Back on Track

Hey Everyone!

So I have not been posting the past few months. To be honest I have have been very busy with a new move to Guelph, a new job, and a busy winter of flying. Currently I am in Regina soon to fly to Cuba then back to Toronto in the morning hours. Needless to say I have been busy but  more then ever I am finding balance between both jobs and staying fit. I have joined a new gym which is amazing and signed up for the Tough Mudder race in the spring. I am going to get back into posting recipes smoothies and workouts. 2013 has been a great year so far and will be posting some fun stuff soon! =)

My workout at my hotel today ...

Skip 2mins
1 min lunges
Skip 2 mins
1 min sumo squats
Skip 2 mins
1 min chair sit
1 min REST

Repeat 3 times.

xx Brooke =)

Sweat sweat sweat

So I've taken almost 10 days off just for health reasons was not allowed to workout. Frustrating yes but I'm going to move on and keep going. I only have 10 days left in brantford and then I move to Guelph. So I'm searching for a new Guelph gym that will fit my needs!I will post my workout later but so far skipping and lots of legs :)

Pic is my sweaty motivation from my post gym yesterday!

Taking Care of Me

So I have been not able to blog the past week. I've been sick and not feeling my best. The past week i could only eat bread(everything made me sick) and couldn't even work out. But feeling better today I made myself a huge vegetable chili. Lots of leeks, mushrooms, garlic, red peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, hot sauce, coconut milk, and organic canned tomatoes. So I'll pick back up where I left off and not feel guilty because my body needed rest, tea, and bread last week and I'm feeling myself again.. :)

Oh also made Greek yogurt peach sorbet in my vita mix for desert.

CARRY ALONG PRINCIPLE

I am very weak when it comes to upper body strength. I can do endless leg workouts but lack in my upper body muscles. Though I am getting much better. My pull ups are coming along, I can do 20 push ups in a row, and I am starting to see some growth.

This weekend I have been a bit off track not feeling myself and not eating enough food. Today I've ate much more food and worked out  even though I was not quite 100%.

I am starting to apply a new way to train my muscles. I have researched a few different ways and I thought I would give it a shot starting this past Saturday. Its called the Carry Along Principle. Carry Along Training is the placement of my weakest muscle group at the start of my workout  (ie. when I am most full of energy to give to my sets and reps.)  I will spend about 30 mins on selected body part and 20 mins on all other muscle groups combined. In other words I will hit selected muscle group with 5 exercises, but give the remainder of my muscles groups  enough attention to maintain them in both tone and size. I found this approach at chapters (my favourite place), from Oxygen Tough Love workouts by Bob Kennedy.  So I have grouped my muscles into these categories; Biceps, Triceps, Chest, Upper leg, Back, Shoulder, and Abs. So from Saturday October 27- Nov 10 I will work out these three groups; Biceps, Shoulders, and Upper Legs, adding abs and cardio in per work out.  For example I will workout 3 days on  1 day rest 3 days back on.  So over two weeks I will finish 4 workouts on each group.  For example today I did Biceps. I warmed up with 20 mins of running and then began 4 Biceps exercises that seemed very repetitive but I want to give this style of lifting a shot. I did 4 sets of 10 of each of these exercises:

Standing barbell curl 4x10
Standing hammer curl 4x10
Preacher bench curl 4x10
Concentration curl 4x10

This took about 25 mins and killed my little biceps. I then went into completing my workout for the rest of my muscle groups

Quads
Back sqaut 2x20

Calves
Machine calf raises 2x20

Hamstrings
Leg curl 2x10

Tricep
Tricep press down 2x12

Chest
Incline flye 2x10

Back
pull downs machine 2x10

Abs
v sits 2x 30
plank 2x 1min


So my workout today focused on biceps but included everything else I am training. Tomorrow my workout is leg focused but again will focus on all my muscle groups. Love a new workout plan, I will post my workouts under workouts to!

Healthy Eats and Work

So today my body needs a gym break. YAY  I leave for work early afternoon and get home about 3am. Days I fly I need to reserve some energy. I also avoid a air plane crew food other then fruit and salad. 

Usually I pack some food for my 12 hour day and here is how a healthy balanced work day looks for me...

9:30 - Breakfast 

green smoothie and a bowl of mesa cereal with almond milk

12:30- snack 

almonds and mango banana smoothie

3:30- Before work lunch 

egg sandwich, veggies and hummus 

6:30 ( or  when i get a chance to eat on flight)

Prob have salad and fruit

10:30 

Green tea, brown rice pancake

Hopefully get home by 3am so I may bring  little snack for my way home. extra veggies, or apple with cashew butter

I also drink about 1.5 - 3 litres of water per flight or else I feel really dehydrated the next morning. I also make sure days I fly a drink  lots of water before I even get on the plane. 

My Commitment to Stretching Starts Now

Ok........I suck at stretching. I finish a hard workout and I'll I want to do is go home. Today was day 3 of 3 hard workouts. Monday I did a entire upper body, Tuesday I did a run and lower body, and today I ran 6km and skipped 1000 skips (yes I counted). So Needless to say I've not been proactive in helping my body recover. I did the wimpiest stretch sesh, which a avid yoga goer should be ashamed of. The only thing I did do right was foam rolling when I got home. 

Foam rolling amazing and painful. The best way to eliminate and prevent muscle knots is the foam roller. The foam roller is a firm foam log. I use the roller against muscle knots with your own body weight to generate the direct pressure. Its the next best thing to a massage. Imagine using a rolling pin to roll out lumps of bread out....kinda the same idea.  I started using it to prevent injuries when running or to loosen stiff muscles.  

So as of right now I am committing to a stretching session at least 5 days a week. I will probably complete this at night and take a more Yin Yoga approach on stretching. That means I will hold each stretch between 2-5mins. So 5 evenings a week for 45 mins for  2 weeks. After 2 weeks I will re-evaluate my stretching.   I am still going to stretch post morning gym workout but this will help with additional tightness and of course injury prevention. 

Time to Stretch...=) 

THEORY BEHIND MY BLOG NAME

BURPEES , BLENDERS, & BIKINIS


Does anybody love burpees? Probably not. Do you ever find yourself saying I really regret doing that workout? Definitely never. Or I wish I would of had that entire pizza instead of my smoothie. Doubtful. 

I am simply trying to focus on what is important and what foods to eat. Not to say I don't indulge, in fact I love my food. Till the end of November I am focus on elimination of processed sugars, alcohol, dairy, and meat but I am already a vegetarian. I have eliminated coffee for 2 weeks and now I am slowly introducing back in and only allowing myself one a day.  So my main reason to eat cleaner was to feel better, and know that the food I put in my body is going to benefit me. Previously to deciding to eat clean I always workout and felt really good but if you workout without a diet change your results are minimal. I was sick of having minimal results ........ I can run for a hour yet I would go eat a entire bag a chips. So I finally committed to not sabotaging my results instead I am working towards finding a little more balance and yes of course indulging in a few favs wine, nachos (daiya cheese),  and exploring new things like making brown rice pancakes. 

Though I do have some help... I have my Vita Mix. If you have not heard of a vita mix it is basically a SUPER BLENDER, it blends everything. I start my day with a green smoothie usually kale, spinach, avocado, coconut flakes, and water. 

So time to workout and I find if I record my workout I wont give up I will do it even if it takes me longer then planed.

Today I am focusing on lower body because my upper body is too sore to include so here it is ... oh yes I included Burpees 

Warmup- stairmaster 10 mins

3 x

20 squats with overhead press (15 pounds)
20 Single leg deadlifts (30 pounds)
20 lunges ( Im weak starting with 10 pounds)

10 Bench jumps
20 Hamstring curls on ball 
20 single legged squats

20 burpees 

20 more mins of cardio