Tag Archives: nrolw

New Rules of Lifting For Life

It’s that time of year where I start neglecting any other exercise because of cycling.

However, I made a July goal of setting up a new lifting program. I received this book for my birthday and have spent the last month reading it and preparing my workouts.

I love the NROL series and first lifted heavy with NROL for Women (and did my first chin ups!!)

NORLFL is geared more towards people lifting from middle age and on or people lifting who have had injuries or are really overweight or out of shape.

One thing I noticed after my back injury is that there are some things I have had to stop doing. One was running. The other was the barbell squat. Because of the weakness of my left leg, I can’t adequately support a loaded barbell on my shoulders and get enough leverage on the left side to rise evenly – which is dangerous. I have no problem with the weight loaded low, like the deadlifts or dumbbells squats, but no top loading. This book made the point that if you can’t do an exercise – then don’t, and that is okay. (D’uh). So in the squat category, I will never choose the back squat with the barbell.

The program is set up with 3 stages of 1 month each with each one progressively becoming more challenging. Transform, Develop and Maximize. Also within each stage, you progress through different levels of the exercises groups themselves to always be making progress. It’s nice because you can choose from within different groups of exercises, like push or pull or core to find one that fits your needs. This way you are designing your own program. Where someone may start off with reverse lunge for that category, you start at the next level on a step or vice versa. Whatever level you are at.

I think that is what I like the most about this is that it is not just a prescribed routine to follow, but a program that you create and can modify or change. Not to mention that after 12 weeks you can go back to the beginning with different exercises.

Now, I have modified a bit for home workouts because I do not belong to a gym currently. I want to purchase a barbell for home (the 30# one) and I need a kettle bell – although our recent sledgehammer purchase will do quite nicely, I suppose 😀

This is the Transform level workout A as I am starting it. I did this on Monday.

Exercise	Set/Reps
Plank	2 x 30 second holds
Plank with pull down	2 sets of 10
Box jump	2 x 5
Body weight squats	2 x 15
Cable row	2 x 15
Step Ups	2 x 15
Dumbbell Chest Press	2 sets of 15

There is a B workout that alternates, but each time I do A, I will be progressing in each exercise category to challenge myself. Always working the same body part, but with different exercises, weights, reps, etc. Confusing as mud? 😉

I will keep you all updated as I progress through this.

Lifting move and planning ahead.

How is the time change treating all of you? I am having a little trouble adjusting as I want to get up too early. At least it is light out going to the gym now! I had the forethought to write out my workout ahead of time.

(Those are my legs back there in the mirror, I see.) 😀

It really makes it easier when I do this, but I forget most times and write it down as I go. I will use paper like this 4 times (each side of the folded paper) and I can refer to it to see what I did previously.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Full deadlifts	3 sets of 10 with 65# bar	Lower Body
Seated Lat Row	3 sets of 10 at 50#	Back
Incline Chest Fly	3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Chest
Reverse Crunch	3 sets of 12	Core
Reverse Lunge with Forward Reach	3 sets of 8 each side with 8# DBs (16# total)	Full Body
Arnold Press	3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total)	Shoulders
Kickbacks	3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Triceps
Standing calf raise	3 sets of 10 at 80#	Calves
Lower Back Extension	3 sets of 10 at 80#	Low back

The reverse lunge/forward reach is from New Rules of Lifting.

This is a great move for the whole body and getting your heart rate up. For some reason, reverse lunges are much easier on my knees than forward lunges. I need to keep this move in more regularly.

After a bit on the treadmill, I headed off to home for a grain-free day! I started with coconut flour waffles.

I also found out when I got home that I won the football picks again this week! Poor John. I have to say that I really am really feeling bad about how I keep winning, but not so bad that I am willing to give up my dinner choice. 😈

Lunch included some egg salad and an almond flour biscuit. I will probably post the recipe for this tomorrow as it turned out pretty good.

Work was very busy today and I have busy couple of weeks coming up here. My training for the literacy tutoring starts tomorrow and is Tues and Thurs nights for 3 hours for the next couple of weeks. That eats up a lot of time during the week. I have already planned out my workout schedule and eating plan (very important when doing grain-free days). Plus, I worked some on Saturday so I don’t have to stress about getting in all my lines with work those couple of days. Planning ahead really can make a big difference in stress levels. The only thing that might suffer is my guitar practicing on those 2 days.

John made up an almond milk latte for me this afternoon, which I paired with some dried pineapple.

That is a yummy snack! I also went out for a walk in the afternoon to finish out my 3 miles. It was so nice out and I didn’t want to wait until after dinner when it was dark out.

I cooked up a bunch of chicken to be used this week (part of planning!). I will have to pack dinners for Tuesday and Thursday to bring with me. This plate was large and satisfying for dinner. 4.5 ounces of chicken because it was a lifting day.

Yum! Although, the strawberries were watery tasting. I complained about that to John and he said, “You take that chance with out-of-season strawberries.” Touche. I should have had a pear.

I need to get practicing the guitar and actually write this week’s plan out. I have it in my head, but it certainly would be a good idea to make it concrete!

Question: Do you plan ahead when you know it will be busy?

YTWL and victory meal!

Thanks for all your thoughts on hunger yesterday. It’s quite interesting how we all deal with it (or not LOL).

Lifting day. We should make some kind of theme song for lifting day, don’t you think? I drank a protein drink (15 g of protein) and headed out. It was somewhat dark when I left for the gym. Bye-bye daylight 🙁

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Squat	1 sets of 10 with 50# bar 2 sets of 10 with 60# bar	Lower body
Seated cable row	3 sets of 10 at 50#	Back
Lying Flat Chest Fly	3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Chest
Decline Sit ups	3 sets of 10	Core
Lying Triceps extension	3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total)	Triceps
Hammer Curls	3 sets of 8 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Biceps
YTWL	3 sets of 4 with 8# DBs (16# total)	Shoulders
Good Morning	3 sets 10 with 55# bar	Low back and hammies

This was tiring! I need to work my squat weight back up again. Then I hopped on the treadmill for a bit.

Since I have quite a few new readers and it has been a while since I have posted it, here is the video for the YTWL. I learned this move while doing the New Rules of Lifting for Women and kept this in my rotation.

Always light weights on this one. Shoulder muscles are delicate!

When I got home, it was time for breakfast. Yesterday John and I both said we would eat eggs for breakfast today for something different. I made up a little frittata for myself, which I finished up in the toaster oven. Don’t you love this little cast iron skillet? 6 inches. Perfect for a single frittata.

Mine had some sauteed green and red peppers and was topped with sharp cheddar cheese.

This was good, but I am not sure I liked the peppers with breakfast.

Sharon asked a question yesterday about my plate sizes. Most of you know I eat off of smaller plates so the volume of food looks like more and also to help with portion control. The plate above is 7.5 inches. My eyes like to see a lot of food, so the smaller plates help keep me from heaping food on my plate – because I am a plate cleaner!

I ended up sort of swapping breakfast and lunch. We have bananas on the edge of over ripe, so I made a coconut flour banana bread pudding for lunch.

Topped with some peanut flour for protein. It’s a lifting day, so I try to get in extra.

Today went by fast. Not sure why, but it did. I had an almond milk latte while Pixie snored on all day.

If she isn’t on my lap, she is always in that spot. Ah, the life of a cat.

Tonight was the night for John to eat his crow – or rather buy my football dinner. I had decided on a small downtown place. The Chocolate Mill. Then we got there and they stopped serving dinner as of October 1st and just had desserts. Ooops. Plan B:

Restaurant 99. This was at the mall. I actually like it here because the service is always fast and the food is usually pretty good. Popcorn appetizer!

We barely got the popcorn and our meals came out. I don’t even think it was much more than 10 minutes from the time we ordered!

I decided on the Shrimp Bruscetta. It was grilled shrimp with a warm tomato topping served on rice with a balsamic glaze. With steamed broccoli!

Closer?

I ate all but a few of the tomatoes. I can’t believe I even ate the tomatoes because that is a veggie I don’t normally like all that much. After John paid (hahahaha!!!), we shopped around the mall. I picked up a workout shirt for $10! JC Penny has some awesome prices at times.

Plus we went to Target where I stocked up on more pumpkin. I could have rolled around naked in this aisle:

Look at all of that candy corn! Yum! Didn’t buy any, though. And neither did I roll around naked 😀

Now it’s time for Project Runway and a snack tonight.

Pink item of the day: Knockout Rose.

Lifting Move of the Week: Deadlift/row combo

Dark and rainy this morning. I drove to the gym, although it was certainly warm enough to bike. I just don’t ride in the dark (or rain)

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Deadlift/Row	3 set of 8 at 65#	Full body
Barbell Chest Press (close grip)	3 sets of 10 at 45# (yay!)	Chest
Dumbbell Pliet Squat	3 sets of 10 with 40# DB	Lower body
Horizontal Wood Chop	3 sets of 10 (each side) at 30#	Core
2-point row	3 sets of 8 with 25# DBs (50# total)	Back
Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 140#	Calves
Triceps Pulldown	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Triceps
Good Morning	3 sets of 10 at 45#	Lower back and hammies
Bent lateral raise	3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (20# total)	Shoulders

It was so humid today that we were all sweating at the gym. I was thinking how sweaty I was feeling and then somebody else mentioned it, too LOL!

I came home and made some protein waffles topped with apple cranberry topping.

Looks good, no? Oui!

Lifting Move of the Week: The Deadlift Row Combo!
Have I done this one recently? I can’t remember LOL! I have talked about this move before while I was doing NROLW, but kind of forgot about doing it and just started bringing it back into my routine. Now I remember why it is one of my favorites! It’s a whole body exercise. What you do is basically a stiff-legged deadlift and instead of standing back up again, do a row with the weights and then stand up.

You can use a bar or dumbbells for this. When pulling the weight up for the row, be careful not to pull too high up towards your chest or you will activate your shoulders instead of your back. We don’t want any injuries 😀

Good stuff.

I made bread yesterday, so I wanted to have that with lunch. I decided to make a pressed sandwich with the waffle iron. Good for so much more than waffles! Did you know that you can cook bacon in a waffle iron? It’s true!

This was cooked chicken, laughing cow, and a bit of blueberry jam. Very tasty. I think I could have let the sandwich get toastier, but it was nice and warm.

The pink item of the day is for Jody and Ish. Pink nose!

Very productive day at work. Actually it has been a very productive week so far (I just typed ‘fat’ – Freudian slip?). Break time was a protein latte and a Luna bar. Oatmeal Raisin

I do like the Luna Bars.

It was so warm again this afternoon. In the 60s! I was able to go out before dinner and work on the new side garden bed. One of my goals this month was to get that 10 foot section tilled and removed of grass, which I finished up today. That’s some good exercise. I also will have some blooming photos on Friday, if you can believe it!

More chicken for dinner. This was an apple chicken sausage from the smokehouse. Too bad we didn’t have any buns. I like these a lot.

I can’t believe how dark it gets early now. It feels so much later. And of course it will only get worse next week after DST clock change. It’s Halloween week, so we were watching some TV after dinner:

Snack of some dried fruit. We had a coupon for this brand –

Dang these are good!

I am not particular with too many brands. Usually store brands are fine with me on most stuff, and even with coupons it can still be cheaper to get store brands versus name brand. However, I am willing to try anything with a coupon pretty much. I will say this is good… really good!

Question: Are you a coupon clipper?

Strength training move of the week.

Chilly night last night. There actually was a frost advisory out for last night. WTH??? Didn’t seem to get any, but it sure was chilly biking to the gym – mid 40s.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell squats	3 sets of 8 with 55# bar	Lower body
Chin ups	1 set of 2, 4 sets of 1	Upper body
Dumbbell pull over	3 sets of 10 with 25# DB	Back
Reverse crunch	3 sets of 15	Abs
Incline Dumbbell press	3 sets of 12 with 20# DBs (40# total)	Chest
Reverse lunge with single dumbbell	3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 15# DB	Legs
Lateral raise	3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total)	Shoulders
Lying french press	3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (30# total)	Triceps

I was working hard on these today. The barbell squats and the reverse lunges always get my heart rate up there! A little more weight on the squats. Not back at the 115# pre injury, but I’ll get there.

Lifting move of the week: Reverse lunge with single dumbbell. This move is good in many ways. First, it’s good for the legs because lunges just are. Using the single dumbbell also helps you work on balance – and who couldn’t use a little more balance in their life?

Do this for both legs. I just filmed one side. This is an older video, btw. This was one of the NROLW moves that I like to have in my rotation. Now that I can do split leg moves again, that’s what I did today! John met me at the gym and we biked to bagels. I actually started to bonk on the way there and had to eat a ginger chew. I think it was not taking a rest day after the ride, plus a harder strength workout today. I did have a protein drink before leaving the house, but obviously not enough.

I looked for the biggest bagel I could see, and it was a sunflower seed bagel. Delicious! I really had to keep from inhaling it 😀

After carb loading up, we headed home. Total bike mileage was 14.3 miles.

Work went much more smoothly today. So smooth that I was extra productive and did more lines in less time, so I did more than required. I’ll take the extra money! My new netbook is so awesome 😀

Lunch break was some greek yogurt mixed with plain whey protein, granola, strawberries and a little buckwheat honey.

This honey is awesome. We bought it at the farmer’s market. Need to get more.

That partial bonk this morning left me with one of those hungry things in my stomach all day. Dislike that feeling. I had some chocolate with my latte.

This is good stuff!

Pre dinner was some cashews while I roasted coffee for tomorrow (all done with work by this time).

Nibble, nibble…..

It was raining, but the birdies were keeping me company while I did the coffee:

(my liatris will be blooming soon – yay!)

I had that craving for BBQ from yesterday, so I had some BBQ shrimp. 1/2 of a microwaved sweet potato topped with laughing cow and sauteed broccoli.

I cracked open the Chef Hymie hot BBQ sauce for this. Boy howdy that has a kick to it! It actually made my nose run. Loves the hot stuff….

I have been noticing a soreness in my left thigh lately, and I think I now understand what it is. Before with the weakness, I was moving my leg, but not really using it. Make sense? Now I can actually use my leg and the muscles are sore from being worked again. Yay! My knee is still numb, but the feeling has come back in my calf.

Tomorrow will be a rest day for me, I think. I also will talk a little bit about Nutrisystem, as I had done this for a while a couple years ago and was asked about it.

We are off to Starbucks for some coffee and for me to play more with my little netbook.

Question: Do you consider the sweet potato a veggie or just a carb?

Lifting FAQ – or my secret superpower!

Okay, I got so many questions and emails about the strength training (and running, but that’s another show post). I am just going to address them all here in a haphazard manner. I’ll have a regular post later.

First off – NROLW or New Rules of Lifting for Women. That topic occupied quite a bit of 2009, since it took me about 6 months to finish the program. I *loved* doing it. With a capital “L”. You can read the recap here.

Did you (or are you) following the exact plan for NROL4W? Have you noticed a difference?
Also, how do you know how hard to push yourself?

I followed the workouts to a T. And I did the optional stage to prepare for chin ups. I did not follow the food section of NROLW. As far as how far to push myself, that has taken some trial and error. Keep in mind that I have been strength training for a few years now, so doing NROLW was the next logical step as it got me into the heavier lifting, and since I joined a gym I was able to use equipment that I just didn’t have at home (squat cage). I pretty much know how far to push and what I will feel like the next day based on what I do. I never go to complete failure on reps (on purpose anyway) – not quite sure I agree with pushing to failure anyway. With each workout, I just try to do a little more. Your body will tell you when it is too much. It’s better to go slower and gradually add weights than to do too much and risk injury. With that said, don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. Trust me, you are stronger than you think.

How did you get over the fear of being in the ‘guy’s section’?

Well, it was a wee bit intimidating at first, but for the most part, guys are there to work out and will leave you alone. At least if you are at the gym when the serious people are there. I still do not like lifting when the preeners are there and flexing. 🙄 Sometimes I get watched, particularly when I am doing my chin ups, but unless they are overtly staring, it’s no big deal. If you belong to a gym, you have every right to pick up those dumbbells – everyone pays for the same membership!

How/when did you start lifting weights?

I actually have lifted weights off and on for probably 5 or 6 years. We bought a bowflex (why do I always type blowflex??) to work out with at home and I liked how strong I was getting with it. But, it was somewhat limiting. I got some dumbbells with The Firm Workouts in 2008, and then I read Brad Schoenfeld’s books. That was my first foray into real lifting and free weight workouts. Once I finished the 28-Day Shapeover book, I was working out with my own designed workouts, which were 4 days of week of split workouts. While I was doing research online for new moves, I came across New Rules of Lifting in early 2009. Since I joined the YMCA to have access to a pool to train for my triathlon, that meant I had access to other cool equipment like a cable machine and the squat cage and a barbell! I was stoked and the rest was history. I didn’t realize how much stronger I could get – it was pretty cool. I have some good arms now, they look normal in my day to day stuff, but I can flex pretty good. I think I actually scared my mom when I flexed for her 😀

Did you have a personal trainer or did you read a book or what?

No trainer. I just read a *lot* about form and watch a lot of videos online. Not that there aren’t bad examples of form out there, but if you read and watch – it is surprising how much you can understand for yourself. I would have loved (or still would love) a trainer, but I just cannot afford it. I am lucky that I am able to push myself on my own.

Did you gain weight when you started lifting weights?

Yep. I did. At first I gained and then the scale just stayed the same for a long time. What that was would be more water than actual weight. It is very, very hard to actually put on muscle, especially when you are in a calorie deficit. When you lift weights, you are actually making microtears in the muscle fibers, which makes them hold on to water while your body repairs. So – a lot of initial weight gain is water, which you don’t lose for a long time if you are consistently training. However, take measurements because you will shrink as the muscles get stronger and you lose fat.

So, there was some rambling about strength training. I am not strength training to get ‘cut’ or anything like that (with loose skin, that is pretty unlikely that I would ever see a complete 6 pack). I just want to be strong and self reliant. I know I am going to age strong and fit. I love feeling strong and powerful – it makes me confident. Yes, there is some loose skin and I have wrinkles where there weren’t any before, but underneath that is something special. It’s kind of my secret.

Fat days flashback.

Well, we did not get all of that snow predicted! Or it just was slop and melted fast, so no shoveling needed to get to the gym…. phew! 🙂

The workout:

Warm up of 10 minutes on the stationary bike.

I decided to change up the strength workout this week by doing lighter weights with higher reps:

Chin ups: 1 set of 3, 2 sets of 2.
Barbell squats: 3 sets of 8 at 85# (okay, not really lighter on this one)
Seated lat row: 3 sets of 15 at 45#
Horizontal cable wood chop: 3 sets of 15 at 30#
1-legged dead lift: 3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs
Push ups: 3 sets of 15
Reverse crunches: 3 sets of 15
Prone cuban snatch: 3 sets of 15 with 8# DBs

That took forever. I forget when you do exercises that are on each side that a set = 30 reps. D’uh. And I stuck 2 of those in there!

Then I got on the treadmill for walking and a bit of running interval work. I was humming along on one of the older treadmills. You know the ones where it just sounds ‘clompy’ when you are on them? I was already feeling a little self-conscious about that. There was a man next to me on another one just walking. I started doing some run intervals and all of the sudden this guy’s treadmill just cut out. I didn’t think too much about it, and he fiddled around and restarted. Well, next time I boosted my speed – his treadmill cut out again! I would like to think it was coincidence, but it was likely getting jostled from my running, and there was a short circuit in the cord. (We already have been told to not run on that particular treadmill until they get some new part for it). Anyway, he got on another one and I heard him talking to the staff about how it kept cutting out whenever I ran. I know it was not meant in any disparaging way, but I had face-flushing flashbacks to my overweight childhood (and adulthood) days where those kind of remarks were made to hurt and tease. Any of you know what I mean? There are times when I wonder if those old hurts are ever going to heal. I’m 41 for Pete’s sake.

Anyway, I was a starvin’ Marvin when I got back after that workout! I was thinking waffles on the way home, and John already had the wafflemaker out! Woo Hoo! I hurried and made these:

Protein Waffilus Giganticus.

No holiday for me today, had to work. It was a little on the slow side, so I got my google reader cleaned out in the early afternoon. Lunch was some of the red beans and rice from yesterday tucked into a tortilla. With hot sauce!

That was a bit of overload on the fiber. This was a smartcarb tortilla, plus the brown rice, plus the beans! D’oh!

I have been fighting the snack monster, too. Had a bowl of chocolate with pretzels, cause you know I love my sweet/salty combos!

I went out and munched on pretzels a couple times, too, as the afternoon wore on. One of the challenges of working at home 😀

We have a lot of food in the house now, and there were so many choices for dinner! We need to start thinking about using stuff up before our vacation (12 days and counting….). I decided on a sweet potato with lauging cow, broccoli and chicken!

A mish-mash combo for sure, but tasty. I am so into the sweet potato/laughing cow!

You all know how I love New Rules of Lifting? Well – check out this podcast with Cassandra Forsythe! I am downloading this to listen to on my run tomorrow. Stumptuous.com is also a great site for getting strong with no BS!

New Rules of Lifting Recap

For those that don’t know what the heck I have been talking about when I write NROLW for the last 6 months, it is this:

I began back in April (where the *heck* have the last 6 months gone????). I came at this with a good solid strength training regimen already under my belt for the previous year, so I was no stranger to weights. However, I had just joined a gym and had access to stuff I didn’t have at home like the squat cage and a barbell.

What I really, really loved about this program was the combination moves. I haven’t done a bicep curl in 6 months and my biceps are as strong as ever. Combination moves really make the most efficient use of time in the gym, and really mimic real life muscle movements. I mean, other than lifting a cup of coffee, how often do you use the bicep curl motion? Also – just the freedom of using free weights and cable machines. There was so much balance work done (which I desperately need!)

I gained a lot of strength during these last 6 months. I know that I gained some muscle. I probably lost fat, but I don’t know for sure. My weight is 3 pounds over what it was last year at this time, but it is lower than earlier in the summer after I finished my triathlon. My lower body got really strong with doing barbell squats. My first ever attempts at those, and I hit a maximum of 110 pounds during stage 1!

I also graduated from pushups at an angle leaning on a box to straight military style. Women do not need to be on their knees to do pushups. Doing pushups and row work helped build up my lats and my shoulder muscles, making my waist more defined.

And my abs? I can now hold a 2 minute plank – and do 3 sets! There is a 6-pack under the loose skin.

I feel like I walk with a bit of a swagger now, or maybe it is just better posture from good muscle building. Maybe it is my secret superpower knowing that I can kick someone’s ass, even though I don’t look like it from the outside

What I didn’t like about the book was the length of some of the workouts. Stage 1 got a little long and boring to me. Stage 4 or 5 (can’t remember) was a longass workout. It was taking upwards of 45 minutes + just to get through it, which is a lot longer than I like to be lifting for in any session. I also think there should have been something in there about maintaining the strength after the program and what to do once you finish.

The nutrition part was also good and not a low-calorie program. Packed with protein and good information. I did not really follow the written eating plan, though.

Looking back, I probably should have started this program now to get through the winter instead of sticking it in there while I was training for the triathlon, running races, and duathlon! I had a really intense summer.

I am taking at least a week off from strength training (which I try to do periodically), possibly 2. I don’t necessarily want to push harder on lifting heavier, but I would like to work on chin ups (gonna do 1, I swear) and keep up a general conditioning program. I will for sure be sticking mostly with combination exercises.

I cannot recommend this book enough if you are serious about getting strong. It’s tough, really tough, but it will change you and your perception about what is possible.

NROLW and shortages

The last workout from New Rules of Lifting!

Barbell dead lifts: 2 sets of 8 at 75 pounds
Dumbbell squats (heel lifted): 4 sets of 15 with 20 pound dumbbells
Overhead dumbbell press: 4 sets of 15 with 15 pound dumbbells
Stepups: 4 sets of 15 with 25 pound dumbbells
Underhand grip lat pull down: 4 sets of 15 at 60 pounds

After the last pulldown, I was kind of expecting some confetti or something to come from the ceiling 😀 It was actually very quiet. I was the only one in the gym at this time (I think the rain kept people away), so I just gave myself a few claps and got on the treadmill for some walking! I am going to do a post this weekend on NROLW, as I feel it deserves some thought after 6 months of hard workouts!

Came home and wanted something different for breakfast, so I made a psuedo crepe with pumpkin/ricotta filling!

brekkie1120

To make the crepe, I used 30 grams of Bisquick heartsmart mixed with a generous 1/8th cup of milk, then added water to make a thin batter (I also mixed in pumpkin pie spice. I poured in into a large skillet at rolled the pan around to spread the batter, then cooked up like a pancake. It is a cross between crepe and pancake.

The filling was:
1/2 cup of fresh pumpkin puree
1/4 cup of ricotta cheese
pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp of agave nectar.

Mix well and heat in the microwave to warm up. I actually had too much filling, so I put some on top! (And a tiny drizzle of dulce du leche)

This brings up the pumpkin shortage. There was one last year, and pickings were really slim around here. I was excited to find pumpkin again this fall, and now it seems as it will disappear again! Is this a ploy? Maybe some of the other smaller companies will step up. I don’t really want to buy organic pumpkin. Heck, I don’t know if it’s even around here!

Keeping in the shortage theme, I had a waffle sandwich with lunch. Turkey, laughing cow, and apple butter.

lunch1120

We noticed a lot of missing waffles in our stores the last couple weeks, particularly the nutrigrain brand. Turns out Kellogg’s has some problems at 2 of their plants creating a shortage of waffles. (Waffle iron officially on Christmas list). They are rationing where the waffles go, so you know small upstate NY isn’t getting any!

Lunch also included broccoli for a switch up!

Pixie wants some catnip:

pix1120

My mother and I went out to a craft show and shopped around a little bit. It was a good show with a wide variety of things. They also served food there, and since it was late afternoon – we decided to get a snack/early dinner. I had a bowl of chili and a mini cheesecake. The cheesecakes were 2 for 50 cents. Can you believe that? I don’t know why they didn’t just give them away.

dinner11109

I think I embarrassed my mom taking this picture since I stood up to do it. 😆 I did get 1 christmas gift and a couple things for me.

Tonight involves some ornament making:

100_0069

Question: Have you noticed the waffle or pumpkin shortages in your area?

NROLW, bagels, and books!

New Rules workout this morning. Just one more workout after this one!

Incline barbell bench press: 2 sets of 8 at 65 pounds
Seat row: 2 sets of 8 at 70 pounds
Static lunge with rear foot elevated: 4 sets of 15 with 25# plate
Push ups: 4 sets of 15
Romanian barbell deadlift: 4 sets of 15 at 65 pounds
Dumbbell bent over row: 4 sets of 15 with 20 pound dumbbells

I felt weak today. Although I did increase the weights on the first 2 exercises. I think it was the 6-mile run yesterday that made me fatigued today for such a difficult workout. The pushups were so hard today, but I did them. I did a little treadmill walking and then went for my reward!

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I liked this little bookmark thingie.

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Worked fast today. I was in a real rhythm and plowed through my lines. Lunch break for a really boring lunch LOL!

I got tired of tuna, but still had a packet left. I really wanted more protein for lunch for recovery, so I had that mixed with some lemon pepper and light mayo. Served with Wheat Thins and carrots. Does this not look like a ‘diet’ plate?

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Mid afternoon yum!

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Sitting on top of the paperwork for my Olympus. It was sent out today. God speed little camera……

Ready for another load of broccoli? I opened a new bag and accidentally poured too much into the pan.

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This was the most delicious red pear, too. It almost tasted appley.

So what does a hip woman do when she is done with work and ready to paint the town red?

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When John goes to the library, he will get 1 or maybe 2 books out. I have a problem and usually end up with at least 6, and today was no exception. 3 Christmas CDs and 6 books!

This one seems quite interesting. I already try to practice this, but maybe I’ll learn something new.

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To solidify my dorkdum, I love to sit on the couch after getting home from the library and surround myself with all my books. It’s like Christmas morning and I switch from book to book because I can’t settle on one 😀

Question: Do you read more fact or fiction? (I am in a nonfiction mode lately)

Finding Radiance

Trying to live a fit life loving food, cycling, gardening and everything in between!