Extremely Interesting other Pages

Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Bob Harper yay - Kale Chips Nay

I just finished watching season 1 of New Girl - It's superb.  It makes me laugh out loud. If you haven't seen it - you should.

Next topic -  So before Sergio arrived I was doing really well with working out and eating healthy, but then I sort of got off my kick and the schedule was all nuts and so I lost my weight loss mojo. I was down a few for a while there! But I'm back on the horse now! Since my gym membership ran out I bought like 15 work out dvds and my plan is to do a mix of work out dvds, running, and bodyrock.com throughout the week to try to lose some LBs.

So far, I've done the Bob Harper Ultimate Cardio and the Jillian Michaels Shed and Shred.
The Bob Harper Ultimate Cardio will have you doubled over in pain and misery. I sort of crushed it though - It is awesome. And I feel like I am pretty tough in general so when I say it's hard,  I promise you will vomit and feel like you've been punched in the gut if you try this video.
This was pretty much how I looked after Bob Harper had his way with me

The Jillian Michaels Shed and Shred has 2 30 minute workouts - the first one is level 1 and it sucks. It's like doing a Jane Fonda callestetics work out. I was so annoyed the whole time - and her voice always yapping doesn't help.
Then there's Level 2 - Level 2 will make you burn. It's decent. I would do it again. It's a mix of movements with weights and plyometric body weight exercises.

Then, since I'm also trying to get on track with my healthy eating - I made a couple of new things in the kitchen that I've been reading about in some healthy people blogs.

The first was Kale Chips.
Kale is in ABUNDANCE here. They shred it and boil it with onions..sort of like spinach.
But these Kale Chips were supposed to taste like you're eating potato chips.  Eh - I mean, they were okay, I over salted mine. Would I rather have a stack of Pringles? Yes.  Do I like that it's a new way to slip more veggies into my diet without feeling like i'm eating veggies? yes also. Here's how it went:
Kale in all its glory. It's a strong leaf with really giant thick veins.
I used my scissors to chop the leaf off the stem

I chopped them into large pieces and then tossed them with olive oil and seasoning salt

baked them till they were crispy..
this is what resulted. I think i over salted them but they were okay. I guess if you are a huge potato chip person and you are trying to stay off them, this is an okay alternative.  Kind of tastes like a maple leaf with salt. mmm

Then I also made Sweet Potato Fries. There is so much stuff on the internet right now about sweet potatoes and how they are this great healthy food that can satisfy your carb craving without being destructive to your progress. Here the sweet potatoes are really mild - It's not as easy find those deep colored yams - but i've seen them around. Actually sweet potatoes are really popular in the local diet here, so the big light colored ones are easy to find.

I just chopped them up - threw on some olive oil and salt and baked them till they were soft. These I highly recommend. I dump ketchup on them and it works for me.
These were goooood. I'll be doing this more often.
Okay  - that's it for today. Tomorrow is another day and another work out DVD. I'll holler at ya!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Best FREE at home online workouts

I've been in high gear lately trying my best to drop my extra weight without distraction. So, I've been trying to keep things new and fresh so I don't just get discouraged by trudging away on a treadmill or elliptical every day.

Some of you may remember my post about bodyrock.tv. (Fitness on the road).  Well I'm still using bodyrock.tv but there has been some major changes. The two people that ran the site got divorced - tragic I know - so the husband continued making the videos with his brother and his brother's lady friend and though I did love the original chick (Zuzana), the new crew is great and they are putting out new workouts daily. They are usually from 12-20 minutes and they are INTENSE. Usually you will need a sandbag for the workouts - but no worries, I have shown you how to make your own right here.  The workouts are sort of cross fit meets boot camp.  And best of all, you can access them from AFRICA! Unlike exercise TV or a lot of other workout sites.
The new body rock girl doing a very natural pose.

Besides bodyrock.tv - which will get your butt in gear all on it's own - the original bodyrock host, zuzana, now has her own youtube site and seems to be getting really professional. You can find her intense workouts of the week (WOW) here.  She is the sweetest little czech lady and she gives these little heart to heart pep talks that make you feel all warm and mushy. Often I'll just watch the workout videos while sitting on the sofa eating peanut butter out of the jar with my pointer finger -  her pep talks can be pretty effective to get me off my arse.  You can find her older bodyrock videos all over youtube and on the body rock website as well. 
The original bodyrock girl - Zuzana. She used to be super thin and cut as seen here..seems like she's put on a bit of padding when you see the new videos. She actually looks a bit more normal now..though still thin and extremely ripped.

Lastly, there is the crossfit website.  I'm not one of those cross fit cult people - Honestly I just dont have the equipment to really get into it since many of the workouts require very heavy weight, a place to sprint, row machines and pull up bars, etc. Plus I don't have someone showing me the proper form for some of these exercises which is important when you are using heavy weight. But I have done quite a few of the body weight workouts and some of the others that only require lighter weights and it's good stuff.    Here's an example of a workout of the day (WOD)-
  • Hold a 45 pound (or lighter) barbell over head and do lunges for 50ft 
  • then immediately do 21 burpees
  •  Repeat for 5 rounds.
The idea is MINIMAL TO NO REST between rounds. You don't even necessarily  need to use additional weight to make this a great work out.
 If you dont know what a burpee is, you can see it demonstrated by Zuzana here. I believe Lucifer (yes, the devil) invented burpees.

Now, go do something!