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I woke up and found out that work was cancelled, so I headed back to bed, sleeping until 7:15. Got up, ate breakfast, and watched storm footage for awhile. Then I turned on NCIS: LA and hopped on my bike trainer for an extra long ride (extra long= half an hour longer than I would’ve done sans snow day) at an hour and a half. The time flew by and felt like about 25 minutes.
I spent a few hours in the afternoon and early evening baking cookies. I made these heart shaped gingerbread cookies and heart shaped sugar cookies, which I then frosted and sprinkled! I’m so thankful to have had some extra time to do that, as this past weekend was busy and I didn’t have a few extra hours to spare!
Even though I had exercised that morning, I of course made sure to go out on a short 30 minute (but very slow due to the layer of ice underneath the snow) walk so I could enjoy the snow and beauty around me! I’ve really enjoyed going on short walks while listening to podcasts lately, even though it’s cold and snowy!
I made breakfast for dinner (isn’t that the best?!) for my brother and myself and we ended the night watching a movie. Of course my snow day fun ended to early, as my pilates sessions have started up again, so I have a 4:45 wake up call for teaching again.
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s one of your favorite “snow day” activities (either now or when you were growing up!)? Have you gotten a snow day yet this winter?
Do you want a class that works muscles you don’t regularly use? Do you want a class where you work muscles from shoulders to toes? Are you looking for strength, cardio, and flexibility in one? Then this is the type of class for you!
Barre class will take you through a series of exercises and, as the name suggests, most of these exercises will be at the barre. Many of these exercises are rooted in ballet movements, giving you killer calves just like dancers have! Barre is made up mostly of micro-movements and pulses, which SEEMS like it would be easy but hurts more than almost any other exercise I’ve done! Your legs will be shaking (which is definitely part of the goal of these classes!), you’ll likely be sweating, and you’ll beg for mercy- all great components of a class!
Beyond being a great full body exercise, barre classes usually include upbeat and exciting music to help motivate you! As an example, you can see one of my barre playlists here.
If you have a barre class in your area, I’d encourage you to give it a try! It’s a great form of cross training, and will help strengthen lesser used muscles AND muscles that are critical for things like running and biking!
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever done a barre workout before?
Week 5 already!! How could that even be?! This past weekend we got yet another snow storm, followed by a few chilly days. This is certainly not an ideal winter to be training for a race, but I’m making due with what I have. Here’s how the week looked:
- Saturday (2/8): 4.6 mile run
- Sunday: 45 mins pilates, 2.5 mile walk
- Monday: 35-40 minutes lifting (arms)
- Tuesday: barre class (I did about 20 minutes)
- Wednesday: 26.0 mile bike ride
- Thursday: 30 minutes pilates (10 while teaching, 20 on my own), 1.75 mile walk in the sunshine!!
- Friday: REST
All this pilates is feeling really wonderful, and definitely helps to stretch me out. It was especially nice on Thursday following me 26 mile bike trainer ride. I’m switching up my planks again. I got a bit too complacent in the 2:30 planks I would do each time I would do planks, so now I’m varying it to add up to 3:15 or 3:45 throughout the day. My body has adjusted really well and quickly to this, which has been great!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your favorite way to stretch out after a long run or ride?
I tend to eat pretty much the same thing for lunches and dinners throughout the week, so while my meals can get boring, it makes eating each lunch and dinner really fast and easy.
Because I knew this was a meatless week, I made two meals that were packed with protein but didn’t have meat: Protein packed veggie salad and stuffed peppers. These meals counted for “Meatless Monday”, “bring your lunch to work” (I bring my lunch to work all but maybe 3-5 times a semester), and “go raw friday”.
For the “write it down challenge”, I did a What I Ate Tuesday post that showed most of my day of eats. I really don’t love putting everything into a blog post like that, which is why you won’t see me doing WIAW posts very often.
In terms of the smoothie, I did make and drink one, but about 5 minutes after I finished I realized that I had devoured it without remembering to take a picture. I mixed a 5.3 container of banana greek yogurt, a few ounces of OJ (maybe 6-7?), 3/4 of a banana, and 2 handfuls of spinach together and blended quickly. I was surprised to see how delicious this mix actually was!
This coming week is the “believe” part of the challenge, and I can’t wait.
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s one of your favorite meatless meals? Do you often bring lunch to work?
Happy Thursday!! I hope you all have been enjoying the week, and have had a bit of time to watch the Olympics 🙂 Here’s what I’m thankful for right now:
I’m thankful for the Olympics! This week has been extra fun due to the hours of Olympic footage that I’ve watched. I love the suspense and friendly competition. February also tends to be the month that drags the most for me, so I’m extra thankful that the Olympics are in February.
I’m thankful for the cold that leads to sunshine. I’m not used to having so many sunny days in the winter, but if I have to take the colder weather to get it, then I’m not complaining. The colder the day, the more likely we are to have sunshine it seems, and I’m thankful for it!
I’m thankful for treadmills. This past weekend I did my longest ever treadmill run at 4.6 miles. While I certainly don’t love running on the treadmill and can’t wait to get to training on actual pavement (like I’ll be running on during the race), I’m thankful that treadmills do exist. The roads I live on/by have had ice on them for over two weeks now, and even when I walk I slip and slide around. Running isn’t really safe, so I’m thankful that treadmills exist and that I have access to them at the gym (even if I don’t particularly like them).
I’m thankful for hot chocolate. Like I mentioned earlier this week, I really missed being able to drink hot chocolate once I became lactose intolerant. Being able to make my own mix has been wonderful, and I’m thankful that I stumbled upon the original recipe.
I’m thankful for snow days! I had a snow day last week, and while it added a slight complication with work, I’m really glad that I had that time off. The day was relaxing but I got a few things checked off my “to do” list that really needed to be done!
Now it’s your turn to share! What are you feeling thankful for right now? Has the weather prevented you from working out outdoors?
This is actually “what I ate Tuesday”, and Tuesday mornings start early at 4:50 am when I wake up to teach barre class.
(Unpictured: banana and 8-9 ounces of orange juice before class)
I eat two breakfasts on the days that I teach, as I need something before I teach, but I’m hungry after I work out. My typical meal afterwards is a protein bar and 16 ounces of coffee (today it was w/samoa cookie creamer! YUM!):
Most days I either have almonds or a cheese stick as a morning snack, but days like this when I eat 2 breakfasts I am less likely to eat one of these. I didn’t today.
Lunch was this veggie protein salad– packed with a serving of quinoa, a serving of beans, a hard boiled egg, cheese, spinach, and other fresh veggies. This salad is SO filling and delicious. I also had 2 clementines and a greek yogurt, and I was a little uncomfortably full at this point. I love this meal because it’s so quick, easy, healthy, and is packed with protein.
I often have an afternoon snack, but again with this salad, I usually stay full much longer than most of my lunches. Dinner was a stuffed pepper, a whole grapefruit, carrots with greek yogurt dip (YUMMMY!!!- also, unpictured) and a few of the eclairs from the box pictured. YUM!!!
Like I said, I often end up eating a morning and afternoon snack, but having two breakfasts along with how filling the lunch was, and that was definitely not happening today!
Now it’s your turn to share! What was one of your favorite foods you’ve had to eat so far this week?
ingredients
- 2 cups powdered soy milk (can use regular powered milk too)
- 1/4 cup powdered cocoa
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- a dash of salt
- 1/3 cup powdered non-dairy creamer (check to make sure it’s lactose free. Can use any flavor to change it up. I typically go with vanilla flavored).
- *optional: Can add any other spices to the mix (i.e. cinnamon, all spice, cloves) or add a bit of flavoring (I love almond and peppermint. orange is also interesting) once you have the mix stirred into the water or milk (i personally like to use almond milk)
(I got that mug while in town for the Monumental Half Marathon)
Combine together and store in a cool, dry place in a sealed container (or in the freezer if you’re going to use it slowly). Like I mentioned, you can mix in other spices or just put them into the cup itself upon cooking. I love to add in things like a piece of peppermint to mix it up as well. Another thing I have done on occasion- poured a cup of coffee and then put 1-2 tsp of the mix into it. It makes a nice mocha flavor- YUM!
Yet another thing to add to my list of “happiness in the winter” 🙂 Enjoy!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your favorite way to drink hot chocolate?
I keep hoping one of these recaps I’ll be able to say “the weather was finally great and I got to run outside”… but this week is not the week. Clocking in at about 16 inches of snow throughout the week (plus lots of ice), no running was happening outdoors. I’m so thankful for my bike trainer though! Wednesday was a snow day (yay!), so I enjoyed a bit more free time for a longer ride than I had planned. I’m also back to teaching pilates/barre class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and that changes up my workout schedule a bit. With that said, here’s what the week looked like:
- Saturday (2/1): 1 hour pilates
- Sunday: 1.55 mile walk
- Monday: 4 mile run
- Tuesday: 35 minutes pilates
- Wednesday: 19.5 mile bike, 1.7 mile walk
- Thursday: 15 minutes pilates/ REST
- Friday: REST
Pretty easy week, and I loved how much pilates I got in for the week (at three times, although Thursday it was pretty short). Doing the Move Nourish Believe Challenge this week was also fun!
Now it’s your turn to share! What was your favorite “move” from the week? Have you done pilates?
Monday: “Sweat-it-out! -Show us your favorite way to sweat!” For this day I focused on biking, specifically using my bike trainer! It’s a great way to avoid excuses and get up and move, no matter what the weather is outside.
Tuesday: “Change it up! – Sweat a new way! Select a workout from movenourishbelieve.com/category/move and show us your post-sweat session selfie.” I tried this yoga sequence after running, and will definitely be incorporating some of these stretches regularly.
Solid stretch- I need to do this one more often.
Wednesday: “Let’s get planking! – Plank for at least five minutes today! You can split the planks up.” I’ve never done 5 minutes of planks in an entire day before, but didn’t find it too difficult to complete. On Thursday my arms and obliques definitely felt it!
Thursday: “Buddy up! – Workout with a friend today!” My workout today was teaching pilates class, because a friend from grad school is in my class! It’s the best I could do with a long day of teaching and my job counseling.
Friday: “Fave Friday! – Show us your five fitness favorites! Exercises, people, whatever gets you moving and motivated!”
Clockwise from Top L: My bike (LOVE IT), Brooks Adrenalines, the gear I drag to races with me, my Runkeeper App, and Pilates equipment!
Week one of this challenge (“move”) is complete, and it was great! I like having something to specifically think about throughout the day. The best parts for me was trying that stretching video (especially the stretch I posted above) and trying the 5 minutes of planks. I tend to do 2:30-3 minutes max of planks in a day, but I think I’m going to try to increase my time again because I think my body has grown accustomed to what I’ve been doing.
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s one of your favorite stretches? Did you have a favorite “move” from the week?
I loved getting to visit the Olympic complex in Athens when I was there in 2006, and I loved getting to run on the Olympic track in Olympia in 2011.
I was a figure skater back in the day (I quit to go back to dancing and also because I had badly sprained my wrist on a jump and was a little too nervous after that– but I hurt my ankles multiple times dancing and that never bothered me… hmmm…), so I really enjoy watching that. When I was younger, that was all I watched in the winter Olympics, but as I grew, so did the list of sports that I enjoyed watching.
Today I’ll pretty much watch anything except for Hockey (Even though I grew up in MN, I just can’t get into it. I know- shameful.) and Curling (I don’t get it even though I’ve read numerous articles about it, and also it just seems SO boring).
I love the idea of worldwide competition, and I love getting to see so many sports in such a short amount of time. I really hope that the situation in Russia stays safe, and the terrorist threats don’t come to pass- yikes! So here’s to a happy two weeks as we enjoy watching our countries join together and compete!
Sidenote: Think about the hunger games when you watch the opening ceremonies. Don’t they seem a little similar (minus the kids murdering each other of course!)??
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your favorite Olympic memory or sport to watch? Do you understand or like curling?
