Speed Burst Days

Low carb day in the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® means speed bursts and speed bursts are my favorite workout right now. Probably because I'm a cardio girl. I tend to gravitate more toward the workouts that are sweaty and get the heart rate going.

Week 5 Low Carb Day 1 - the workout

Speed Burst - I chose to take a Bodystep class again because I can get high intensity, intervals, and all the leg exercises like squats, lunges, step ups, and all kinds of jumps. Since there are typically 12 tracks in a class, the warm-up and cool-down are included. This class kicked my butt. Literally. I could feel myself struggling through some of the peak tracks, but later in the day I completely fell off the struggle bus and landed in bed. I think I was just dehydrated, but I felt like garbage.

Low Carb Day 1 - the meals

broke fast around noon - 3 scrambled eggs with ham, 2 PB&J rice cakes

lunch - leftover Italian chicken breast and greens beans

dinner - leftover Italian chicken breast and greens beans

snacks - handful of peanuts and half a protein bar

Low carb day 2 - the workout

Warm up - I walked about 10 minutes to the beach

Speed Burst - I chose sprint intervals for a private little Track Party-like workout. The workout was sprint at 100% effort for 20 seconds (about 100 meters) and recover for 40 (I walk around for this) seconds. Repeat 18 times. I was worried that it was going to rain, but it only sprinkled a little in the beginning. I can tell that my endurance has improved from the first set of sprints, because I didn't start to feel the leg wobble until the last 4 or 5 sprints.

AB circuit - I totally meant to do this when I got back to the apartment, but I completely forgot until now as I write this post. I was supposed to do: russian twists, bicycles, crunches and leg lifts. To my credit, I did most of these or similar in Bodystep. So I can say that I did them early, haha!

LISS - Walked home up the hill ---> kept my heart rate in the fat burning zone.

Low carb day 2 - the meals

broke fast at 11:00 - 3 scrambled eggs with ham, 2 PB&J rice cakes

lunch - wasn't hungry today and I had a little getting ready for vacation fun at the nail salon 👇🏻

PS - wearing my Oofos to the salon = happy legs

dinner - leftover Italian chicken breast, green beans and salad

snack - mini chocolate bar, celery and hummus


Have you ever experienced post-workout dehydration symptoms?

Treadmill Tuesday - Sprint Workout

Running sprints on the treadmill is not my first choice, but sometimes ya gotta do, what ya gotta do. So I laced up my Wave Sky and headed to the fitness center determined not to let the continued rainy weather stop my planned workout.

Week 4 low carb day 2 - the FWTFL workout 

Warm up - It was raining and we wanted to get to the fitness center before the morning rush, so we took the bus. Instead, I walked on the treadmill for 5 minutes.

Speed bursts - Today I chose to do the interval sprints even though I was going to have to do them on the treadmill (my fear of slipping and hurting my knee still keeps me from running outside in the rain). The workout was 20 seconds run, 40 seconds recover. Repeat 16 times. 

This was my first attempt at sprints on the treadmill since my partial meniscectomy, so I had to play around with the speed a little. I knew my recovery could be around 8km/hr because that is my current easy run speed and I was hoping to run instead of walk through the recovery. I bumped my speed up to 10 - 10.3 range on the sprints and it felt good. I might have been able to go faster, but I like to test how my knee will respond to new things slowly. I completed all 16 sprints this way and am thrilled that my knee handled the treadmill sprints. 

The treadmill has the option to create your own interval workout, but the minimum time is 1 minute. I thought it was going to be hard to manually change the speed, but since I use my interval app I get a 5 second voice countdown alert and that made it much easier. **People have asked which app I use. It's this one on iTunes. I'm happy to share because it took me awhile to find one that was easy to set up and let me run without looking at a timer. I use bluetooth to connect to my Jabra wireless earbuds (which are $30 off on Amazon), but the app also connects to my Apple Watch which alerts me by vibrating**

Ab circuit - A round of ab bicycles, crunches and leg lifts with some planking tossed in at the end.

Cool down - It wasn't raining, so we were able to enjoy the walk back to the apartment.

mrC has been doing the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® Men's Program. Our workouts are not the same, but similar enough that we can go to the fitness center together. It definitely makes carb cycling easier to have him doing it with me and I love that he has gender specific workouts. During past rounds of carb cycling, he just modified the workouts with more weight. He had major success results, but I think this time it will be even better.

Low carb day 2 - the meals

Broke fast at 11:30 - 3 scrambled eggs with ham and one PB&J rice cake

Lunch - 3 turkey roll ups, green beans and some peanuts

Dinner - leftover cheesy chicken and veggie rice

Snack - protein bar

 Do you run sprints on the treadmill?

Intervals and Body Weight Workouts I Like

Today marks the start of week 3 of carb cycling and I'm feeling great. My biggest NSV (non-scale victory) so far has been adding in runs and upping my weight.

We had one more pleasant morning for an outdoor FASTer Way to Fat Loss® workout before Typhoon Merbok started moving into the Hong Kong region. Today was intervals day.

Week 3 Low Carb Day - the workout

Warm up - we walked to the promenade ---> a perfect spot for an outdoor workout

Speed Bursts - One thing I like about this program is the workout options. Today there were three choices for speed bursts. I've done 7 Up 7 Down. They were tough. Stadium Steps sounded like an awesome challenge, but I'm not sure where I could do them (must look into that). Today, since the first time went so well, it was sprint intervals again. Sprint 100% effort for 20 seconds, rest for 40 seconds. Repeat 14 times (2 more than last time). In the sun and the heat, these are sweat makers. Even with the two extra today, they went pretty fast. Using an interval app that links to my Apple sport watch makes it super easy to do them. So do my new Wave Sky. Seriously loving these shoes so far.

HIIT circuit - this body weight leg workout was tough after sprints but easy to do outside. Air squats, lunges, step ups and squat jumps. Rest and repeat. I only did one round instead of two because I was so hot and I had to pee.

I love body weight workouts. They are so versatile and there are so many online videos to help make it easier to do them when you can't get to the gym, or a fitness class, or when you are traveling. Here are some of my favorite workouts:

from Fitness Blender

from PopSugar Fitness

from Amanda Miller

Cool down - nice slow walk up the hill to the coolest spot in Discovery Bay.
Working out is definitely a team effort in this family. For both of us, having a workout partner is motivating and certainly more fun!

Low carb day - the meals
Broke fast about 11:00 - 3 scrambled eggs with ham and 3 sausage links with a tsp of maple syrup
Lunch - Almond chocolate protein shake (I use Designer Whey - available on Amazon), 1 can of tuna with tbsp of mayo, and PB&J rice cake

Dinner - beef burger (no bun) and green beans
Snack - peanuts
Then we sat back and waited for the typhoon. When we lived in China, getting information about the weather conditions seemed harder. We received alerts on our phone all day and from the management of our apartment building.

Do you like to run stairs?

Why My Legs Felt Like Jello

I saw this tank on my Instagram feed (it's from Sarah Marie Design Studio) and thought it was a perfect fit to this morning's workout. Today we were back to sprinting.

The beauty behind sprints is turning our bodies into fat burning machines so that long after our workout is over, we are still burning calories. Even while I'm sitting poolside, my body is still in fat burning mode. Who doesn't love that idea?

Week 2 Low Carb Day 2 - the workout

Warm up - walked to the promenade for the speed burst workout

Speed Bursts - Today I choose intervals. Sprint at 100% effort for 20 seconds (about 100 meters), then 40 seconds recovery. Repeat 12 times. I loved this workout! During my first rounds of carb cycling, I did all of my sprints on the elliptical because my knee was not cooperating back then. When I did the Shred program, I did some run/walk intervals and called them sprints. Now I'm loving that I can run them and the knee is responding ok with it. Each sprint got a little harder than the last until by the end, my legs were feeling like jello.

For fun, I brought along the GoPro Hero 4 and took a video of the sprint workout. Here's a collection of picture grabs. While we did our sprints, the weather changed completely. It was overcast and even sprinkled a bit at the start, but by the end the sun was shining and we were starting to melt.

AB Circuit - bicycles, crunches and leg lifts on the captain's chair ---> these are tough.

Cool down - walked home via the big hill to stay in the fat burning zone for low intensity cardio.

Remember that mention of being poolside? I really spent most of my 90 minutes in the water because it was so hot. Living easy and still burning fat ;)

Low carb day 2 - the meals

Broke fast at about noon - 3 scrambled eggs with ham, sausage links, and pb&j rice cake

Lunch - 4 turkey rollups and peanuts

Snack - chocolate protein shake (Designer Whey protein, almond butter, almond milk)

Dinner - leftover Italian chicken, steamed broccoli, and salad


If you could put your favorite motto on a tank, what would it say?

Linking-up with Patty, Erika, and Marcia for Tuesdays on the Run! 

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Holiday Fitness and other Randomness

I love this time of year! Everyone is so festive and there are lights and decorations all around. We even manage to put up a tree here in Hong Kong. It's that whole what you can way of decorating!

The week leading up to the big day is always filled with hustle and bustle, so I signed up for the 12 Days of "Fit-mas" presented by Fit Mom Strong Mom (which totally looked like a great program) and then promptly failed to participate. It was a combo of being busy with other activities, being tired, being lazy...you've heard me say all this before.

I was ACTIVE though. Here's a quick look at last week's highlights:

Monday - Mountain Monday - Lookout Point Loop hike in my new North Face Litewave Explore hiking shoes. I've worn them a couple of times now and they do the trick, but on longer hikes I might need a gel insert.

Tuesday - Hong Kong Trail hike with my friends from SWIC (recap here). One of my favorite parts of hiking is looking back to see where we started. In the photo below, our starting point was back by the large apartment buildings and we weren't even halfway yet.

Wednesday - We took a Christmas lights walk around the neighborhood after dinner.

Thursday - IMI treatment for my pesky heel ---> but the osteopath is working wonders and thinks yoga is in my future. That led me to sign up for the 31 Day Yoga Revolution hosted by Yoga with Adriene. I love, love, love her challenges. It starts January 1. You can join here.

Friday - Bodypump. I really need to learn my body's weight limits. I was really sore from this class.

Saturday - Christmas Eve sprint workout at the fitness center. After Mass and dinner in Central we enjoyed as much of Winterfest as we could.

Sunday - Took my new bike on 2 mile Christmas Day ride to the grocery. It's a really nice bike! Then I made some more protein bars because I already ate the first batch!

Today - Another Mountain Monday hike on Lookout Point Loop. Tonight we are meeting mrC's friend, who is in Hong Kong for work, for dinner.

Have you ever signed up for something and then completely dropped the ball?
Do you go Christmas light peeping?
Any holiday workouts for you?

The Struggle Is Real: 5 Ways to Overcome Low Motivation

I have goals for myself. Lots of them.

EAT HEALTHY

DO MY WORKOUTS

STRETCH/FOAM ROLL

PLANK EVERYDAY

Simple Hydration bottle on sale here!

My goals might sound familiar to you. And, maybe you struggle to stay motivated too. It's not easy to do everything we want and deal with every day life at the same time. Sometimes I'm too busy. Other times I'm tired. Many times I'm just lazy. The struggle is real.

Here are five things I do to stay on track:

Join challenges - I LOVE challenges! I'm far better at completing my planks or doing yoga if I sign up for a challenge, especially one that is on social media. When I see other people posting about the challenge, it motivates me not to skip the day. I'm never too tired or busy to scroll my Instagram ;)

Plan ahead - food prep saves me from making bad food choices especially when I'm too tired to cook. If I have healthy snack choices at my finger tips, I'm less likely to grab a bag a chips and devour them. Smart Popcorn is my biggest weakness!

Schedule workouts - I literally write it on the calendar. If I plan my workouts like an appointment, chances are greater that I will follow through. I used to schedule running meet ups, now I plan out hikes, SurfSet, sprints.

Do it first - As soon as I wake up, I put on my workout clothes and then I workout before I do anything else. Sometimes my workout is in the living room and sometimes I'm waiting for the gym to open. I'm just more likely to do my workout in the morning.

Reward myself! - Yes! Bribery still works at 45, haha. Seriously though, having something to look forward to helps sometimes. I keep a WISHLIST board on Pinterest so that I can pick something out if I reach my goal.

Today's Workout:

Once again I headed out to the fitness center as soon as it was open and I did another sprint workout on the elliptical.

Sprints - 15x, 20 seconds work, 20 seconds recover ---> ready to bump up my sets to 20!
Planks - 2x, 30 seconds each forearm, right and left sides
Bridges - 30 second hold, 20 single leg lifts x2, 30 second hold

Weekend mornings at the fitness center are peaceful. There are only a couple other people there compared to weekday mornings when almost every machine is taken.

On my way to the fitness center, I made a drop in the letter box. I love mailing Christmas cards. Here in Discovery Bay it is so much easier to send and get mail (hint, hint!!). I don't usually get them out this early, but they have a long way to go to the USA!

Sidenote - another thing I struggle with living here is getting my groceries home (when mrC is working). There's no loading up the car and pulling into the garage anymore. There is a delivery service, like in China, but I haven't set it up yet. So, that means carrying the bag(s). Today I found myself doing some elevator yoga to balance the weight of the bag.

What keeps you motivated?
When do you mail your cards?
Do you use a grocery delivery service?

Our Hong Kong Apartment + A Workout

I'm getting used to living in Hong Kong day by day.

We are settling into our nice, little Seaview apartment and the cleaning, decorating, endless grasping to get things just right is winding down, finally. I'm pretty sure that I spent the first two weeks walking around with my hands full of things that needed a home and mumbling, this place is so small! 

The apartment was originally unfurnished (more common in HK than Shenzhen), but the owner agreed to furnish it for us. Little by little we have blended our few belongings with her choices and then picked out other items to complement and help us get organized.

The main living space is my favorite because it's filled with all my favorite comfort colors (love my blue pillows). It may be small, but the amazing view of Discovery Bay makes it feel much bigger.

It's been challenging at times to figure out how to make small spaces work for us, but it makes me happy to see that we can. I just have to teach mrC to watch where he walks so he doesn't break any toes! This is by far my favorite duvet cover.

We have an awesome window BED in the second bedroom which saves the floor space to be used as the office. It'll be fun when our first guest arrives and sees the sleeping arrangement with a view from the 20th floor.

The kitchen is actually pretty spacious. We even have a dishwasher! There's tons of storage, just not a lot of counter space. It's been interesting when mrC and I try cooking together.

It's still a work in progress, but I'm happy with how it looks.

Today's workout:

I think I was the third person to arrive at the fitness center after it opened this morning. I went early because it looked like it was going to be a rainy day and I wanted to walk there and back without getting rained on. Success!

Sprints: 15 sets, 20 seconds work, 20 seconds recover
Planks: 2 sets, 30 seconds each forearm and both sides.
Bridges: 2 sets singles leg lifts both sides

Three things that made this workout better:

1) This interval app. I love the versatility that it offers. I created an interval program for my sprints and another for my plank workout. All I have to do is push start and then the app talks me through the workout.

2) These wireless earbuds. They are so easy to link to my phone and then I can hear my music and the interval app commands to work or rest and I'm not bothering anyone else in the gym.

3) This view. Seriously, that is the view from the elliptical when I look to the right (the new ellipticals have a TV attached). I'll show you the view to the left another day ;)

Have you ever rented a furnished apartment/house?

Would you sleep on a window bed?

What's your workout today?

Catching Up from Ohio

Wow!

Time has flown by since my last blog post.

mrC finished his work in Connecticut and we wrapped up our stay in New England with a weekend visit to the girls in Portsmouth, NH.

The weather was great on Saturday for a day of hiking and exploring in Maine with D. We hiked Mount Agamenticus in Ogunquit and had lunch (we brown-bagged yummy sandwiches from Backyard Coffeehouse and Eatery off the main street) at the summit. We stopped to view Cape Neddick Lighthouse and then browsed Stonewall Kitchen in York. Later, back in Portsmouth, we met up with G for dinner. After brunch at Popovers on Sunday, we escaped the rain at the movie theater and watched Girl on the Train (just as good as the book!) and then went out for lunch before saying goodbye to the girls.

We spent one more evening with Booney and mrC's family before flying to Ohio for one more week of work for mrC.

The great thing about mrC working in Ohio is that we can see my family while we are here (we really are blessed that he gets to work in both places when we return to the US). We came to Ohio a couple of days early and spent time in Cincinnati at my mom's. We met up with my aunt at Howl at the Moon downtown and had a blast bowling after a great meal. While mrC works in Columbus, we get to visit with the BFF! We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (little O's choice) and then met up for a free yoga session at the Athleta store the next morning.

After sticking to low intensity workouts (or no workouts 😳) for a couple of weeks, it feels good to use the fitness room here at the hotel for some HIIT cardio on the elliptical and cool down walks on the treadmill. I was feeling a little unmotivated doing the same at-home workouts and getting back on the elliptical is helping bring back my workout HAPPY.

Sprint Workout ---> 10 minute warm up on elliptical, 15 sprints: 20:20 seconds intervals, and 30 minute cool down on treadmill.

The fitness room at the Residence Inn Easton is TINY compared to what we had in Montreal, but it will do the trick while we are here. The room is steps away from the dining room making it super easy to grab some breakfast to-go.

It's a bit rainy here today, but the weekend promises to be beautiful and everything we love: cool temps and sunny, blue skies. It will be our last weekend in the US for about 6 months, so we are trying to soak up everything fall before we leave on Sunday morning.

Do you ever get in a fitness rut and feel unmotivated? How do you break out?
Tell me something you've been up to lately!

Shred Day 29 & 30: Better Late Than Never!

Once again, the last couple of days have been a whirlwind and my blogging fell behind. The 30 Day Shred Program has ended and I will share my results in a future post, but today I'm just going to recap the last couple of days.

Day 29: low carb

I was all set to do my low carb day sprints on the elliptical (since I hd run the day before), but I woke up feeling not-so-great. After having a little breakfast with mrC, I ended up dozing off and on most of the day and staying close to the bathroom. I must have had some sort of stomach bug, but by late afternoon, I started to feel better.

WIA:

Day 30: low carb day

My stomach was feeling better, but my knee was feeling funny ---> this is not a pain, just a feeling of pressure that freaks me out because it feels like it might give out. I stretched out really good and decided to try to run the sprint workout with mrC. I was able to do about 10 of the 25 sprints (which was about a mile) before I called it quits. My knee was just feeling too weird.

Wrapping up in Montreal by the numbers: 30 day stay in Montreal, 5.5 hours in the car driving to Portsmouth, NH, 2 stops, 1 roadside yoga session to help sway some car sickness.

Best cure for car sickness? Seeing the girls! Both have new living spaces and we got the tour, dinner on the water and then youngestC had a soccer game on campus.

WIA:

Yesterday:

After a late night watching soccer and visiting youngestC's new dorm apartment, all I wanted to do was sleep in. I did visit the fitness center before we left and was thrilled to find a foam roller which I promptly used (and got a little back crack).

We did some errands in New Hampshire while making our way back to Springfield where we will be staying while mrC does some more work. I popped into Payless while he did some paperwork and found a HUGE sale. These cute sandals were only $8. Of course I had to wear them in the car for the remainder of our drive.

WIA:

We finally made it to Springfield around 8PM. After a quick visit with mrC's parents, we unloaded at his sister's house, our temporary home for the next few weeks.


How do you know when to bail on a run/workout?
Do you get carsick? Best non-medicine remedy?