Monday, March 1, 2010

Out of the races and onto the tracks.

The title of this Rapture song is surprisingly appropriate for this Monday morning. Sigh. Such a great band. Finally added pretty much all of their songs onto my workout shuffle. Anywho.

I cannot tell a lie- I'm feeling pretty damn awesome this morning! My weekend do-over went well yesterday. Got all sorts of deals on the stuff I bought (2 tops on clearance at Burlington Coat Factory, 2 bras for $40 + a $10 coupon at Victoria's Secret and 2 tops, 2 tanks & a pair of jeans, all marked down, at Old Navy!), came home and watched 2001: A Space Odyssey with Doug and made an awesome dinner, featuring one of my favorite recipes from Epicurious, Turkey Zucchini Meatloaf (Thanks again Tina for sharing it all those months ago!):





Sooo good! The meatloaf turned out great. I roasted some asparagus in the oven and Doug whipped up his awesome mashed potatoes. Pretty stoked about the leftovers for lunch today! Also, not pictured are the lemon squares I made. I'm not much of a baker (probably a good thing), but every once in a while I branch out and buy a mix that requires no more than 2-3 additional ingredients, heh.

Woke up early this morning and decided to try yet another new Jari Love DVD:



And, once again, I'm a fan. It's definitely similar to her other strength training DVD I tried last week, but I still enjoyed it. It's all about high-reps and muscle fatigue. Killer.

Lots of lower body work (squats, lunges) and of course, tons of upper body work (shoulder/chest presses, tricep dips and extensions, bicep/hammer curls, push-ups). And, as typical with her workouts, she closes with an abs circuit, which I actually did this time and didn't skip!

Part of what makes this DVD so tough is the crapload of pulsing reps that you do with every move. I broke into a pretty big sweat in the beginning (courtesy of the lower body exercises) and continued to feel the burn (especially in my shoulders!) throughout the upper body workout. Each circuit is about 5 minutes and I think there were about 15 (!!!) circuits total.

One thing I liked about this DVD that I haven't seen in any of the others is the break in between circuits where there are detailed explanations about the upcoming moves. There's a [hot] dude showing you proper form from different angles, as well as alternative moves for beginners. Plus, the breaks gave me enough time to change out my dumbbells and/or set up my aerobic step. I'm really glad I got that thing. Jari uses it in pretty much every DVD, so it's really paying for itself. Anywho, although the breaks add extra time to the workout (was about 65+ minutes), I was really glad they were incorporated. Since this wasn't a cardio-based workout, I wasn't too concerned with keeping my heart rate up super-high, every single second.

I'm glad I got up earlier and gave myself enough time to do the abs circuit and the full cooldown. I usually end up rushing through those parts or skipping them completely, but no rushing today. The cooldown was really relaxing and just left me feeling calm, strong and happy. I love you, Jari!

After a good workout, I refueled with a quick but filling breakfast:



3 Minute Oatmeal [Cranberry] Cookie and a hard-boiled egg. I forgot how much I love hard-boiled eggs. This breakfast left me feeling so good that I think I might repeat it tomorrow.

That's all for now- I've got a busy morning ahead of me. No lunch pics today since they're just leftovers from last night's dinner. Dinner post possibly later tonight, once I figure out what we're having!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like to boil half a dozen eggs (or more) at a time and leave them in the fridge for a quick snack. I haven’t done this in awhile, thanks for the reminder.

I get so envious when I read about your at home dvd workouts. We are in the middle of renovating our basement and Chad wants to get a 52” tv for the space. Right now now have a turn knobby 19” (if that). It’s Chad’s old tv from the 80s (probably!) and the colour is so crappy. Everyone is always red or orangey, no matter how you adjust the tv. Once we get that set up, I so want to try some of these dvds you talk about so highy.