Gotta do dem lunges!

I had quite the workout dilemma this morning that took me about an hour too long to figure out. I suggest that if you get easily unmotivated from going to the gym (like me sometimes), to plan your workouts in advanced, or perhaps the night before.

So, I've only recently started reincorporating working out my legs because they were just plain tired from all the zumba, salsa, and running I had been doing. Going salsa dancing 3 times a week and practicing zumba routines throughout the day left my feet achy and my entire lower body weak. Life's all about balance isn't it? I decided leg strength is more important to me right now than anything else so I cut down on the running and most recently the salsa dancing and zumba practice 24/7. Now back to my dilemma this morning, I couldn’t remember how I split up my legs routine in the past. Brain fart!! I was majorly confused. Should I lift all the leg muscles at once? Zone in on the hams and glutes? Focus on quads and calves? For some reason, I just couldn’t make up my mind! I referred to some internet sources for inspiration:

http://www.davedraper.com/lean-legs-for-women-workout.html

http://bodybuilding.about.com/od/weighttrainingprinciples/qt/onemusclesplit.htm

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/muscle-building.html

Here's the routine I ultimately settled with:  Most of the exercises were 3 sets, 10 reps

• Deadlift
• Dumbbell lunges
• Wide grip overhead barbell split squat (I held a 10kg barbell over my head with a staggered stance, left foot in front of right and lunged down for 10 reps each side)
• Barbell straight-leg deadlift (I made sure to concentrate on squeezing my glutes when lifting the barbell back up- this helps to engage your hip muscles instead of your lower back)
• Single-leg standing dumbbell calf raise (I placed my foot that was doing the raise on a 20kg weight plate)
• Curtsy lunge with dumbbells
• Calf press on leg press machine 3 ways- toes pointed out, in, and straight (15 reps, 3 sets)

perfect snack prior to teaching zumba: a sweet gala apple with crunchy peanut butta

Dinner last night: Simple to make and o' so delicious!

I love the taste of roasted broccoli with simple seasonings. I just oven roasted these fiberlicious boys in EVOO, salt and pepper for 15 minutes and they turned out cooked but slightly crunchy- YUM!

more burgars! (that's my attempt at a Jersey accent)

more sauteed vegetables- I make sure to fill up on high volume, low calorie things like mushrooms, broccoli, and red onions. It is very hard to get fat by eating your weight in veggies! :) Not that you want to literally eat your weight in veggies.

love love love the smell of caramelized onions wafting in the house.. weird I know!!

I topped my burger with ketchup, dijon mustard, and siracha. It was perfect.

hot sauced and ketchup eggs prior to my legs workout this morning.

 

here's to looking at you kid.

more amazing protein smoothie in a coffee mug

I could never get sick of these!

Song of the day:  "Let it go"- from the Step it up 2 soundtrack.. haha I'm such a nerd!! :)

I'm going back to school ma!

Lunch yesterday was seabass filets seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, olive oil, and siracha

sauteed mushrooms and courgettes

the garlic powder gave the seabass a nice crust- yum!!

In the gym: I focused on bi's, tri's and abs since that was the only part of my body that wasn't sore from Wednesdays workout.. Ouch.. I did 3 sets of 8-10 reps

• close grip bench press (T)
• barbell curl (B)
• lying barbell tricep extensions (T)
• hammer curl (B)
• tricep pressdowns (T)
• Incline dumbbell curl (B)

Gym gripe: As most lifters are familiar with, the bench is extremely useful for a variety of exercises. It definitely helps to have the right set of dumbbells within arms reach when doing supersets. A recent gripe of mine is that my gym removed the lighter dumbbells from the main guys weights room and into the gymfloor. I understand this was probably due to not many people using the lighter weights (yes macho men, I know you don’t use 3kg weights for your dumbbell flys like me!!) but it honestly puts people like me (mostly women that don’t lift very heavy) at a disadvantage. I have to take extra time to plan my exercises and make sure I have the right set of dumbbells prior to starting my workout. This wouldn’t be a problem if my supersets didn’t call for multiple weights! I.e.: I like to use 3kg for my flyes, 4-5kg for my bicep curls, 6kg for my close grip tricep presses, etc!! I may sound lazy but who honestly wants to disrupt their workout by lugging weights around the gym after every exercise!? and why return the weights you ask? Do you really think I want to be that crazy person that hogs all the light dumbbells at her bench station?

My night was spent eating and sitting in front of the telly because the hubs is busy at work this week.

I had another buffalo burger for dinner with some roasted broccoli and kalamata olives (random!!) on the side.

I kept the burger open faced and doused it with ketchup, dijon mustard, and siracha

It was a satisfying dinner :)

Breakfast then it's off to the gym -- I have a sexy date with the treadmill, ow ow!

Holy cannoli I'm going back to school!!! Starting in October, I'll be doing a Sciences Extended degree in Biology/Chemistry at London Metropolitan University. If all goes well and I pass all my courses, I'll apply for the Human Nutrition and Dietetics program next year. I'm a ball of emotions from excited, happy, and extremely nervous!!

Walk like a duck

I've been on a fish kick lately. I bought these two tilapia filets yesterday and was scared they would spoil right away so I ended up cooking both of them.

• garlic chunks
• honey
• olive oil
• soya sauce (GF and tastes like the real thing!)
• siracha
• salt and pepper

with sauteed mushrooms and brown rice on the side.

tilapia itself doesn't have much flavor so it helps to have a really flavorful marinade/sauce. Mine was really delicious!! Excuse the huge chunks of garlic but I actually like it that way. Mmmm...garlic nom nom nom :)

cup o' grapes for dessert

and since the grapes didn't satisfy my sweet tooth, I decided to break out one of these bad boys. Gluten Free Coconut Macaroons (not be be confused with these delicious macaroons).

sweet, slightly chewy in texture and a very strong coconut flavor=one delicious macaroon!

My workout yesterday was my weekly PUNCH class at Virgin Active. PUNCH is a boxing class mixed in with body conditioning exercises. Yesterday's circuit in between the punching combinations were some killer exercises done across the gym floor such as duck walks, lunges, push ups, crab walks, and bear crawls.
The hardest exercise for me was probably the duck walks. Who honestly came up with this brutal exercise?!!!

http://www.laverstokepark.co.uk/burgers/buffalo-burgers.html

After teaching Zumba, I threw in a buffalo burger from Laverstoke Farms in the oven. Buffalo burgers are leaner than regular burgers and this one was extra special because it was deemed gluten free and contained no artificial colorings or preservatives.

I needed a substitute for a regular hamburger bun so when I found these, I was super stoked. Unfortunately, they didn't taste that great and I didn't really like the texture.

gluten can appear in the trickiest of places like regular condiments!

with sauteed mushrooms and red onions

I topped the burger with ketchup and dijon mustard.. YUM!!

Bowl of fruit, eggs, and toast for breakfast then its gym time!

For my your viewing pleasure

we played a rowdy game of fetch at 8 a.m. this morning

I love my boo bear too much!! Now if only I had her tenacity and spirit in me all the time... :)

Agenda: gym, lunch, take dog to the park, go to library and study (I'm too distracted at home!!), chillax!
Such a touching video tribute: 
http://whiteonricecouple.com/films-documentaries/video-creamy-peanut-butter-pie-mikey-jennifer-perillo/