Month: July 2015

30minutes

Hey y’all! Looky here, two posts in one week!! This is a first in quite a while. Keeping with the theme of everything quick (see yesterday’s post), for the busy, on the go lifestyle that many of us lead, check out today’s post for an at home, all you need is a [STABLE] chair workout….

This workout is start to finish, including warm-up and cool-down, 30minutes.

Warm-up: 5min

Complete the following circuit 2x flowing from one exercise immediately into the next. 

:30 high knee march (round 2 can be an in place high knee run)

:30 jumping jack

:30 deep squat

Workout: 25min

Just as you did in the warm – up, each set will be completed 3x without adding rest in between exercises. Take :30-1:00 rest between each set.

Set #1

:30 lunges (lead :30 with each leg)

:30 push-ups

Set #2

:30 step-up (lead with each leg for :30 at a time)

:30 modified tricep dip

Set #3

:30 squat (touch your butt to the chair each time)

:30 flutter kicks 

Set #4

:30 plank

:30 superman

:30 side plank (:30 each side)

Cool – down: 5min stretch

Hold each stretch for about 10 – 15 seconds. Stretch each muscle two times allowing for a slightly deeper stretch on the second time. 

Key muscles to hit: 

Hamstrings, calves, quads, glutes, hips, shoulders, and triceps. 

Happy working out!!

IMG_8914

I hope you are having a great week so far! And hey, just maybe you will hear from me again this week 😉

A Week in 3hours

Hello Hello! I hope y’all have had a wonderful weekend and your Monday is off to a great start! I had just the weekend I needed after some stressful days these last couple weeks. I was able to step away from the Queen City to visit some of my closest friends, Kimberly and Bre in Greensboro and Raleigh. After work Saturday, I made a quick stop in Greensboro to have lunch with Kimberly then took off to Raleigh for the rest of the weekend with Bre. I had a great time catching up with both of these ladies. It also always amazes me what a stress reliever it is when you can step away from the day to day monotony and just smile, laugh, and catch up with close friends. Anyways, enough about my weekend and on to today’s scheduled post….Creating all your meals for a week in three hours.

Meal prep to me, and I think to many, is one of those daunting ideas. The idea of making ahead of time EVERYTHING you are going to eat for an entire week (or in my case 5 days) is kind of a crazy thought. So for today’s post, I am going to break down for you how I meal prep, start to finish, in less than 3hrs…..

Step 1: Inventory what you have on hand and throw out anything that has spoiled in your pantry and refrigerator. Should only take about 5min.

Step 2: Based on what you have already plan your meals and snacks for the week. Typically I choose a theme to follow to keep grocery costs to a minimum and avoid waste. I like to make 2-3 options for the entire week to keep from getting bored at meal time. For snack I plan to have 1 salty snack, 1 sweet snack, 2 fruits, 1-2 veggies, and 1-2 dairy / protein options for the week. From this prep sheet, highlight or circle everything you need to get at the grocery store. This should take 15 – 20min.

Step 3: Write your grocery list according to how the grocery store is laid out. This means keeping your produce together, meats together, etc. Less than 5min.

Step 4: Grocery shop. Stick to your list. 20min. If it takes you longer than this you aren’t sticking to your very well organized list.

Step 5: Unpack the groceries, put the produce in the sink to wash. Less than 5min.

Step 6: Start with the meat and the starch for the week. These will be the base for your meals.

Step 7: As the bases are cooking, wash and chop your produce.

Step 8: As the bases are cooling, cook your veggies.

Step 9: As veggies are cooling, start dividing your base items into individual containers.

Step 10: Finish packaging the rest of your items. This means adding your cooked veggies to the appropriate meal, dividing up your raw produce, creating individual snack bags for your sweet and salty items, etc.

Steps 6 – 10 can vary in length but should be no more than 75 to 90min.

Step 11: Put all prepped food away in easy to grab locations and clean up the kitchen. No worries with the exception of the containers, you will have almost no clean-up to do all week! 🙂 10min

Total time: 2:15 – 2:30 and no more cooking for the week!!

IMG_0239

 

What different ways do you go about meal prepping? Please comment below with any tips and or tricks you have!

Have a great day!!!

 

Stumpy Creek Sprint Triathlon

Hello Hello! How are y’all doing? I hope you’ve had a great weekend and are all set to make this a wonderful week. My weekend was pretty fantastic as I opened my racing season with a local sprint triathlon, so for today’s post I will give you a race day recap…..

5:30AM — Beep beep beep!! Time to rise and shine!!

6:00AM — Breakfast in hand and I am headed out the door.

6:15AM — Arrive at Stumpy Creek Park on Lake Norman.

6:15 – 6:45AM — Last minute bike tune-up, transition set up, body marking, and collecting my timing chip.

IMG_0224

6:55 — National Anthem.

7:00 — The first wave is headed to the start line. Time to start warming up.

7:12 — My wave heads into the water [read: muddy bath water].

IMG_0226_2

7:15 — The gun goes off and I am off to the races. I started off maybe a bit too hard and got myself out of breath early but by the second turn I felt like I had found my groove. Then…myself and what seems like the rest of the sprint triathlon mis – sight the third turn and start to cut back towards shore a little early before seeing the correct third turn way to our right. I think its pretty likely at this point my 750yd swim has easily turned into an 850yd swim. I make it around the third and fourth turns and head back to shore. Total time 16:02.

Transition 1: In and out, speedy speedy! I had some time to make up after my slow swim. A little over :40 seconds to get from the swim to my bike. Coming out of the swim I wasn’t on the leader board but by the time I exited T1 I had gotten myself into 7th place.

IMG_0228_2

 

Bike: The bike course was tough. Very hilly and truthfully quite a dangerous course. I always appreciate the police and volunteers out on the course but unfortunately in this race things were a bit rocky. I had to duck under a truck’s mirror at one point and my dad watched several others have near head on collisions.  Throughout the danger and rough roads, I was still able to pick off quite a few more throughout this leg. I averaged 18.18mph to be the fastest female on the course. By the end of the bike I was in second place amongst the age group women.

Transition 2: Again, in and out. With a quick flying dismount and a change of shoes and I was on my way to the run.

Run: BRUTAL. Holy Moly it was hilly and hot!!! I definitely didn’t have the run I had hoped for. I managed to average an 8:45 pace which wasn’t terrible but far from what I am capable of.

IMG_0229_2

Finish: 1:24:18 and 2nd place OVERALL the women!!! A podium finish for my season opener!!


IMG_0233_2

Overall thoughts of the race….I still hate sprint triathlons. Something about going as hard as you can the entire time and not being able to find a rhythm the entire time is just not for me. More specifically to the race….not impressed. The swim was fine, very rocky start but nothing out of the ordinary. The safety personal on the water though…lacking significantly! Mom said she thought she was going to watch someone drown out there. The bike was well…dangerous! The fact that bikers were crossing in front of traffic and in front of one another was not good. They need to have a better plan going into next year. Run, nothing really notable. It was a tough course but that is nothing to complain about. Didn’t love the “off-road” section to the finish but still it wasn’t a bad run.

So there you have it, my season opener at Stumpy Creek. What’d you do this weekend? Anyone else race? Let me know in the comments below!

IMG_0218

 

A to Z Survey

Hey y’all! I hope you are doing great and had a happy and relaxing 4th of July weekend! I was able to spend a few days on the lake with friends and family. It was the perfect “stay-cation.” Anyways, I am sure you have noticed by my lack of posts, I have been in quite the blogging rut lately. I have tried putting together posts recently and ehh they just fell short so here I am today to give it another try with an A to Z survey all about me….

A – Age: 24

B – Biggest Fear: It’s a toss up between the dark and spiders.

C – Favorite Color: Pink

D – Drink You Last Had: Diet Coke….it’s Monday, I needed my caffeine.

E – Everyday Routine: wake up super early, train a couple personal training clients at the Y, go to work at jenny craig, workout, make dinner / watch TV / surf the internet, journal, go to bed.

F – Favorite Food: Umm…this changes by the day but I am currently loving all the fresh fruits… berries and watermelon especially.

G – Grossest Recently Memory: While out on the boat this weekend, we tied up with a bunch of other boats and one of the guys from another boat who had recently been in a motorcycle accident and had road rash gashes all over him was swimming in the nasty water without covering them….make it worse…I accidentally bumped into one of the big open wounds!!! YUCK!!

H – Hometown: Born in Charlotte, NC, raised in Alpharetta, GA, started college in Rock Hill, SC, finished college in Raleigh, NC, currently living in Charlotte, NC.

I – Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Butter Pecan

J – Jealous of: People who can go with the flow and be totally happy without having any plan. I just don’t get it!?!?!

K – Kindest Person I know: My mom. I don’t think I have ever met someone who didn’t immediately love her. She has a heart of gold.

L – Longest Relationship: 3 years.

M – Middle Name: Elizabeth

N – Next Race: I am racing a local sprint triathlon this coming weekend.

O – One Wish: Health and Happiness always.

P – Next Purchase: A new computer. I currently have a MacBook Pro and it is on its last leg. Anyone have suggestions for my next one?

Q – Question You’re Always Asked: I have a few frequent questions…..”What should I eat?” “What kind of workout should I be doing?” and “If X body part hurts, what’s wrong with it and how do I fix it?”

R – Reason to Smile: Seeing clients hit to goals and milestones on a daily basis.

S – Siblings: I have two brothers….. one (human) younger brother named Alex and one (canine) bother named Chase.

T – Time You Woke Up: 4:45am.

U – Underwear Color: Tan.

V – Next Vacation: Cozumel, Mexico for my Ironman at the end of November!!

W – Last Workout: 60min trainer (indoor bike) ride and foam rolling.

X – Number of X-Rays: Yikes! Too many to count!

Y – Your biggest weakness: Putting others before myself. I am known for making sure everyone else is taken care of before I take care of myself.

Z – Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Play along with me in the comments and let me know a little bit about you! Have a great Monday!