori and then cut into strips with kitchen shears, add to broth along with the spinach and the nama shoyu to taste (I used about 5 shakes of the bottle) and simmer for 3 minutes to let the seaweed and shoyu do their thing!

Using a measuring cup, take some of the liquid out of the soup pot so that you have something in which to dissolve the miso.  You only want about 1/2 a tsp to each cup of liquid with your miso soups (Thanks for the tip Alicia!) so I mixed 1.5 tsp of the brown barley miso into my liquid, stirring well till dissolved.  Then remove soup from heat (or turn down to LOW) and add the dissolved miso to it.

Stir it through with the rest of the liquid and serve after a minute or so.

The shiitake mushrooms made this dish feel ‘meaty’ and it was actually pretty filling all on it’s own that night.  You can make this so many ways, adding leftover brown rice, changing up your greens, adding tofu, etc.  As mentioned before, light broth soups are a great way to curb your appetite when you are trying to watch your portions.

Enjoy!

***

Well friends, I have an outdoor run calling my name right about  now!  See you soon!

Have a SUPERB Sunday!

– Shari B. =)

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