Working out while sick. :(

So despite not feeling well yesterday, I let RR drag me to the gym, mostly because I've heard working out is a great way to cure yourself.  I'm kinda mad at myself for falling for the "okie doke", especially because it makes me the biggest hypocrite ever! I hate when people workout while sick with the passion of a thousand suns!!  But in my defense I wasn't coughing, I was just bone tired, my nose was kinda runny and my throat hurt.  So I was a huge hypocrite, and went to the gym, and did shoulders and lats.  My back, delts, shoulders and lats are super sore so these past two days have been fairly light...

Exercise		Weight (lbs)	sets	reps
Shoulder press		20	1	15
		25	1	15
		27	1	12
Lateral Raises		15	3	15
Inclined barbell bench press		55	3	12
Dumbell Flies		10	3	12
Leg raises		body weight	4	15
ab machine		50	3	15

Throughout my workouts these past two days, I've been sore, but trying not to complain. So, generally, I've just been giving RR an eye roll or the stink face when he tells me what we're going to do next.  However, today he tried to get me to do some rear deltoid flies, I made THIS face at him, before I could catch myself.

Followed by a VERY melodramatic

Thankfully, he just laughed at me and let me skip. (whew!)

In other news, I love buying new workout clothes. I feel like I buy more workout clothes than anything else.  So when my BFF, TdotC shared the following link with me for Ellie, I nearly wet myself (okay, not really).

Ellie is a Fitness Fashionista Club, in layman's terms its a new athletic apparel service, where you’ll get two pieces of fitness apparel sent to your doorstep each month for $49.95. You can choose which items you want, or let them decide for you. They do ask you to take a survey, so they know your your workout habits, size, style and color preference.  Below are some of the options they gave me based on my preferences...

LOVE this tank!

and all of this!

Seriously considering joining Ellie,
Candydiva04

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One Workout, 2 Recipes

Despite having sore shoulders, delts and lats yesterday, I went to the new gym, pushed through the pain and banged out my biceps and back exercises. Which looked like this..

Exercise                                                     weight             Sets                  Reps                               

Lat Pulldowns                                             45lbs               4                            15
                                                                   65lbs               2                            15
Seated rows                                                75lbs               3                            15

Single Arm DB rows                                   15lbs                3                            15
Iso-Lateral chest/back machines                  10lbs              1                           15   

                                                                   15lbs               1                            15  

                                                                   17lbs               1                            13
Seated Row Machine                                   30lbs              1                             2

I tried to do the 2nd set of Rows but my delts were NOT about it.  lol  So i did about 10 min of cardio before leaving for Ballet class!!

After class I realized we ran out of bread, so I thought, I should just make some!! The plan last night after thoroughly kicking my own butt in the gym and then running back to the old gym for Ballet class, was to come home and make this but if I made ithis bread recipe I would have been up until 1am. (No way Jose!!!)  So I bought some bread and went to sleep, this is however on my agenda for later this week. I had hoped to do it tonight but I started to come down with something this morning and making bread is the last thing on my mind today,  :( 

Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread (for bread machine)

SERVES: MAKES 1 LOAF

INGREDIENTS

• 4 ¼ cups whole-wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups warm water (not too hot or it will kill the yeast)
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (or melted butter)
• 1 packet or 2 ¼ teaspoons yeast

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Follow your bread machine’s directions for making a whole-wheat sandwich loaf. For me that means putting in the dry ingredients first with the wet ingredients on top. I have the Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker and it takes the machine five hours to make this loaf.

I'll let you know how my bread turns out,when I  make it! Then while playing around on the internet last night I ran across this recipe which MUST.BE.TRIED!!! ASAP!!!

Healthy Vegan Nutella

That's right, healthy nutella!! Who knew such awesomeness was even possible in a healthy version!! I obviously intend to give this a whirl, I'm contemplating making some Nutella covered strawberries, not sure if that'll work the same as regular chocolate covered strawberries, but we'll see.

Healthyvegan Nutella

You will need:
Two cups of raw hazelnuts
1/4 cup of dark unsweetened cocoa
4 tablespoons agave nectar
3 packets of stevia 
1/4 cup of almond milk 
2 tsp vanilla extract

To prepare:
Toast hazelnuts in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes (or less for a less strong hazelnut flavor). Wait for them to cool and then remove skin by rubbing nut between hands or a paper towel. Put in a food processor and blend until it looks like peanut butter. This may take awhile because the nuts have to begin to release oils. Once it reaches this consistency, add all other ingredients and blend until smooth.

Spread over bread or eat by the spoonful!

Sick, sore and pouting,

Candydiva04

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We found a gym!!

After hitting what seemed like every gym in the area (which it probably was!) we FINALLY settled on Gym number 2. The body builder gym!!  Its not 24 hours and I hate the locker room, but its really the best gym for us. Are you surprised? 'Cause you shouldn't be!

In other news, RR has decide this will be a cardio week for both of us. (WOOHOO!!) I was actually really sick of lifting.  I'm pretty sure that means my workout needs some changes, or else I need to get back into aerials ASAP, but it JUST.KEEPS.SNOWING!!!! UGH!!  So no aerials just yet for me.   :(  But I intend to make the most of this cardio week, so that hopefully when its over, I'll be sick of cardio! (yea right!)

So in other news, I've finally decided, after pigging out yesterday because it was Superbowl Sunday, that I'm going to buckle down and get back on track with my diet.  I've started logging my food on Myfitnesspal.com, if you're on there feel free to add me, I'm (obviously) Candydiva04!  My meals are open so you can see what I'm eating, good or bad.  But hopefully all good from now on.  I'm also going to start wearing my fitbit again.

What the Fitbit Ultra should look like

What my Fitbit looks like

I've thoroughly beaten mine up, as you can see... (and clearly need to cut my nails, YIKES!)  I had previously said I was going to get another tracker for the winter, but since I didn't and Fitbit released a new device that I can sync to my phone,  I might upgrade to the new Fitbit One or Flex.  We'll see.

Fitbit Flex

   

Fitbit One

In other news, I made a pizza for Superbowl Sunday. We typically, use whole wheat tortillas or those flat sandwich bread thingees (who's name has clearly escaped me, as evidenced by the fact that I called it a thingee), to make pizza.  However, I've been CRAVING real doughy pizza.  So I dusted off my bread machine, used the following dough recipe, and made a whole wheat crust. We topped it with tomato paste, some leftover baked chicken, turkey pepperoni and fat free cheese. It was delicious!

Bread Machine Pizza Dough With Whole Wheat Flour
http://www.food.com/recipe/bread-machine-pizza-dough-with-whole-wheat-flour-137143

1 1/3 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons yeast
Directions:

1.  Add ingredients in the order given into the bread machine pan. (my bread machine recommends that, I add the dry ingredients first, so I did that, however I did reserve the yeast for last)
2.  Start dough cycle. (On my machine this took 1.5 hours).
3.  Once the dough is done remove it from the pan onto a floured work surface.
4. Roll dough to fit the shape of your pan. This recipe makes two 14 inch round pizzas.
5. Brush lightly with olive oil and add toppings. You can hold this dough, with just the olive oil, for a couple of hours in the fridge covered in plastic wrap.
6. Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.


Until next time, 

Candydiva04

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Alternative fitness, part 2.

Just a few more of my experiences in the never ending quest to keep myself motivated to continue lifting and working towards getting fit, instead of being one of those girls on the treadmill or elliptical focused solely on being skinny.

You'll notice that the activities I seek out are generally physical activities.  I do other stuff, like go to the movies, archery range, hit happy hours with friends and go to the gun range. Not in that order, but you get my drift, right?  These are my fitness related activities.

1. Rock Climbing -  I love Rock Climbing, but its pretty rough on the hands.  Supposedly, a lot of women stay away from rock climbing because they think they lack the upper body strength needed for it.  However, according to the guy who taught me how to belay, women are better rock climbers because they use their legs, which what you're supposed to do.  Unfortunately, I rock climb like a guy... all upper body.  I typically leave the rock gym with sore biceps, triceps, shoulders and back. 

2.  Pole Fitness - Pole is a lot of fun, once you get past the pole burn, which is not fun.  However, this turned out to be a better workout than I expected.  Pole is actually a full body workout,  I left my first class feeling sore from head to toe.  The focus on improved flexibility is also a nice plus.  Unfortunately, the school I was attending didn't really seem to have a curriculum, and all class were drop ins.  So one week I might be the most inexperienced girl in the class, which meant I learned a TON of stuff, and the next weeks, I might be the most experienced girl in class which meant I spent the class working on basics moves I already know.  Couple that with the pole studio being about 40 min away, and I haven't been pole-ed in a while.

Since its only a matter of time before someone asks me about Zumba, I guess I should take a moment to address Zumba.  I, personally, am not a fan of Zumba  for *ME*, I don't find it challenging and have never so much as broken a sweat in Zumba.  I think Zumba is a great place to start if you don't already have a fitness routine.  For the first year or so of your workout, I think its a great cardio workout to supplement a lifting routine.  However, as far as I know Zumba doesn't have levels, and at some point you're going to need to switch it up, or leave Zumba behind because it won't be as much of challenge, for you.  

For those of you who are hard core Zumba lovers, I want you to look around the next time you're in class.  You'll see a lot of the same women who've been coming to Zumba week after week. How much of a difference do you see in their bodies? Do you see any women who look the way you want to? If so, ask them about their workout routines, I guarantee they do a lot more than just attend a few Zumba classes.  The same goes for all fitness classes.  Your workout needs to be dynamic and well rounded.  Don't just rely on a class for your fitness needs, and don't be afraid to try something harder.

On the list still to try (but not available locally that I know of) are Parkour, Flying trapeze, Adult gymnastics, Salsa dance, and maybe a martial arts class, but I want to find one that's practical for a short woman.  I'm thinking about trying Krav, Muy Thai, or Ninpo, but at the moment my schedule's a little too full.  So we'll see...

The quest continues,
Candydiva04

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Goldilocks and the 3 (more) Gyms

So the gym search is still on going... Who knew picking a gym would be this hard!! We hit Gym #3 earlier this week, this gym is probably the newest one around so I had high hopes for it.  We walked in and it was... small.  Very nice and clean, but..teeny tiny, so tiny, it didn't even have a dedicated locker room.  Small wouldn't be this big of a problem except in this case small meant limited options for working out muscle groups.  The pros, it wasn't crowded, even right after work, is open 24 hours, and has state of the art equipment (treadmills with built in TV's!).  The cons,it was small,  it had no pull up/dip assist machine, and did I mention that this gym was small?!?!?  RR and I quickly realized this gym, is NOT going to work for us.

We tried to hit Gyms 4 and 5 this week, but they're also 24 hour gyms that only have staff during certain times, which unfortunately were not the times we tried to visit.  I'm pretty sure gym#4 is off the list since it seems both locations are pretty inconvenient for us.  I have high hopes for gym #5,  since  it seems a good chunk of the people from our gym are either joining Gym #5 or Gym #2...  But we'll have to hold off on making a decision for another week or so.  :(

I attended  a Fit Body Boot Camp Class this morning, had a great experience with it, but I'll have to tell you about it another day.  Its time to stretch!!

Hoping to make a Gym decision soon,
Candydiva04

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The Gym Search

So I am such a slacker. It took RR asking about the blog to make me remember that I haven't posted in ages. Basically, I fell off the wagon and stopped posting, and it took me such a long time to catch up with the wagon and get back on that I forgot I even had a blog! SMH

So I'm back, as is some of my weight. I buckled down on my diet before my birthday and dropped down to 135lbs then went on vacation to an all inclusive resort and lost my mind. I was 148 when I got back on my scale. I've been yo-yo-ing ever since, but I haven't had the will power to get my diet in order, either.

The fact that my gym is closing and RR and I have been shopping for a new gym doesn't help. Finding the right gym feels a little like being Goldie locks from Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears.  There are no franchise gyms like Golds or Bally's near by, not that I have any interest, but RR likes the idea. The Y(MCA) is popular here but overpriced and chock full of people in there for social reasons so that's out. We've narrowed down the search to about 5 gyms, RR made a spreadsheet, lol.

Gym#1 - we both hated. Its past our neighborhood so we'd have to fight the urge to just go home after work. But it was small and had a weird layout. Not mention the creepy guy who oogled me, and the crappy treadmills.  RR liked some of the equipment they had that our gym didn't, like the laying down ham curl machine, which left my hams SUPER sore for 4 days. I literally couldn't straighten my legs! RR liked the power squat machine. But one day of working out there was enough to rule it out.

Gym#2- My fave. The clientele is nothing but serious fitness folk, no annoying resolutioners. There are several competitive bodybuilders/fitness/figure athletes who train there, plus some of my fave ppl from my old gym are also transitioning there. Its semi close to the house and I like the vibe/atmosphere. RR's biggest complaint was a lack water fountain, and he had a bad dumb bell experience. And it had "less equipment" than our old gym. I disagree.. I think it just had different equipment but that's his opinion.

That's all we've checked out thus far, we have 2, maybe 3 more to go. The 3rd one might get skipped because they haven't returned a single call, email or fb message RR has sent...

We'll keep you posted!!!

Candydiva04

P.S- that last post about spiking my protein shakes made me literally laugh out loud and shake my head.  Oh the mistakes we make!

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