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Showing posts with label sweat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sweat. Show all posts

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Springtime Madness

Disclaimer: this is an opinion post, based entirely off of the heaps of research I've read, and my own life experiences.

It's that time of year. The sun has finally started burning through those dreary winter clouds that lingered around for way too long, the snow is long gone, and we are all starting to get antsy to shed those coats and pull out our flip flops.


It's an exciting transition, from winter into spring. Everyone seems to have a little more pep in their step, and the sun is finally staying up past 4 pm. We’re all dreaming and planning and starting to make epic summer plans.

The summer plans then lead to the reminder that warm weather = less clothing. It's pretty standard to sometimes pack on a few extra lbs during winter, I know that I do. And I also know it's not the end of the world; I typically start logging more miles come March/April due to weather changes, put the holiday/birthday binges behind me, and eventually return to normal.

Here's my soap box.
Because of this seasonal cycle, I've also noticed that March and April are the times when I see the most bullsh@t out there in regards to "quick fixes".  "Here's how to get flat abs fast"... "Drink this a week straight and you'll drop ____ lbs" .... "The best workouts for a beach booty.”

Just saw this on my Twitter feed....
If you're on ANY form of social media, you know what I'm talking about. The list goes on, and on, and on.

I called it bull because that's what it is; there is no quick fix, that term is garbage. I mean, TECHNICALLY it may be a quick fix, but if it is, it's not sustainable. If you want a healthy body, then you must be healthy. Clean up your diet, and get off your butt. Refuse to accept excuses: go for a run, ride your bike, do a cardio circuit in your living room, go to your gym.  “I don’t have time” just isn’t going to cut it.

Furthermore, there's really no such thing as "targeting problem areas"... It's another garbage phrase. You don't lose love handles from obsessively doing side-crunches, you lose them by doing fat burning, full-body workouts.  Odds are, you're going to have to sweat to see results.



Even more importantly, stop eating processed garbage. And if you do (I sure do) which we all pretty much do let's be honest; do so in moderation. The less ingredients on the label, the better. And remember, the phrase "you can't out-exercise a bad diet" is so, so true. Pizza for dinner five days a week, no matter how much you may be working out, will always catch up with you. Abs are 75% made in the kitchen, and that's the truth.

And last but not least, drink your water. Lots of it. It keeps your crazy awesome body really happy.

That's all. Believe me; this rant was just as much for me; I'm far from perfect. Just figured we could all use a little bit of Spring motivation. And remember, if it doesn't seem sustainable, or reasonable... Well, that probably means that it isn't.


Cheers -
Kait

Friday, September 13, 2013

Things I Learned This Week

To start, I learned some startling news when I walked into Panera this morning… they have pumpkin pie bagels. Noooooo.

I resisted the urge for today, but I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it up for. The large sign hanging up advertising them makes them look flat out amazing.

I learned that it is in fact possible to burn something in a crockpot. Last night I threw the ingredients for Pumpkin Oatmeal following a recipe that I found on Pinterest. This is how it was suppose to turn out:


source
This is how mine turned out:


LOLOLOLOL
Nevertheless, I sucked it up, threw an egg on top of a bowl of it this morning, and called it a win... even if it wasn’t. I’m not too sad, steel cut oats just aren’t my thing, I’m a little bit over them to be honest. I felt like I was eating rice.


I learned that Tall Boy Natty Bohs on a school work night aren’t the best idea, and really set me up for failure that next morning...


Enough said.

That same day, I also learned that running on my lunch break can literally turn my day around. Now some may call it gross that I do this but as a pretty minimal sweater, I have no issue pulling my hair back, slapping on some deodorant, and continuing my day in the office.  Even the shortest of runs helps to break up sitting on my ass all day and makes me feel like less of a slob.

quick afternoon 2 miles
I learned that Spotify has a pretty awesome workout playlist. If you’re a Spotifier, just type in ‘workout’ in the search box and select the playlist entitled ‘Workout’ by Spotify. Rocket science, I know. It has a good selection of jams and I thoroughly enjoyed it will remixing the below workout at 5:30 this morning….

20 min sweat swesh (derived from a bunch of WODS smooshed together)
100 sit ups
10 mins, AMRAP: 5 burpees, 10 pushups, 15 air squats, 20 skaters
10 mins, AMRAP: 40 mountain climbers, 10 single squats (per leg), 20 (weighted)crunches
100 sit ups

I sweat, it woke me up, did the job.


 "I don’t have what people expect I should have, but I am abundantly blessed with absurd, exhilarating, and fantastic things I would have never dreamed up on my own."
- 26, unmarried, and childless


Early bedtime for me tonight, as an early alarm is set to pound out 19 miles before 10 AM tomorrow. Encouragement welcome.

Cheers!

K

Friday, June 7, 2013

Rainy Days & Sweaty WODS

Man, I seriously feel that rainy Fridays should be illegal. This weather is putting a bit of a damper on my mood.


Thanks tropical storm Andrea, or whatever it is that you are.

This morning was the first morning that I wasn’t able to get into my spin class because it was full. It caught me off-guard because I love my Friday morning spin class more than most things… and I retreated to the stairmaster & eliptail with my tail between my legs. To distract myself, I watched the show “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss” on my phone... have you ever watched it? I would be lying if I denied that about half the reason I enjoy watching it is because of the trainer on the show, Chris Powell…

there's some eye candy for ya

Did you celebrate National Donut Day? You bet your pretty face I did…

YUM

Even better was on Thursday, when my coworkers and I decided that we needed a means to have iced coffee that afternoon. So we wittingly poured a pot of warm coffee into a pitcher that morning and stuck it in the freezer… and had ourselves some excellent iced coffee later that afternoon. I even added a dash of chocolate milk to mine, and was in love.

2 PM never looked so lovely
In contrast, my oatmeal has really been letting me down this week. I had some horrible mixed berry overnight oats this morning that I literally had to gag my way through post-donut. I guess not much can compare to a blueberry cake donut…

I swung by the gym on my way home from work today (again) because I was itching to lift some weights. My cross fit master friend, Greg, sent me the below workout awhile ago, and I've been carrying the post-it around saying I need to do it. Welp, it was time to put my money where my mouth was... and the result was A LOT of sweat.


 8 mins, AMRAP...
-Hanging knee raises
-Lunges with 25 lb. plate above head
-Burpees

Start with sets of 5, increase by 5 every time a set is complete... 5, 10, 15, 20...

I got to 20 reps by the time the 8 minutes was done. It was a sweaty beautiful mess.

My fingers are crossed that the rain is done by tomorrow, and we can get into some trouble this weekend. I rented some paddle boards for the day tomorrow, as Andrew and I have been wanting to try that out for awhile in Annapolis. Any tips from the pros out there on paddle boarding?

That's all she wrote. Have a wonderful weekend, keep it classy.

Cheers!