Happy Wednesday, loves! Hope your day is off to a fantastic start. Before we get to today, let’s backtrack a bit.
Last night after work, my dear friend Ashlee and I made a trip to Whole Foods. The Vega Protein Performance was on sale and I was itching to use one of my gift cards to purchase the powder. I’ve been wanting this baby for awhile now and it feels so great to be able to actually afford to purchase it! One scoop has 26 grams of protein and all of your essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. HOLLA! 
Beautiful and deeeelicious
In addition to the protein powder, we decided to get some dinner because…well…it’s Whole Foods. I enjoyed a dinner of circles. Circular falafel, circular roasted Brussels sprouts, and a circular soup container filled with curried apple pumpkin soup. Swoon city.
We chatted, laughed, and munched before hitting up Gap and Old Navy to browse around for a bit. We applauded ourselves for restraining from purchasing anything.
Workout
This morning made for another great total body workout! I began with a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout on the stationary bike that I created last night. I warmed up for 5 minutes before alternating between 2 minutes “off” (at a steady speed) and 1 minute “on” (sprinting all out) for a total of 30 minutes. It looked like this:
HIIT Workout
|
Time |
Resistance |
Target Speed |
|
1:00 – 5:00 |
1 |
7 – 10 mph |
|
5:00 – 7:00 |
1 |
14 mph |
|
7:00 – 8:00 |
2 |
20 mph |
|
8:00 – 10:00 |
1 |
14 mph |
|
10:00 – 11:00 |
2 |
20 mph |
|
11:00 – 13:00 |
1 |
14 mph |
|
13:00 – 14:00 |
2 |
20 mph |
|
14:00 – 16:00 |
1 |
14 mph |
|
16:00 – 17:00 |
2 |
20 mph |
|
17:00 – 19:00 |
1 |
14 mph |
|
19:00 – 20:00 |
2 |
20 mph |
|
20:00 – 22:00 |
1 |
14 mph |
|
22:00 – 23:00 |
2 |
20 mph |
|
23:00 – 25:00 |
1 |
14 mph |
|
26:00 – 27:00 |
2 |
20 mph |
|
27:00 – 28:00 |
1 |
14 mph |
|
28:00 – 29:00 |
2 |
20 mph |
|
29:00 – 30:00 |
1 |
7 – 10 mph |
Alternating the resistance really challenged me. Speed work at any resistance higher than one is tough stuff. It was awesome! For any exercise newbies, HIIT is a great way to get your heart rate up, increase your metabolism, and really challenge your muscles. K&K have a great explanation as to how and why HIIT workouts do this. After my HIIT workout, I moved on to complete two circuits of the TIU Bootycamp workout. Done and done! I made sure to make a quick BOOTYCALL video too. Check it out on the Tone it Up Nutrition Plan Facebook page or on YouTube!
Breakfast
Post-workout, I was really excited to start my day off with some Vega! I took a scoop and mixed it with 10 ounces of water to drink with my breakfast. I ate while watching Live! with Kelly with my Mama.
I kept it simple this morning with a bowl of Nature’s Path Flax PLUS flakes in almond milk, served with a darling little clementine. I love these babies! We have about a billion of them sitting in our fruit basket at home.
For the remainder of the morning, I moved onto day seven of blog homework. Before I knew it, my tummy was beckoning me for some lunch!
Lunch
My mom and I had lunch together today while watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Would you believe I’ve never seen it before?! It’s such a classic. Well, don’t hate me but…we ended up turning it off after about 45 minutes. It just wasn’t our cup of tea. I love Audrey Hepburn, though. Roman Holiday is my favorite of hers.
Anyways, back to lunch. Today’s salad was topped with nutritional yeast and a dressing made from 1 Tbsp. Soyaki Sauce and 1 tsp. sesame oil. I also enjoyed an open-faced sandwich of hummus, avocado, and tomato.
The rest of the day was spent cleaning (ew) and now I’m about to head off to work until ten. Hope you all have beautiful evenings! Drink some hot tea for me!
Getting Uncomfortable
In the past year, I’ve incorporated more strength training into my daily workouts. More than ever, I’ve come to the realization that if you want to see changes in your body, you have to be willing to get uncomfortable. If we aren’t feeling it, changes simply aren’t going to happen.
When I’m strength training, I make sure the following are happening:
- I’m sweating.
- I’m feeling a burn – not pain!
- I’m feeling challenged.
- My heart is pumping.
If any of the following are not happening, I know that it’s time to re-evaluate things. For example, I might need to decrease my rest time between sets, up my weights, or add more repetitions of each exercise. Our bodies are pretty darn amazing and they adjust to what we need.
Getting uncomfortable during strength workouts really requires you to be aware of your body. It has been a blessing in disguise for me because I’ve started to appreciate my body for what it is capable of instead of focusing on what it looks like. Because I’m working so hard and listening to my body’s needs, I accept it so much more. Have you experienced this? Ooookay, ramble session over.
Well, I’m off to work until ten!
Stay lovely,
Heather
Question of the Day: What workouts have made you appreciate your body?
Rawwwr – look at those guns!
Gotta’ love a good sale, especially at WF!
Hahaha, thanks Tiff! You always give me a good laugh.
So funny, I too got WF gift cards for Christmas (yeah
and am considering some stuff to jazz up my smoothies. Do you like the taste of the chocolate better than vanilla, or other brands? Great guns 
I prefer the chocolate. The vanilla contains maca powder in it, which I try to avoid because it personally makes me want to hurl, haha. Many people love the taste of it though!
As I was reading your chart, I had to skim back to the top and re-read what machine you were using, because for some reason I thought you were running @ 20 mph and I was thinking DAYUM!!!!
Yoga is the workout that always makes me feel the strongest – even stronger than running!
Hahaha, if I was running at 20 mph, I would definitely be a BEAST. A crazy beast.
I couldn’t agree with you more about yoga…it challenges everything…mind/body/soul.
looking great! my HIIT style workouts and doing a lot of push-ups has helped make me appreciate my body more and what I can do with it
Thank you, love! Mmmmhmm. HIIT rocks.
You are so right- I need to remember that I won’t see changes without getting ‘uncomfortable.’ So often I shy away from lifting because of the men grunting (lol) and when I do, I usually stick with lighter weights and don’t push myself. 2012 = weight-lifting changes!
AWESOME goal, Stephanie! The second we look at other people (i.e. grunting men, haha) and think about what they’re doing, we stray further from ourselves. Honor your body – it will love you back…with muscles.