APPLES

These are so beautiful! I had bought 6 Granny Smith Apples for making apple pie during Christmas, but ended up making a pear walnut crumble instead. I bought an apple peeler/corer as well, but never used it. 

A few weeks ago, our science co op group for homeschooling used the apple peeler to create scraps for a worm compost we were making for biology/life science.

It was so much fun to use that I pulled out the peeler yesterday and peeled the 4 apples left. I loved the fact that the end result was appealing, appetizing, and artful. 

The children loved eating them like this, because they didn't have the peel, and the apples were much more fun to eat. Even the skins were fun to eat. 

I think if one can make food fun or interesting and keep it simple, eating simply becomes exciting. 

Eating is not just about taste, but about having an experience. going to a exotic restaurant is as much about different foods as it is about the smells and the sights. One doesn't have to eat a lot to have this fusion.

Workout Today:

30 minute run

4 sets oblique sit ups 

4 sets hamstring curls

4 sets leg extensions

4 sets leg presses

I supersetted the hamstring curls, leg extensions, and sit ups. I was under pressure this morning to get my workout done so that I would have time to make breakfasts and lunches before we had to leave the house at 8:30 for a nature science class this morning. 

Just when you think you can't squeeze in a workout, because you have so much going on....rethink your attitude about your priorities. You can squeeze in the workout, even if you have to abbreviate it. Make most of the lunches, get all the clothes out that need to be worn, and pack the car as needed the night before. That way you ensure that time has been carved out for the workout. 

It's of no surprise that a day or several days can go by without working out if you don't think about how your going to manage your time. I'm not saying it's easy, but I am saying that it's easy to let days slip away without working out...if it's not in your frontal lobe.

Plan .... plan....plan.....

Life is easier if you plan ahead.

Foods I ate today:

hardboiled eggs

protein powder, banana, peanut butter smoothie

brown rice cakes

talapia

turkey

salsa

yogurt

pinto beans

BCAAs

Vitamin Supplement

(I know, I know...where are my greens?) I made spinach with garlic, olive oil, and onions for the family, but didn't set some aside without the oil for myself...so I didn't eat it. 

Back to the drawing board tomorrow.

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

FYI: Thank you friends for your comments, questions, and thoughts (which were not posted on the blog). It's given me many ideas about what is of interest to you. I will continue to post recipes, steps to reach your goal, and little tidbits of information that help you succeed.

I have two posts coming up:

1. one will be on a hair product that is very interesting
2. second "Getting Unplugged" which I will share more about...as well as give you a link to another website with some pretty spectacular ideas.

TATA BRAS

My absolute favorite sports bra to wear is called the TATA BRA. It can be purchased at LULU LEMON at various shopping malls. 

It lifts and holds really well while running -and to me being able to run comfortably and not feel gravity taking a tole on your chest while exercising is crucial. 

The sports bras come in all different colors. I have this one and a black one. 

However, they are expensive...but the reality is that any good bra is pricey. But they are totally worth it!

Also an added benefit is that the breasts look larger than they really are:)

Workout Today:
30 minute run
4 sets machine tricep pushdowns
4 sets bentover flys
4 sets on the kettelbell doing 20 swings, two arm bicep curls, two arm overhead tricep extension, followed by upright rows.

Total workout time : 60 minutes

Foods I ate today:
hardboiled eggs
corn tortillas
yogurt
combination of onions, garlic, beans
turkey
banana, protein powder, peanut butter smoothie
BCAAs
MultiVitamins
baked potato
chicken

I was in a weird mood food wise today. I wasn't really focused on being balanced. As you can see I forgot my greens. Stupid me. 

I was feeling a little nauseous when I was working out this morning....due to menstrual cycle starting. While my workout was relatively good and my food intake was okay...I've just been a little off today.

Getting out of a bad Mood

I definitely feel happier today. The last few days were a bitch to be me -crying, worrying, and feeling ticked off to name a few emotions. I really didn't want to be in my own skin. If I could have popped out of it and been anywhere else, I would have. 

What helped me the most was to get multiple books from the library to read under a big blanket and stay full force on my nutrition and fitness program. 

The first two days of reading Chocolate for Seniors really helped. Then some of the excerpts were boring me, probably because I was reading for hours and the momentum got to me. I decided to start We Learn Nothing and Wow what a read. Tim Kreider writes really well. He has a vast vocabulary and knows how to use it effortlessly, where as some writers try to use a grand vocabulary but do so with obvious exertion. He does not. I love psychological, thoughtful, logical, and humorous books. He does a great job at intertwining it all. 

The second thing I did  was to get rid of the salads I'd been eating the last few days. They weren't providing enough carbs to sustain my energy. I went back to having yogurt instead of greens. The carbs from yogurt are significant in comparison. I love love love salads, but it was trying my patience as I was feeling hungry from one meal to the next. Evening meals would be a better time to eat a salad. The carbs are much less and the body does not need too much food while sleeping. 

The well known saying Eat like a King in the morning, Eat like a Queen in the day, and eat like a Pauper in the evening is a good rule of thumb. In essence, eat your largest meals earlier on. Eat higher, more complex carbs in the morning and the day...then taper off the starches and eat more greens at night.

Good body building meal

This meal I made for the family tonight. I sauteed onions & garlic in olive oil. I added ground turkey until the pink was almost gone. Then, I added the entire can of hominy, fresh chopped Oregano, 1/2 cup Pepperoncinis chopped up so the kids didn't get too much of a kick, then a few cups of spinach and green beans. It's an easy meal to make and very nutritious.

I did have some of this meal, but added many more Pepperoncinis and some red bell peppers and then put a healthy scoop of this meal on top. 

My Workout:

Sunday is a day off from working out.

Yesterday I ran 30 minutes & 1/2 hour of kettlebell workout. 

Awesome kettlebell workout! If you haven't tried working with a kettlebell, it's a must. Paul Daniels in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA teaches a great class. I do my workout at home, but learned everything from him. 

What I ate today:

yogurt

1 chicken apples sausage ( 130 cal. 13 grams of fat)

hard boiled eggs

pecans

pumpkin seeds

corn tortillas

The dinner I posted above with veggies and ground turkey.

dates

I definitely varied my meal today more than normal, but ate within the calorie range I wanted. It's important to mix your foods up so that one does not get bored and deviate too far. 

BAD MOODS

I'm in a mood. Truly speaking it's not a bad mood, but it's a mood. On the right side of my nose I can feel a bump, like a zit. It won't pronounce itself much because I'm eating too healthy (lol).

This issue coupled with my mood, and being all pissed off the last few days about a book I started reading a week ago, that I was really excited about, turned out to be a dud, and put me in that bad place. I seriously have nothing to fret about; then I realized I am PMSing. Aside from the fact that staying warm in the gym has been gruelingly difficult. The pullover I'm wearing in the photo is the 3rd attempt to find something perfectly warm while I weight train. It was better than the green zip up sweatshirt I posted most recently. 

Okay...back to the story. So I went to the library and grudgingly returned a book that I was hoping to finish, and checked out not one but three new books. I didn't want to get caught at home attempting to read another book, only to be disappointed again, and not have a spare to pick up in it's place.

I picked up HOT CHOCOLATE FOR SENIORS: More than 100 heartwarming, humorous, inspiring stories written by seniors, for seniors, and about seniors. (Ha!)...

That should tell you right there that I'm in a phase. Nonetheless, the book is very good. It's been an emotional read, but one that matches my mood, and oddly enough makes me feel good. I think I'm going to read some of the passages twice to make me really happy:)

Then, I picked up two other reads that I haven't started yet. I was waiting until this book got bad, so that I could pick up the other. However, it looks like the other two will have to wait. 

One of the other books is called We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider. This author is a satirical cartoonist who turns his funny, brutally honest eye to the dark truths of the human condition....

The other book is The One World School House Education Reimagined by Salman Khan...The guy who founded The Khan Academy. And if you haven't visited the website, you should, if you have KIDS.

I'm pretty sure I have at least a week before this mood breaks and I feel normal again. For now, I'm going to imagine myself crawled up inside my bed with socks and p.j's and my book. 

But the reality is that I'm going to chauffeur my kids to a class and heat up dinner for the family. 

....and this mood shall pass too:)

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

Fast Reps and Slow Reps

Briefly speaking, most people do the standard fast reps. You lift the bar then bring it back to position, and then do this over and over again until your set is reached. Fast reps are usually done by those who are unfamiliar with various gym techniques or are looking for endurance and strength from the lifting.

Fast reps are great for what many women want to accomplish, however there is something to be said for using slow reps. Slow reps usually entails counting to 4 on the way up, pause for 2 sec., then 4 counts on the way down. It's a way to build muscle by increasing blood flow to the area. DON'T think that you as a woman are going to get huge doing slow reps. Quite the contrary. If you are not on 'roids or some mass building protein/ diet, you'll do great. The more you can lift, and even the slower you lift, the more fat you will burn. When you see women who are well cut, but not huge, they are lifting heavier weights, and most likely doing a fair share of slow reps. 

So, if you need some butt' lifting or stomach building or deltoid rounding, you may want to try slow reps instead of fast ones. 

Yesterday I chose slow reps for my lower body, targeting glutes, hamstrings, and abdominals. Today I focused on slow reps again for the chest and back. Will I do this consistently? probably not. I'm apt to switch back and forth to confuse the muscles -to prevent a plateau - however, I may stick with using slow reps more often than not while exercising glutes and hamstrings. 

The last competition, my upper body may have been too built, and I am thinking about going for a softer look instead. I'm still working out the kinks. 

IF you need a visual for the slow reps.... here are some pics to demonstrate:

seated in the leg press machine

feet flat against the plate

rotate the black bar, so that you can lower the plate with your feet. 

count 4 sec as you bend knees almost all the way. 

Then hold for 2 seconds. 

Then raise for 4 seconds. 

You can accomplish the slow reps on any machine or dumbbell or free form -such as in sit ups or push ups.

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

New Year's Goals

Since my last post a few days ago, I have continued to work out and eat well. Even though we (the family) was out until 12:20am to bring in the New Year with friends, I managed to work out today.

I brought a fruit bowl to the party last night and enjoyed smelling all the cookies, chocolates, and cupcakes. Was I tempted? not really. The fragrance of all of it was probably better than it tasted.

 I didn't set the alarm for 6:30am, because there was no way I was going to get up early after quite the evening; Instead I got out of bed at 9:30am, had breakfast, talked on the phone with a friend who now lives in another state, then finally worked out at 11:30am. 

Workout:
1/2 hour running on treadmill bundled up like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man. 

Followed by a Kettlebell workout:
4 sets two arm swings
4 sets alternating swings into shoulder presses
4 sets high pulls followed by upright rows for delts and bent over alternating one arm rows.
4 sets of bicep curls supersetted with overhead tricep presses. 

What I ate today:

banana, protein powder, peanut butter smoothie
Vitamins
BCAAs
hardboiled eggs
strawberry Greek Yogurt
Marinated BBQ chicken
lettuce
4 bean salad
1 tsp salad dressing
corn tortilla
oen tablespoon beans/sausage
spinach
salsa

Back to the original post on 2013 goals. I need to push the weight harder for my glutes, the toughest area to tone. I really need to increase the weight on all exercises, but I will be particularly diligent in this area. I will not increase my cardio workouts. I will continue to focus on eating more green vegetables. And most of all, I need to be patient and relax and let the body do what it needs to do with the time I have left. I can't rush the process, so reading and playing piano, and sewing and whatever else is calming is really important to do for nurturing my soul and calming my nerves. 

Consistency is relatively easy now with exercising and eating...but it's not something to take for granted. I'm in inertia, but it doesn't mean I don't have to be cognizant of each hour of the day in prepping my meals, and making sure I have plenty of clean foods on hand. 

I'm still very excited about the prospects of competing again, but I'm incredibly nervous about whether or not I will be able to get in good enough shape for the stage. I'm a little humbled by the competition out there. 

I hope that some of the thoughts I share help either motivate or help.  

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

BTW: I'm going to bring a pullover sweatshirt downstairs for now on. Yesterday I was pissed off that it was so cold after my run. I had a hat, gloves, long shirt with finger slots, long pants, and still I needed another layer to keep from cooling down and freezing at the same time. 

Here I am with several layers of clothes on. The white thing around my neck is a towel. Then, I put on my husband's shirt. I asked him for a sweatshirt and he brought me this! Of course since I was already pissed off, I got more irritated with the prospects of thinking it wasn't going to keep me warm enough. But it did. So, I thanked him:). I look like a troll!

Sunday Day Off

Yesterday I was looking forward to today being a day off from working out. I'm tired both from the 6 day a week workout and waking up so early with temperatures as cold as they have been.

I'm surprised I'm not sore from the pole fitness class today. However, I did get a cut/burn from swinging so much. Not a big deal, I just felt it this morning upon waking up.