Health Update

I've been gone for a while obviously. Haven't hardly worn post worthy makeup and I stopped posting about my diet and fitness. I started having minor food allergy issues so I was eating weird and trying to narrow down the culprit. It's eggs which is a common food issue for people and I was eating them every day for protein. Cooked or raw, my body had the same reaction to them so I know it wasn't due to being raw. After playing around with my green smoothie recipes, I've learned that I can tolerate 1/4 up to 1/2 a cup of raw eggs but if I eat more than that, my body goes into severe hate mode. Ouch! It's horrible!

I started the Insanity Workout a couple weeks ago and had to quit it this past weekend. I have never had knee issues until doing Insanity and I developed them upon doing the series religiously. Not good and I know I need to listen to my body. So I think even though the series is meant to be done consistently, since my knees aren't OK with it, I'll just do random ones from time to time to still be able to kick my butt with some serious interval training.

Lately I've been doing more power yoga, riding my bike several miles, as well as doing various strength training with my own body weight and doing exercises with my resistance tubes. With working out hardcore over the last 2 months, I was able to gain 8 lbs. back and have been keeping it on which I am happy about. I am no longer counting calories like I was before (that was making me crazy). I am used to the process of eating more on my more intense workout days so I don't become calorie deficient and overly exhausted.

I was eating Mexican or Tex-Mex, every day for a long while. I used lean ground turkey, light sour cream, tomatoes, shredded Mexican cheese and used butter lettuce leaves as wraps instead of tortillas. They were so good and I started eating them again this week. :-)  But this week I have added corn, black beans, peppers and green chilies to the ground turkey. YUM!

My workout yesterday was riding my bike for about 7 miles. Then came home and did some strength training with my resistance tubes and followed with pilates. I plan on doing yoga this evening but my mood could change by then and I could decide to do something else.

I hope you all are doing well!

~BLIX

Food & Exercise Log for April 13, 14 and 15, 2011

4-13-11:
Green Smoothie batch of the day:

2 cups baby spinach (smashed like crazy into measuring cup to get as much in there as possible!)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup uncooked 100% whole grain oatmeal
1 cup 1% milk
4 tablespoons of Sunflower Seed Butter
1 cup frozen peaches
2 bananas
1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (with live cultures)
1 cup egg whites
2 tablespoons Wheat Germ
3 tablespoons flax seeds

Calories: 1484
Fat: 24.9 g (healthy fat!)
Protein: 77 g

This makes a huge batch that fills up a 64 oz. container. I keep it in the fridge and drink all day long.

Breakfast:
1 huge cup of coffee with a tablespoon of cream/sugar
1 glass of smoothie
2 Eggo multigrain waffles

Lunch:
1 glass of smoothie
2 oz. whole wheat noodles with a bit of butter and lotsa pepper

Dinner:
1 glass of smoothie
2 pieces of cinnamon bread

Exercise: Tribal fusion Bellydance class. 1.5 hours of non-stop dancing!


4-14-11:
Green Smoothie batch of the day:

2 cups baby spinach (smashed like crazy into measuring cup to get as much in there as possible!)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup 1% milk
2 tablespoons of Sunflower Seed Butter
1 cup uncooked 100% whole grain oats
2 bananas
1 cup low fat frozen yogurt (with live cultures)
1 cup egg whites
3 tablespoons Wheat Germ

Calories: 1398
Fat: 30.2 g
Protein: 66 g

This makes a huge batch that fills up a 64 oz. container. I keep it in the fridge and drink all day long.

Breakfast:
1 huge cup of coffee with a tablespoon of cream/sugar
1 glass of smoothie
2 eggo multigrain waffles

Lunch:
1 glass of smoothie
2 oz. of whole wheat noodles with 1/4 tablespoon of butter and lotsa pepper

smoothie and noodles!

Dinner:
1 glass of water
Cheeseburger with lean beef patty (91% fat free)
100% multigrain buns
1 slice of colbyjack cheese
spinach leaves
a whole mediem tomato sliced
ketchup
lotsa pepper, garlic and onion powder for seasoning

It was YUM!

Exercise: Cathe Boot Camp

4-15-11

Green Smoothie batch of the day:

2 cups baby spinach (smashed like crazy into measuring cup to get as much in there as possible!)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen peaches
1 cup 1% milk
2 bananas
1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (with live cultures)
1 cup egg whites
2 tablespoons Wheat Germ

Calories: 1236
Fat: 17.5 g (healthy fat!)
Protein: 71 g

This makes a huge batch that fills up a 64 oz. container. I keep it in the fridge and drink all day long.

Breakfast:
1 huge cup of coffee with a tablespoon of cream/sugar
1 glass of smoothie
2 eggo multigrain waffles

Lunch:
1 glass of smoothie
a bowl of Tasty Bite Bombay potatoes

Dinner:
1 glass of smoothie
Hashbrowns with onions, butter and pepper
grilled lean beef patty (91% fat free) with lotsa pepper and some ketchup

Exercise:
No exercise this day. Went to a friends Bday party. :-)

~BLIX

Food & Exercise Log for 4-10-11, 4-11-11 & 4-12-11

4-10-11:
Green Smoothie batch of the day:

2 cups baby spinach (smashed like crazy into measuring cup to get as much in there as possible!)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup 1% milk
4 tablespoons of Sunflower Seed Butter
1 cup frozen peaches
2 bananas
1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (with live cultures)
1 cup egg whites
3 tablespoons Wheat Germ

Calories: 1469
Fat: 39 g (healthy fat!)
Protein: 76 g

This makes a huge batch that fills up a 64 oz. container. I keep it in the fridge and drink all day long.

Breakfast:

1 huge cup of coffee with a tablespoon of cream/sugar
1 glass of smoothie
small bowl of multigrain cheerios with 1% milk

Lunch:
1 HUGE glass of smoothie

Dinner:
1 glass of smoothie
6 oz. roasted chicken

Exercise: Cathe Slow & Heavy: Legs and shoulders


4-11-11:
Green Smoothie batch of the day:

2 cups baby spinach (smashed like crazy into measuring cup to get as much in there as possible!)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup 1% milk
5 tablespoons of Sunflower Seed Butter
1 cup uncooked 100% whole grain oats
2 bananas
1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (with live cultures)
1 cup egg whites
3 tablespoons Wheat Germ

Calories: 1866
Fat: 53.1 g
Protein: 92 g

This makes a huge batch that fills up a 64 oz. container. I keep it in the fridge and drink all day long.

Breakfast:
1 huge cup of coffee with a tablespoon of cream/sugar
1 glass of smoothie
small bowl of multigrain cheerios with 1% milk

Lunch:
1 glass of smoothie
Bowl of whole wheat noodles with 1/4 tablespoon of butter and lotsa pepper

Dinner:
1 glass of smoothie
2 multi grain waffles


Snack:
Small orange

Exercise: Cathe Slow & Heavy: Biceps, Triceps and abs

4-12-11

Green Smoothie batch of the day:

2 cups baby spinach (smashed like crazy into measuring cup to get as much in there as possible!)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup uncooked whole grain oats
1 mango
1 cup frozen peaches
1 cup 1% milk
2 tablespoon Sunflower Butter
2 bananas
1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (with live cultures)
1 cup egg whites
3 tablespoons Wheat Germ

Calories: 1356
Fat: 27.6 g (healthy fat!)
Protein: 77 g

This makes a huge batch that fills up a 64 oz. container. I keep it in the fridge and drink all day long.

Breakfast:
1 huge cup of coffee with a tablespoon of cream/sugar
1 glass of smoothie
small bowl of multigrain cheerios with 1% milk

Lunch:
1 HUGE glass of smoothie

Dinner:
1 glass of smoothie
Crunchwrap supreme from Taco bell (I don't eat out very often but my husband picked this up for me as I was saying I NEEDED a burrito, but meant I would make one myself) Oh well, I ate it anyway. :-)

Exercise:
Hubby and I road our bikes for about 30 minutes at a very fast pace...by a stinky river with annoying bugs everywhere. Sucked! Kept getting hit in the face with bugs...horrible! Would have gone longer if it wasn't for the nasty ass bugs!

Smoothie from Monday.

 just the dry ingredients

 dry and wet ingredients

all blended! not very pretty but it was really yummy! Sort of looked like a chocolate shake without the chocolate flavour...I pack so many different things in my smoothies that they just don't look very nice. Hee hee!

~BLIX

Food & Exercise Log 4-9-11

Green Smoothie batch of the day (I don't change it too much from day to day)

2 cups baby spinach (smashed like crazy into measuring cup to get as much in there as possible!)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup 1% milk
4 tablespoons of Sunflower Seed Butter
2 bananas
1 cup low fat strawberry yogurt (with live cultures)
1 cup egg whites
4 tablespoons Wheat Germ

Calories: 1377
Fat: 39.8 g (healthy fat!)
Protein: 67 g

This makes a huge batch that fills up a 64 oz. container. I keep it in the fridge and drink all day long.

Breakfast:

1 huge cup of coffee with a tablespoon of cream/sugar
1 glass of smoothie
1 homemade pancake

Lunch:
1 glass of smoothie
6 oz of roasted chicken

Dinner:
1 glass of smoothie
4 oz. roasted chicken

 What my lunch/dinner looks like. Doesn't look like much but chicken and these smoothies are VERY filling. I could barely finish this! I realize the chicken doesn't look very good in this picture, but it didn't look that weird in real life. :-)

Snack:
Smoothie time! Made another one with an avocado, a mango and 3 cups of milk.
Then later in the evening had a bowl of healthy frozen yogurt (has live cultures) with fruit.

My exercise of the day was Cathe Slow & Heavy: Chest, Back and Planks. Oh my chest and back are very sore today!

Calories for the day added up to about 2500 (that's after the 300+ burned from working out). I could have eaten more but didn't really need to or feel like it.

~BLIX

Exercise for 2-17-11 Yoga Meltdown Level 2 with Jillian Michaels

After my last exercise post, I still felt crappy (run down and nauseous) so I did go through with doing Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown, as I mentioned I might do. This time I did level 2.

Video preview:

 

Details:
Jillian introduces a new yoga workout unlike any other. Combining hard-core yoga power poses with her dynamic training techniques, Jillian will get you real weight-loss results fast. YOGA MELTDOWN includes two complete 30-minute workouts that include a warm-up and cooldown. Begin with the Level 1 workout which focuses on quickly flowing yoga sequences to burn mega calories. Then progress to Level 2 which adds twists and balance poses for an even greater burn.

http://jillianmichaels.shop.sportstoday.com/Product.aspx?pc=JIAM55DVD

My thoughts:
This was a little more intense than level 1. Jillian introduced different moves that aren't in the first one. There were some more challenging balance moves that reminded me of how I'm quite wobbly on my left side while my right side is always solid. So weird how the body works. Why can't I be balanced on both sides?! Welp, it's just more of a reason to focus more on the left side to improve on it.
I built a lot of heat doing this workout but didn't sweat. I don't necessarily need to but that's how I usually know if something is challenging enough for me, by how much I sweat.
Even though I'm not too fond of Jillian's overly excited attitude for yoga (I think it's great for other styles but yoga?), I still enjoyed the overall workout and will more than likely do it again for lighter workout days.
Also, Jillian's behavior is some what cute and she lovingly picks on her participants, which makes the experience feel less routine and robotic. We've all done workouts that feel like the instructor isn't a human being...I like that this one isn't that way.

~BLIX

Exercise for 2-15-11 Sharon Mann Yoga/Pilates & Stability Ball

I have become used to not posting my workouts (from not doing my normal stuff due to moving) so I'm forgetful lately. I'm sorry!

On Tuesday we attempted to do a Sharon Mann Yoga/Pilates workout. Even though it's Yoga/Pilates, she still throws in other things. I chose my own combo workout pattern which was a balancing warm up, strength training with weights, stability ball strength training, then a pilates cool down. For some reason my computer went nutso and crapped out half way through the workout and would not play the rest of it.

Regardless, here's the DVD info:
THE WORKS with Sharon Mann
DVD #2  "YOGA & PILATES
One of the industry's hottest new crazes. Yoga & Pilates
is great for all ages and fitness levels.  This fully-interactive DVD offers a huge selection of  workouts including: Yoga,
Tai Chi, Pilates, Flexible Strength & more! Choose from
a number of pre-programmed workouts or design your
own using the fully interactive menu.  There are three
different levels of fitness demonstrated for all exercises.
With all the choices offered on this one disc, you can
create over 1000 different workout combinations!  

Pre programmed workouts include:
Mixed Yoga Workout,   Flexible Strength Workout Pilates Workout,   Pilates & Yoga Workout  +
Yoga For Strength,  Pilates Mat Work,  Body Sculpt, 
Pilates Core Training,  Strength Training,  Total Yoga,
Stability Ball Training, Tone & Strengthen + More! 



Soooo...we did the balancing warm up which was nice. I love balance training as it helps with every day life and activity. Then went on to strength training with weights. Sharon likes to combine multiple workouts so you get a lot done in a little amount of time. My hubby and I always use heavier weights to make it more challenging so were sweating and breathing heavy. The workout crapped out right when we were laying on the floor doing chest presses and the video just froze. So we layed there for several seconds with the weights held at the top...just waiting...hoping it would kick back in. It did, but it was choppy and not doable. ANNOYING!

We turned it off and watched X-Files on Netflix while doing some more exercises to finish the workout. Most muscle groups were worked to exhaustion with Sharon, so I finished off with over head military presses, push-ups, overhead tricep extensions, dead rows and calf raises.

For abs I used my stability ball. Here's a couple of my fav ab exercises to do with the ball. I don't have names for these. I learned them several years ago from a fitness magazine and have done them regularly ever since. I just don't remember what they are called. So if you know, tell me. :-)
With abs it's hard to separate a particular area, but you can dig in and put more focus onto a specific area you want to work on with the right exercise and form.

To work your upper and lower abs
#1. Lay on your back, hold your knees up so your shins are parallel with the floor. Place the ball on top of your shins and just hold it. Then if you feel you need more, keep holding it and place your hands behind your head for support and do crunches. Just laying there and holding it you should feel your entire abs engaged.

To work mainly lower abs
#2. Depending on the size of your ball, this could be easy or hard to pull off. I have two sizes so I use my smaller one for this. Lay on your back as though you are going to do crunches, take the stability ball and place it under your knees. Dig your heels into the ball and squeeze towards your bum. This should cling to you and not roll out from under you if you have a good hold onto it. Once you have the position down, do reverse crunches focusing on the lower abs by pushing up with the pelvis. If you can't hold onto the ball this way, you can just hold it between your knees and still do reverse crunches.

To work mainly lower abs
#3. This one is hard and I LOVE it. Lay on your back, arms down at your side, keeping your legs straight and knees aimed up, raise one leg up, place the ball between your legs on the lower half of the legs (looks like scissors about to cut a ball in half) holding the ball with the front of the leg on the floor and the back of the leg being held up. Squeeze the ball so it doesn't get away from you. Then raise your legs up together still holding onto the ball. Remember to keep your hands at your side for stability. I will do a few sets of at least 10 on each side. Feel the burn! It's honestly the only exercise I have been able to do that makes my lower abs sore. :-) If this is too difficult, rather than raising your legs over and over, you can lift up so you're only an inch from the floor and just hold for a few seconds.


I hope those made sense! Ha! If you need pictures for better understanding...I'll see if I can do that for ya. :-)

I'm not feeling too great today but I still plan on working out tonight. So I may give my Jillian Michael's Yoga Meltdown another go since it's on the lighter side.

You can get Sharon Mann DVD's here: Sharon Mann
She's not nearly as evil as Cathe, but like I said, she crams a bunch of stuff together on 30 minutes so if you don't have much time, Sharon's "The Works" series is great. She has a few other DVD's but I've never tried them.

Hope you all are having a wonderful week!

~BLIX

Workout for February 7th Crunch: Total Resculpt Upper & Lower Body

This is the first workout I tried on Netflix. I've never done any Crunch workouts either so this was new to me.

Level: Intermediate

Certified instructor description: A varied series of body-sculpting classics led by a no-nonsense, bootcamp-style instructor. With separate upper and lower body programs, you can target specific muscle groups or do them together to get a total-body workout. The all-standing lower-body segment incorporates squats, lunges and dead-lifts in a mix of tempos and positions (not just endless sets of the same move). The upper-body section also features a varied medley of proven-effective arm/back/chest exercises. To establish proper form, Kendall Hogan always starts each routine at a slightly slower pace before speeding it up (and then he smoothly transitions to the next exercise). Requires 2 to 5 lb. dumbbells. ©2004.

BACK COVER DESCRIPTION:
If you want a sculpted, firm, chiseled body this is the workout for you. This program focuses on re-sculpting your body. You’ll target your thighs, buns, arms, back, shoulders and chest. We’ve hand-picked proven exercises so you don’t waste a moment of your time. You’ll begin with a thorough lower-body workout jam-packed with thigh-thinning, butt-lifting moves that deliver turbo-charged results … yet are completely non-threatening. Next, you’ll pick up those weights and move-on to an upper-body routine focused on sculpting strong and sexy arms, chiseling shapely shoulders and firming-up your chest. You’ll feel stronger, look leaner and love your new shape!
The Crunch Philosophy: The Crunch fitness program welcomes people from all walks of life regardless of shape, size or ability. We created a workout environment that is not competitive or judgmental. Enjoy these favorite classes with imaginative instructors in an atmosphere that makes working out fun.


My thoughts:
My husband and I did both lower and upper body workouts back to back, so it was roughly 45 minutes.
The exercises within themselves are pretty good, but not enough for us. That being said, this seemed like a workout that leaned more towards beginners...and women. I would not say this is intermediate at all. It was very easy for us. But that's probably because I'm used to Cathe, who is EVIL (in a good way)! Was sort of weird having a male instructor with all the participants being female. Also, he was talking to the camera as though only women would be doing the workout. My husband did NOT like this. Maybe I'm just being weird about it, but I felt like this was a wussy chick workout. I don't mean that in a bad way because not all women/men want to do evil hardcore workouts like I do! But I felt like using 2 lbs. weights was almost pointless, so I was using 8 and 10 lbs. instead. I didn't even sweat. We won't be doing this one again.
Over all, this is a good workout, it's just not for us. However, I would recommend this to someone who isn't very experienced in working out and/or is looking for something to lightly tone their muscles without feeling like you're gonna die. :-D

If you do want to feel like you're gonna die, stay tuned in and I'll be posting more workouts soon.

Check out the video info/reviews for Total Resculpt here: http://www.collagevideo.com/workout-video/crunch-total-resculpt-7576

~BLIX

Exercise for 1-31-11 Push Pull with Cathe

 I've done this workout sooo many times, I always say it's pretty easy...but not doing my normal weight training for a while (since moving) made this workout fairly hard. That's probably also because I loaded my barbell and weights as heavy as I used to, than picking something lighter and more reasonable to ease back into. For those of you who do Cathe workouts, I used the same weights Cathe does...and she has big muscles where as I don't, but mine are very defined and toned. Basically I'm very thin build but I'm quite strong for my size.  So anyway, my body is feeling it today and I'm looking forward to more pain from now on. :-)

Workout details: Push Pull is a 45 minute total body workout which features many new and refreshing exercises to keep your muscles stimulated in new ways. The focus of this workout is to promote muscle balance as well as strength and endurance gains through exercise variety and balance challenges. We use the stability ball quite a bit in this workout to create this added balance challenge which in turn promotes even greater muscle recruitment. It's important to point out that when using a stability ball you should use a lighter weight than you typically would for a given exercise since the unstable environment makes the muscles work harder to stabilize. As your body gets acclimated this "wobbly" environment you'll find that you are able to gradually increase your weights again.

The soundtrack to this workout is filled with soft rock classics. Here is a list of the songs:

Walking In Memphis
Freedom
Our Friends Are Electric
Breakfast at Tiffany's
In The Living Years
Dreams
Sleeping Sattelite
This ain't a love song
Missing

Keep in mind that for muscle balance we are doing one muscle group then the opposing muscle group. In most cases this is anterior (front) and posterior (back) but when it comes to shoulders we have both anterior (front delt) and posterior (rear delt) as well as superior (mid/top delt) and inferior (lats) which are directly beneath them.

The exercises for Push Pull are as follows:

Barbell Squats (legs with focus on quads)
Deadlifts (legs with focus on glutes/hamstrings)
Static lunge with heel lifted (legs with focus on quads)
Leg Press (legs with focus on glutes/hamstrings)
Bench press on ball (chest)
Deadrows (back)
flys on ball (chest)
Y's on ball (thats the Push Pull picture where we had our arms going back with thumbs up...for upper back)
Inverted shoulder press on high step (top/mid delt)
One arm row (back/lats which are beneath shoulders)
Front raise on ball (front shoulder)
Rear delt raise on ball (back shoulder)
Bicep curls with ball (biceps)
Slow Dips/immediately to kickbacks (tricep)
Outer thigh on ball
Inner thigh with ball
Superman on ball (low back)
Crunches with ball (abdominals)
Calve raises
Tibialis Anterior w/ball (shins)
Full Body Stretch

You may initially find this workout to be easier since you are learning to make adjustments for the new variety, but once you have worked through this, form and concentration is of the utmost importance for optimal muscle recruitment. Feel free to add sets to any of the exercises for an even greater challenge.


Preview video:

You can purchase Cathe workouts from http://cathe.com/ 

~BLIX

Exercise Room finally in order!

Some of you know I'm an exercise nut and health freak...some of you don't. We had a very busy weekend. We spent a lot of time finishing up some decorating and organizing the house. We have an extra bedroom with our new place and since moving in, it has been the junk room for things we just had no idea what to do with. We tackled it and turned it in to an exercise room.Yay! Will also be great for dance practice. :-)
I just realized the only things missing from the room are our stability balls. They're still hanging out in the garage.

So this is what the room looks like.

 Weight bench in far right corner, used for chest presses/flies, hamstring curls and quad extensions. It can also be used for other things but that's usually what I do with it. We got some padding to put under the rug for extra cushion when doing floor work.

 Mini stepper on the left, weight tower and other free weights on the right. I wanted the candle screen in here for my light exercise days of doing yoga and stretching. The LED candles add more calm and sereneness to yoga workouts for me. LOVE!

 Closet doors were taken off to make extra room and make it easier to access the floor mats, steps, barbells, plates and resistance bands.

 We put padding down to protect the wood floors from the equipment. I will be making and putting up curtains over the closet to make it look better. There's still some random stuff on the top shelf. I will also be using this room for sewing once I get a better sewing table. I also use this closet to hang dry some clothes which is why there's a bunch of hangers.

 Computer used to play my workout DVD's, music and Netflix. I'm looking for a real desk (probably small corner style) to replace the crappy table.

Shot of this side of the room so you can get a feel for how it is set up.

So now that everything is in order, I can get back to posting my workouts for you guys and girls who are interested. I have been working out regularly but it's mostly been the same routine since all my stuff was buried in the garage. It's quite amusing as most people assume the workout stuff is my husband's, but it's all MINE. :-) He does use it but it took me years of harassing to get him to join me. Now he's a Cathe addict like I am!

I know a lot of you appreciate my workout posts and a good lot of you don't. So I was wondering what you think about me creating a separate blog specifically for health/fitness? Lemme know as it would be easy to make a new blog and post there instead of here, if too many people don't want it here with my beauty posts.

~BLIX

Exercise for 9-26-10 Kickboxing with Sharon Mann

I've done a post on this before. I still like doing this workout and my thoughts are pretty much the same so I copied them from the last time. :-) The only difference is I'm quite sore from doing it this time and I wasn't last time. I don't know why exactly but my calves and butt are sore. Maybe I was squating lower and jumping more than usual. Not really sure. Was a good workout overall.

Details: This fully-interactive DVD is simply sensational. Offering a huge selection of Cardio based workouts including: Step,
Kickboxing, Boot Camp, HILO & more! Choose from
a number of pre-programmed workouts or design your
own using the fully interactive menu.  There are three
different levels of fitness for all exercises. The people on
the left side of your screen are working at a beginners
level, the people on the right are advanced level. Sharon
will be doing the intermediate level in the middle as well as
beginner & advanced. With all the choices offered on this
one disc, you can create over 1000 different workout combinations!  

Pre programmed workouts include:
HILO WORKOUT,   BOOT CAMP WORKOUT,
STEP WORKOUT,   BOXING WORKOUT,  +
Mixed Hilo,  Athletic Step,  HILO Drills,  Step Circuit, Interval Training,  Military Training,  Kickboxing + More!


http://www.sharonmann.com/mall/main.htm



My thoughts:
I tried to find a video for this particular DVD but couldn't. There doesn't seem to be anything on youtube from what I can tell. I did the pre-programmed kickboxing workout. It's a little over 30 minutes total. The warm up is tai chi, then the middle segments are non-stop kicking/punching combos and some plyometrics, the cool down is some elbow striking while in horse stance (doesn't feel like much of a cool down OMG!), followed with stretching.
This workout is action packed and makes me sweat. It's still not nearly as hard or evil as Cathe's workouts. But like I said, in between the hardcore workouts, I do lighter ones.
Sharon workouts can be awesome or kinda of weird in regards to her instruction. Sometimes she seems all with it while others, she will do something on one side of the body for 16 counts and then do the same thing on the other side for 24 counts. Why? I have no idea but I believe it's a booboo. So whatever mistakes I notice, I adjust myself to make up for it. Other than that, I'd say her DVD's are great for everyone since she offers something for beginners, intermediate and advanced levels. She shows people on the left doing beginner versions of the exercise, on the right shows people doing advanced versions, while Sharon does intermediate in front/center. So depending on how you are feeling, you can go easy on yourself or kick your own butt!

~BLIX

Exercise for 9-24-10 Walking

The moon was supposed to look big on Friday night, so Jason and I went for a walk around the lakes. We got some pictures, but they aren't great.

The walk was nice. There was no one else out so it was a little weird. We enjoyed it regardless though.

~BLIX

Exercise for 9-21-10 Walking and Weights

My hubby and I started off with walking around the lakes near our place. We walked about 45 minutes. When we got home, we lifted weights for about an hour.
My routine was similar to my last workout post, but this time I did a total body workout. I used my resistance tube to work most of my upper body doing:

bicep curls
hammer curls
bent over tricep extensions
side lateral shoulder raises
overhead shoulder press (military press)
bent over rows (back)

For legs, my routine was about the same as the last time but I did not use the stability ball to do extra leg stuff or core. I did however, do core work laying on the floor. My barbell was again 40 lbs. and I did the following until I was tired:

static lunges
squats
dead lifts
calf raises

I'm really feeling it now. The resistance tube really is harder than using free weights to me. So I'm really enjoying using it for sculpting my muscles. Don't know why it's taken me so long to actually use it like this.

~BLIX

Exercise for 9-16-10 My own thing, lower body

Yep, I totally forgot to post this last week. Since I was still sore from doing Pyramid Upper, I focused on lower body and core. I used my barbell loaded at 40 lbs. and did the following:

static lunges
squats
plea squats
dead lifts
calf raises

I'll say it a million times but I don't have a set amount that I do in terms of reps. So I don't really count the reps unless I'm doing something on one side and need to count to make sure I do the same amount on the other side. Like I said before, I just basically work each muscle group to the point of exhaustion.

After using the barbell, I used my stability ball and did some extra booty exercises, leg lifts and inner thigh squeezes.  I was really sore the next day. I was worried that because we were going camping over the weekend, that I wouldn't be able to hike as much as I like to when camping, but I was fine. :-)

I then did various core exercises. I don't remember everything since this was from last Thursday evening. Oops!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

~BLIX

Exercise for 9-13-10 Cathe Pyramid Upper

Yep, was busy and didn't end up doing this on Saturday like I had hoped. So Monday worked out better.

Video preview:

Pyramid Upper Body:Designed to increase lean muscle mass, shape, and sculpt the upper body, this upper body workout focuses on the full pyramid system as well as super sets to maximize your potential. As an added bonus, a mix of traditional and non-traditional ab and core work is included with the stability ball to promote better posture and help decrease common back pain associated with poor posture.

Pyramid Upper Body Format: warm-up (3 1/2 min.), upper body weight training (41 min.), Stability Ball (8-min.), Stretch (4 min.) Total = 56 1/2  min.

My thoughts:
I am fairly sore this morning but not too terrible. Although Jason and I were getting tired half way through this. Since this workout isn't crazy jumping around like some of my other workouts, I like to take advantage of that and really focus on each exercise. Sometimes I close my eyes to really concentrate too. 
I really love the Pyramid workouts and every time I do them, I keep thinking I need to do them more often. I will try but I have a feeling since we've been busy with house stuff, we might not get back on our regular workout schedule until we move and settle in. Hey, moving is exercise right? :-D


~BLIX

Exercise for 9-9-10 Cathe Pyramid Lower

Ouch! My legs are sore this morning.

Video preview:

Pyramid Lower Body:Designed to increase lean muscle mass, shape, and sculpt your legs, this lower body weight training program focuses on the full pyramid system as well as super sets to maximize your potential. As an added bonus, the workout is divided into two parts (standing work and floorwork) which conveniently lends itself to be done on different days if preferred.  Also, the floorwork will incorporate the use of a stability ball and ankle weights to uniquely challenge your muscles in new ways.

Pyramid Lower Body Format: warm-up (4 1/2  min.), lower body weight training (28 min.), Stability Ball- Legs & Glutes (13 min.), Stretch (4 min.) Total = 49 1/2  min

http://shop.cathe.com/default.asp 

My thoughts:
Again, ouch! This workout is hard. I love it though. There's a little step routine in the warm up that always cracks me up because my husband just can't do it. He is so uncoordinated. Hee hee.
So this morning I notice that my hamstrings and calves are sore, but the tops of my legs (quads) aren't sore at all.  My butt is only a little sore too but not very much. I'm used to working my butt pretty hard with squats so I'm thinking that's why my quads aren't sore and my butt is barely sore. But I might be more sore later today... so I could be getting ahead of myself.
This workout doesn't have an ab/core exercise included so we did our own at the end. 


I'm planning on doing the Pyramid upper on Saturday since tonight we are having dindin at a friends house. The first time I did this set I did upper first and tried to do lower the next day. That was a bad idea because my upper body was so sore I could barely lift my barbell to work my legs! Was horrible! So now I do legs, then upper body. And that works just fine. :-)


~BLIX

Exercise for 9-8-10 Fast walking!

Jason and I went walking around the lakes near where we live. We had a rather late start on the walk as it got dark pretty quickly. To get home before it went completely dark out, we were walking so fast that we were sweating as though we were jogging. So what normally takes us about 45 minutes with my "normal" fast walking, took us about 10 minutes less. Was still a really nice walk. The sunset in the sky was so gorgeous and was even more lovely since it was reflecting off of the water from the lakes. Was like a perfect mirrored image. Damn I wish I had brought my camera! Next time for sure though.

I'm still a little sore from my resistance tube and stability ball workout, but I still plan on doing something more intense tonight. Not sure what yet.

~BLIX

Exercise for 9-7-10 My own routine

Since we have not had time to workout for the past week (omg!), we made ourselves workout last night. Instead of doing a video, Jason did his own thing and I did my own thing using just my stability ball and a medium intensity resistance tube (long stretchy tube type thingy!).
With the tube I did traditional bicep curls, overhead tricep extensions, side lateral raises, dead rows, dead lifts, squats, static lunges, chest presses and chest flies. What I like about the tube is you can make the workout as hard or as easy as you'd like by adjusting how much tubing you grab or slack on. I tried to grab as much tubing as I could. Some things were much harder with the tube than using free weights. I don't think I expected that but it was because I made sure I grabbed the tube so it was shorter and harder. Wow that sounds weird.


For the stability ball, I did core work, inner thigh squeezes, frog legs and some other random butt/thigh exercises...I'm not sure what they are called but holy moley they work for me. My hamstrings and butt are always sore when I do them.

I also did standard push-ups. 

I don't really keep track of how many reps I do when I do my own routine. I basically keep working on a muscle group until I have exhausted it. Which is what gets results for me.  My workout ended up being about an hour and I can feel that I worked out, but I have a feeling I'll be more sore later today. *cries*

~BLIX

Exercise for 8-26-10 Biking

Originally I was planning on doing weights for a workout but I really wanted to get out of the house as did my hubby. We live in Colorado near TONS of walking/biking trails. So we hopped on our bikes and road for around 45 minutes for 7.5 miles on medium trails. The path I chose was fairly rugged terrain with a few steep inclines and many bumps.  We had some serious butt/thigh burning going on. It felt so good but I also had a headache so the bumps made it much worse for a while and then it went away.
The trail also had some wild life like bunnies, prairie dogs, other little rodents and a cow. I started laughing when I saw the cow because he clearly got out of his fenced in area some how.  So I started yelling "MOOO!" at him as we road past and he actually turned around and looked at us. Jason said, "Stop it! He'll chase after us!". Hee hee. Well even if he didn't think it was funny, I did. Cuz I'm a dork like that. :-)

~BLIX

Exercise for 8-25-10 Yoga Meltdown Level 1 w/Jillian Michaels

Since I was still a little sore from working out the day before, I did my new Yoga DVD for a more relaxed workout.

Video preview:

 

Details:
Jillian introduces a new yoga workout unlike any other. Combining hard-core yoga power poses with her dynamic training techniques, Jillian will get you real weight-loss results fast. YOGA MELTDOWN includes two complete 30-minute workouts that include a warm-up and cooldown. Begin with the Level 1 workout which focuses on quickly flowing yoga sequences to burn mega calories. Then progress to Level 2 which adds twists and balance poses for an even greater burn.

http://jillianmichaels.shop.sportstoday.com/Product.aspx?pc=JIAM55DVD

My thoughts:
I have never done this workout before so I did the level 1 to see how it was. It was decent. I was able to flow through the workout with hardly looking at the TV since I know a lot of the moves. I didn't sweat hardly at all, but I built a lot of heat and energy which is what yoga should do. I am a little sore from a few poses. As I said, I am already familiar with yoga but Jillian's style and instruction style is different than what I am used to. I'd say she's too intense verbally for a yoga instructor. There is a way to be encouraging and motivational without sounding so pumped. Using a calm but strong voice is all that is needed for yoga.
Other than that I really enjoyed it. I have a ton of realistic LED candles in my living room so I had some of them on to create a more serene environment so I could relax and really focus on the poses. Was a really nice change from my typical ass kicking workouts.
I may try this one a few more times on my light workout days before moving to level 2.

Has anyone ever tried this workout? Do you do yoga?

~BLIX

Exercise for 8-25-10 Sharon Mann: Bootcamp

Since there isn't really a guide for the workouts (because you can create your own combos) I'm going to post the same details as I did for the Sharon Mann Kickboxing workout except on the "my thoughts" part.

Details: This fully-interactive DVD is simply sensational. Offering a huge selection of Cardio based workouts including: Step,
Kickboxing, Boot Camp, HILO & more! Choose from
a number of pre-programmed workouts or design your
own using the fully interactive menu.  There are three
different levels of fitness for all exercises. The people on
the left side of your screen are working at a beginners
level, the people on the right are advanced level. Sharon
will be doing the intermediate level in the middle as well as
beginner & advanced. With all the choices offered on this
one disc, you can create over 1000 different workout combinations!  

Pre programmed workouts include:
HILO WORKOUT,   BOOT CAMP WORKOUT,
STEP WORKOUT,   BOXING WORKOUT,  +
Mixed Hilo,  Athletic Step,  HILO Drills,  Step Circuit, Interval Training,  Military Training,  Kickboxing + More!


http://www.sharonmann.com/mall/main.htm

My Thoughts:
I did the Sharon's Picks Bootcamp workout rather than creating my own combo. It's around 30 minutes. There's a lot of jumping rope, walking push-ups, plyometrics (some using the step, ouch!), tricep dips and military drills in this one. I really enjoyed doing it! Although my husband was not happy since his calves were still sore from the Cardio Abs workout. Hee hee. I added my own ab routine at the end (since there isn't one included in this one) and also used my resistance tubing (medium) to work on my biceps, shoulders and back. So with me adding more exercises, my workout ended up being about 50 minutes total. I am a little sore. Muscles feel tight and I feel like I really did something. I love this feeling.

I got a yoga DVD recently and I'm thinking of trying that tonight since my hubby will be rock climbing. He's not a yoga fan...probably because I get onto him about his form, which is usually terrible with yoga. Rather than working on it to get better, I guess he'd rather not hear me nag. Ha ha! I don't mean to nag him but I don't want him to hurt himself by doing something with really bad form. But it is nice to just do yoga and concentrate on myself and not worry about someone else.

~BLIX