Shout out!!

My SIL and best friend, Megan has been working very hard on her fitness. She has found her love of running. She has done several 5k's and is going to sign up for some more in the next few months. She typically tries to run 6-8 miles a week. She also does water aerobics twice a week, and a strength training circuit 2-3 times a week. She has lost 20lbs and 2 pants sizes so far. She is looking forward to reaching so many more goals. She uses myfitnesspal to log all of her meals so she knows she is meeting the right requirements for her eating. She is also trying to get more water in each day. She has gained a lot more confidence from this. She started out a few months ago doing a health challenge at work, and has continued on her own journey. Her co-workers have been very supportive to her through her whole journey. She also has a great group of family and friends that surround her to help support her. She is a great inspiration to everyone that knows her.

 

Doesn't she look wonderful!!

 

 

 

 

If you would like a shout out for your fitness journey please e-mail me @sadie822@hotmail.com. I would love to give everyone a shout out for all their hard work.

Strength Sunday

Leg days are my favorite days at the gym, but we cannot just work on the lower body and ignore the upper body. So one exercise that I enjoy doing for the chest is the incline bench press.

Now I know a lot of people say that they find the incline much harder than decline and regular bench press. I actually find that I like the incline the best. I feel like I do not struggle with it quite as much. Maybe I'm just weird :) Now of course it is definitely a good idea to have someone spot you when you are bench pressing. I try to spot my husband, but he says I seem scared when I do because he is lifting much more weight than I do.


Now this exercise is not complicated at all. First set your weight up. Typically the bar used weighs 45 lbs. If you want more weight than that add the same amount to each side of the bar to keep it level. Lie on the bench and take the bar off the rack and lower the barbell to your chest then press it up. Repeat this for 10-15 reps and replace on the rack. I typically try to do 3 sets of 15. Of course that last set I am struggling with more than the first set. The person spotting you should be standing behind the rack ready to grab the barbell if you need help. You also want to make sure that your grip is not too wide on the bar so you don't compromise your range of motion.


There is a lot of good information about the incline press on bodybuilding.com
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/schultz51.htm

Small victories

The hubby and I went out to dinner last night. Well in the past when we would go out I would get a soda with some sort of fattening, greasy dinner and eat dessert right afterwards. I said you know I think I want to have a "cheat" meal tonight. I was thinking a steak or hamburger sounded good or even some fried chicken. I looked over the menu several times, and those things just did not sound good to me. I decided to go with grilled chicken with grilled pineapple, grilled veggie skewers, salad and water. It was very yummy. I was happy to not have all the grease and fat of some of the other choices I could have made. I guess I have changed my mind on the cheat meals that I want. It is the small victories that we should be looking for in our journey's.

Scrumptious Saturday!!

Have you tried spaghetti squash yet? If not you should it is very yummy, and very good for you. When you cook this squash the strands fall away to look like spaghetti.

There are a million ways you can prepare this delicious vegetable. I have one easy, healthy, delicious way. I don't know about you, but those three words always sound good to me in a recipe.


Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash
2 tbsp. oil (Olive, coconut, or grapeseed)
1 tomato
2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 c finely shredded mozzarella cheese (or nutritional yeast)



Cut your squash in half and remove the seeds and the center strings. Drizzle the squash with the oil, garlic powder and black pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes open side down. Then take it out of the oven and scrape the squash with a fork to make strands in the squash. Turn the oven to broil and add the tomatoes and basil and top with mozzarella. Broil it for about 5 minutes until the cheese is melted.

There it is a super simple, yummy recipe. You can eat this by itself or with some sort of protein (fish, chicken, turkey). This is a good side to use in place of pasta.

Fabulous Friday

We went to my sons orientation for school today. I felt much better about myself this year than I did last year. I still have a lot of goals for myself that I want to achieve, but I have come a long way.

Seeing our picture from last year to this year has definitely helped my confidence and motivation.

Workout Wednesday

So this is another one of my love hate exercises. TRICEP DIPS!!

 

 

 

It seems so simple, but once you start doing a few you realize why I love to hate them, especially the next day :)  The triceps are the large muscles on the back of your arm. It is sometimes called a three-headed muscle because there are three bundles of muscles, each of different origins, joining together at the elbow.

So how can you achieve the horseshoe look for your triceps? There are lots of different exercises you can do to help build this muscle. One that was very scary for me was tricep dips. I did not want to do them for a long time, but now I try to do them along with my other tricep workouts if I can. To do this exercise you can do it in a gym or the comfort of your own home or while running at a track you can do them on a bench in between intervals. When I first did these I used my legs to lift myself up and down and thought wow this is not bad on my arms, but my legs are really sore. WRONG!! You want to push your body up and down using your arms not your legs. That way you are working the muscle you want. You will definitely feel them the next day in your arms if you do them right. Watch the video that is linked to see the right way to perform these.


http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/bench-dips



There are lots of variations you can do with this exercise. Like I said you can really do it from anywhere. You can also use two benches put your arms on one and your legs on the other and add weights to your mid section to add a little more difficulty. Have fun and go do your dips.


If you are interested here is a challenge for you to try with your dips. Just break them into sets.

 

Scrumptious Saturday

I made this dish the other day. It is very yummy. I had always heard about quinoa for a long time, but was always scared to try it. Now I eat it a lot. It is good with breakfast, on salads, just as a plain side, in casseroles etc...This recipe is very filling you really do not need to eat anything else with it. I did have some extra protein with it, however. Quinoa does have 8g of protein in it. Which makes it very good for vegetarians or vegans. I froze some of this in 1 cup bags so I can just pull out a serving when I want something quick for lunch.


Quinoa veggie bake


1c quinoa
2c water
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1c sliced portabella mushrooms
1/2 c purple onion
1c organic cherry tomatoes
1 eggplant
2c asparagus
1/2 c spinach
1/2 c kale
2 tbsp. organic coconut oil
2 tbsp. ground flax seed
salt and pepper to taste




Preheat the oven to 375. Cook the quinoa in the 2 cups of water. While that is cooking chop up all the vegetables. Put the 2 tbsp. coconut oil in the baking dish. Put all the vegetables in there and mix in flax seed and quinoa. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Bake 45 minutes.


That is it. Super easy and super yummy. It would be good with some avocado, hummus or fresh salsa mixed in. I have eaten it by itself and also with chicken. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.