Run, HIIT, Run

My morning workout was tough.

Whether it was the 85 degrees or the fact that I tried a juice cleanse for the first time yesterday, I don't know. It was hard, but I got through it.

Week 2 - Low Carb day 1 - the workout

Shoes, shorts, tank, water bottle

Run - Last week I did the 7 Up 7 Down speed bursts, but I don't think my knee liked it very much. Today I choose to modify the sprint workout to do my intervals: run/walk. Really I just ran until there was a steep downhill, then I walked. I ran about a mile to a spot to do the next part of the workout.

HIIT - This body weight circuit was the same as last week, but it felt harder. I'm guessing part of that was because I was doing it outside in the heat. It just seemed silly to go into the fitness center when I didn't need any of the machines. It was a struggle to get through just about every exercise and I only did 2 out of 3 rounds again.

Run - After a quick bathroom break, I ran a mile back to the apartment. It was hard. I didn't even run up the big hill and it was still hard. There were a lot of walk breaks in that mile, but it felt so good to finish.

Low Carb day - the meals

Broke fast at 11:00 - 3 scrambled eggs and pb&j rice cake

Lunch - 4 turkey rollups ---> could have eaten more calories here, but wasn't hungry

Dinner - Italian chicken breast, green beans, and salad

Snack - 2 pb&j rice cakes

I'm still struggling to eat all the calories on low carb days. I honestly thought I would be ravenous today after doing the juice cleanse yesterday, but I wasn't. I didn't even wake up hungry. Today I had over 700 calories leftover. My coach says I will gradually start eating more food, so I will trust the process.


Do you eat more or less when you are following a training plan?

Weekly Wrap - A Fitness Plan

FASTer Way To Fat Loss week one kicked off and kicked my butt. It was awesome!

I'm a sucker for a schedule, a routine, a plan. Maybe it's the former teacher in me, but I just like to know where I'm going and what I'm doing when I have a goal. I think that is why I like the carb cycling programs so much. The plan is designed for people like me who want to lose fat and gain strength. People who already work out, but need to shake things up a bit to move past a plateau.

I like following the plan. For me, there is a great mix between running, HIIT, strength, and recovery.

Here's what week 1 looked like:

Monday - Speed burst and HIIT

Tuesday - Speed burst and LISS

Wednesday - Strength training

Thursday - More strength training

Friday - Active recovery yoga

Saturday - Strength training - leg day!

Sunday - I tried a juice cleanse

Do you follow a training plan or prefer to be spontaneous with your workouts?

Linking up with Tricia and Holly for the Weekly Wrap!

I Tried a Juice Cleanse and This Is What Happened

I like food. I also like carb cycling. The fasting part of the FASTer Way To Fat Loss®️ program has always been the hard part for me, but since it is a key component (it's when your body reaches into its fat stores) I always give my best effort. I've read that a juice cleanse is an effective way to extend your fasting window (because your body stays in digestive rest), so I thought this would be my ticket to a successful fast.

We ended up at Nood, a juicery right off the Mid-Levels escalator in Central. With the help of Justin, we were able to put together a one-day cleanse and purchase from the ready made stock in the shop.

This is what happened when I tried a one day juice cleanse:

6:30 - wake up and drink my usual bottle of water. No coffee on cleanse day. I have 6 bottles to drink throughout the day, so I wait to start so that the last bottle will be due at 7PM, the end of my eating window on a normal day.

8:00 - drink another bottle of water as prep for the first juice bottle. I will continue to do this every hour between bottles.

9:00 - Bottle #1. Hydrating and anti-inflammatory effects to start the day. I was terrified that it would taste disgusting, but it wasn't bad. It was a sweet lemonade flavor and easy to drink. The fun part was the slight sting left on my lips like when I eat spicy food.

11:00 - Bottle #2 - Even better than the first and I was eager to drink it because I was feeling hungry and sleepy.  According to Nood, this was a little bottle of energy. It reminded me of the lemon grass tea mrC and I had at the spa on our trip to Phuket.

1:00 - Bottle #3. EWWW! This bottle aims to balance fruits and greens, but all I could taste was cucumber and I am not a fan. This was not easy to drink, but the ingredients make it good for post workout recovery and fighting inflammation.

3:00 - Bottle #4. Ewww again, although not as bad as bottle 3. This was another balance of fruits and greens. It looked like it would taste good (the color fooled me), but between the beetroot and cucumber, it was hard to finish.

4:00 - All I could think about was solid food. My energy was super low. I was sleepy and napping off and on. I'm pretty sure I was on a carb overdose. I broke my fast with some left-over buffalo chicken quinoa and a rice cake.

I wouldn't say I failed the juice cleanse completely because I did extend my fast and that was the point.

mrC convinced me to go for a walk and stretch our sore legs from yesterday's strength training session. Even though I got bit by a mosquito in about 30 seconds and it was warm, I'm glad I put on my comfy walking sandals and got some air.

Have you ever done a cleanse?

Recovery Yoga and A Little Fashion Friday

My muscles must be growing because they're sore. At least that is what I told myself all day.

Enter yoga.

I swear every pose in flow yoga stretches something good. The best yoga videos are from Yoga with Adriene. If you do yoga and don't know her or are thinking about starting yoga, Google her.

After my second day of strength training, my arms and shoulders were really tight. By the time I finished the yoga video I was already feeling better. It's a perfect active recovery workout for low calorie days, too. Win, win.

Afterwards, we grabbed our passports and crossed the border for some shopping at Luohu Commercial City in Shenzhen. A friend referred me to a tailor who is making me copies of my favorite dress. The fun part was searching for the right fabric in the fabric market.

Speaking of fashion, I thought I'd share some of my recent favorite finds. Some are fitness gear, some are affiliate links (meaning I make a few cents if you click and/or make a purchase - no obligation!), and some are on my wish list.

Picked up this dress at J.Crew (can't wait to wear it at the Cape), a couple of these super soft drapey tanks (on the hanger in the photo below) and put this tank on my wishlist (it's just so tropical).

And I think these espadrille slip-ons would be perfect with the dress or just about anything this summer.

I took mrC to Lululemon. One pair of workout shorts wasn't enough anymore. While he was shopping, I found this long sleeve top on sale for myself and picked up this new sports bra.

Low Calorie Day - the meals

Lunch - broke my fast around 11:30 at the Lee Yuen Restaurant. BBQ pork, fried rice, sweet & sour chicken and dim sum (for mrC).

Dinner - leftover quinoa and tuna

Snack - 4 turkey rollups

My macros were pretty good for the day, but I was hungry. I need to eat more fiber to feel full on low calorie days.

How often do you yoga?
Do you have a favorite clothing item you would copy?
Can you eat with chopsticks?

PS - I'm linking up with Nicole for the Fit & Fashionable Friday link-up 

May Miles and More Strength Training

It's funny how fast time can fly sometimes. The week, the month, the year! It's hard to believe it's already time to add up the miles for the month of May.

I'm still amazed at the number of miles I have been putting on my Mizunos considering I was almost certain my running days were over when my old, cranky knee got even crankier last year. The month of May was good to me: 7 runs (I usually go twice a week) and 23.16 miles. This is a little less than April, but at least I can blame the weather and not an injury. My runs got shorter as the days got warmer.

Heading into June, I'm not sure what my goal is for running while I'm carb cycling. There will be some sprints and hopefully I'll figure out where to work in at least one moderate run each week.

Regular Calorie Day 2 - the workout

We joined the fitness center last November when we moved to Discovery Bay, but have really only used the treadmill and elliptical. It's been one part fun and one part frustration trying to find the machines we need to use for strength workouts. Plus it gets crowded after school drop off time and I prefer working out before the rush (hint, hint ;) mrC). 

Warm up - walked to the fitness center

Strength -  Today was all about the upper body and mostly arms. My shoulder still bothers me a little on some of the exercises (reverse fly) and I discovered that I'm between 5 and 10 or 10 and 15 pounds on many of the exercises ---> what's wrong with having an 8 or 12 pound dumbbell lying around? My solution was to go heavier on the first set and lighter on the second and hope I could finish. It wasn't always pretty, but I did it. Except the pulls-up. I didn't even try those. I need the assisted pull-up machine for that and we don't have one.

Cool down - walked back to the apartment

Regular Calorie Day 2 - the meals

Broke fast at 11:30 - Bob's Red Mill pancakes and scrambled eggs with ham

Lunch - 4 turkey rollups and red grapes

Dinner - quinoa and tuna

Snack - gluten free brownie

My goal for the week has been to hit my macros and I was so excited by how well I did today keeping my fats down. I still have some work to do, but using My Fitness Pal to track what I eat makes it so easy.

How many miles did you run in May?
Do you prefer having the gym to yourself or working out with a crowd?
Do you track your macros/calories/food at all?

Back to Strength Training

It's time to do some heavy lifting.

Did you know that strength training does more for you than make you strong? It increases your metabolism, helps your body burn calories more effectively and improves bone strength.

Despite struggling out of bed with DOMS from my first two days on the FASTer Way to Fat Loss program (see posts here and here), I was pretty excited to get to work building muscles.

Regular Calorie Day 3 - the workout

Warm up - we walked to the fitness center

Weights - I'm pretty sure mrC and I learned how to use every single leg machine today. Considering my legs are feeling sore from Monday's HIIT workout, I managed better than I thought I would. My favorite machines were the adductor and abductor ---> 1) I need to seriously tone up the inside of my thighs and 2) ooh, the stretch. The rest of the workout focused on chest and shoulders using dumbbells. Some of these exercises bothered my shoulder, but I did ok. It felt good to hit the weights again.

Cool down - we walked back to the apartment

Regular Calorie Day 3 - the meals

Broke fast about 12:30 - This was later than our planned time to break fast at 11, but after our workout we headed into Central to run some errands. One stop was to our favorite juicery. Acai bowl topped with peanut butter, apple granola, and kiwi ---> perfect on a warm day!

Snack - three crab cakes from the CitySuper takeaway counter on the ferry back to Discovery Bay

Lunch - two turkey and swiss rollups, red grapes, celery and hummus

Dinner - Quinoa penne pasta with pasta sauce and green beans

Snack - I thought I would have something for dessert, but I couldn't think of anything that is a good carb and low in fat and a little sweet. Not asking for much, am I?

The goal today was to follow the IIFYM: 50% carbs, 30% fats, 20% protein. It was difficult to keep my fats down (over by 5g), but I think I did ok overall.

Do you strength train at home or the gym?

What's your favorite exercise or machine?

7 Up 7 Down Sprints plus Top 3 Reasons to Use Burst Training

When I woke up this morning, I immediately had two thoughts: I'm hungry and I'm sore! These are two messages I don't mind getting from my body. Feeling hungry tells me that my metabolism is working and being sore tells me that I had a good workout (like yesterday).

One of the key parts of the FASTer Way To Fat Loss®️ program is matching workouts to the daily eating plan. Low carb days mean burst training aka HIIT (high intensity interval training) or Tabata followed by LISS (low intensity sustained state) cardio. Burst training causes the body to move fat to be used as energy. LISS cardio prevents the fat from returning to where it came from.

Low Carb Day 2 - the workout

Warm Up - 10+ minutes walking to our workout location.

Speed Bursts - we did 7 Up 7 Down sprints ---> this is a basic pyramid workout of burst training. Using a pre-set distance (like a basketball court) sprint that length 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x, taking rest breaks between the bursts. Then work back down.

We found a straightaway on the promenade that doesn't have a lot of pedestrian traffic in the morning and eyeballed a good distance (see orange life ring in photo) for our sprints. This was a quick and dirty workout. It only lasted about 15 minutes, but it was tough. Tough, but good. I love the feeling that comes after finishing a challenging workout.

Top 3 Reasons to Try Burst Training:

1) You don't need any equipment! It can seriously be done anywhere

2) Since you are working at 90-100% effort, the workouts are short

3) Burst training depletes your glycogen which forces your body to burn fat for energy

LISS - 30 minutes of low intensity cardio. We walked back to the apartment. It wasn't quite 30 minutes (we had a hockey game to watch), but we made sure to stay in the fat burning zone.

Low Carb Day 2 - the meals

Broke my fast at 11AM - 3 scrambled eggs and two sausage patties ---> this was not too much food today. Yesterday I thought it was too much, but today I was hungry and I was thinking about the calories that I didn't eat yesterday.

Snack - Chocolate protein shake (best prices on Designer Whey protein on Amazon) and handful of peanuts. Added 1 tbsp almond butter to my shake recipe and it was so good.

Lunch - 4 turkey breast rollups and pb&j rice cake

Snack - nothing ---> I need to find a sweet low carb treat that I can eat as dessert after dinner since I'm not feeling hungry at this time of day.

Dinner - bbq chicken breast and steamed broccoli

I'm excited that I had another solid low carb day and improved my calorie intake (354 remaining).

Do you use burst training?
What are your favorite sweet snacks?

Speed, HIIT, LISS and Swim

I signed up for another carb cycling intermittent fasting program and we started today.

I say "we" because mrC is doing it too. This time he is in the men's group. Previously he followed along with what I was doing and eating. We were thrilled with the results the first time we did the program a little over a year ago and we're hoping for a repeat performance.

Some rules for the program: do the daily workouts, track your macros using My Fitness Pal and post in the Facebook group, try to be gluten free and dairy free, and have a positive attitude.

Low Carb Day 1 - the workout

Warm Up - We walked about 15 minutes from our apartment to the fitness center.

Speed Bursts - We choose the 4 Cone Drill. Since we don't have cones, we found a space outside the fitness center and made an imaginary square. Sprint, shuffle, backpedal, shuffle. Repeat for 10 minutes.

Circuits: HIIT and ABS - We did these in the fitness center. We made modifications because honestly, these workouts are tough! We could only do 20 out of 40 in and out back kicks and we only did the HIIT circuit 2 times instead of three. The fitness center does not have an ab machine, so we had to modify the ab machine set to crunches. And I could only do sets of 5, not 10, on the leg lifts.

Cool Down - (low intensity cardio) walked 15 minutes back to the apartment up the big hill.

Low Carb Day 1 - the meals

The goal on low carb days is to keep our carbs below 50 net grams but consume your normal daily calories. Net grams means carbs minus fiber.  

Broke fast at 11:00 - 3 scrambled eggs and two sausage patties. This was too much food for me.

Snack - lid full of peanuts (about 30) and chocolate protein shake made with almond milk.

Lunch - 4 turkey rollups ---> should have had more to eat here

Snack - nothing ---> should have had another protein shake

Dinner - bbq chicken breast and steamed broccoli. Delicious! 

Overall, I nailed the low carb goal, but left about 500 calories on the table. 

One thing I like about this program is the flexibility. Each day there is a workout to match what day of the carb cycle you are in. You can choose the workouts that fit your lifestyle: beginner, gym, at home. The program also implements an 8 hour eating window, but you can choose your window. Most people go 12-8, but mrC and I are doing 11-7.

Today I also had a bonus little workout - swam 6 laps. It was such a pretty day that I went to the pool while mrC went to the airport. He met me there later.

At the end of the day, it's good to feel sore, right?

How do you feel about carb cycling/intermittent fasting?

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Weekly Recap: A Taper Kind of Week

Last week feels like it was a taper type of week. I was gearing up for another carb cycling program, so it felt like I had a little bit of go ahead and eat it now and enjoy it now mentality going on.

The week wasn't a complete wash or anything. I got to work out a lot with mrC, but I felt a bit lazier than usual.

Monday - Back for another 60 minutes of Body Attack Aerobics and killed some major calories.

Tuesday - Just a little foam rolling today.

Wednesday - Took my run indoors after a serious rainstorm.

Thursday - Basically a rest day before heading off to my first Bunco Happy Hour.

Friday - We spent the day in Shenzhen visiting friends and enjoying cheap massages.

Saturday - Great early morning run and some relaxing pool time.

Sunday - Another day at the pool after watching some Dragon Boat races. This time I did some laps.  I did 5 laps in about 10 minutes. I find it hard to pace myself in the pool.

Can you taper when you're not training for anything?

Linking up with Tricia and Holly for the Weekly Wrap!

Workouts are Better Together and Life Lately

One thing I love about my relationship with mrC is his willingness to workout with me. I tease him about being a crabby runner and make fun of his squat form, but I'm completely thrilled when he wants to join me.

Today we laced up our Mizunos (I wear Wave Horizon) for our version of a long run. We eased out the door just before 8:30 which is normally scary late around here. Scary late meaning that it would already be uncomfortably warm and humid. Instead we found 75 degrees and lower humidity.

 
I love when the weekend weather cooperates for run day. When we first headed out it was cloudy, but about half way through our 4.5 miles, the sun peeked out. Normally this would make us start melting, but the weather was so nice today, it didn't bother us at all. We even had our best hill runs!

After our run, we packed up our pool bag and hung out at Club Sienna until lunch time. For a beautiful Saturday, it wasn't crowded at all while we were there. We had views of Central (and part of our running path), watched SUPers and Dragon Boaters in the water, and kept cool in the pool.

It felt good to sit back and relax after a couple of busy days.

On Thursday, I headed into Central for Bunco Happy Hour hosted by the American Women's Association. I had never played before, but it was super easy and I earned the Bunco crown three times! I also won a prize for having the most Baby Buncos. Someone told me my ladybug tee brought me good luck! I don't know, but I had a ton of fun!

On Friday, mrC and I took the ferry to Shenzhen for the day. We said farewell to some friends who are leaving China and returning to the states. We walked around our old neighborhood, Shekou, to see what has changed. Since an hour long massage is only about $25USD, we took advantage before meeting some friends for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Tomorrow is Dragon Boat Race day at Tai Park Beach here in Discovery Bay, kicking off Dragon Boat Festival which is Tuesday. We're planning to see the action up close for the first time, so check back to see how it went.

Do you run/workout with you spouse/significant other?
Have you played Bunco?
How often would you get a massage if it was only $25?






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