Week 4 Day 4…

Happy Thursday y’all. Man I do not know about you but I did NOT want to get out of bed this morning. I would have been happy to spend the whole day today in bed frankly! I had a great sleep and was well rested, it was just one of those days that I wanted it to keep going! I went to the gym a little later in the am then i usually go and my heart was not totally into it today. That being said I didn’t cop out! I did all my leg exercises and what not but did not feel fully energized. Here is what went down today:

Strength Training

Exercise Type:                                              Weight                    Sets                  Reps

Leg Lifts                                                                     lvl4                          3                           15

Leg Press                                                                   lvl 5                          3                           15

Inner Thigh                                                              lvl4                            2                           15

Outter Thigh                                                             lvl4                           2                           15

Lower Back Bends                                                   lvl4                           3                            15

Arm/back pull downs                                             lvl4                           3                            15

—Post Workout Stretch—–

Cardio:                                                              Time                            Distance

Walk to work                                                        42min                                3.2km

Walk home                                                            42min                                3.2km

 

Breakfast: two pieces of multi grain toast with all natural peanut butter, with organic blueberry jam, glass of soy milk and a grapefruit.

Lunch: Multi grain spaghetti, with roasted garlic tomato sauce and a little Turkey kielbasa sausage. And an apple.

Snack: Sweet chili crispy mini’s and an apple.

Supper: Homemade chicken Caesar salad. (light dressing)   and a glass of chocolate milk.

A pretty good day all around! Tomorrow is a big day for many reasons. Mostly because of my twenty minute run!!! Eeep Cross your fingers for me!!! Also it is the jays home opener!!!!! So Friday  will be a treat night for sure as we are going for a pre game pub supper and many beers will be had!! So I will try and take care for the rest of the weekend.  Alright friends….till tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes….dun Dun DUN!!!

Cheers,

K                             

Week 4 Day 3…

Run. Today. Was. HARD. Well the last leg was quite the push let me tell you!! I am very worried for Friday. I have to run for 20 min straight….and I do not know if I can do it. We have been doing our runs at 6mph…which is no joke. For sure not a jog, it is def a run. I know I WILL make it through on Friday but I may have to knock down my speed a little bit to make it through. Though I am going to give 6mph the good college try and see how I fare!

I thought I would start adding some more links to my posts! Today I looked into the nutritional value of garlic. We use a TON of fresh garlic in 98% of our cooking. We absolutely love it! I new it was good for you and recently I have been looking into the benefits of it not only nutritionally but also it’s healing powers! Here are a few interesting articles I found that look at the benefits of garlic:

healthmad.com/nutrition/the-amaz…

romow.com/health-blog/garlics-he…

Anyhow! Here is what went down today:

Cardio:                                                           Time                   Distance              Pace

C-5km Run Week 5                                          30min                      3.7km                6mph at a run

Walk to work                                                     42min                      3.2km

Walk home                                                         42min                      3.2km

Strength Training:

Exercise Type:                                          Sets                       Reps

Ab Crunches                                                      3                             20

—-Post Workout Stretch—–

Breakfast: Two pieces of multi grain toast, with all natural peanut butter and organic blueberry jam. Half a grapefruit and a glass of chocolate soy milk.

Lunch: Spinach and romaine lettuce salad, with pear, strawberries, pecans and goat cheese. Topped with homemade dressing (two gloves of raw fresh garlic, little evo, balsamic, dijon mustard, lemon juice, small bit of maple syrup). A handful of crispy minis and an apple.

Snack: thin crispy triscuits with two portions of laughing cow cheese and a piece of black forrest ham.

Supper: Fish cakes with 4 roasted mini potatoes. And a piece of chocolate.

Not bad! slip on chocolate but I was craving comfort food tonight! Night all! Leg workout tomorrow.

Cheers,

K

Week 4 Day 2….

Happy Tuesday y’all! My morning was a bit of a gong show today but before it got to be so I had already hit the gym for which I am grateful! Cause if not I would have for sure missed it! But anyhow I hit it and my arms are still a burning. I am noticing my arms are getting stronger! I can even see a little definition! I mean its still under layers of arm flab but it appears to be getting less so! Score! Gah Ladies it is hard to get rid of that arm flab am I right? How does that Michelle Obama do it?? Personal trainer  bet! I am also looking to find some new exercises to get rid of my most hated trouble area which is my back. The back “bra” area specifically. Like that area where the band of your bra goes. That is probably my most hated part of my body and I find it so hard to get rid of. If anyone has any exercise suggestions for that area I would be much obliged! I will be doing some research myself today.

Also my roommate showed me this the other day and I thought I would share it as it’s pretty good. Basically it is some good exercise advice/tips. A lot of it I have to say I agree with, especially the always working out on a Monday and the point about free weights. Feel free to check them out and see what you think. I am in direct violation of point number 3 but keep in mind you do need to do whats best for you and any and all tips are not gospel. I will agree that not exercising for too long in a row does lead to a slippery slope into laziness, (I am a prime example! It has happened to me more often then not!!) but I think if you have a personal schedule and keep up with your routine it will be fine. Even if you do go two days in row without exercising like myself! lol I for sure would not go 3 days without exercising! Then that slope kicks in. Anyhow check it out and use what you can!

stumbleupon.com/su/1wyWjJ/divine…

Here is what went down today:

Strength training:

Exercise Type:                                                   Weight                    Sets               Reps

Arm lifts w/squats                                                    5lb                              3                     15

Shoulder Shrugs                                                       10lb                             3                    15

Arm Raises                                                                  5lb                             3                    15

Bicep Curls                                                                  8lb                             3                    15

Bent over Back Rows                                                8lb                             3                    15

Chest Flies                                                                  8lb                             3                    15

Ab Crunches                                                                                                  3                   20

——Post work out Stretch——-

Cardio:                                                                      Time                                   Distance

Walk home from work                                           42min                                       3.2km

Breakfast: Two scrambled eggs, a piece of french bread w/butter, 4 pieces of Havarti cheese and half a grapefruit.

Snack: Cup of coffee w/soy milk, triscuit thin crisps with small bit of homemade guacamole. Red Seedless grapes.

Lunch: Left overs from last night which was chopped spinach, grape tomatoes, garlic and chicken tossed with olive oil and whole wheat spaghetti.

Snack: Apple and some rice crispy mini’s

Supper: Bowl of bran flakes with raspberries and soy milk.

As you might notice I tend to eat a bit more on days that I work. I work somewhat different then normal hours. While I still get up early I do not usually work till 1230pm and work till 815pm. So most days I do not get a break till 4,430 or 5pm for my “lunch”. So I tend to have a larger snack at the start of my shift to tide me over till I get to that lunch time. Or sometimes if i do not need to heat up my lunch I will just eat it early and have the bigger snack in between lunch and when i get home at 9 for supper. Ah the life of odd hours! Maybe one day i’ll have a 9-5 job!!

That’s all for today folks! Good day. Big run tomorrow and I get to test drive the new sneaks!

Cheers,

K

Week 4 Day 1…

Good Monday all! I am having a great Monday! Probably because I have the day off lol, but I am being very productive. This weekend was really good. Fairly relaxing I must say! I feel very rejuvenated and did not go totally overboard! Pizza was had, along with a few drinks Friday and a burger and fry situation Sunday and some chocolate. Not too crazy! So I completed the first run of the week this am (after a little sleep in of course!). It was good much better then last week (see running program page for what week 5 entails). There were 3, 5 min runs and I finished them all with not a ton of struggle. I think this was because the recovery time in between was longer then last weeks runs. Also last week has probably conditioned me for this week so it is not as brutal. Also this week each run is different, which has yet to happen. I am interested to see how the rest go…especially the running for 20 min straight on Friday!! Gaahh! Fear!! I am sure it will be fine….I hope.

Anyhow as I mentioned a little while ago I was in the market for new sneaks as the ones I have are from 2007 and well lets be honest they were in dire need of an upgrade. Especially when my shins were hurting a bit today during the run. My boyfriend and I were out twacking around on Sunday and can you believe it is incredibly hard to find a decent pair of running sneakers for less then 120 or 13o dollars?? True story. While I would love to go to the running room to get fitted and par take in the expensive amazing super running shoes, I alas financially cannot do so at this time. We popped into The Shoe Company and they had a great sale on and had much more manageable prices. So today I went out and got some new shoes at a really decent price. Their selection was obviously somewhat more limited but it was not a time to be vain as I desperately needed new shoes and fast. I found this pair of Saucony sneaks for $67.99, a price that was music to my poor ears. They are pretty cute! I am liking the minty green accents. They felt great in the store and super supportive. I will let you know how they fair after being broken in etc.

Also at The Shoe Company I got a great deal on workout socks. I always loose socks. Not sure how or why but it happens and 98% of my socks are odd. I have very few workout socks at all and had resorted to stealing my boyfriends. But ha ha I now have my very own! Hopefully they will last…but who are we kidding. It’s me. I got 6 pairs of nike socks for $16.00. Once again thank you shoe company for treating me right!!

Ok now lets get down to what went on today.

Cardio:                                              Time              Distance           Pace

C-5k Run Week 5                                30min                  3.7km               6mph (at a run)

—-Post Workout Stretch—–

Two and a half hours walking  around Toronto running errands.

Breakfast: Two scrambled eggs, french bread with butter , 4 small pieces of havarti cheese and some red seedless grapes. Gladd of chocolate soy milk.

Lunch: Spinach, and romaine lettuce salad: With pecans, goat cheese,  pear and turkey kielbasa. Homemade dressing (which has a little olive oil, dijon mustard, chopped fresh garlic, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and some maple syrup. It’s my roomates recipe I LOVE IT).

Snack: A small amount of homemade guacamole with triscuit thin crisps.

Supper: A ton of chopped spinach both frozen and fresh, cooked with a ton of fresh garlic and grape tomatoes, tossed with EVO, multigrain spaghetti and stir fried chicken breast. Half a glass of red wine. This is a very fresh healthy dish that I love making! It is soo tasty!

Snack: Grapefruit

Water intake: 1500ml

Well all in all a great day off as well as being super productive! I am pleased with my purchases and healthy choices for the day. Till tomorrow friends!

 

Cheers,

 

K

Week 3 Day 5…..

Good day. Today was the last run of week 4 and I am not going to lie I am scared for next week. I found every run this week a challenge. Usually they get a little easier but this week each one was as hard as the last. But this is supposed to be a challenge and I guess we are making our way into the challenge portion! Next Friday I have to run for 20 minutes straight…so help me God! Let your thoughts be with me! haha 🙂 Here is what went down today:

Cardio:                                     Time               Distance              Pace

C-5k Run Week 4                        30m                    3.7km                   6mph (at a run)

Strength Training:

Exercise Type:                        Sets                       Reps

Abs-Crunches                                 3                              20

—-Post workout Stretch——

Breakfast: Bowl of multigrain oatmeal with blueberries, pecan pieces and natural maple syrup; half a grapefruit and a cup of coffee with soy milk.

Lunch: Bowl of spicy garlicky tomato soup, with some thin crisp triscuits. Small handful of red seedless grapes.

Supper: Is going to be beers and pizza…and lets leave it at that! It’s my day off and its friday and I am going to enjoy my evening! So see you all monday! Happy weekend!!

 

Cheers,

K

Week 3 Day 4….

Hello all. Today was an early rise hit the gym before 8.  A little bit of a sleepy workout but still got all of  my leg and back routine in. Last run of week 4 is tomorrow and week 5 I think switches things up a bit which will be interesting. Here is what went down today:

Strength Training

Exercise Type:                                               Weight                 Sets              Reps

Leg Raises                                                                  lvl 3                        3                   15

Leg Press                                                                    lvl5                         3                   15

Inner Thigh                                                               lvl3                         2                   15

Outter Thigh                                                             lvl3                         2                   15

Lower back bends                                                  lvl4                           3                    15

Arm/Back pull downs                                           lvl4                          3                    15

Abs (crunches)                                                                                        3                     20

—-Post Workout Stretch—-

Cardio:                                                                      Time                         Distance

Walk to work                                                              42min                           3.2km

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, a piece of french bread w/butter and half a grapefruit.

Snack: 1 apple

Lunch: Sandwich with turkey, avocado, goat cheese, lettuce, light mayo, mustard and pepper. Red grapes.

Snack: Almonds and pecan pieces (less then a handful) and 4 strawberries.

Supper: Homemade spicy garlicky turkey sausage and tomato soup! The BEST and very healthy especially using turkey sausage instead of regular. The recipe is available on my friends blog here: http://thelittleredchicken.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/garlicky-tomato-and-sausage-soup/

I also had some flat bread with olive oil and garlic. Overall not a bad day or bad supper….i just ate too much of it. Mainly too much bread. Today was kind of a bread overdose. I am usually very conscious of that and try to only eat bread once during the day…like with one meal only…but today was a major fail on that! Oh well. As I say its my usual rule so this was a fluke kind of day regarding bread! Tomorrow is the last run of the week and I can’t wait!! till then!!

Cheers,

K

Week 3 Day 3…..

Oh….My….God. Today’s run was so so hard. Monday was hard but today felt even worse. I really had to struggle to finish. I did finish and completed all my runs all at my usual 6mph, but man was it ever a struggle. I am hoping Friday gets better cause I truly fear for next week!! So may your thoughts and prayers be with me! Here is what went down today:

Cardio:                               Time                     Distance                  Pace

C-5k Week 4                       30min                       3.7km                        6mph

Walk to work                      42min                       3.2km                     4.5mph

Strength Training:                Set       Reps

Abs (centre and obliques)         3             20

—-Post Workout Stretch—–

Breakfast: Two poached eggs, with half an avocado and some turkey on multigrain toast, with a little light mayo. Plus most of a cup of coffee with soy milk.

Snack: A cup of red seedless grapes.

Lunch: Vegetarian chili, with some triscuit thin crisps, plus a brownie (#FAIL but the lovely lady at the cafe said they were too small to sell and brought two over for me and another girl I work with, for free! FREE! Now I could not be rude right???)

Snack: Some almonds and pecan pieces and an apple.

Supper: Beef stirfry, with a ton of veggies and a little basmati rice, grapefruit for desert.

Water Intake: 1925ml
Not a bad day all around. Bad call on the brownie….but I will attempt to have more will power in the future. I have this Friday off again, so trying to incorporate my “20” into Friday and Sunday and keep Saturday cool. Or maybe do a half of Friday and half of Saturday. A good friend is moving sat morning so take out and drinks maybe in order Friday evening 🙂

Cheers,

K

 

Week 3 Day 2…..

Allo allo! So today’s workout was good! I did an arm strength training workout as I usually do on Tuesdays and did i ever feel the burn today! My arms were like jelly after and literally were burning! But in a good way. That way I know it it’s working!! I have to say I think I am finally starting to see some results. My boyfriend informs me I am looking slimmer in the face and waist area so these are all good things! And as I was doing my free weight arm workout today I was noticing my arms are looking a little stronger. Yay!!! I am not talking major body transformation or anything but I can see my hard work is beginning to take shape! The one month weigh in and measure happens on April 1st, so I will let you know then how many inches/pounds are gone if any! Here is what went down today:

Strength Training:

Exercise Type:                                        Weight                    Sets                   Reps

Arm raises with squats                                   5lb                             3                           15

Shoulder Shrugs                                             10lb                            3                           15

Arm raises                                                        5lb                             3                           15

Bicep Curls                                                       8lb                            3                           15

Bent over rows                                                8lb                             3                          15

Chest Flies                                                       8lb                             3                           15

Ab crunches (centre and obliques)                                               3                           20

——Pre work out warm up and Post workout stretch———

Cardio:                                                                        Time                             Distance

Walk to work                                                               40min                                    3.2km

Breakfast: Two egg western omelet, with salsa and vegan cheese, half a grapefruit and half a cupd of coffee with soy milk.

Snack: Almonds and pecan pieces (plain unsalted) and an apple.

Lunch: Left over spaghetti sauce from last night over whole wheat penne, and a small piece of french bread with butter.

Snack: 1 cup of red seedless grapes.

Supper: very small steak , some roasted mini poatoes and lots of steamed asparagus. Small piece of chocolate.

Water intake: 1550ml

And another day down! Tomorrow is the second run of the week…eep. My legs hurt already. Will report back tomorrow!

Cheers,

K

Week 3 Day 1…

Yowsa!! Today’s run was no joke! They are getting serious now! Well at least for a non runner! I also had a late start today as the majority of this morning was attending to some errands and life stuff! Cross your fingers I will have a new apt soon!

Today’s run consisted of 3 and 5min runs with little walking in between. It was good a big challenge and I made it thru but that last 5 min run was hard. I was on the treadmill for a total of 30 minutes as I usually am with this program. And I ran 16 minutes of the 30. So that is over half! That is kind of exciting! And also kind of hard. I am dreading the next few steps but also excited to watch my body change and adapt to the longer runs. So bring it on! A little confession about my less then stellar weekend. I think this week may have been 60-40 instead of eighty twenty. I did not eat well Sunday, and Saturday night I drank. It was not soo bad as weekends are my easy time. But this was one great weekend! And maybe had one unhealthy meal too many. That being said i did really well during the week last week and this week I am going to refocus! As I say life happens and I am not going to freak out if an extra slice of pizza is had here or there 🙂 Ok so this is what went down today:

Cardio:                                    Time            Distance         Pace

C-5k Run Week43                      30min                  2.3                   6mph (at a run)

—–Pre and Post workout stretch—–

 

Breakfast: Regular Oatmeal with blueberries, pecan pieces, honey and some soy milk.

Lunch: turkey, egg, goat cheese, and avocado sandwich on multi grain bread with a little mayo. Plus a few red seedless grapes.

Supper: Homemade spaghetti- with extra lean ground beef, onion, lots of fresh garlic and red peppers. With multi grain spaghetti noodles, and a piece of french bread. Small glass of diet cola. A piece of a gourmet chocolate pretzel (damn those lovely volunteers at work!!!)

Snack: small piece of dark chocolate and some red seedless grapes.

Water intake: 1500ml

Not a bad day! Not bad at all! Tomorrow is strength training and it will be a much earlier start to the day!

Cheers,

K

Week 2 Day 5…

Well another 5 day success with exercise! Got up and did my last run of week 3 this am. Aunt flow from red bay, came to visit this AM so it was a little hard at the end but I go through it! Week 4 is next week! This challenge is flying by! But shit is about to get real with the running!! I also did some abs this am so I am feeling pretty good in the exercise department. In the job department however I have not heard back from my interviews of last week and did not get a callback for my audition soo looks like I am foiled again and forced to keep working for peanuts!! But I will keep looking and power through. Hopefully something will come up soon. Here is what I did today:

Cardio:                                                 Time                Distance             Pace

C-5k Week 3 (see running page)          28m                     2.2miles              6mph *running

A lot of walking all around the city of Toronto! It was from 1230-5 basically plus a shift from 7-1045….plus running two blocks to get to the shift as both my street cars were late lol.

Strength Training:                           Sets                  Reps

Ab crunches                                                3                          20

—–Post work out Stretch 6minutes——–

Breakfast: Western Omelet, 2 eggs with salsa and vegan cheese, a piece of toast and yougurt with bluberries and dry oats.

Lupper: A huge feed of shared nachos with my friend Kate! Yum by they were delish! We also ordered potato skins which turned out to out surprise to be two WHOLE potatoes with cheese and chili!! Nuts!! we tasted them but they were taken home as a doggie bag because the shared nachos were more then enough. We also split a pitcher and a beer was had later.

 

As I mentioned earlier the week this was my intended cheat day as I had this day planned with my friend Kate! So I am ok with that. Tomorrow night is drinking and dancing. SO I will be eating super well Saturday and Sunday and I think I will get in an extra weekend workout to make up for this indulgence! I will post again on Monday to let you know how that goes! I am in great spirits this evening!! I have exciting things happening in my life, I went shopping today and my God I think it’s Spring in Toronto!! I was out all day in just a sweater….and it wasn’t zipped!! Weeeeeeeee! Keep it up mother nature!!!! Ok that is it for me till Monday! Have a great weekend friends!

Cheers,

K