7:30am: Vi Mocha Frappuccino. I normally start my day with my Vi yogurt, but I thought I'd switch it up a little, just for you guys, plus it didn't feel like a "big" breakfast kind of day. Don't roll your eyes, yogurt and berries are surprisingly filling! Now, I will take a moment to say that the Vi Mocha Frappe is by far one of my favorites. So much so that I started buying decaf coffee to put in. I love the taste so much, but caffeine tends to give me the jitters. Since I, on occasion chug down two Vi coffee drinks a day, I figured it's best to stick with decaf unless there is a morning that it is absolutely necessary. Now, I'm going to try and stick to the good 'ol fashioned camera phone snap shots and since I did not take one this morning, I will not mislead you with a Googled image. Trust me when I say, this drink tastes nearly identical to the Starbucks mocha frappe you can purchase in stores. It has about the same amount of calories, but Starbucks is majorly lacking in protein and majorly spiked when it comes to the sugar count! I also....drumroll, please....add spinach to my frappe. Like I said, can't taste a thing and it gets me to my first serving of veggies and adds protein to my shake. Quick and easy: 3 ice cubes, 8oz soy milk, 2 scoops Vi, 1T instant coffee and 1T cocoa powder (or Vi's chocolate pack...which is what I used today) **my add ins** a handful of spinach and 1T of sugar free chocolate syrup. I'm a serious chocoholic. This may not be for everyone.
9:30am: While my oldest daughter was already out the door and my son had been up for awhile, our middle daughter decided to snooze as long as possible. So we didn't make it out the door until a little before 9:30. Before we headed out, I prepped my second Vi shake for the day so it would be ready and waiting for me after my workout. I decided I should probably add a bit of fruit to this one, so I went with the strawberry cheesecake. 8oz soy milk, 4 frozen strawberries, 1 Vi strawberry flavor packet, 1T sugar free cream cheese instant pudding and a handful of spinach. I do enjoy that it always stays nice and cold in my car!
This is about the time that I hit the gym. Since my arms and legs/butt were still sore from Turbo Kick on Monday, I decided I would just dedicate a day to my abs. With mild embarrassment, I had my husband, Tom help snap some photos of parts of my workout from today. I figured I would take a few photos of workout that people could easily do at home without gym equipment! Here goes nothing.
Step 1
Step 2
This is a plank variation that I figured could easily be done with the use of a chair or coffee table. While it may look quick and easy, it could be more difficult if you're not used to planks or even if you lack in upper body strength. Simply start with your feet resting on the bench and hold your body up with your arms on the floor. Make sure you are not arching your back down toward the floor or you are really going to feel some pain in your lower back. Really focus on using your ab muscle to keep your back strait. Don't over-compensate, however, and cause your butt to rise. That's not going to get you the results you're hoping for either. Then simply alternate between legs by bringing them toward the floor as seen in step two. I alternate legs 50 times for a total of 25 per leg. Again, if this is difficult for you, start where you can, even if it's just 5 per leg. I do recommend pushing slightly passed the point when you think you have nothing left to give. ;)
Step 1
Step 2
This could also be easily done on the floor with your arms flat at your side. Start with your back flat (do not arch your back. It will take away that control from your abs and could again, cause pain to the lower back) Using your arms only for support push upward toward the ceiling. As you get stronger, you will be able to push up even higher. I did my best to stop mid-way here so you could get an idea of what might be a reasonable beginning stage. These should be slow and controlled movements (like most moves) After you are up at step 2 slowly, lower yourself down back to step 1 BUT do NOT relax and feel to make sure that lower back isn't arching. I generally stop before my butt hits the bench/floor and then raise myself back up again. I do about 30 (2 sets of 15) of these most days. If I need a break, I will rest and just do some regular sit ups, get a drink or work another part of my body and come back to them. Some days I can polish them off in one sitting, but it can be tough, especially if you are doing them correctly. I also want to warn about your neck. You should feel no pressure in your neck or shoulders. If you are you may be bending too much or with too little ab control. It's not about the height in the beginning, it's about the control.
Step 1
Step 2
This is another plank variation. Planks are an awesome ab workout, even though they may take some getting used to. again, super important not to arch your back up or down. Feel the abs, tighten them to make sure they are doing their job. What I usually do with my planks is start with a regular plank (step 1) for 45 seconds to a minute and then alternate to each side (not pictured) I did recently see a good workout on Pinterest, that I recently added into the mix which is step 2. Alternating arms. Again, how long you are going to be able to go will depend greatly on the strength you already have. I usually do each side for 30 seconds and then finish off (step 1) with a 30 second regular plank. My form may not be the best to model in step 2 since I kept peeking at Tom to see if he was done or even attempting to take the picture. I think you can see my hair whipping back into form actually. My back should be flatter. You can see it's a little arched up on my right side. Not cool, Renee. Not cool.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Again...irritated with myself. Keep in mind I am doing these photos slowly, step by step rather than just continual motion like I would if I were actually working out. So let's critique me while I type here...Step 1 is pretty good as a starting point. I'm also using a weighted balance ball which makes it much tougher (I love it) You can find a stability ball just about anywhere these days, right around the ball park of $25. I definitely recommend having one at home, which I do! Anywho, onto Step 2. I look frigid here. Step 2 you should be using both your lower body (which I am) and upper body (which I'm not) to reach for that ball. After you do, slowly, with control work your way toward Step 3 except keep the form more like Step 1 (I've clearly started slacking in this last picture...bare with me folks) That ball should NOT touch the ground (I think I've got that covered) and neither should those legs (tsk, tsk) Do your best to keep them strait and hovering above the ground and then start the steps again in reverse. So once you have the ball above your head, bend your body at the middle to pass the ball from your hands to your feet and then lower back down to a stiff (Step 1) body, again, keeping ball, hands and feet off the floor. Not sure if that made sense and the photos are not the best example, but now I know to do better tomorrow! I do about 30 of these (3 sets of 10), which I think is possible for anyone, especially without a weighted ball.
Step 1
Step 2
So Tom and I clearly need to work on our communication skills haha. I think this move is pretty self explanatory. Only peeve I have here with myself is that my neck is staring down in the second move. I should really keep that head up. When doing this remember to keep your arms in place, only your legs and that ball are doing the moving.
10:30am: Finished up my ab workout for the day, which is when I started gulping down on that strawberry cheesecake I showed you earlier. My little man, Madden and I did some running around and then met up with Tom and Kaida back at home about 12:30pm.
12:30pm: Since I over-spent my money this month, I have really been trying to get creative with my meals and make the best with everything I can. So, for lunch today I opted to use last night's leftover chicken parmesan and make myself a pasta. I have been avoiding making alfredo like pastas because every recipe I had ever found really piled on the whipping cream and/or cream cheese. Well, recently, in my Pampered Chef recipe book I found an amazing recipe that used chicken broth with heavy whipping cream (and not nearly as much as I used to use!) I buy low sodium chicken broth anyway for other favorite recipes of mine, and it's almost always in my cupboard. I combined about 1 cup chicken broth with about 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream and 1 heaping tablespoon of garlic (not garlic salt) and set it to boil. Once it was boiling, I added a small amount of noodles and broke them in half and reduced the head to a simmer. While the noodles boiled I chopped up a cup of spinach very fine and re-heated my chicken parmesan pieces in the toaster oven. If you will remember from Monday's blog, I used bread crumbs, flax seed and REAL parmesan to make the coating for the chicken. After the noodles had softened, I added the spinach in with the noodle, broth, cream and garlic mixture. Speaking of garlic, I would like to clear up any mis-conceptions that people may have about it. Garlic bread put on with heaps of butter and cheese=not good for you. Garlic on it's own= good for you. They even make vitamins out of it for crying out loud. Here is a quick article I found about garlic and how the glass containers you can purchase in stores have been proven to be just as healthy as crushing the garlic at home (and less time consuming, I might add).
http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/immunity/health_benefits_of_garlic
Tom also decided to contribute to the recipe part of my blog with his prepared lunch. He is super organized when it comes to meals and he makes them in bulk in advance. I don't do so good with routine and can't plan too far ahead because I tend to want different things on different days. His meal this week has been a chicken caesar salad wrap.
What we have here is chicken that was grilled in a skillet with 100% virgin olive oil with romaine lettuce sprinkled with parmesan cheese (I personally think he should go with all natural cheese...that's just me) and 1 tablespoon of caesar dressing wrapped up in a spinach tortilla. I'm getting hungry just looking at it. It's a salad on the go folks!
5:30pm: I'm going to just cut right to the chase here and get down to dinner. I admit this photo is not the best. I took it with my iPod rather than my phone since I was far too lazy to run upstairs and get it. Now, these waffles by no means are "healthy" but I will say they are far better for you than just sticking to a regular waffle recipe!
Tomorrow will be my daughter's 12th birthday and since she does a Vi shake in the morning (and is never too hungry for a big breakfast) I thought I would make her birthday waffles for dinner. Let me start this by saying all 3 of my children chowed these down. Here's what I did. I took about 1 full sweet potato, chopped it up and tossed it in the blender with 2 cups of unsweetened almond milk (30 calories) 1 egg, 2 egg whites (rather than 3 whole eggs) 1/4 cup 100% virgin olive oil and 1/4 cup apple sauce (rather than 1/2 vegetable oil) and blended it up. I then took the mix and added it to 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup ground flax seed (rather than 2 1/2 cups flour) 1tsp baking soda, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder and a dash of salt. Mixed them all together and poured that mixture right onto my waffle iron. I decided to be fun and make cinnamon roll waffles rather than just plain 'ol syrup. So the green stuff is actually a cream cheese icing (bad...all bad...) the pink is a little icing from a tube (all bad) with blue sprinkles and if you'll notice the brown, while this part of the recipe called for butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, I opted for olive oil, a little brown sugar and cinnamon. Side bar, cinnamon is also a very healthy option to sweeten up certain foods (maybe not in this case, but...) Now, had this been a normal occasion and I wanted to avoid syrup, I LOVE taking a tablespoon or two of honey and mixing it with cinnamon. It is absolutely delicious and honey and cinnamon both have added health benefits all in themselves. Maybe I'll touch on that another day. So, while these waffles aren't the most health conscious thing, it's pretty easy to make a few minor changes to add a little bit more of the "good stuff" in with the "junk." Let me take one more quick second to say that sweet potatoes are ALSO a very healthy vegetable and I'm so glad to hear that my daughter's school is substituting sweet potato fries in place of regular fries! It's all in the little steps, right?
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