Synchronized Crunching and Eating for our Abs

Yesterday was yet another gym and dinner date with Bianca.  This time she asked if we could do abs, so that is what we did, a ton of ab workouts and a half hour on the arc trainer to finish it off.  I also may have went early and ran 2.5 miles before she got there because, why not?

We did burpees, butt ups, bicycles, side planks, v twist sit-ups with a weight, planks, regular crunches, and standing side crunches with a 25 pound plate.  The only thing I couldn’t do was the planks because I still can’t put much pressure on my elbow.  darn… But that made it easy for me to make sure that Bianca didn’t lift her butt up to make it easier, and I got to smack it every time she did.

Tired Bianca after her 3 one minute planks

if only we had a third person there to film us,  our reflection in the window was hilarious because we were synchronized the whole time.

After we were done working out we headed back to my apartment to have an entire dinner full of foods that are good for the mid section that I got from a Women’s Health article and a few other articles online.  After all they say abs are made in the kitchen don’t they?

I basically wanted to include greens, nuts, dairy, beans, organic soy, oats and whole grains, berries, coconut and olive oil, and chia seeds and I somehow did it.  Actually I shouldn’t be surprised that I did it, that is really just a balanced healthy meal isn’t it?

I saw a recipe in fitness magazine for a kale salad that actually incorporated a lot of the things listed and even better it actually sounded good.  I searched and searched online but could not find a link for the recipe so I had to take a screen shot of the magazine (thanks to my iPad subscription for making that easy)

 

I added a bit of garlic to the tofu croutons however and lemon to the dressing because it was kind of flavorless.  I don’t know if I just didn’t get enough juice from the grape fruit or what, but the lemon kicked it up just right.  I also soaked my hazelnuts over night and dried them in my oven.  And for added protein added cannellini beans.

i love that there are dollar bills in this photo so random

Also whoever decided that the cutting grapefruit over a bowl thing was an easy task is crazy, it was so hard.  I destroyed my grapefruit, no pretty segments for our salads.

Yum!  but that salad is not complete!  We forgot the shaved romano cheese!

much better!  Thanks to Bianca for stopping at a fancy Manhattan cheese shop to get it, the salad wouldn’t be the same without it!

For dessert I made a mixed berry crumble.  I looked up recipes for an idea of how to make it but didn’t really follow one, so I will just list what I used, this is for two.

Filling

• fresh blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries
• 2 tbsp Chia seeds (1 tbsp for each)
• quick drizzle of maple agave syrup (maybe 1 tsp tops on each)

Crumble topping

• 1 packet of Kashi go lean hearty breakfast cereal
• 2 packets of Monk fruit in the raw
• 1-2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbps coconut oil

pack the filling into the ramekins very full as they are going to condense down then top with the crumble topping.  Mix the topping with your hands to get all the stuff mixed together, the heat from your hands will melt the coconut oil enough to make sure everything is well combined

Bake in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them so that you don’t burn the top.   Let it cool for 5 or so minutes, and the chia seeds will help thicken up the juice!

A lot of the recipes I found online had you add flour and sugar to the berries.  Why!?  Aren’t berries sweet enough on their own.  I wanted to omit the flour so I went for the chia seeds and it worked pretty well!  I was also toying with the idea to put a little balsamic vinegar with the berries, but I totally forgot because we were so hungry, but I think I am going to try it next time!

oh no!  Bianca is done and I didn’t make extras!

No Bianca! It’s Mine!

Behind the scenes action shot!

We only use the high-tech stuff here, poster board on a chair.  Thats how you get it done in a small Brooklyn apartment.

 

 

Do I Listen to My Body, or The Machine That Listens to My Body

Last July I bought my Polar FT60 Women’s Heart Rate Monitorand I can honestly say it was one of the best things that I bought.  It did take me a bit to figure it out but once I got the hang of it I think it has been indispensable.  The thing that drives me crazy is that none of the training modes give me much time to run.  I chose the FT60 over any other model because it has the training modes that give you weekly goals to meet and/or beat and it also gives you feedback as well.  

 

Right now I have mine set to increase fitness.  I used to have it set to lose weight but I found that it had me work out at too low of an intensity and it got boring.  Even in the increase fitness setting my goals are 2 hours in zone 1 (117-133) 3.5 hours in zone 2 (134-151) and 1.5 hours in zone 3 (152-171).  When I run I am in zone 3 and when I do the arc trainer or the elliptical at a moderate pace I can stay in zone 2.  But why won’t it let me be in zone 3 more?  My body does not feel exhausted if I run the amount that I am which last week was way more than it wanted me to.  In fact the past few weeks I have felt like I wanted to do more.  So I decided that this week I would….

Sporting a pink face in that one… That day I warmed up with .25mi then ran 4.75 miles non-stop and stayed in zone 3 for most of my workout.  It felt awesome, I have lost so much of my endurance since last summer when I was running more.  When I wrote to polar asking how I can get more time in zone 3 in my training they basically told me I couldn’t and in a nice way to get healthier.  Explaining that I should be able to get my heart rate lower while I run.

Yeah yeah yeah, I totally agree with that idea.  However, how can I do that without feeling like I am actually working hard.  I am sure there is a TON of science that goes into these things but I can’t help but to feel a tad bit held back sometimes, but then other times it helps me get out of a weight loss slump.  I don’t want to say that I know all, or that I know more than the engineers that designed this, but I do know my body and it is telling me to run more.That was my totals from last week.  My zone 1 is a bit over what it really was because my battery was dying in my sensor I think and I was getting low readings during times when I should have been in zone 2… but oh well, its still about right.  See what it told me though, train less in zone 3.  Of course it did because I ran 3 days in a row.  The bummer was I didn’t get a single star for my feedback, usually I get 3 stars and a trophy.  I was surprised I didn’t get anything considering I did way better working out for 12.5 hours and burning almost 4000 calories!

So what am I going to do?  Run.  suck it Polar… just kidding.  But I am going to ignore the training goals, and just use the heart rate monitor to make sure that I stay within my 3 zones for a couple of weeks and see where it takes me.  I am creeping up to reaching 50 pounds and I would like that to come sooner than later. But I think everyone wants that.

 

Bianca Squats for Stuffed Peppers and Raw Carrot Cake

Tuesday Bianca came over for another gym day and dinner.  It’s fun to work out with her because she is gung ho for everything and fun to talk to during cardio.  We worked arms, and I made her do some squats lol. I even have proof!

The other best part about Bianca coming over is I get to try out recipes that Jake wouldn’t totally be into.  So I made vegan stuffed poblano peppers with fresh tomatillo salsa that I based off of a recipe I found in the Martha Stewart Meatlesscook book.  Her recipe included goat cheese, which I don’t like at all, and really it didn’t need it so I skipped it.  I also added the farro because i thought that would be a better addition.

I roasted the peppers on my gas stove which made my apartment smell interesting, luckily it was like 50 degrees outside and I could open my windows.  After I roasted the peppers and peeled them, I made a batch of farro and sautéed it with fresh corn and black beans with a bit of the salsa and packed that into the peppers.

What is farro you say? It’s a gluten free grain.  Now before you think I am hopping on the gluten-free diet trend I am not.  I wanted to change up my quinoa obsession and I figured a heartier grain would be good for this dish.  It has kind of a nutty taste and its just really good.

For the tomatillo salsa, I boiled 5 tomatillos to make them soft then drained them and put them in my blender with a couple cloves of garlic, half a jalapeño, a ton of fresh cilantro, and the juice from 1 and a half limes.  I seasoned it with salt and pepper of course as well.

Of course no meal would be perfect without a dessert so I decided to try a raw carrot cake recipe that I found on a blog.  And by recipe I mean an idea because you know I didn’t follow it.

For this I grated one giant carrot, then realized how juicy the carrot was, so I ran the second one through my juicer to get a dryer pulp.  But I think I liked how it had two different textures, a coarse grated carrot mixed with the finer carrot pulp so if you can do that I would suggest it.  If not grate both but squeeze out a lot of the moisture or it won’t stay together.  Then I added about a cup of raw walnuts (soaked and dried in my oven of course) about a cup of dates, and 3/4 cup of unsweetened dried coconut.  Blended that all together then pressed it into heart shaped baking cups.  Oh! and don’t forget the cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg!  I did, and had to do it all over again lol.  I know a lot of people think carrot cake isn’t carrot cake without the raisins, but I can’t stand raisins so they were omitted in my version (and it was still carrot cake to me!).

messy kitchen

For the icing, the original called for cashews, which honestly sounded really good, but Bianca unfortunately is allergic to cashews so I made this out of coconut milk instead.  Did you know that if you put coconut milk in the fridge over night it thickens the creamy part of the milk and it separates to the top.  It ends up almost like being coconut cream (only without all the added junk when you buy it pre-made)  I scooped out all the coconut cream put it in my blender with some maple flavored agave, vanilla powder and a little vanilla extract.  Then I whipped it together and it made a super fluffy icing kind of like a cool whip consistency and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I am totally making that raw carrot cake for like every occasion now, I think anyone would like it no matter what kind of diet they have, it didn’t need to be made with flour or baked, and it didn’t need any extra oil or hydrogenated fats to make it delicious.  Give it a shot, you will probably really like it!  Even if you are one of those people that don’t believe in mixing vegetables in with your sweets… you know who you are…

 

Tattoos and Leg Days

Last Thursday I finished up my Angel tattoo so I didn’t get to go to the gym Friday or Saturday to let it heal up.  I made my goals for the week but by the skin of my teeth and only because I had days like this:

I kinda of knew I probably wouldn’t beat my goals if I didn’t add some extra time to the days I did go, but I went a little crazy hehe, I even clocked in about 22,000 steps that day!  Either way, I did sleep well after that workout!

I am sure you want to see my finished tattoo…

meow

Don’t judge my thigh, this is 10 minutes after we finished and man was I swollen!  It’s in the peeling stage right now so I can’t snap a new one quite yet.  Leaf did such a good job getting Angel’s attitude in her face, and I LOVE the frame!  I already have my  other leg planned the only thing is that I hate cutting into my gym time especially since I am trying to work on my endurance for the runs that I am doing this summer.

Monday was my first day back to the gym since my tattoo and it is my weekly leg day with Jake.  I used to just run while Jake did all his squats and deadlifts but a little over a month ago or so I decided that I should be doing that too.  So now I do his entire routine.

This was in the beginning of when I started with him I was doing 40 pounds and he was doing 315 pounds.

Yesterday I doubled what I started with and did 80 pounds and Jake made his goal a week early and did 405 pounds!  Thats just crazy.

The first week I started doing all this it hurt to walk for days after, now my legs still get a little sore since I keep upping the weight but not nearly like that first week.  I think there is a big difference in how they look though.  Hopefully.  Even if there isn’t a measurable difference I am getting stronger and that is kind of cool, and it’s more fun and entertaining to be on the meathead side of the gym for a change.

 

 

Gym buddies and a Dinner Date

Today my good friend Bianca Alexis came by after she was done work and we had a work out day and I made dinner for us.  I am sure by now you are noticing a trend that I like to feed people, I love to cook and it is way more fun cooking for more than one person!

Bianca loves her cardio so I wanted to get lots of strength in so we concentrated on arms and back.  The gym was packed so we didn’t get to do everything in my plan but we got most of it done, plus a half hour of cardio and burned well over 700 calories.

As I have said before Bianca and I were both goth club kids so we share a lot of the same clothing choices, we both bought the same underarmour capris in our signature colors and have planned for months and months to work out together in them and take pictures.  Fast forward to today and we finally got to do it, although by now my pants fall down when I do strenuous cardio and when I bend over which makes me sad… they are my favorites!

We both have good calves in our shots lol.  And this was AFTER our workout so don’t go all judge-y that our hair is out of place because it should be! We worked our butts off!

After the gym we came back to my place and that is where the magic happened.  Not that.. food!  Bianca is an omni, but she is open minded so I made an all vegan meal.  The highlight was the sriracha marinated sweet potato “fries” which were AMAZING!!!

I didn’t follow a recipe of course, but it was super easy!  Just chop up a few sweet potatoes into fry shapes, then throw them in a ziplock bag with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, TONS of chopped garlic, and even more sriracha and shake it up! I let them sit in the fridge while we were at the gym, I don’t know if it made a difference or not.  Then I laid them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment (easy clean-up!) and baked until they were done.  Don’t ask how long because I don’t know haha, I just cooked them till they were soft and had some burnt spots, I mean brown spots.  To dip them in (and because you can never have enough sriracha!) I mixed sriracha with some roasted garlic veganaise.

I also went for my other staples, sautéed kale with garlic and lemon and mixed vegetables (red, green and yellow pepper, zucchini, red onion, and cherry tomatoes grilled on my George Forman grill.  And of course on the side I had to make a fresh juice so I ran some watermelon and mint through my juicer!

No meal would be complete without desert so Bianca stopped at Dean and Deluca and got us each a cute tiny chocolate.  It literally tasted like christmas… dark chocolate with caramel, cinnamon, and cloves, yum!

Ps. Notice my photos getting better?  I built this little light box today out of cardboard, poster board, tissue paper, and tape lol…

But who cares what it is made of, it really made a difference!  The other difference… I didn’t take the photos, Bianca did… she is more handy with the digital camera than I am not to mention I am a little out of practice (meaning a lot, its been years since I have picked up a SLR)

Today was an awesome day, bummer it is pouring now, and I have to clean up my cooking mess, the worst part of cooking.

So thanks to Bianca for coming out to Brooklyn to visit me, and taking the photos, and helping me with photoshop, and my lightbox and the chocolate!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a Longggggggg week

amazing color and style i did at my salon

This week has been super eventful and packed so I haven’t been able to update my blog, but have kept up with my workouts and stuff, in fact worked harder.  I was decently busy at work and also hired a trainer that I worked out with twice last week.

My trainer, Alex started with me on Tuesday morning.  He did more cross training stuff with me, but did a pretty good job showing me some new moves to help get me out of my slump.  I woke up the next day with super sore legs, so sore that I walked noticibley funny, and i made it worse by wearing platform flip flops so i just walked awkward all day.  I worked out by myself Wednesday then Thursday I was back with Alex again at my meathead gym which was fun.  Friday and Saturday I went to Planet Fitness by myself and did intervals on the arc trainer and abs.  Sunday is usually my day off from the gym because I usually stay at Jake’s house for the weekend and his gym won’t allow guests (lame!)  but this weekend Jake stayed over beacause one of my best friends, Tina was in town so we all went to the gym together Sunday and Monday.  Sunday I did an arm day with Jake which was really fun, we usually don’t work out together because a lot of the stuff he does I can’t do, but I definetly want to try to do that more with him.

my stats for the week thanks to my Polat FT60

I really worked out 8 sessions but on the first day with Alex I didn’t wear my heart rate monitor, and on Sunday when I was doing a bicep curl the monitor unsnapped and fell off and didn’t count it!  I’m super excited because I ordered the S1 Foot Pod to track my running, so I can’t wait to see next week what it says!

Tina came up to not only hang out, but also to see Jake wrestle, he had a match Saturday night which turned out to be really fun.

Jake is front and center ❤

For the main event every minute a new guy entered the ring, and the only way to be disqualified was to fall out (or be thrown out) of the ring.  It got pretty crazy, but it was really exciting, I was glad I got to go to this one.

If you live in the New York area, and you like wrestling, you should totally like the Warriors of Wrestling’s facebook page and go to a match!!

We also got to see the new Batman movie, shopped in Time Square, and ate at one of my favorite restaurants (and the place Jake and I went on our first date) Wild Ginger.  yum!

I tried out a recipe for a protein peanut butter cup that my roommate Lydia found on a YouTube channel called Lean Body Lifestyle

I followed his recipe however I used my vegan protein powder by Vega.  The vega protein needed a lot more water than if I used a whey protein, so mine came out a little thicker, but its still pretty good, I can’t eat a whole one, it filled up a whole cupcake wrapper!  but i will definetly make them more once i finally finish the two that i made haha.

Someone got a heart rate monitor….

I have to admit, sometimes I get sold on stupid things that I see on the internet, and I for sure have nickle and dimed myself on a ton of things that don’t work or aren’t comfortable etc.  I had been curious about heart rate monitors for a while especially when I see my friend Jill Hanner instagram photos of her Polar FT40 heart rate monitor [HRM].  When I was at Jack Rabbit buying my shoes I noticed the display and was super close to buying one but I wanted to do my research before i just splurged.

Then a blogger that I follow made a post about how he got a HRM for father’s day and said that it helped him get through his plateau that he had been stuck in and raved about how great they were…

Being that I am pretty much stuck where I am with my weight loss right now, I figured now was the time to try it out, so I bought the Polar FT60.  What made me choose that one?  The short answer : the Polar website told me too lol.  But really there was more to it than that.

The FT60 creates a training program to help you meet your goals, and updates them weekly.  It also gives you feedback on how you are doing which I think helps as well.

I have worn it for two days so far.  Yesterday I didn’t really get it, there are three heart rate zones, when I set my HRM goals to lose weight it wants me to stay in zone 2 for a majority of the time.  In zone 2 my heart rate is between 135-152 which is difficult for me to stay in this range at the intensity that I like to work out.  My monitor has a graph of the amount of time that it wants me to stay in each of the three zones for the week and just from my hour long run yesterday I went over the amount of time alotted for the week of zone 3!  When I am on the treadmill the only thing that keeps me in zone 2 is by not walking over 3.5 mph and keeping the incline below 6.  That is kind of annoying to me, I feel like it is holding me back.

Today is my longest day at the gym because i don’t have work, or other commitments for the day so I usually stay there for at least 2 hours.  I did an hour of strength and an hour of cardio.  This time I used the arc trainer for 45 min and did intervals of 1 minute at high intensity and 1 minute of low intensity.  This kept me in zone 2 for most of the workout, then I went over and did 15 minutes on the treadmill hoping to get some running in by trying the intervals but it got annoying how often I had to lower the speed  to bring down my heart rate.

woohoo!

So what else have I learned by using this?  That the amount of calories that the machines say I burn or even myfitnesspal say are totally over-estimated.  If I would have typed that stuff into myfitnesspal it would have worked out to well over 1000 calories burned, and even on the machine the arc trainer alone said i burned over 600 calories and that was only 45 minutes of my workout.  So that part is kind of a bummer.  It did tell me that I did good today though haha.

So what do you guys think?  Should I just work out like I was, or listen to this and lower  the intensity that I work out to maintain my heart rate in this sweet spot?

now just to add a little cute-ness… here is my perfectly measured out dinner in 1/2 cup hearts.

get in my belly!

quinoa, mashed sweet potatoes, jamacian jerk black beans, and sweetfire love beets. yum!

skinny, skinny fat, fit fat, or just fat…

photo from Equinox

I have been reading all these articles that have been coming out about being “skinny fat” which is the term used for normal weight obesity.  It is basicly saying that you should not only be concerned about your weight but the distribution of your weight of fat to muscle.  You could be super skinny but have very little muscle mass, in fact if you are a woman with over 30% body fat (25% in men) you are considered obese no matter what size jeans you fit in.

Its kind of crazy to think about… I never really noticed many people that fit that mold, until i started going more regularly to Planet Fitness.  At my “meat head” gym everyone there is super huge and muscley and fit so I had nothing to really compare things to, but at Planet Fitness there are people of all fitness abilities.  The other day when I was on my beloved arc trainer I saw first hand just how unfit skinny people really can be.

Two girls got on the arc trainers next to me, one had to be no bigger than a size 4, the other maybe a 6, obviously way skinnier than I am yet there they were huffing and puffing and struggling after only doing a few minutes on a very easy setting.  In fact they were so out of shape they got off after about 10 minutes, breathing heavy and complaining about how hard it is.  Then I look at myself, who is considered over weight and I could run circles around these girls, I do 45 minutes- an hour on the arc trainer when I am on it and by at least the last 15 minutes I am doing it at high intensity on the hardest level.

Its just kind of crazy to me, and honestly not fair at all that this happens.  Here I am working my butt off and its only coming off slowly and there they are not struggling with their size but struggling to be active. I mean really i suppose i would rather have it my way…. maybe.

So sure I want to be smaller, but definetly not like those girls.  So back to the gym.  Back to the treadmill and the arch trainer.  and back to the strength training for me.

Planet Fitness Brooklyn

So this week the Planet Fitness finally opened near my apartment…  Whats so great about  it?  It is as cheap as 10 bucks a month and it is huge! and new… and clean.  What’s not so great about it?  Its not a gym built for Jake so we can’t go there together, and i guess being 10 dollars a month brings in a few people that are not that great.  I am hoping that as the excitement winds down so will the crowds, after all I am sure that is part of their business plan, over-selling memberships and hoping that half of them hardly come.

So far I have gone there three times.  My first impression what not too favorable but I have to admit they just opened so it must have been hectic.  I had actually signed up for the gym in January and had been waiting since then for it to open.  It finally did while it was in Arizona so I went a few days after its grand opening.  When I got there I just wanted to sign in but the girl at the desk was not that welcoming and made me wait in the same line as the people learning about the gym and signing up.  So I seriously stood in the line for a good 30 minutes which ate away at the amount of time that i had to work out.  Once I finally got in I headed straight up to the third floor to hop on a treadmill and start going as I only had a half hour left to get anything in.  First thing I noticed was that there were a ton of machines which was awesome, but because there are so many the machines are so close together that sometimes you and the person next to you can’t hold on to the same handles at the same time.  I Think they would have been better off taking one of each machine out and given each machine an inch of so more space really.  Other than that I like it a lot.

I also found a new love for the arch trainer.  Its like an eliptical but all the issues that I had with an eliptical are gone.  I always noticed that if I am on an eliptical for too long it makes my toes feel numb.  I know that is not a feeling I should have while I am working out lol, but beause of the limited choices of cardio equipment at my old gym I would do it so I wasn’t always just doing the treadmill.  Being that I am a teeny 5’1 sometimes I have a hard time on certain brands of elipticals because my stride was too short.  That would put more stress on my knees and the sides of my calves would often hurt the next day.  The arch trainer so far as aleeved all of those issues AND added bonus, it burns more calories than a standard eliptical. win win.  Plus everyone at the gym hasn’t figured out it amazingness so they are always empty hehe.  I do wish that Planet Fitness invested in the total body arch trainer and not just the model that only works your lower body, or at least half and half… but eh what can you do.

Now that I am in a newer, bigger gym I also started on being more consistant with my strength training which I know I needed to start a long time ago, but I am just not patient enough to wait for equipment like I had to at my old gym.  I did my arms Saturday and legs today, tomorrow abs.  sexy.

I guess I keep saying old gym, but I am still a member there, I have a soft spot for those “meatheads” and Jake can work out there and honestly my favorite gym day out of all 6 days is Monday when he comes with me, so I am always going to go back there, just not every day.