Category Archives: strength training

Lifting Move of the Week

Up bright and early today and biked to the gym. I was there by 6:30! That is 1/2 hour earlier than I normally am there.

I hopped on the treadmill with the intention of only doing 1.5 miles, but it really felt good, so I kept going. Ever have that happen? I was doing 5.5 to 6 mph and ended up with 3 miles. I never run that much before lifting. Oooops.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Seated lat rows 3 sets of 12 at 45# Back
Lying leg press 3 set of 10 at 100# Lower body
Incline Chest Fly 3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs (30# total) Chest
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 10 at 30# (each side) Core
Good mornings 3 sets of 12 with 35# bar Hammies and lower back
Arnold Press 3 sets of 15 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Nosebreakers 3 sets of 15 at 20# Triceps

I was pretty tired at this point. Even though I had a protein drink before leaving the house, I was really hungry!

Came home and made custard oats topped with almond butter and honey fluff (recipe coming soon).

Can I just say “wow?” I actually had to get up and walk away from breakfast for a minute because I was eating too fast (being mindful!).

I got to work early, as the window people were coming to start the big installation. Hot day to do it, too. Poor guys.

Lifting Move of the Week: The Horizontal Wood Chop!

This is for your core. The object is to use your core muscle to move the weight, not your arms. Keep the lower body still. Lighter weights allow you to use your core and not the arms. To do this at home, just use a dumbbell and go along the same path.

Enjoy!

Lunch time and the house was getting warm because of the AC being unhooked.  Nothing like no AC on a 90+ degree day, right?  I wanted a cool lunch:

Greek yogurt, Uncle Sam’s, and berries!  It was very good.  Although, I was still a little hungry after this, so I had a Luna Bar.

New flavor to me and I liked it.

Since the men were moving into my work area with window taping (not to mention I was getting too hot!), I moved upstairs to sit in air conditioned comfort while I worked.  Since we have a 100-year-old house, there is lead remediation to be done. Windows barriered on the inside:

Snack time!

With a latte.

The downstairs was done by dinner time.  How exciting!  Old windows.  These windows were 100 years old with the original rope pulleys and wavy glass (some broken).Not all of the windows even opened:

And yes, our neighbor’s house is that close to ours on that side.

New windows are tilt ins, E-glass and insulated.  I’ll get pictures of those up tomorrow.  Happy, happy!  This will make a world of difference with our heating bills this winter.  I am just dorky enough to be excited about cleaning the windows now.  I couldn’t do the upstairs ones from the inside before.

Dinner was a scrambled egg open faced sammie.

Gonna need more bread soon.  One thing I have done, which you probably might have noticed, is increased my bread consumption in the past couple of months.  That is a result of all of this bike riding I am doing and I am adjusting the diet to include more carbs.

Tonight involves a trip down to see my niece for her 11th birthday and have some cupcakes!  I’ll try to just have one. :mrgreen:

Question: Are there any moves in particular you would like me to video?

Lifting and Team Challenge ride

Yay – my Broncos won last night and looked pretty good! Can’t wait for the real season to start. I biked to the gym today, where I decided on lifting only for a cardio break.

Operation endurance is still going:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squats 3 sets of 10 with 45# bar Lower body
Dumbbell pullover 3 set of 12 with 20# DB Back
Chin ups 2 sets 2 Upper body
Decline sit ups 3 sets of 12 Core
1-leg deadlifts 3 sets of 12 with 15# DBs (30# total) Hammies and balance
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Push ups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Lower Back extension 3 sets of 12 at 80# Low back
Front Raise 3 sets of 12 with 5# DBs (10# total) Shoulders
Cable pull down 3 sets of 15 at 30# Triceps

I tried chins again for the first time in a few months. I lost some strength there, which is annoying. I stopped doing them because I didn’t want to concentrate to much on them, plus I was getting a little bored doing them each workout.  Then lookie what happens 😀

Quick bike home. It’s going to be a hot one today! Not humid, though, which is always good in my book.

Are you tired of the oats yet? I have really been on a super kick lately. This blog should be called finding oats and broccoli…. (which ought to bring in a lot of readers).

This is the size banana that I use for my banana custard oats (I know there is a joke in there somewhere).

I don’t like using half a banana, so we just find the smallest ones possible.

I cannot tell you how great it feels to be back down to a single job’s worth of hours.   Yay!  I’ll have my new bike paid off next week, so that is a good thing.  I might just keep the 2 jobs as part time instead of moving to 1 only, as I am afraid that there won’t be enough work with one company (it’s feast or famine in my industry).  Plus job #1 has eased up a little on the constant berating of employees – or a lot of them left at any rate.  I’ll just play it by ear.

Lunchtime involved something different.  I made a protein crepe using egg white protein powder.  I am not that fond of it, but we must use it up.

  • 15 grams of egg white protein
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1/4 cup liquid egg whites
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour
  • stevia

Whizzed up in the magic bullet and cooked in a skillet.   Filled with blueberry sauce and a dollop of vanilla greek yogurt.

This was tasty, but a little on the tough side, thanks to the egg white protein.  I have tried this with brown rice PP and kind of had the same result.  I need to try it with whey and see what happens.  Definitely in the keeper file, though.

I now have the donate button for my charity ride if anyone wants to use it in the sidebar (or below).  😀  I’ll be getting the recipe book out to people this week.  It’s about a 50 page booklet!
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I am getting excited about the ride.  I just need to find out what the course is like.  I imagine hilly because it is in the Adirondacks, but I am prepared for that.  I did 100 miles this summer, so I know I can do 62 with hills. The only thing I won’t be prepared for is rain.  The ride is rain or shine, so I am going to have to suck it up and ride if it is bad weather LOL!

Snack time included one of these:

Plus some of this:

I am starting to have cereal snack issues again, so this box is going to go up high tonight.

Finished up with work by dinner time, which is so awesome!  It’s so great to know I don’t have to log back in after dinner and do more.  It’s also great to see a man cooking:

Although, truth be told he was cooking some shrimp for himself LOL!

I had a baked crab cake and finally some red pear!  They are back around now.  Red pears are my favorite.

Now I have a whole evening with no work to do, but a lot of other things to do.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway of  “I’m With Fatty!”  Recipient will be chosen on Tuesday.

What’s blooming today!

It’s Friday and you know what that means! What’s blooming! But first, the daily stuff. I proteined up and biked to the gym. I know a lot of you are in a heat wave, but it was in the upper 50s biking there this morning 😯

Warmed up with 1 mile on the treadmill and then set to lifting.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell dead lifts 3 sets of 10 with 65# bar Lower body
Barbell Incline Chest Press 3 set of 10 with 45# bar Chest
Wide grip pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 50# Back
Reverse Crunches 3 sets of 15 Core
Good Mornings 3 sets of 12 with 35# bar Lower back and hammies
Stationary Lunge 3 sets of 10 holding a 25# plate Lower body
Upright row 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Shoulders
Bench Dips 3 sets of 10 Triceps

Then I hopped onto the treadmill for another mile.  I was super sweaty today as the AC wasn’t on at the gym because it was chilly out and they had the doors open.  It felt good to bike home in the cool air.

I came home to a cute scene:

Pixie is a heat-seeking lap missile now that it is cooler in the mornings.

In honor of Banana Lovers Day, I had banana custard cream of wheat topped with peanut butter and fluff and joined John at the table (rare):

Deliciousness!   Since today is pretty much just a half work day for me, I was able to relax some in the morning.  I don’t have a set start time with job 2, so no rush to log in.  I wrote that book review (click here for review and giveaway) and then worked.

Lunch break.  Egg sammie.

I am not afraid to eat eggs.  I do like runny yolks, but most times I cook thoroughly.  Plus we buy locally produced eggs, so I worry less.

Nice stuff in the garden right now.

More asters:

A grasshopper!

Buddha being all peaceful with the clematis:


Purple Liriope:

This is the white Liriope in it’s neat little mounds:

Twin gaillardia:

And a little dahlia:

Came back in and did more work.  John made me a latte 😀

And I pulled out a mighty awesome looking loaf of bread out of the oven!

I said I wanted to just pick it up and take a huge bite out of it.  John suggested I could slice it instead, but where’s the fun in that??

Finished up work and I almost don’t know what to do with myself.   Since John cooked up a bunch of chicken, you know I had to have a salad for dinner!

Funny how there was no real urge to snack or anything today.  It seems like yesterday just filled whatever needs my body had.  I think sometimes we concentrate on staying in a specific calorie range and the body just pushes back against that at times because it actually has different needs than an assumed calorie count each day.

You know the evening snack includes some of that bread.

Best loaf to date, I think.  It’s a wheat challah bread.  I just didn’t braid it (lazy).

Tomorrow is a long ride.  Going to shoot for 50 miles.  A very nice day on tap, so hopefully it will happen.  Likely frozen yogurt tomorrow!

Question:  Are you eating eggs right now?

Lifting Move of The Week – Squat to Row

Happy Hump Day! Sort of. When you work 6 days, where is the hump exactly? Guess that would be tonight. Anyhoo, I decided to chance the gray skies and bike to the gym. First I quaffed a protein beverage:

Then headed out.

The air in the gym was all wavy from the amount of testosterone today. It was kind of funny as there was a group of 8 young men and one was obviously the ‘leader’ as they all followed him around the gym like chicks after a mother hen. I was not going to let them intimdate me out of free weight area, either. I made sure to scrub down everything really well that I used before I touched it. There was so much testosterone around that I didn’t want to grow anything unwanted…

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell split squats 3 sets of 10 with 65# bar Lower body
Dumbbell Chest Press 3 set of 12 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Seated Lat Row 3 sets of 10 at 55# Back
YTWL 3 sets of 4 (each letter) with 8# DBs Shoulders
Cable Squat-to-Row 3 sets of 12 at 50# Full body
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 12 at 20# Core
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Arnold Press 3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders

I notice I did 2 shoulder exercises today. Ooops. That’s what happens when there are so many people in the gym that you forget where you were.

I biked home to brekkie and some protein waffles!

Topped with a little honey fluff. I’ll get a recipe post of this up. It’s life changingly good. I put it in the recipe book, too (which is almost done).

Lifting Move of the Week: Cable Squat-to-Row. I have posted this before a long time ago, but I do love this move. Short on time? Work the entire body with this. You could also do it at home with a resistance band around a door knob (or something to that effect).

I love how the weight on the cable allows me to get all the way down for the squat. Today I did lighter weights and more reps and it got my heart rate up. It’s sort of like doing the rowing machine only standing.  Obviously an older video with the longer hair 😀

Workie, workie!  I am getting much faster with job #2 as I get more and more familiar with the doctors.  That makes the days a little shorter that way.  It’s a good thing.

Took a lunch break for some greek yogurt and cereal!

One serving of Newman’s Own Sweet Enough cereal on the bottom of this bowl. Dang a single portion size is so tiny.  This is why I don’t have cereal with just milk as the serving is too dinky.  I like to bulk it up with yogurt and fruit.

Payday for one of my jobs was today, so I socked that right towards the new bike.  Just a little more craziness and I might make it.  I had a latte for a snack, plus a couple of these.

Think I am going a little crazy?  You wouldn’t be incorrect.

One thing I have noticed in all of this is that I am really not stress snacking.  I would say I am proud of that, but to be honest I just hadn’t noticed I was not snacking and was not consciously trying to avoid it.  Maybe that is pride worthy in itself…

Another fast dinner.

The baked crab cakes I use are Smart Option brand, which I believe is a store brand for Hannaford.  This is one of those things that I kind of close my eyes on the ingredients.  The nutritional stats aren’t bad, and they are inexpensive – hence they enter the house for quick meals.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

I am posting from Starbies tonight.  Needed a break, so after I got most of my work done, we are here now and I can internet and catch up on emails and blog stuff.

This bush is outside.  Does anyone know what it is?

Decaf!

Plus I snagged half of one of John’s chocolate grahams.  Most times he doesn’t mind me taking some of his dessert, as long as it is too many bites :mrgreen:

Lifting and cheap toys

Some great comments on the blogger role model post from yesterday.  I loved all the insights. Thanks for saying I am a role model. I don’t know as I really meant to ask that specifically, but the post title kind of did that. 😀

I woke up to cloudy gloom today. I decided against biking because rain was supposed to be imminent and not ready for new bike and rain yet. Gotta at least pay it off first, right? I got to the gym and ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill to warm up, going between 5.5 and 6.1 mph. It felt pretty good.

Then the iron. Again, lower weights and increased reps:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
1-arm dumbbell row 3 sets of 12 with 15# DB Back
Dumbbell Incline Chest Fly 3 set of 12 with 15# DBs (30# total) Chest
Plie squat 3 sets of 10 with 30# DB Lower body
Planks 3 sets of 90 second holds,

(3rd one I touched down briefly)

 Core
Seated French Press 3 sets of 15 with 10# DBs (20# total) Triceps
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Stiff-leg deadlift 3 sets of 12 with 65# bar Lower body
Bent lateral raise 3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders

Then I got back on the treadmill for 1 more mile. I almost stopped at 1/2 a mile because my legs really were having trouble running after lifting, but then they got used to it…. sort of. Reminds me that I need to start brick training for the duathlon coming up in October.

I had a hankering for chocolate when I got home, so I made some banana custard cream of wheat and topped with peanut butter and tiny mini morsels.  You get so many more of these per serving than regular chocolate chips.  The power of surface area. My eyes love that!

My tummy loved it, too.  Num.

Working hard today.  Crunch time to pay off the bike!  I should just need a couple more weeks of this and then back down on one of the jobs.  I keep saying that, but maybe I mean it this time 😉

For your entertainment, here is Pixie being active and playing.   She is playing with a bread tie -proof that you don’t need expensive cat toys  – (so why do I keep buying them??).

Lunch time brought out an oldie, but goodie.  Toast with laughing cow, chicken and fruit spread.

I know it may sound weird, but this is a good combo.  Some of the pear/cranberry jam I made last night.  Who knew that making jam was so much fun?  I think I see a few holiday gifts this year.  😀

Note the waffle cut carrot that snuck into my bag of baby carrots.  Someone must have been asleep at the switch.

John made me an afternoon latte:

And I had a couple of these to go with:

Antioxidant power!

We got a phone call that our windows are ready and they are going to be installing them mid next week.  It will take them 2 days, since there are so many windows.  I am not sure quite what I am going to do, as I really need quiet for transcription.  Construction does not = quiet.  I can work from the library or Starbucks, but not sure I really want to do that for 8 hours.  Will have to see.  Excited for the new windows, though!

Dinner time.  We got some more Smart Option crabcakes, I had kind of forgotten that these existed until I saw John put them in the cart.

Paired with broccoli and a pluot.  The genius of cutting these up.  My hubby is so smart 😀

More work tonight, and some Monday night football!   17 days until official kickoff!  My Broncos jersey is ready and waiting to come out (I won’t wear it for preseason).

I will be having a little dish of this that we got with our free coupon for donating blood:

Question:  Do you buy toys for your pets?  And do they play with them?

Lifting Move of the week – The Face Pull

Off to the gym on my new bike this morning.  It was a fast ride there.  Definitely take some getting used to, I have to say.  I locked it up at the gym and kept looking out the big windows to make sure it was still there LOL!

I am now working on some endurance, so I have lowered the weights and increased the reps a little bit.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell deadlift 3 sets of 10 with 65# bar Lower body
Dumbbell Chest Press 3 set of 12 with at 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Cable Squat to Row 3 sets of 12 at 50# Full body
Dumbbell pullover 3 sets of 12 with 20# DB Back
Captain’s Chair 3 sets of 10 Abs
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Face Pull 3 sets of 12 wat 20# Shoulders
Nosebreakers 3 sets of 12 with 25# bar Triceps
Good Mornings 3 sets of 12 with 35# bar Lower back and hammies

Note to self – Don’t be surprised when you do more reps that the workout takes longer…..

I then biked home.  It felt fast.  I didn’t have the computer on my bike yet this morning, so I don’t know exactly what my speed was and didn’t think to time it  (with pre-coffee and all, that isn’t surprising), but it seemed fast. LOL.

I was ready for some brekkie!  I mashed up a banana and cooked it with whole grain cream of wheat and topped with PB and jam.  Breakfast of champions!

I would have had egg whites in there, but forgot those at the store the other day.  I swear my head is just not quite on right lately.

Lifting Move of The Week:  The Face Pull.  No, it isn’t plastic surgery!  This is actually a shoulder move and a fun one to do.  You need to either be at the cable machine or you could also to this at home with a resistance band.

When you pull, think of pinching your shoulder blades together.  That keeps the focus on the shoulders and not the arms. I split my legs as you can see in the video to keep from leaning.  I found that if I stood with my legs together, I was leaning back and using my arms more than my shoulders, but that is just me.  Your mileage may vary.

Lunch time included a bit of everything:

I should quit showing my lunches as they are boring during this heavy duty work phase I am in. I just need quick!

Saw that my choosing a bike post from yesterday has made it onto the homepage of FoodBuzz in the health section!

The dork in me gets excited about stuff like that!

I won’t bore you with the latte and chocolate snack I had.  Groundhog Day anyone?? (I’ve got you, babe)

John left this afternoon to go to another bike shop to look for himself.  Fran had mentioned the lack of bikes now, but up here in the North Country, biking season doesn’t last all year.  Most shops will also sell winter sports stuff, so they aren’t buying new bikes because the season is ending soon (for wimps :mrgreen:  ) and they need to gear up for ski season.  However, that does mean some good deals!

Dinner time was a BBQ chicken salad and a POMtail.

Then I went back to work impatiently waiting for John to get home.  He came home with a Specialized hybrid bike.  I hope he isn’t too much faster than me! That meant we  could go on a ride for this!

How long has it been since you have seen frozen yogurt on here??  Too long, I say.  This was macaroon flavor with raspberry sauce.  Yummers.

It was a good ride.  Definitely faster than the old bikes, which I would hope to be the case!  Broke in the bike with 16 miles today.  Tomorrow we are biking to bagels, so another good ride.  We will see how it feels!

Now I have to get back to work for another hour tonight.

Question: What are your quick go-to lunches?

Bagel day and vacay!

Thursday is finally here!  I woke up way too early, so I headed downstairs and had a protein drink and started on work while waiting for John to get up.  I did manage to get a good amount of work in, which is good.  No wasting time around here!

We got on the bikes and headed out at a nice clip for bagels.

Whole wheat bagel along side the new issue of Adirondack Fitness!  This is the paper that lists all local races and events coming up so we can find things to do.  It was hard to leave the patio to bike home and get back to work.

This little squirrel has been hanging around lately.  I call him Stubby.  Not sure if the got hit by a car or nipped by a dog, but he has  a tiny stub of a tail.  Makes him a little more rat-like 😯

Trying to use up stuff before we leave for the weekend, so I had the rest of the Greek yogurt for lunch.

This combo never gets old (at least to me LOL).

Regarding the barbell press from yesterday, that bar is not actually all that heavy when unloaded.  The olympic bar is 45 pounds, and once you work up to 20# dumbells, you really can move to the bar.  The real advantage to doing the chest press with DBs or a barbell rather than a machine is that it will make both sides work at the same level.  On a chest press machine, the machine will actually compensate for any weakness that one side may have, so you are really building the same degree of strength per each arm, rather than the same level of strength combined (make sense?). Machines do have their place, but I would love to see women people get on the free weights more.

John made me a latte – think I was happy to get it?

Indeed.

With which I paired with the last bit of bread in the house. I almost forgot to take a picture, hence the bite.

I made everything on this plate from the bread to the nut butter to the jam.  Domestic goddess – I am she.

I slogged my way through work today.  So determined to finish up without having to work really late.  4 days a week I am working 9 hours when both jobs overlap and I am not liking that, so much discussion will be had (over coffee) on our trip.  My brain is completely fried from all this work.

Dinner time!  Another case of the ‘last of’ – last of chicken, last of broccoli, last green pear.

Knocking them down like bowling pins!  Fridge is pretty empty of fresh stuff now.  You would think we were going away forever and not just 2 days, but we would be nearing the end of stuff anyway as we shop on the weekend.

I finished up work at 6:30 tonight!  Yes!! My weekend starts now!  Except I need to finish laundry, pack, and clean the house.  My mom is coming over tonight for a briefing as she is house/Pixie sitting for us.  My mom is the best 😀

But first was my prevacation treat:

Not yogurt, but blueberry soft serve from the place down the street.  When you get the kiddie cone it comes with eyes.  😀

Tomorrow morning is workout, breakfast and then leaving. I’ll be posting from Montreal tomorrow. Yippee!

I will leave you with the view of the sunset as I post this from the front porch.  It’s gorgeous.

Lifting move of the week – barbell chest press

Ahhh – less humid today!  Felt good to step outside this morning  when I headed to the gym. This is a fountain that I pass to and from the gym.  I really only get this close to it on the way home, which is a nice treat after working out.

I ran a mile on the treadmill for a warmup.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell split squat 3 sets of 10 with 55# bar Lower body
Dumbbell 2-point row 3 set of 8 with at 25# DBs (50# total) Back
Lying leg press 3 sets of 10 at 100# Lower body
Barbell Chest Press 3 sets of 8 at 55# Chest
Reverse crunches 3 sets of 15 Abs
Lateral Raise 3 sets of 10 with 8# DBs (16# total) Shoulders
Good mornings 3 sets of 10 with 35# bar Low back and hammies
Overhead french press 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total) Triceps

I was going to run a little more, but then changed my mind and just biked home as my tummy was growling.  My snack didn’t last very long.

I was craving nut butter today, so I made banana custard cream of wheat and topped with some cinnamon PB I made the other day and some homemade strawberry jam.

Very, very tasty.

Lifting Move of the Week:  The barbell chest press!  You can do this with dumbbells or a barbell.  It’s actually easier to do 55# with the barbell than using two 25# DBs, at least for me.   I keep my feet up on the bench as I do with most lying bench workouts because I am short.  If I place my feet on the floor, then my lower back arches.  If you are taller , you can  put your feet on the floor.  Keep your abs in and don’t lock your elbows at the top.

Note, this is one exercise where I don’t go much heavier than 65# as I don’t usually have a spotter (using 55# in the video).   This is really a classic move to build the chest muscles.  Ladies – building up your chest will really give you some ‘youth’, if you know what I mean.  Good underlying muscular structure makes things appear higher.  🙂

Lunch time!  I made a quick lunch today.  Just a standard tuna salad with lemon pepper on top.

Wheat Thins Fiber Select crackers.  These are quite good!

I think I am close to going down to part time with job #1.  It’s starting to wear on me a bit.  I noticed I have been saying that more and more, so it is about time to let part of that safety net go.

Snack time! 

I’m not in a rut or anything, am I?  :mrgreen:

Not as humid today, but it is still hot! I let the latte sit for a while before consuming.

Dinner time included an open face BBQ chicken sammie with laughing cow.

Standard brussels.  I just shred and sautee in a tsp of coconut oil with salt and pepper.  It only takes 5 or 6 minutes to cook them this way and they get some crispy brown bits on them. Mmmmm…. caramelization….

I have to say that I am doing really well on not snacking while cooking anymore.  I still use the altoids, but not as often.  I think I might have broken that habit.   Now must keep it broken.

Took a break to water the garden and write this post, then it is back to work again.

Can’t wait for biking for bagel day tomorrow!

Lifting Move of the Week and John’s Birthday!

It’s John’s birthday today! Welcome to year 42 sweetie 😀

He slept in while I biked to the gym for a strength workout.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Straight-leg deadlifts 3 sets of 10 at 75# Lower body
Close grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 50# Back
Cable Squat to Row 3 sets of 10 at 60# Full body
Planks 3 sets of 90 second holds (dying on the last one) Abs
Barbell Chest Press 3 sets of 8 at 55# Chest
Standing Single leg Calf Raise 3 sets with 10 with 45# bar Calves and balance
Prone Cuban Snatch 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Triceps kickback 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps

Then I walked for about 10 minutes on the treadmill waiting for the birthday boy to get to the gym. We then biked to Panera Bread per his request for breakfast! I have not done a bike ride after lifting in a few weeks and had forgotten how tiring that was….

I was so ready for my bagel!

Asiago cheese. Yum. I started to wolf it down and actually had to tell myself to slow down out loud.  I was wearing Triscuit (my trisuit) today because of the heat and humidity. I felt funny walking into Panera wearing it, and I swear I saw 2 women looking at me and talking to each other. Kind of felt exposed and uncomfortable. I thought maybe I was imagining it, but when we went up for coffee later, they asked where were were riding from. Not sure what they were saying to each other, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Lifting Move of the Week:  The Close Grip Lat Pulldown! This exercise works the back and actually gives a nice stretch feel, which I really like.  Most of the time, you will see the wide grip bar used on this machine.  Swap out the wide bar for the V-bar (the little v-shaped handle) for variation.  Make sure your legs are snug under the lap bar.

While this mostly does the back, your rear deltoids (back of shoulders) and a bit of chest muscle is used as well.  When pulling down, think of pulling with your back muscles.  If you hook your hands  on the grip without your thumbs, you will use less arm muscles. These are good practice to graduate to chin ups!

Slow work day today on both job fronts, but I had a lot of other things to do.  Lunchtime was a quick egg sandwich on the yummy bread!

Then I picked up John’s requested birthday cake from Baker’s Dream:

It is a vanilla cake with coconut cream topped with chocolate buttercream.  Total decadence!  We got a small cake so there wouldn’t be a lot of leftovers.

We had cake in the afternoon with my folks, since with dinner and a movie tonight, it would be too late for cake (is it ever too late for cake??)

My slice with some caramel swirl ice cream.

I had my dad’s extra frosting.  He said it was too much frosting.  I disagree :mrgreen:

I got John his own cycling jersey.  It has a poker hand on it, so we both can be cool riding now.  I need to get a photo of both of us all tricked out.

Posting early today as we are going out for dinner (Pizzeria Uno) and a movie – Inception.

Happy Birthday to the best husband in the world!!

Camp Challenge ride

Hello!! Another day, another dollar 😀 I headed on out to the gym. I wanted a lighter day today, so I just biked to the gym and did some weights:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell deadlifts 3 sets of 8 at 80# Lower body
Seated lat row 3 sets of 10 at 60# Back
Dumbbell Incline Bench Press 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Decline sit ups 3 sets of 10 Abs
Alternating side lunge 3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 15# DBs (30# total) Legs
Seated Calf Raise 3 sets with 10 at 110# Calves
Arnold Press 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Shoulders
Bench Dips 3 sets of 10 Triceps
Good Mornings 3 sets of 10  at 55# Lower back and hammies

Then I walked for 10 minutes on the treadmill to cool down before biking home. I actually did not have a preworkout snack today as I felt absolutely no hunger at all when I got up. I ate a bit too much yesterday, and it seemed to hold over. Anyway, I was hungry for breakfast, though! One of my new bowls I got yesterday:

John says “Another bowl?” 😳

I had banana custard cream of wheat topped with cashew butter and beer jelly.

My bowl almost isn’t big enough LOL!

So, I have decided to put my mouth where my pedals are.  I signed up for the Camp  Challenge ride in September.

I  will be riding the Metric Century ride (62.5 miles) on September 12 and raising funds to support the Double H ranch in Lake Luzerne.  The Double H ranch is dedicated to providing services to children who have life threatening illnesses and their families.  The Camp Challenge ride is to raise funds to send these children to the camp for free.  My goal is to raise $250.  This is the first time I have ever done a fundraising type of thing, so I have a lot of work to do!  If you would like to support me with a donation, you can do so here.  If half of my readers donated $1 – we would be pretty close!  As I alluded to yesterday, I will be working on a cookbook of all my recipes that I have done on the site and will be giving a copy of this to anyone who donates (when it is finished).  Or, you can support by  passing my link on to anyone you know who might be interested in this.  FYI – there are 3 of these rides on that day, so anyone who lives near Lake Luzerne;  Ashford, CT, or Lake Hughes, CA can do a ride as well! (15, 30, or 62.5 miles).  You can email me if you have any questions at all.

I am pretty excited about it!!

Lunch break included some tuna salad and lime FSTG chips.  I do like these.  That pear I had yesterday was under ripe – so I need to give the others a chance to ripen up!  Strawberries it is 😀

Pixie is ready to open a can of whoopass on a kitty outside while I am preparing my food.

Break time! John made me a latte with some protein in it and I had a snack of dark chocolate.

Yum!

Work was slow at first, but then picked up and I finished up both jobs.  I may (or not) do more work tonight to make up for yesterday.

I do need to do a wee bit more shopping for Mr. J – as his birthday is Wednesday and I need stocking stuffers for him.  Not that he gets a stocking for his birthday….

Needed something fast for dinner because I was hangry and really wanted to snack.  So it was baked clam strips and brussels.

This plate was really colorful and pleasing to my eyes.  Being mindful of not just the taste of the food, but noticing how it looks and appreciating that .

Made a stop at the library to get something to read.  I actually got several things, but this was fiction:

I kind of like historical fiction. This book is about Eleanor, the granddaughter of King Edward I.  Hope it’s good!

Gonna make a snack and decide whether I am going to work or read… hmmmm… wonder which I will choose….