Detours when Exercising on the Road and Friday Faves

My first full day in Delaware started with a morning swim.

The Marriott hotel that we are staying in while mrC attends his recurrent training has an indoor pool that looks like it's the same size as any other hotel indoor pool, which according to my quick online research averages around 17 feet. Using that number in my workout (40 laps), I probably swam 400 meters in 30 minutes. It felt good to be in the pool, but I'm really missing the 25 meter length of the lap lanes at our fitness center.

I realized yesterday that there are a lot of variables that can affect a workout when traveling. Just going to swim I had to 1) adjust to the length of the pool, 2) deal with the fact that there was no changing room or toilets at the pool ---> hello changing under a towel!, and 3) time my workout so that I didn't miss the breakfast service window.

Traveling presents other obstacles I've talked about on Instagram and in previous blog posts, but what it boils down to is that you have to figure out a way to make it work. Whether you go outside or inside or stay in your hotel room, there are plenty of ways to workout when you are on the road. It might not be exactly what you planned, but you can't wait for everything to be perfect. You might be waiting forever!

It was such a pretty day that I decided to take a walk after my free breakfast of scrambled eggs and chicken sausage. There's a Wellness Walking Trail that I found when we were here last year not far from the hotel. From the hotel, the entire loop was 3.21 miles and took me about an hour.

Most of the trail loops around the hospital campus maze of parking lots and buildings, but one section passes by this small lake. It was still a bit chilly for me at 60 degrees but a great follow up to my morning cardio workout.

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I have some Friday favorites for today:

1) These athleisure shoes are so comfortable and make me feel like I'm not wearing sneakers because they are so stylish.

2) This book: Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen because so many of us struggle with food issues ---> what to eat, how much to eat, what to avoid eating, when to eat, our feelings about what we're eating/not eating...

3) Being reunited with Jane's Krazy Mixed up Salt because it just makes everything taste better, especially my eggs.

4) I'm so happy that we upgraded our GoPro because it takes amazing water photos (see above) and I don't have to mess with a waterproof case.

5) Spring. It was so nice to see signs of Spring. I know many of my US friends have been waiting a long time to see this and I forgot how much I like daffodils.

Have any Friday favorites?

Has Spring arrived where you live?

I'm linking up with Lacey and Meranda and Rachel for the Friday Five 2.0!

Five Friday Favorites

The countdown to our annual family vacation in the USA is picking up speed! The good news is that we are less than one week from our departure. The bad news is that getting things organized is distracting me a little from blogging.

To make up for a couple missed FWTFL posts, I'm breaking it down into Friday Favorites:

1) Running - I'm loving the fact that I can now add running as an official option for my strength training warm up. It's a short little run, but I can do it without intervals. I've seriously come to appreciate all the small running moments because last year I thought my running days were o-ver. So, these little runs are super exciting for me right now!

2) Supersets - Strength training days are all about these lately and I love it (I talked about them in this post). My workout feels like it takes half the time, but my muscles feel like I was working out for hours! I'm also loving that the weight I'm using on the leg extension machine is not bothering my knee. Crossing my fingers that my quad muscle is getting stronger in that leg to help my knee even more.

3) 24-Hour Fast - The goal of a one day fast is to make it at least 18 hours, but 24 hours if you can. I started my fast at 6PM on Tuesday, after I enjoyed my last meal of the day, and made it to 22 hours. I broke my fast a little after 4PM on Thursday with a snack while I was making my favorite buffalo chicken quinoa dinner. This was my longest and best fasting day so far. If you haven't tried intermittent fasting, here is a great video from Yuri Elkaim, the author of The All-Day Fat Burning Diet:





And if you've been wanting to sign up for the FASTer Way To Fat Loss program, use my link to join and start carb cycling with me! 

4) National Smoothie Day - I did not have a smoothie on Wednesday (June 21) because I was out of spinach and Greek yogurt. I did make an acai bowl today for a belated National Smoothie Day celebration. I happened to find acai super green pre-made packs at our local Just Green shop, so I whipped up a bowl for me and a bowl for mrC. Today's toppings were granola, almond butter and goji berries. I'm still working out how to get the consistency just right, but this was my best one so far.

5) MY new dress - As in designed by me! I took a dress design that I like to a tailor in Shenzhen to have a new dress made. I picked out the fabric and told her what I liked. She did all the work and I'm thrilled with the final result. This dress is all about comfort, which is 100% me.

Other OOTD details sunglasses (here), shoes (here) and purse (here)

What are you loving this week?

I'm linking up with Lacey and Meranda and Rachel for the Friday Five 2.0!

And also with Nicole for the Fit & Fashionable Friday link-up

Shred Day 11 and 12: Friday Faves

I'm on the move again! Yesterday I flew from Orlando to Cincinnati to visit my Ohio family and friends. All this running around seemed like the perfect time to do a Friday Faves post.

Before leaving Florida, I used my dad's home gym system again. (affiliate link) I'm seriously loving this thing and all the exercises you can do with it. I did a 20 minute upper body workout and the bands were super easy to adjust for shoulders, biceps, and triceps.

Spending time with my dad and stepmom in Florida. A week in their new house was seriously relaxing!

This roller table. While my mom got an adjustment at the chiropractor, I spent 10 amazing minutes getting my spine decompressed and stabilized. Wow, it was relaxing.

Lunch at Lachey's with my mom. And by Lachey I mean Nick and Drew, former boy band members from Cincinnati. They opened this neighborhood sports bar in the Over The Rhine over a year ago.

Even though it was a hot, hot day in Cincy, we had fun doing our version of the mural walking tour. The murals have been going up all over the city since 2007 and total more than 100 now.

My eats on Regular calorie and Low calorie days:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with ham, pb&j rice cakes

Lunch: spicy grilled chicken and rice

Dinner: at the airport ---.> chicken sandwich (forgot picture)

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and bacon

Lunch: at Lachey's ---> grilled Mahi Mahi and tater tots

Dinner: veggie burgers and salad

Happy Friday friends!

Friday Favorites: USA Edition

After a long day of travel, we arrived in the USA late Tuesday night. The first couple days of our return always seem a little crazy with that running on fumes feeling. It's totally worth it though. We are visiting mrC's family (crashing at my sister-in-law's house) until we go to the Cape for a family vacation and this weekend we headed to Newport.

Today I'm sharing some of my favorite things about being back in the USA.

Hanging out with LittleC. She drove in from Boston to hang out with us on her day off. It was short and sweet, but we will have her for two weeks on the Cape soon. (what I'm wearing: tank and shorts)

Roaming around the grocery to see what new things are on the shelves is super fun. We discovered some dairy free cheese that I've been wanting to try. It smelled terrible to me when I opened the package, but it tasted just like regular cheese sprinkled on my salad.

Easy to make smoothies. I make smoothies all the time in China, but nothing compares to a Ninja blender. I was also excited to use more of the new line of Bob's Red Mill protein powders. It was really good.

My sister-in-law has a pool and even though I didn't swim (just got my hair cut and colored), I love just hanging out with my feet in the water while everyone else takes a dip.

Morning workouts outside. I've been missing this a lot lately. It's just too hot in China to do outdoor workouts. This morning I fired up the iPad and did a Fitness Blender video right there on my SIL's patio. It was awesome!

Newport. One of my favorite places. It's where we got married. I love coming back here. Today we went back to City Hall to get a certified copy of our marriage certificate for our Hong Kong resident permit applications.

We ended the day on sunset watch at Castle Hill. Some much to love here: cocktails, Adirondacks, and gorgeous views. I appropraitely wore my pineapple tank since I'm in the city of hospitality. Shop my look here, here, and here.

Our weekend plans include sailing and bike riding. We shall see!

Dairy free products: yay or nay?
Can you do outdoor workouts where you live?
Does your city have an official symbol?

Friday Favorites, Fast Day Workout and Eats

Let's start off with some Friday Favorites.

1) Spending time with this group of ladies exploring places in Shenzhen.

2) Chocolate protein powder so I can finally make some shakes.

3) NSVs (non-scale victories) from the carb cycling and intermittent fasting program --> fitting into pants that were too tight 5 weeks ago, seeing cheekbones again, feeling amazing! 

4) I tried this conditioner when I was at my sister-in-laws last month and I love how soft and smooth it makes my hair feel.

5) Santo Pops. Discovered these via Instagram (it is a good thing to scroll through pictures!). I can see a lot of these in my freezer during the tropical summer here in China. (made in Shekou)

6) Summer clothes: this lightweight tee, possibly the most comfortable pair of sandals ever, these shorts, and every thing linen like this tank and this dress.

7) Sprints on the elliptical. They're hard, but they are effective. My body is responding to the challenge.

8) My balcony is turning out to be a great place to relax and enjoy meals with mrC.

9) Fitness clothes --> these racer backs, I'm all about this bra, and I'm really glad I picked up this pair of shoes to use for my indoor workouts, and this pair of yoga shorts.

10 This clutch. I just ordered one each for the girls and myself. We'll have all of our beach essentials ready to go when we get to the Cape this summer. 

Today I started my fast day with a brief plank workout. 3 sets of 10 forearm planks with rock forward and backward.

Then I met up with the hiking group to explore two parks near Xili Lake - Shenzhen Soil and Conservation Park and Lychee World. We walked about 7 miles along the walking paths surrounding the lake and through the lychee orchards. The lychees are a little late because of the cold winter we had in Shenzhen. 

Breaking fast: protein shake and pb&j rice cakes

I got hungry around 4PM, far better than some of my other fasting days.

What's on your favorites list?

Friday Favorites

It's the final Friday of February, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite things.

Food - I picked up some goodies on a recent shopping trip to Hong Kong (there are A LOT more options there). I figured munching on the Sweet Potato chips would be better than my usual choices and they're good. I love a little something sweet for dessert and these Organic Hard Candies just sounded healthier (50 calories for 3 pieces works for me!). I was hoping to find hemp hearts but could only find chia seeds...a good runner-up. And I've gotten back to making a daily smoothie. 

Fitness - I'm on day 22 of the Yoga Camp videos. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get to the end. I've been doing strength every other day (abs, arms, legs) and mixing up the workouts to prevent getting bored. My goal to walk at least 30 minutes feels really good, even without sunshine. Today I walked nearly 2.5 miles.

Fitness fashion - Loving my Aspire pants from Athleta, my new Apple Sport Watch, and the Power Y tank (with built in bra) and the design on the Enlighten Crop from Lululemon. 

Free fitness equipment - First, I love these little areas scattered throughout our apartment complex and the parks in the city. Mostly, I'm loving this leg press. Who needs a gym membership when you have this?!?

What's on your favorites list this week?

Friday Favorites: Rainbows and Rewards

At the end of a busy week, my body told me it was time for a rest day. So instead of joining the SWIC hiking group for a 3 hour walking tour, I opted to stay home and relax.

My day of rest turned into rainbows and rewards.

Here are some of my favorite moments:

A sign of peace.

Amazing NYC Rainbow today. Originating from #worldtradecenter the day before #911 pic.twitter.com/TophkKhqbr

— Ben Sturner (@leverageagency) September 10, 2015

Comfy pants and coffee.

Football on a Friday morning.

A surprise overnight trip to Macau Friday afternoon with mrC! (which is why this post is so late). We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. He took me to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then went to see The House of Dancing Water.

We had the best time!

We spent all day today sightseeing around Macau.

Do you ever have blah days turn into amazing days?
Do you like surprise plans?

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