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Posts Tagged ‘Workout’

Getting Uncomfortable

January 4, 2012 by Heather

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?

Category Tone It Up, Workouts | Tags: Breakfast,Getting uncomfortable,Lunch,Strength training,Tone It Up,Vega,Workout | 10 Comments

KILLER Workout

December 22, 2011 by Heather

Yes, my friends, this morning contained a KILLER workout. One of the hardest I’ve completed in a long time, actually! More on that later, though. Let’s tackle food, shall we?

Breakfast

After my morning workout and subsequent shower, I meandered downstairs and vowed to not have cereal. Shocker, I know. With that plan in motion, I looked in the fridge, saw Earth Balance and I decided to dab it on two slices of Ezekiel toast. Alongside the toast, I enjoyed about 1/2 cup of organic soy yogurt and a super fresh clementine.

This was a protein-packed breakfast of champions between the Ezekiel bread and soy yogurt. It kept me satisfied for over three hours! After breakfast, I completed day one of my second goal: tackling blog homework. FYI: the About Me and Contact pages are now updated and organized. It feels good to be making some much-needed progress!

Lunch

Once the pages were published, I took a break for lunch. I created a semi-homemade dressing by combining 1 Tbsp. of Trader Joe’s Balsamic Vinaigrette, 1 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast and 1 Tbsp. of water. I drizzled it over a salad of baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, julienne carrots and raw cashews.

This dressing rocked! It was slightly tangy from the balsamic vinegar and slightly nutty from the nutritional yeast. <*Pats self on back*> I also enjoyed a Whole Foods whole wheat pita but refrained from taking a picture of it because you’ve already seen them a bunch of times. They really are the best pitas and at $1.99 per bag, a total deal!

Throughout the afternoon, I’ve been sipping on this beauty:

There is absolutely nothing that energizes you mind, body and soul like green juice. I really hope my parents purchase a juicer soon. It would definitely become a daily staple for me.

Killer Workout

Now that I’m home for a few weeks and don’t have free exercise classes at my fingertips, it’s time for me to get creative on the exercise front! This morning, I completed a cardio and strength training workout on the stationary bike in our basement. Each exercise was completed for one entire song.

Note: All exercises were completed using 5-pound weights. You can go to 3-pound weights, if you’re newer to strength training. These babies felt like 100 pounders by the end of this workout! Have an end table nearby to place the weights down on the songs you’re not using them.

Song	Exercise	Resistance
1	Warm Up	2
2	Warm Up	3
3	Verses: Bicep Curls Chorus: Rows	3
4	Verses: Bike at Resistance 4 Chorus: Speed-sprint at Resistance 3	3 + 4
5	Climb: First Verse: Resistance 5 First Chorus: Resistance 6 Second Verse: Resistance 7 Second Chorus: Resistance 8 Remainder of Song: Resistance 6	5, 6, 7, 8
6	Verses: Saxon Side Bend Chorus: Oblique Twist	4
7	Verses: Bike at Resistance 4 Chorus: Speed-sprint at Resistance 3	3 + 4
8	Climb: First Verse: Resistance 5 First Chorus: Resistance 6 Second Verse: Resistance 7 Second Chorus: Resistance 8 Remainder of Song: Resistance 6	5, 6, 7, 8
9	Verses: Front Raises Chorus: Lateral Raises	4
10	Verses: Saxon Side Bend Chorus: Oblique Twist	4
11	Verses: Bike at Resistance 4 Chorus: Speed-sprint at Resistance 3	3 + 4
12	Climb: First Verse: Resistance 5 First Chorus: Resistance 6 Second Verse: Resistance 7 Second Chorus: Resistance 8 Remainder of Song: Resistance 6	5, 6, 7, 8
13	Cool down! Bike easy!	2

You may feel like a total dweek (that is dweeb + geek, thank you very much) doing this but I am telling you, when you finish, you’ll feel like a superhero in your own right. It’s amazing! If you only have access to a gym, be a leader and do it anyways! People might follow suit! I’m going to start doing this once or twice a week for sure.

And just for fun here’s the playlist I used today!

Florence and the Machine – “Shake It Out”
Breathe Carolina – “Blackout”
Dev – “In the Dark”
LMFAO – “Sexy and I Know It”
Kaskade – “Raining”
Chris Brown – “Beautiful People”
Rihanna – “We Found Love”
Ke$ha – “Blow” (Cirkut Remix)
Pitbull ft. Chris Brown – “International Love”
New Boyz – “Back Seat”
Acceptance – “In Too Far”
Usher – “OMG”
Gotye – “Somebody That I Used To Know”

Alright, I’m signing off for now and working until 11:00 p.m. tonight at my retail job. Oh, joy! Have a beautiful day.

Stay lovely,
Heather

Question of the Day: What songs are you loving lately? Have you tried any new workouts?

Category Workout Playlists, Workouts | Tags: Breakfast,Ezekiel bread,green juice,Lunch,Workout,Workout Playlist | 4 Comments

No Weights

November 9, 2011 by Heather

Do you know a man named Suit Pandchal? Neither do I. He resides in California and tried to steal $378 from my bank account yesterday. What a freaking sweetheart. Thankfully, I don’t have $378 in my account to begin with so the sucker was out of luck. Thank you, college budget.

Breakfast

Despite my lack of luck this morning, you’re in for some because today’s meal did not feature cereal. Hellelujah! It did, however feature my beloved chia seeds. Last night, I prepped a bowl of overnight oats, combining 1/2 cup oats, 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 Tbsp. pumpkin butter, and 1 Tbsp. chia seeds. On the side was a small container of organic applesauce (Side note: I just wrote “asslesauce.”)

When chia seeds are placed in water, they yield a thick, gel-like mass. So, chia seeds are an awesome addition to oats because they create a thick, puddling-like texture. Combined with the pumpkin flavor, this was a winning breakfast! Forget your Wheaties, eat your chia seeds!

Lunch

After class, I came back to my dorm room to complete some homework before breaking for lunch. I’ve been incorprating Daiya into a lot of my meals this week. I’m more than okay with that. It’s so versatile and delicious! Today, I combined the usual veggies suspects and topped them with Trader Joe’s Tuscan Italian Vinaigrette and some Daiya shreds.

The combination of the dressing and the Daiya really won me over. I’ll definitely be re-creating this little gem again in the future. I served my salad with a Chocolate Brownie PURE bar. Everytime I eat this bar, I moan. It’s that delicious.

After a couple more hours of studying, I mosied on over to the gym to complete the third week of my latest total body workout. I’ve worked my way up to 10 lb. weights (!!!), and really felt the burn today. Heather is going to be sore tomorrow!

Dinner

In light of this stressful week, my friend Kristen and I decided to treat ourselves to some delivery. We ordered some tasty food from Samba, a nearby sushi restaurant. I rolled (pun intended) with the tropical fruit hand roll and a side of organic edamame. I also stole a couple of pieces of tofu from Kristen! She loves me a little bit.

The tropical fruit roll contained mango, avocado, and coconut flake. I rarely order sushi, so this was a really nice treat for me. I’m already brainstorming some ways I can make some homemade sushi for lunch, dorm-style.

Side note: Whenever I order from a sushi restaurant, I always make sure to inform the restaurant of my dietary preferences and request they prepare the sushi on a separate counter. I used to feel like an inconvenience when I first started practicing a vegan lifestyle. But rest assured, you are not an inconvenience! You are the customer and it is their job to cater to your needs!

Sans Weight Workout

Tonight, I had a special request from reader, Meagan, for a workout routine that you can do while you’re on vacation or don’t have access to a gym or weights. Well, girl, what you ask for you shall receive!

As always, please talk to your doctor before beginning a new exercise program!

This workout alternates between 1-minute cardio and strength intervals. Doing so revs your metabolism, so you’re going to end up burning more fat and therefore, tapping into muscle, which is what we want in order for you to become more toned! Try it out and let me know what you think.

No Weights

Repeat this circuit a total of three times for a killer total body workout. Make sure you stretch before and after!

Exercise	Reps / Amount of Time
Butt kicks	1 minute
Push ups	20 reps
Jumping Jacks	1 minute
Tricep dips	20 reps
Burpees	1 minute
Prisoner Squats	50 reps
Skaters	1 minute
Plank	30 seconds
Mountain Climbers	1 minute
Pretzel Leg Lift	30 reps each leg (Lifting the leg up and back is one rep)