Sunday, January 13, 2013

Week 2: Experimentation

This week I walked around the weight room at my gym trying out the equipment.  The majority of it I have used in the past, so I mostly just had to reacquaint myself with things.  What frustrates me the most with this area is that I have to wait for other people to finish using whatever equipment I had planned on using next in my routine.  I also get distracted talking to friends.  These two factors greatly increase my time at the gym.  What I have decided is that I will continue to use the assisted pull up machine, free weights, and cables at the gym when I have extra time, but on my work days I will do my strength training at home.  I have found it is so much more convenient and less time consuming to pump iron in the privacy of my home gym.  On my days off, I may get up before my kids, do my strength training at home, and then go to the gym for cardio when they are at school.

Week 2 workouts:
Monday I ran 2 1/2 miles on the treadmill and then I went to Tabata.  This was my leg day, but we did a ton of lunges and squats in Tabata, so I mostly spent this day trying out the different leg equipment and experimenting with how much weight I could lift.

Tuesday I warmed up on the rowing machine and then I did an interval run: 10/200 meters, which actually ended up being 1 minute of an all out sprint and 1 minute of walking.  Strength training was shoulders and abs.

Wednesday I warmed up on the rowing machine again (I love that thing) and then I did back and biceps.  I used the assisted pull up machine.  Using the assisted pull up machine makes me feel like a huge wimp but I don't have a spotter and I guess I need to start somewhere, right.  I still want to figure out a way to construct a pull up bar in my basement, but we haven't figured it out yet.  After work, I was able to run back to the gym and try out the kettlebell class.  I had to leave a half hour early to get my son to an activity, but it was worth the half hour.

Thursday the weather actually was nice for a few hours (by a few hours I mean that about 30 minutes after my run the temperate dropped, the wind started blowing and it started to snow) so I parked at the gym and ran a 6 mile loop. I called it a LSRUAH (long slow run up a hill).  Since when did 6 miles feel like a long run?  That's what I kept asking myself at least.  Then I went back to the gym and tortured my legs some more with weighted step ups, lunges, ham curls, glutes, and inner/outer thigh strength training.

Friday I stayed home and did a circuit focusing on my chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs.  It was a great workout and I totally kicked my own butt.  My legs were exhausted from the week, so all the burpees and mountain climbers I threw in did not make them happy.

Saturday was supposed to be a 10 mile run with my favorite running buddy.  We haven't ran together in so long I don't even know if I would recognize her (just kidding, that's what facebook is for).  The weather was nasty, with temperatures below 0, with wind and snow.  We decided that frostbite would be unpleasant, so we did our own thing.  I went to a 2 hour spin class.  It was really fun, but I haven't done any biking since the early summer so my bottom is sore today.

What I fed my family this week:
Chicken Noodle Soup
I used the "chicken broth" left from when I cooked chicken in the crockpot.  I followed a recipe that I found on The Gracious Pantry blog. You can look it up or just follow a recipe that you have using clean ingredients. It was really good and my family loved it.  They were even disappointed when the leftovers were gone.  Abby has a small thermos that keeps food warm for about 6 hours.  I felt really good sending her with clean chicken noodle soup, instead of Spaghetti O's (which her dad sent her with earlier in the week).

Almond Butter and Oat Protein Balls
This is a recipe that I got from Priscilla.  I made some changes though and they were still  a big hit.  They only lasted two days and yes I was a huge contributing factor to them disappearing so quickly.
1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup oat bran or wheat germ
1/4 cup ground flax
2 scoops protein powder
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup honey
Combine the dry ingredients. Warm up the honey so it's easier to mix, then stir the honey and the almond butter before adding to the dry ingredients.  Add almond milk until you get the desired consistency.  Roll into balls or press into a 8x8 pan.  Refrigerate.



No comments:

Post a Comment