Happy happy Friday y’all!!! Oh how I LOVE Fridays!!
Kev and I are planning on going to dinner and a movie tonight too. Yay!! I am very much in need of a little break and some one-on-one time with Kev.
Well, I went on a fun run this morning. Before I left, I sat down on the couch so I could put my shoes on. My sweet little dog, Jimmer got SO EXCITED to see me getting ready to go on a run. He ran around, jumped up and down and licked me….hoping I would take him with me.
Oh, and he is such a smarty pants….he doesn’t get excited at all when I go to the gym, but when I put my running shoes and visor on, HE KNOWS I’m going for a run. Too funny.
How do you say no to that cute, fluffy face??? I’m a softy, so I grabbed his leash and got him ready to go. He was in heaven!
After I leashed Jimmy up, my cute 3 year old said he wanted to come too! I told him it was freezing outside and my Jogger had a flat tire, so I couldn’t take him with me. It just about broke my heart.
He’s going through a cute stage right now where he wants to be with me EVERY place I go. You’d think it would be a bit annoying, but it’s actually quite darling. He melts my heart. I love, love, love that sweet little boy.
Anyway, after all the drama I eventually headed out on my run.
Look at my little sweetheart looking out the (very dirty) window. Such a cutie.
Oh, and this is what I had for my pre-run fuel…
So, sorry I couldn’t get this picture to focus, but these fruit leathers are the bomb! They’re made by Stretch Island and I buy them at Costco. My 3 year old was eating one of these this morning and he offered me some too. It turned out to be the perfect running food.
Anyway, I only ran 3 miles, but it was just perfect. I’m lovin’ these short runs right now. I was able to do some sprint intervals which I loved. Jimmy was a champ too.
However, poor little Jimmy doesn’t like to run on busy streets anymore. Ever since his near death experience, he’s paranoid of cars. It’s so sad, but I’m glad he learned from it!
I ran on a couple busy roads today and every time a car would drive by us, Jim would cower and stop running. Yes, it was annoying. Soooo, I’m only going to run in residential neighborhoods with Jimmy from now on.
Anyway, I really love running on Friday mornings. It’s so nice to have my workout done first thing so I can enjoy the rest of my day. LOVE it!
When I got back, I made myself a “real” breakfast. I made a bowl of oatmeal (1/3 cup) with 1/2 scoop vanilla protein, 1 tablespoon flax seed, 1 tablespoon peanut butter and blueberries. YUM! I also topped it with some hemp hearts. SO DANG GOOD.
Later on, I was craving something sweet so I decided to make this for lunch….
One peach topped with 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese and 2 small graham cracker rectangles crushed on top. OH MY WORD guys, this is so dang good! It reminded me of a peach cobbler or something. It’s only about 200 calories too.
Oh, and I’m still going strong with my 100 days without sugar (i.e. treats) challenge and I haven’t cheated at all. However, I have let myself have things like graham crackers once in a while. I figure, if I’m doing this for 100 DAYS, I need to have a few yummy things here and there. I don’t consider graham crackers to be a treat anyway.
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I always tell you guys about all the amazing classes I go to at the gym, right? Well, I went to a great class last Saturday and when I got home I decided to take some pics of my favorite moves so I could share them with you guys!!
I also want to mention that even though these are great moves, you have to WORK HARD to see results. What I mean by that is you should workout until failure….leave it all on the floor….kill it, etc.
You should also be lifting HEAVY weights! Challenge yourself, but make sure you can still use proper form so you don’t injure yourself. You should also work your body until you feel like you can’t do any more….then do a bunch more! Make sense???
With that being said….here are some great moves. Just make sure to push yourself!!
First, we did a bunch of lunges and squats with a barbell on our shoulders (you could use dumbbells too.) Afterward, we did some stomps on the side of a bench. Oh, and BTW we used a “real” bench at the gym. Mine is a little lame, but it works!
You just bring the leg closest to the bench up to a knee and then stomp it down (lightly) on the bench and then raise your other leg up to a knee. Make sense? We also held our arms out like this the entire time and MAN, my shoulders were on fire! We did a bunch of stomps on one side and then switched to the other side. It was great.
We then did some squat jumps onto the step and they are awesome.
They are pretty self-explanatory. You just start on the bench, squat down and then explode (i.e. jump) off the bench and then land in a squat straddling the bench. Then you explode back up and land in a squat on the bench. You do a bunch of these until you feel like your legs are going to fall off….then do a bunch more!!
We also did some very fun upper body and ab moves that I loved too.
We started out sitting on the bench. We did a bunch of hammer curls…
Then we did a bunch of external rotations with the dumbbells too.
You basically just keep your elbows tight to your sides and then rotate the dumbbells outward and back. They are awesome.
After this, we did some side bicep curls combined with an ab extension. Killer. Here’s a front view…
You just do a bicep curl to the side and when the weights are up, you pull your knees in. Then you lower the weights and stretch out your legs as straight as you can. Make sure to hold your abs in and keep your abs tight.
Here’s a side view so you can see it a little better…
These are killer and I’m a huge fan of combo moves. I love working two separate body parts at the same time. Woo hoo.
Well, that’s all for now. We did a bunch of other great exercises too, but these were my favs. I’ll try to share some moves from some of my other classes too.
I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend!! Eat well…work hard, but still have fun! xoxo
Cute Mel! Thanks for the exercise tippers! Love them!
Thanks Holl! I was thinking of you when I wrote this post!
Great moves! I love working with weights too. I do lunges, walking lunges, squats, shoulder preses etc. and I love the results. I also LOVE calf raises. You look fantastic!
Thanks so much! Oh, I love/hate calf raises too. They always KILL me!!
Hi Melanie!! Great moves indeed! 🙂 Hey, you need to follow me on Pinterest in order for me to add you to Foodtastic Friday. I thought I had added you. Sorry for the confusion! Thanks for visiting Foodtastic Friday!
Thanks Becky…I just followed you on Pinterest!