Category Archives: strength training

Lifting Move of the Week – Captain’s Chair

Geared up for a big workout day today! I started with a Luna bar snack (S’mores).

Then I biked to the gym. I hit the treadmill first. My goal today was to do a longer run, but broken up. I did 2 miles on the treadmill at 5.5 mph (11 min mile) and then took my sweaty self to the weights 😀

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
2-point dumbbell row 3 sets of 8 with 25# DBs (50# total) Back
Forward Lunges 3 sets of 10 (each leg)with 30# Bar Lower body
Flat Chest Fly 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Plie squat 3 sets of 10 with 35# DB Legs
Captain’s Chair 3 sets of 10 Abs
Lower Back Extension 3 sets with 10 at 100# Low back
Lateral Raise 3 sets of 8 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Kickbacks 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps

Then I did 2 more miles on the treadmill. That made 4 miles total! I haven’t done 4 miles since the day before I hurt my back. No problems with the running, which is good. My knee gets tingly and the skin sort of burns (hypersensitive) on run days later in the day, but there is no pain with my back while actually running.

Then I biked home. Phew! Mega workout.  I burned about 670 calories this morning. Woo Hoo! I was ready for brekkie when I got back. Even though I was hot and sweaty, I still had a hot brekkie.

Banana custard oats topped with cashew butter and pomegranate jelly. Food tastes so durn good after a hard workout!

Lifting Move of the Week: The Captain’s Chair!  You may have seen this apparatus at your gym.  It’s actually kind of fun.

This is a great move for the abs.  You can do several variations, such as twisting your legs or lifting them straight out in front of you to work different muscles.  The hardest part of this move is not swinging your legs and using momentum to lift.  The work should be done with the abs.  Truth be told, you can also do this at home if you have an L-shaped counter in your kitchen 😉

Work consisted of a conference call (mildly worrisome) and then work, work, work at both jobs.  I am beat!  Stopped for lunch:

Lemon pepper tuna salad on wheat bread.

Plus my last pear 🙁   I hope it is a temporary shortage, although the red ones have been gone for about a month.  When do pears come in season, anyway?  I had a burpless cucumber on the side, but I had a can of seltzer with it, so not sure if it was burpless or not.

Pixie was supposed to be hard at work answering the phones for the business, but she was a slacker:

Good thing she only gets paid in catnip….

Afternoon snackage of a latte:

Plus a couple squares of Lake Champlain peppermint crunch dark chocolate.   Sort of local company (Vermont) and yum!

Sitting on a coaster for a plate.  We are pretty sophisticated ’round here.

Finished up work and my brain was tired.  Transcription can be really, really tiring to do.  So much depends on the dictator and the subject matter.  Clinic notes are easy, things like genetics are very hard.  Sometimes I would like a no thinky job.

Dinner time and I used the new toaster oven to cook my clam strips.  They came out perfectly done!  I am spoiled with the convection oven, I have to say.

Last of the blues.  I think I need to go picking again!   I only had 1 ginger altoid while cooking dinner and I didn’t need any at lunch.  I really don’t want to jinx it, but I am getting a hold of that snack habit pretty well.  I’ll talk more about the idea of the habit energy tomorrow, but it makes so much sense.

Off to visit my parents and be social for the evening 😀

Question:  What is your favorite ab exercise?

Comparing to others

What a refreshing morning! The humidity is gone and I actually needed a light jacket biking to the gym today. Felt so good to breathe cooler air! I decided on weights only this morning and did a good workout.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff-legged deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 80# Lower body
Dumbbell Pullover 3 sets of 10 with 25# DB Back
Leg Press 1 set of 10 at 50#

1 set of 10 at 70#

1 set of 10 at 90#

1 set of 10 at 100#

 Legs
Barbell incline chest press 3 sets of 8 at 55# Chest
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 10 (each side) at 30# total Abs
Front Raise 3 sets with 10 with 8# DBS (16# total) Shoulders
Seated Calf Raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Nosebreakers 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Triceps
Biceps cable curl 3 sets of 10 at 40# Biceps

I actually worked biceps today, how about that??  Funny side note here:  I was doing the nosebreakers with the 30# bar, and I think a young guy (maybe 18) was watching me.  A little bit later, he goes to do nosebreakers with the 30# bar and then had to go get a lighter one LOL!  At least he didn’t try to stick it out and injure himself.

Biked home, really enjoying the non humidity and decided that I wanted the pumpkin cream cheese thing I had last week!

Delicious, although I used leftover egg whites from regular eggs instead of liquid egg whites and had some chunks in there.  John is making pumpkin ice cream and used up the yolks!

Steady work at both jobs today and good dictators, so life was good.  Except for the one doc who was eating while dictating and she was just smacking up her food while talking.  That was really gross.  Nothing like having someone chewing in your ear….

Lunch time!  Egg sammie with some tomato/mozzarella laughing cow.

This had a nice seasoning to it, and definitely a stronger flavor than the chipotle one.  I still added hot sauce, though.

I was thinking about that race the other day.  Although I normally don’t do this, I sometimes find it very hard not to compare myself with others.  I feel that people are so much better than I am at so many things.  With running, they run faster, they run more, they improve faster.   People who recently started running and already are faster than I am after 2 years of practice  or  are running really long distances.  On bikes, people go so much faster than I do (okay, I probably have the mileage…).  It was the same way losing weight, too.  I have always been a turtle with losses.  There are people who started after I did and are at goal.  People who lose multiple pounds in a week, you know the drill.

I know that this is not a way to think.  I know that.  But those thoughts are there.  Sometimes I don’t know how to get rid of those thoughts because I am not in competition with anyone and I never have thought that I was, so I don’t always understand why I even notice what others do.  I really love how far I have come and the things that I can do now that I never would have been able to do 100 pounds ago and I am very proud of that.  I do strive for more, however, and maybe that is where that comes from? I really can only be in competition with myself and can only compare against what I have done in the past.  I don’t really have negative thoughts about myself (I  don’t do negative self-talk), but sometimes I just feel…. inadequate maybe?  I am not even sure that is right, but it will do.

Moving on.  I decided not to have a latte today (gasp!) and instead had some dark chocolate and more blueberries for my afternoon snack.  Yay!

Then I finished up work with my working buddy:

She is glad I have the netbook because that means there is more room for her in my lap!

One of my finds at the farmer’s market was patty pan squash.

These were just too cute to pass up.  I decided to incorporate them into dinner.  I dipped them in egg whites and crushed Uncle Sam cereal and pan fried in a little coconut oil.  They were pretty tasty.  Will do a GVE post on these tomorrow.

It is such a gorgeous night that I will be going out for a walk and then having an evening snack!

Question:  Ever tried patty pan squash?

Lifting move of the week – the deadlift!

It’s that time of the week! Biked out to the gym after eating the other half of the balance bar I had yesterday. My plan was to run 1 mile on the treadmill, lift, then run 2 miles on the treadmill, but that didn’t quite happen.

I did 1 mile on the treadmill, which was fine. I got super sweaty, though. I hate lifting when I am really sweaty.

The iron:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Deadlift 3 sets of 8 at 75# Lower body
Seated lat row 3 sets of 10 at 55# Back
Pushups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Planks 3 sets of 75-second holds Abs
Stationary Lunges 3 sets of 10 (each side) with 15# DBS (30# total) Lower body
Prone Cuban Snatch 3 sets with 10 with 8# DBS (16# total) Shoulders
Lower back extension 3 sets of 10 at 100# Low back
Bench Dips 3 sets of 10 Triceps

Phew. I was sweating profusely the whole time. While doing the plank, I watched sweat dripping off my nose onto the mass (ewwww). After that, I had no gumption to run, so I just biked home.

Lifting move of the week: The deadlift! I have shown the stiff-leg (Romanian) deadlift before, but this is the big girl one. If the squat is king, then the deadlift is queen.  Note that I use the overhand grip with both hands.  Some people do 1 underhand and 1 overhand, and I have tried that, but it isn’t comfortable for me.  Although, it makes it easier when the bar is loaded heavier.  I have done 95# and found the alternated grip easier on the hands.

I even fancied the video up a little bit. If I make you watch me right after I roll out of bed, may as well make it a little more enjoyable :mrgreen:

I was hungry when I got home and made some banana custard cream of wheat with the maple syrup and toasted pecans on top.  I really like this!

I got to work right away.  Job #2 does not require me to have any set work time, but the new account I got moved to (orthopedics) has most of the work in the early part of the day.  I really enjoy orthopedics.  It’s very interesting.  Job #1 I have a set start time for work (10 am) and have to work at least for the first hour before flexing time.

Lunch time and I wanted something fast.  Omelet with a laughing cow wedge tucked in there.  I should start new things so the blog doesn’t get boring 😀

Snack attack!  I broke for a snack at around 2:45 with an iced latte and the last of the Lindt.

Something that I have noticed this week with concentrating on snacking while cooking meals is that I have not had a binge snack all month either.  The last day where I ate too much food (other than big bike days) was on July 4th at the picnic.  Usually I have 1 or 2 days in a week where I get super snacky and nibble at night or in the afternoon.  I don’t know what is different right now, but I’ll take it.  Funny because I am under a little more stress lately, which usually makes me want to plow into the food.

I was ultra productive today and finished up in time to do some cooking!  Grilled up extra chicken for this week.

I love this Coleman grill!

Plus I was chasing another butterfly around.  They are hard to get a picture of LOL!

Some of that chicken was destined for my dinner.

Oh yes indeedy!

I’ve got my snack planned out for later:


Wearing my duathlon t-shirt.  My 2 favorite tees are my triathon shirt and the duathlon shirt!

Question:  Do you deadlift?

Lots o’ lifting

Woke up to a cooler morning in the 60s and cloudy, so it was a nice bike to the gym. I actually did not eat a snack because I thought I was just going to be doing a 30-minute lift session with no cardio (for a rest day). I probably should have had something.

I got to the gym at 6:50 am and there was not a soul there! I was shocked as there have been a lot more people there lately. This is one of the good things about a small local gym, though. That meant that I could take a bunch of videos of myself for the lifting move of the week (lucky readers!), as I won’t do that if anyone is there working out. Then I did my regular lifting routine:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff-legged deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 75# Lower body
Barbell split squats 3 sets of 10 at 75# Lower body
Barbell chest press 3 sets of 10 with 55# bar Chest
Close grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 50# Back
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 10 (each side) at 30# Abs
Barbell Good Mornings 3 sets with 10 at 55# Low back and hammies
Upright Row 3 sets of 10 30# Shoulder
Triceps press down 3 sets of 10 at 30# Triceps

Dang I was tired when I was done.  I think I made 8 videos of various moves. Ended up doing about an hour of lifting, which was way more than I have done in a looooong time. My upper body was shaking while I biked home.

Needed breakfast STAT! Banana custard oats topped with cashew butter and some pomegranate jelly that was gifted to us.

And a loverly beverage:

Got started with work right away and had the Tour on.  Poor Andy Schleck!  I know that there is no fairness award, but I swear that Contador would pitch his mother off the Eiffel Tower to win.  If he does win the Tour by just a bit, it will be tainted, so he had better rack up about a 5 minute lead.  The boos and whistles when he put on the yellow jersey were quite something.

Lunch break!

I bought some roasted red pepper hummus the other day, so I mixed that with some tuna.  Yum!  Plus a wonderful plum.

Regarding how long I will be working 2 jobs, that is really up in the air right now.  With the 2nd job, I am sort of being moved to different accounts and I really want to settle into a home account and make sure there is enough work for me to do full time.  As of right now, there is not enough and I do not want to give up job 1 until I know for sure I have enough work.  Only time will tell.

Latte break!  The temp was cooler today (relatively), so I had a hot latte with protein added, plus a couple squares of Lindt.

Delicious!

Look at this cherubic face:

They always look so sweet and innocent when they are sleeping.  Kind of like kids….

John grilled some burgers for dinner, and I almost burned my broccoli today.  Must pay attention when cooking!  This is a 3 oz burger.

Where’s the beef??  It wasn’t even big enough for my laughing cow wedge….  This is why I don’t eat ground beef very often, even though I do like it.

After dinner, I decided to take a walk since I wasn’t doing any other cardio today.  It’s still warm out, but not blazingly hot – so have to take advantage of that when I can in the evenings.  Also got caught up on weeding.  Yay!

Evening snack of a blueberry cornbread muffin.  I will post the recipe tomorrow with the toaster oven review.

Question:  What do you mix your tuna with (if you eat it)?

What’s blooming today

Weekend time! Sort of. I still need to do job #2, but whose counting at this point?

I was looking forward to a calorie busting workout today and I got one. I had a piece of yummy toast and jam prior to leaving.

Then I biked to the gym and hit the iron:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Cable squat to row 3 sets of 10 at 60# Full body
Stiff leg deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 75# Lower body
Barbell chest press 3 sets of 10 with 55# bar Chest
Dumbbell pullover 3 sets of 10 25# DB Back
Captain’s chair 3 sets of 10 Abs
Lower back extension 3 sets with 10 at 100# Low back
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Ahnold Press 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Shoulders

Then I hopped on the treadmill and did 3 miles. I alternated the speed a little and progressively set it faster. I left it at 5.7 mph for the last mile. I was sweating buckets. I totally soaked my entire shirt above the waistband:

Cue Tom Jones “She’s a Lady” Fashion Friday here I come 😛

I felt so awesome when I was done. Then I biked home and proceeded to have a hot breakfast. 😕

I had soaked some steel cut oats overnight, so I made banana custard oats and topped them with toasted pecans and 1 tbsp of maple syrup.

What an awesome combo this was!!  Why I have never done it before is beyond me.  Maple must be a superfood, right?

Then I rushed to do some blueberry picking.  Storms were rolling in by radar, so I hit the picking early.  This is along the row I was picking in.

The acoustics in the blueberry patch are very odd.  You can here someone talking and it sounds like they are the next row over, but then you see them far away.  It is bizarre.

I so wish I could share the blueberries with all of you.  They are so amazing and wonderful.

It was lunchtime when I got back.  I made a quick wrap with scrambled eggs, laughing cow and hot sauce.

No fruit on this plate because I probably ate a cup of blueberries while picking and driving home.

Great blooms happening right now.  Gazanias are popping out all over:

Ageratum have gotten big!

Impatiens.

Potted geraniums and allysum

My blackeyed Susans are out of control.  I did not plant any of these in the front.  All volunteers.  As they are along the walk way.

I am starting to lose the weed battle right now.  With the heat and my schedule lately, I haven’t spent as much time weeding as I should.  Must remedy that this weekend.

Love this pic:

Pixie just watched me take pictures today.  Lazy..

Then I headed out for some birthday shopping for my BIL.  Success!  Starbies was in the next plaza over.  So that meant I got to stop and relax with my netbook for a bit.   I was actually quite hungry at this point.

Reduced fat berry coffee cake (320 cal), plus a cup of coffee on the side.  Hot coffee because it was cold in here.  Every place is cold around here inside.

After some relaxing and going over the paperwork on my new account with job #2, I headed home.   Dinner was a yummy chicken breast with laughing cow, BBQ sauce and topped with caramelized onions.  Tasty!

I’ll be doing a little more work later, but first is time for some fun:

😀

John raised the question as to where Dopey comes from as he is the only dwarf under the age of 50?

Tomorrow is a long bike ride, and maybe a cupcake stop!

Question:  Any exciting plans for the weekend?

Lifting Move of the Week

Lots of rain rolled through last night.  We needed it, too.  It cleared up for me to bike to the gym, though.  I first had a slice of bread with some nut butter on it as my pre workout snack  (okay, a little chocolate  fluff on there, too).

The routine:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Close-grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 60# Upper body
Barbell Squat 3 sets of 8 at 65# Lower body
2-point dumbbell row 3 sets of 10 with 25# DBs (50# total) Back
1-leg dumbbell deadlift 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Hamstrings and balance
Reverse crunches 3 sets of 12 Abs
Incline DB chest press 3 sets with 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Kickbacks 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps
Face pulls 3 sets of 10 at 30# Shoulders

After that, I hopped on the treadmill. I ran 2 miles. I was going to do 3, but I was feeling a wee bit tired, likely from the blood donation yesterday, so I called it after 2 miles and biked home.

Lifting Move of The Week: The 2-Point Row. This is from the New Rules workouts. It is pretty much a dumbbell row at a bent angle instead of with a horizontal back. The other arm is behind the back, not sure why. Possibly to keep the shoulders from drooping. Or maybe just to be doing something with the arm other than let it dangle there.

Slow down Lori!! Geez! 🙄

I was really sweaty because of the run and the return of the humidity, after I biked home so I decided on a cold brekkie today.

Kind of looks like a typical lunch for me, doesn’t it? LOL

Got right to work.  Job #2 has released me from QA after only a week, so I can now work as much as I want.  I need to start thinking of ramping that one up and moving the other one down.  Need to make sure there will be enough work at job #2, though.  Sometimes you just never know.  In the MT world, it can be feast or famine.

Lunch time and I got to try a new find:

Have you seen these yet?  I put it on an scrambled eggs.

Very good.

Here is a funny picture of Pixie.  She has this  ear hair that is really long and curls naturally.  Reminds me of a older professor from  graduate school  – you know what I mean?


She needs a barber.

Afternoon snackage was some chocolate:

Plus iced latte goodness:

This is decaf for a change.  My latte blots out John from the background.  :mrgreen:

I’ve been doing really well on the not snacking while fixing meals, but gosh darn is it hard for me!  I mean really, really hard.  21 days to break a habit and I have 2 down.  I almost nibbled at the chicken that I was cutting up that was part of my dinner portion, but I am trying to break the habit altogether of snacking, so even if it is supposed to be part of my meal I have made it off limits.

It was worth the wait for the giant BBQ salad!

John was gunning for best hubby of the year today by stopping by a farm stand on his walk and bringing me a pint of blueberries 😀  Now I can make it until Friday.

This post is late tonight because we actual were out being social!

More decaf.  Watch I won’t sleep tonight.  I am already thinking about the bike and bagel breakfast tomorrow morning.

Lucky fridge find.

Happy Monday! I was up a little early today for my workout. I ate a Balance bar while getting my bag ready for the gym.

Probably not very mindfully, but oh well.

Biked to the gym for a good lifting session:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell split squats 3 sets of 8 with 75# bar Lower body
Seated lat row Pyramid with 12 reps at 40#
10 reps at 55#
8 reps at 70#
6 reps at 85# (hard!!)		 Back
Incline DB chest fly 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Pliet squat 3 sets of 10 with 35# DB Legs
Horizontal cable woodchop 3 sets 10 (each side) at 30# Abs
Front Raise 3 sets with 10 with 8# DBs (16# total) Shoulders
Good Mornings 3 sets of 10 with 55# bar Lower back and hammies

I left out any arm work as I really felt like I got enough in, particularly with the rows. Then I hopped on the treadmill for 3 miles. Steady 5.5 mph pace, then in the last mile, I did a 5-minute interval at 6.5 mph (9:31 mile). Felt pretty good. I was good and sweaty then to bike home. Sort of a tiny brick biking home after running. Maybe just a paver….

Whipped up some protein waffles for brekkie!

Topped with a nanner mashed with 1 tbsp maple syrup and 5 toasted pecans.  I don’t like to have to measure out nuts, but I will easily eat an ounce plus if I don’t.

Job #1 was slow, so I was able to log in to job #2 and do my work there this morning.  Yay!  It’s actually kind of nice because the one account I do for them currently only has 4 doctors on it, so I am learning them very fast.  Although, this particular account is probably temporary.  My other job account has 400+ doctors as it is a multispecialty clinic.   That meant the morning went fast and it was lunchtime before I knew it!

Mmmm… cool yogurt and granola on a hot day.

The temps are warm again, but the humidity is not there, so the AC works pretty well at keeping the rooms cool.  We don’t have central air, but a window AC in our bedroom and a big one in the downstairs, which is pretty open.  I was ready for a lovely beverage, though, iced this time:

With a slice of bread and cashew butter.  I’s a hungry girl today.

Did really well on the no snacking front while preparing dinner, thanks again to the Altoids.  The urge to snack is really strong, though, and I struggled with it tonight.  It is definitely going to be a challenging habit to break.  The automatic reaching for nibbles kept wanting to happen and I had to be super conscious of it.

Dinner all ready to be eaten:

Baked clam strips and brussels.  That is a peach on the side there (covered in cinnamon, because that is how I roll around here).  This peach was okay.  Just a supermarket peach and not the most flavorful.  I am not fond of the fuzzy skin on peaches and much prefer nectarines.  We are on blueberry rationing right now because there is just a tiny bit left and I have to wait until Friday to get more.

I was mixing up a batch of bread dough and was looking for the other container of yeast in the fridge

and totally scored – I found an Attune bar!

Sweet!  It’s nice that little things make me happy 😀  This is my snack for tonight as I finish up work (booo).

Question:  Iced coffee or iced tea in summer?

What’s blooming and decompressing

I made it to today! Yay! Yesterday’s post was kind of fun to do. I actually had the window open and just jotted things down as I noticed stuff. I slept pretty well last night, although up a squidge early today. I had a Luna bar

and proceeded to have an awesome stress busting workout. First was the 10 minute bike to the gym.
Then the iron:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Deadlift/row combo 3 sets of 8 with 65# bar Full body
Lying leg press 3 sets of 10 at 50# Legs
Underhand grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 60# Back
Calf raises 3 sets of 10 at 100# Calves
Planks 3 sets at 75 second hold Abs
Barbell chest press 3 sets with 10 at 55# Chest
Face Pulls 3 sets of 10 at 40# Shoulders
Triceps pushdown 3 sets of 12 at 30# Triceps

Did the leg work early because I knew I would be hitting the treadmill after that. I got on the mill closest to the fan :mrgreen: Then I ran 3 miles with some interval work in the last mile. I haven’t done intervals in months! They weren’t much, just alternating between 5.5 and 6 mph. I am hoping to get back down to a steady 10 minute mile pace for running by the end of the summer.

Then I biked home. 600 calorie burn and I felt fantastic. Got rid of all the stress from yesterday.

I was craving chocolate cream of wheat for breakfast, so even though it was hot – that is what I made.

With a mashed banana and topped with cashew buttah. I let it cool for a bit before consuming. Delicious!

Regarding the 2 jobs front, it isn’t a permanent thing. I am just making sure this company will be a good fit for me before leaving my other job. And right now, I am limited with work until I am off the quality check. There is just such a difference between the 2 companies. I can’t even tell you. One has so much tension and negativity. The other is easy going and so much less pressure. I think I might like it there. 😀
I will probably go down to part time with my first job for a while, then leave it all together.

I actually am working the 2nd job today and some of the first job for a bit just to get caught up with lines. This week was crazy, that is for sure!

Lunch time!  I made some chicken curry salad and it was cool and delicious!

John said it looked healthy and delicious like all my meals.  I do love my food.

John brought me home a box of chocolates from his trip:

I had one after lunch.  Sweet!

The garden is still in full swing right now.  It actually does pretty well in the heat, although some of the flowers look a little tired by the end of the day:

Couple of my very favorites are blooming.  The Doppelganger echinacea

Liatris (kobold)

One of my little garden dealies (present from my mom):

Interesting color snap dragon.  I like getting the mixed, because you never know what you are going to get (right, Forrest?)

View from my porch:


After doing some work, I convinced John to take me to the library and stop for some yogurt.  We took the scooter:

Safety first!

These helmets are so heavy.  Not like the light bike ones.

Treat after the liberry:

This was white chocolate macadamia yogurt with raspberry topping.  Deeeelicious!  And so good on such a hot day.  It was melting fast here.

I wanted another cool, light dinner tonight.  It was just kind of a snacking plate.

Not pictured is the extra serving of crackers I nibbled on while waiting for my broccoli to cook.  In this mindful eating practice, I have really found that I have a terrible habit of snacking while I am preparing meals.  I knew I did that, but I guess I never thought much about it.  At least I am more aware of it now.

I will do a little bit more work tonight and then chill out.  I’ve got some blueberries to munch on later:

I have been in fruitopia lately.  Not a bad place.


Question:  What is blooming in your garden?

Lifting Move of the week and biz-zay!

If you haven’t checked out some of the comments on the IE/ME post, you should. They are interesting! I think they really are 2 different approaches to eating.

It was still hot this morning, but not too bad for riding to the gym for my workout.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squats 3 sets of 8 with 65# bar Lower body
Dumbbell pullover 3 sets of 10 with 25# DB Back
Push ups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Decline sit ups 3 sets of 10 Abs
Upright row 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Shoulders
Cable squat to row 3 sets with 10at 60# Full body
Bench dips 3 sets of 10 Triceps
Barbell Good Mornings 3 sets of 10 at 55# Lower back and hammies

Strength Training Move of the Week: Upright Row. This exercise is for the shoulders.  You basically just pull the dumbbells or bar up to about your chin.  You want to try to not raise your shoulders up to your ears doing this. Also keep your elbows up and don’t let them drop down or you won’t be working the shoulders.

Please note the lovely tan lines I have from all that biking (yes, I wear gobs of sunscreen).  I really need to work on slowing down my reps.  Note I also figured out how to edit the video so you don’t have to see me turning on the camera and getting into frame!

Then I biked home for breakfast.  Too busy to go bike for the usual bagel on Wednesdays (wahh!).  Of course, we are actually going to be moving bagel day to Thursdays anyway most likely.   I’ll be biking there tomorrow, though, rest assured.

Instead, I had some pumpkin cream of wheat.  Totally craving the pumpkin again, which is weird since it sure doesn’t feel like fall.  Wishful thinking maybe?

I did let the bowl sit for a bit and cool down well.

Started work early because of the amount of stuff to do right now with John gone.  Mid morning hunger hit, and I decided to have some blues!

I also had the Tour on muted while I worked (muted0.  I almost never have the TV on during the day except to watch Jeopardy during lunch, but cannot resist live Tour TV.

Speaking of lunch, I broke for lunch when I was hungry, which ended up being about 20 minutes before I normally break for lunch on a time schedule.  Another cool lunch.  Like yesterday only with blueberries instead of strawberries:

We have worked our way through 3/4 of that big bucket of blueberries from Friday.  Of course, I shared with family, but a good deal ended up in my tummy 😀

I had phone training this afternoon for my new job.  Mostly just how to use their specific platform.  Right before training started, I made an iced latte to drink during it.  This is our little cheap espresso machine:

Mr. Coffee.  It’s functional at least.  This is cooled espresso.  I put some milk and ice in a glass, then slowly pour in the espresso:

That makes the pretty layer.  It’s just to look at for a moment, because I stir it up to drink.   Served with a mini dark chocolate mint cup from the fridge!

I did some work for my new job for a while.  I am limited as to how much I can do because they need to audit everything I do line by line at first, just to make sure all is okay.  I’ll probably be released from QA in a couple days.  Then I went back to the  other job and did more work there.  I started to get really hungry an hour before dinner, so I decided to have a pear:

Cold and refreshing straight from the fridge.  This heat is making me want smaller, more frequent feedings.

Took a break for dinner.  I was not horribly hungry, but I have a busy work night tonight ahead of me still, so it was time to eat.

I was going to have a nice cold salad, but my lettuce decided to get soupy.  Ick.  So, I just had the chicken with some sauteed brussels.

I am keeping up so far, but I have at least 2 more hours of work to do tonight, plus some order packing for the business.  I am going to take a break later for some banana soft serve.  Nana is already in the freezer!

Maybe John will bring me a nice present from Atlantic City for doing all this work 😀

Question: Have you ever worked 2 jobs?

Lifting Move of the Week and June recap.

Happy mid week! It was fro yo last night, btw  🙂 It was nice and cool this morning, to the tune of 58 degrees when I biked to the gym! Awesome! I decided to have a few more carbs with today’s preworkout snack instead of more protein, so I had a Balance bar (210 calories).

Tasty.

I got to the gym and had a fantastic workout.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell deadlifts 3 sets of 8 with 80# bar Lower body
Chin ups 2 sets of 2, 3 sets of 1 Upper body
Dumbbell fly (flat) 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Planks 3 sets of 75 second holds! Abs
Pliet squat with dumbbell 3 sets of 8 with 40# DB Legs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Shoulders
Nose breakers 3 sets of 10 with 25# bar Triceps
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Seated lat row 3 sets of 10 at 40# Back

Whew! I am almost up to pre-injury deadlift weight. I was at 95# before, so getting closer!
Today’s Lifting Move of the Week: Nose breaker! Also called the skull crusher, both of which are cool names and make you sound hard core :mrgreen:  The key to this exercise is to move your arm from the elbow only, because you want to isolate the triceps muscle.  It takes a lot of concentration to do that, and to not drop the bar onto your face (hence the name).  My arm does move a little, which is what I try to work on for this exercise.

Sorry for the video quality here.  My tripod is on the fritz and I this was the best set up I could do.  You don’t need to see the top of the bar anyway.  I don’t really think you should be seeing any light at the small of my back.  The funny thing is, I keep my abs pulled in to keep my lower back from arching, but I actually have a somewhat indented lower back, so maybe that is normal.  You can even see it when I stand.

I was nicely tired after that workout, finishing just in time for John to pull up to the gym for our bike to breakfast!  The path was nice and quiet this morning.  I was happy to see this sign:

Oh yes.  I had a sunflower seed bagel with cream cheese and a giant coffee!

We sat indoors today because of how chilly it was outside.  Then we biked home.  The ride home felt so good because I had eaten breakfast.  Funny how that food and fuel thing works, isn’t it?

Must be vacation time for doctors.  Work has been spotty at best today, which I am not fond of.  We have 12 hours to finish our line requirement, but I like to work straight through most days (you know, kind of like a normal job).  I don’t always appreciate having to go back and work after dinner because there was no work available during the day.  Maybe it really is a good thing I am taking on this 2nd job.

Lunch break included an egg/egg white scramble with laughing cow and lots of hot sauce!  I would have cut into it to show you, but it would have gotten to messy.

I am going to go blueberry picking this Friday! Yay!

So my goals for June were as follows:

  • Enjoy my birthday (the 5th).   Done and done!!
  • 70 mile bike ride.   Done! It was hard, but we did it.
  • Read more books.   I got out several books from the library, but didn’t finish 2 of them because I didn’t like them.
  • Run a race.  Done!
  • Go sugar free for a few days during the month.   Done. I did 4 or 5 days.  It is a good practice to do, I think.
  • Note I am not making a weight loss goal this month.  Scale stayed put.

I have been doing some reading on intuitive/mindful eating recently – and does it not seem to be in the forefront of the blogosphere right now?  Sometimes I think the internet is like the collective a la Star Trek.  Resistance is futile.  Anyway, this is going to figure into my July goals that I will outline tomorrow.

Random afternoon snackage:

Dinner time was the classic Lori salad!

I have to say that I eat a lot of chicken.  I am always surprised at how much chicken we go through.

After some more work after dinner, John and I headed out to Starbucks to relax.  That is where I am posting this from, too!

That’s a decaf coffee, just so you know!  John is reading Agathie Christie while I type.  Funny how I was quite the party girl in college, and now I like to sit in cafes and drink coffee and surf the web.

Question:  Did you have any goals for June, and if so, how did you do?