Low Carb-ing at the Cape

The final week of the Faster Way To Fat Loss carb cycling program kicked off just as we were also starting our family vacation at Cape Cod. Fortunately I have a very active family who likes to workout.

Week 6 Low Carb Days - the workouts

Speed Bursts - Our Cape house is about half a mile walk to the beach, so the parking lot looked like the perfect spot to do our interval sprints. The workout for both days was sprint at 100% effort for 20 seconds, recover for 40 seconds, repeat 20 times. On day 1, one of my step daughters and mrC joined me. We did half of the sprints before the lot opened to the public (we had the wrong time), so we finished them in front of  the house. On day 2, mrC and I went earlier and did all 20 sprints at the beach ---> and I missed the box jumps part of the workout again. 

HIIT - Back at the house, we did the second part of the low carb day workouts. Day 1 was a leg workout: squats, lunges, step-ups and scissor jumps (I did jumps squats instead). Day 2 was an ab circuit: Russian twists, bicycles, leg lifts.

Low Intensity Cool Down - bike rides ---> it's nice to take the bikes for a spin and not have to worry about giant hills.

Week 6 Low Days - the meals

Monday - broke fast around 12: scrambled eggs with ham, one PB&J rice cake, turkey and Swiss rollups with a salad for lunch and chicken and green beans for dinner.

Tuesday - broke fast around 11:30: scrambled eggs with ham and two PB&J rices cakes (I was low on calories the day before) and then it was 4th of July celebration time. Chips and salsa followed by a cookout with cheeseburgers, baked, beans, and corn on the cob.

After dinner we walked to the beach to continue the celebration with a fun little Sparkler Party. 

Did you workout and celebrate?

5 Days Later - from the Cape

Hello from Cape Cod!

OOTD: hat (here), swim coverup (Athleta), flip-flops (here)

We left Hong Kong at 2:30 PM on Thursday and made it to Hartford late, late, late Thursday night/Friday morning - 1 AM EST. After getting about three hours sleep at the hotel, we picked up our rental car, loaded up our Cape house supplies, had dinner with the in-laws and then hit the road. We crossed the Bourne Bridge traffic and hassle free around 9:30 PM Friday night.

In my last blog post, I shared my low carb days workouts and meals ---> which were awesome, by the way. Here's a brief wrap of how week 5 came to an end.

The workouts 

Wednesday - at home workout because I spent the morning getting my hair colored and highlighted.

Thursday - at home workout because I had to finish packing before we left for the airport.

Friday - My workout consisted of digging through our storage unit and loading up the car with our Cape Cod supplies, including my brand new Ninja blender (Amazon link).

Saturday - the girls arrived at the Cape House bright and early, so we spent most of the day just catching up and soaking up their presence. We walked to the beach for a quick dip before dinner.

Sunday - took another easy day to recover from travel which included another trip to the beach.

The meals

Wednesday - I honestly can't remember what I ate.

Thursday (On the airplane) - I packed a GF PB&J sandwich, banana, grapes, and some chips for my dinner and then had the scrambled eggs meal for breakfast.

Friday - we grabbed a burger from a local restaurant for lunch and joined mrC's family for some GF pizza before starting our road trip.

Saturday - our bodies were still playing catch-up to our time zone hopping, but I managed some turkey and Swiss roll ups with PB&J apple cinnamon rice cakes for lunch. For dinner we fired up the grill ---> chicken breast, shrimp skewers and burgers with green beans.

The kids introduced us to a new game 😳

Sunday - (breakfast) scrambled eggs with ham and 2 PB&J rice cakes, (lunch) turkey and Swiss rollups, watermelon, and a vanilla Vega protein (great price on Amazon) smoothie, and (dinner) grilled cheeseburger, baked beans, and corn on the cob.

Smoothie in a red solo cup!

Beverages - We may have consumed some extra calories, but how can anyone resist a homemade strawberry daiquiri made by the kids?

Tomorrow is the start of the final week of FASTer Way to Fat Loss®. I'm hoping to be on top of my workouts and nutrition while we are vacationing. It will be hard, but I think I will have some extra support from the girls.

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I'm linking up with Tricia and Holly for the Weekly Wrap!

Where are you spending your 4th of July?
Ever played Cards Against Humanity?

Last Day at the Cape & Boardwalk Beach

Yesterday we enjoyed our final full day on the Cape.

After a morning workout that involved a RUN, we had some breakfast and then headed to Old Silver  Beach.

Another test run success. One step at a time. #capecod #falmouth #easyrun #running #athletacontest #mymizuno #sweatybands #flystyle #sweatpink #fitfluential

A photo posted by AmyC (@runningescapade) on Aug 12, 2016 at 7:03am PDT

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We headed back to the house for lunch and to cheer on the US women's soccer team. We were so sad that they lost, so to distract ourselves we decided to explore a little more of the Cape and headed to Sandwich to check out Sandwich Boardwalk and Town Beach.

I read about the marsh lands, lazy river, and most importantly, the popular plank boardwalk, but nothing compares to seeing such unique scenery in person.

We loved walking the boardwalk and reading the messages on the planks. This was my favorite.

It was later in the afternoon when we arrived (low tide meant no one was jumping off the boardwalk) and the beach looked a bit deserted, but it seemed to go on and on. Plenty of room for everyone.

We loved the rocks. Rocks add character to a beach and make taking walks more fun.

mrC dipped his toes in the water and thought it was colder than Old Silver Beach even though it is on the bayside of the Cape.

Like my look? Shop here! 

Oh, and we received our family photo session album and we are thrilled with how they turned out. Here are some of my favorites. I highly recommend Stacey Hedman | Photography.

Today we are returning to mrC's hometown for a brief visit before we drive to Montreal tomorrow for his work. I will be looking for adventures while I'm in Canada with him. Send me your suggestions!

5 Workout Scenes from the Cape

My off-Cape family and friends have been melting in the heat and humidity, but we've been spoiled here on the Cape. The weather has been pretty much perfect for outdoor workouts during our two week stay.

In addition to some group activities, we kept up with our regular daily workouts making use of what was around us.

There was lots of morning yoga in the side yard.

Biking on the bike trail.

Slow sprints in the 'hood.

Weight training in the backyard.

Slow running in the 'hood.

It's going to be hard to leave in the morning, but we have more adventures coming our way!

How I Mix Workouts with Fun on Vacation

If you know me at all, you know that I like to workout.

Not everyone is into fitness, so I try to find things to do that others will enjoy but that will give me my often much-needed workout.

There are plenty of fun activities to do in Falmouth. Believe me, I have a list of favorites that gets longer every time I'm here. But I love to try new things, too.

Last year I tried SUP Yoga for the first time with my friend Danielle and loved it. She's working on her Masters Degree this summer, so she put me in touch with her friend Amy of Peace Love SUP. I was thrilled that the whole family wanted to join me. Our group of six met Amy at Great Pond for a fun afternoon session on the water.

The girls and I had a challenging SUP Yoga workout. I'd love to say that I conquered crow pose on the board, but this is really just Amy catching my one second hold. She did not catch when I fell off the board trying to do side angle pose.

The boys kept to SUP even though we tried to talk then into joining us for some yoga.



W had a great experience with Amy on the SUP boards and several of us were even a little sore the next day.

A new activity for us this year was Bottom Fishing with Patriot Party Boats. Bottom Fishing pretty much guarantees that everyone will catch a fish because they park the boat on top of schools of fish.

Even though I just went along to watch and cheer on the group, I ended up giving fishing a try. It's a lot of work bringing a fish to the surface! I'm pretty sure you can call it a workout, especially if you catch a lot of fish. I think littleC caught eight!

My new found enjoyment of hiking led me to The Knob on Quissett Bay Harbor near Woods Hole. The Knob is really a sanctuary that was donated to the people by Cornelia Carey. She wanted people to enjoy the woods, the birds, and the sea.

There are two walking trails to get to the area known as The Knob lookout. The main trail is well maintained, wide, and takes you straight to the end. We took the Harbor Cliff trail which overlooks the inner harbor in spots but is narrow and not as maintained.

Off the main trail is also access to Crescent Beach on Buzzards Bay. Many people were making a day of it, but we just enjoyed a quick dip to cool off.

One of our favorite activities in Falmouth is the Shining Sea Bike Trail. The trail extends just over 10.5 miles from North Falmouth to Woods Hole. There are several trail heads so you can jump on and off at different places.

Of course there is always swimming at Old Silver Beach. We like to walk the .50 mile there and then spend a couple of hours in and out of the water. There's also a water sports rental shop right on the beach.

Do you like to workout when you're on vacation?
How do you get others to workout with you?

A Little Yoga, Biking, and Family Fun

Being the first one up has its perks. I can sneak out to the yard and create my own little yoga space. with just an ordinary beach towel.

I was feeling a little stiff today, so I found a Yoga with Adrienne video to play on my iPad. Her videos are some of my favorites because she makes it so easy to follow the flow.

The girls and mrC went on a three mile run. I wanted to join them so badly (stupid knee), but instead I jumped on the bike. I love my Priority bike. I feel 100% like it just shouts I'M A PERSON ON VACATION! 

Then I enjoyed a post workout smoothie.

We spent the afternoon staying cozy inside waiting and hoping for the gray, rainy clouds to pass because we had a family beach photo session scheduled. Everything worked out perfectly and we had so much fun with Stacey from Stacey Hedman | Photography. I can't wait to see the photos!

Afterwards we headed to downtown Falmouth for some dinner and walking around. 

Red sky at night, sailer's delight.

The weather is already looking fabulous for our adventures today!

Things I love About Monday

Do you love being given gifts first thing in the morning? Me too! Today mrC and I received our birthday gifts from the kids. In addition to some dry shampoo and lip gloss, I love my bracelet from Kiel James Patrick.

After running some errands with the girls, mrC, oldestC and I went on a bike ride. We had to get out and enjoy the blue sky. I love being active together.

We explored the area of New Silver Beach. I love riding through Cape neighborhoods and looking at all the beautiful homes. They have some prime swimming areas with great views.

We rode all the way to the end of Bay Shore Drive and enjoyed the view of Wild Harbor. I love capturing moments like this.

After dinner we walked to our beach, Old Silver Beach, to catch the sunset. It was a little cloudy, but there were still amazing colors in the sky. I love this part of being at the Cape.

Always multitasking, littleC gave me a quick lesson on using SnapChat. I love my time with the kids.

What did you love about your Monday?

Funny Things During a Workout, Carb Cycling Round 2 and GIVEAWAY ALERTS!

I've got some really great giveaway alerts for you at the end of this post that you don't want to miss out on!

But first, I woke up SUPER early this morning (5 AM!) and since I couldn't fall back to sleep I made some coffee to take out on the back deck. It was a nice until it started raining.

mrC did not have the same problem. I had to wake him up for church. We had big plans to walk there (it's only about .25 mile from the house), but the rain... Side note: I love, love my new skirt. 

After church we decided to do an indoor workout for carb cycling feast day.  I like Jillian Michaels workout videos because she takes you through a dynamic warm up and static cool down.

I'm always looking for new ways to modify cardio exercises to keep my knee happy. JM showed me that squat punches is a great option.

Three funny things commonly happen when I workout with mrC:

1) he closes his eyes during intervals  - I look over during lunges and it looks like he's sleeping!

2) he high fives after each circuit - he's a happy guy ;)

3) when he bangs into something (like today he sort of punched the drop ceiling), he never reacts - I nearly jump out of my skin at the noise, look over, and he's just jumping away. It's like he's trying to say, wasn't me. Haha.

Speaking of carb cycling, today was also the last day of round 2 which means we took measurements. Full disclosure, I was not as faithful to the eating plan as I was during round 1. I could blame all the travel, but it really came down to the fact that I let myself cheat and cheat and cheat.

THE RESULTS: My weight stayed the same but I gained (eek) 4.75 inches!

+.50 bust
+.25 hips
0 waist
+1.5 thighs
+1.5 calves
+1.5 biceps

mrC says gaining in some places (like my biceps) is a good thing. I agree, although half heartedly, because I really wanted to lose another 4 pounds and slim down my hips and thighs.

FINAL THOUGHTS: You get out what you put in. I have signed up for a 30 Day Shred and I'm making a promise to myself to stick to the plan.

The sun came out after lunchtime, so we walked to the beach to enjoy a little sun, sand and waves.  I highly recommend a beach day if you are feeling bummed.

Before I sign off, I want to share links to GIVEAWAYS going on now. There have been so many lately that I couldn't keep them to myself.

Win a Bib to the Falmouth Road Race from Carrots n Cake 

Live Free and Run Giveaway: TWO entries to a ZOOMA Run Event (for you and a friend)

Win a pair of compression socks from The Fit Fork

Lean, Clean, and Brie is hosting a Bob's Red Mill Giveaway

Win IdealFit Protein Powder from The Bikini Experiment