3 Awesome Yoga Poses and Breaking Fast

Morning yoga. My muscles love an easy stretch session the day after a good workout.

There are lots of traditional (common) poses that feel good: downward facing dog, lunge pose, pigeon pose, even child's pose. 

Here are 3 poses that feel REALLY good to me in the morning, especially after a full body workout the day before:

Supine spinal twist: this feels so good after a leg and arm workout. It really opens up the chest muscles and stretches the glutes.

Revolved fan: another pose that feels good all over plus stretches another large leg muscle group. Those hamstrings.

One legged arcing dog: This pose can feel awkward, but I love the stretch I get in my quads and hip flexors. 

As a distraction, I walked to the chiropractor. In addition to getting an adjustment (including on my knee), I also picked up a new foam roller. My old one was deformed which is the number one sign it needs replaced.

More distractions = a stop at a flower market on the way back to the apartment.

What I ate on fast day

Breakfast: water, coffee

Lunch: water and herbal tea

Breaking Fast (aka dinner): leftover quinoa and tuna, Fuji apple, and pb banana protein bar

I'm so excited that I completed my fast this time and I wasn't miserable. It did help that a friend stopped by and stayed longer than expected right before time to eat. 

Macros: I think I did a good job selecting my break fast meal. Just over 300 calories and very filling!

What's your favorite non-traditional yoga pose?

If you fast, what is your favorite meal to eat when you break it?

Ultimate Plank Challenge and Feast Day

I was awake extra, extra early today. After failing to fall back asleep, I decided to knock out my workout so that feast day could commence.

Last night I came across the #Ultimateplankchallenge and you know how I love a daily challenge. So this morning I jumped in and completed days 1-3: timed plank, 3x30 second forearm planks, and 3x15 crunches. 

The feast day workout had to be modified so I could give my knee a rest. I was able to complete the arm circuit using lower reps (I can't do 100 push-ups!!), but I opted for a leg workout without any squats or lunges. How? I used this routine from Amanda Miller and added mountain climbers at the end. Then I took my cool down outside. They're working on the boardwalk, so I walked in the courtyard of our apartment complex.

I worked on the active trigger points again and brought out my secret weapon. The tennis ball is small, but it can find knots in places that the foam roller and stick can't get to. Warning: if you've never used a tennis ball to roll out knots, it hurts. Just a heads up. 

My knee is better, but still not a happy camper. It's as if my knee cap is not tracking properly. This happened in the past and it turned out to be my IT band, so that's where I went with the tennis ball. There was definitely some knotting/tender spots in there, so I'm hoping this will be the answer.

What I ate on feast day #2

Breakfast: protein pancakes, watermelon, and coffee

These pancakes are awesome, but actually have twice as much protein as carbs. I think that defeats the purpose of carb loading on feast day. They were really good though.

Lunch: quinoa and tuna, grapes, pb banana protein bar, water

Left out the dairy from my regular recipe (see it here) and it wasn't bad. I was stuffed!

Snacks: (not pictured) more watermelon, some Baked Lays chips

Dinner: leftover quinoa and tuna, water, pb banana protein bar

I was 100% NOT HUNGRY, but knowing how bad I felt on the last fast day, I made myself eat.

Macros: 

Admittedly proud of my eating work today. I was still 500 calories under the goal of eating 50% more than regular calorie days, but my carbs were better than last feast day.

Let the fasting begin!!

Fitness Center Rants, Sprints and Low Carb Day Eats

First, some fitness center rants:

• locker rooms should not be hot. It's not fun to start sweating while I'm toweling off after my shower. 
• Patrons should clean up after themselves. Throw away your water bottle, put your towel in the basket.
• Don't hog the benches in the locker room. I don't know why more people can't share.

Rant over.

I love that I can walk to the fitness center. It's the best way to warmup. Today we were back to sprints. 20 seconds on and 40 seconds to recover for 10 minutes. It was awesomely HARD. I'm pretty sure when I did these the first low carb day, my elliptical was not working properly because it was kind of easy. 

Today's intervals sort of went like this:

1-3 - that wasn't so bad!

4-6 - oh boy, my legs are burning

7-8 - (willing timer to move faster) 18, 19, 20!

9-10 - I think I might pass out...

My legs were so toasted that I did the 30 minute cool down on the treadmill. Like I said, awesomely hard. 

Back at the apartment, I made time to work on those trigger points with my foam roller and the stick. I forgot to mention that anytime you do these, you should stretch after. I love that part.

What I ate on low carb day

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, pb&j rice cake, coffee

The best tasting meal is the one you have after a good workout. This is just one of my faves. I almost didn't have the rice cake because I was worried about the carbs in the pb&j, but then I realized how crazy that sounded.

Lunch: chocolate protein shake, turkey slices

The shake was disappointing having more carbs than protein. It's my own fault because I didn't do my homework before hand and just assumed it was good because it said protein on the packet. Lesson learned.

Snack: celery and pb, water

I guess I needed something a little crunchy.

Dinner: chicken breast and green beans, salad

I love my salads, even more with cheese and Ranch dressing. Avoiding dairy is part of this program, but I just had to. At least there were less carbs than the shake at lunch!

I think I did pretty well today. Under 50g of carbs, but also under in total calories. I wish I knew if that was a big deal or not.

What are your fitness center rants?

Do you prefer the foam roller or the stick?

Active Trigger Points, a Full Body Workout, and Regular Calories Day 2

After yesterday's workout, my problem knee was cranky. I think the cause is overuse of my quads. They've seen more squats and lunges this last week than in a long time. The overuse has activated the trigger points in my vastus medialis, probably because it's still a weak muscle.

I've had this happen before, so I know the self massage routine, (read about my pesky trigger point here) but this time I was also armed with peppermint essential oil. I rubbed it in and worked on my trigger points for about 5 minutes and then iced for about 20. I also found a great video with some vmo exercises. 

Fortunately, the knee pain didn't keep me from my full body dvd workout this morning. I replaced the high impact cardio portions with low impact alternatives and completed all the strength. I really liked it. The 45 minute workout looked like this: warm up, cardio, arms, cardio, legs, cardio, core, cardio, stretch. 

After the workout and some breakfast, we did some errands. My knee is still not happy when I walk, but I am totally happy with my linen dress from Gap. It was very comfortable and today it was near 85 degrees.

Regular calorie day 2 eats

Breakfast: protein pancakes, apple, coffee

I saw a picture of someone's protein pancakes online and woke up dreaming about them. So yea, pancakes (not dairy free...Greek yogurt). Soooo good.

Lunch: Kosmo toner smoothie, handful of grapes

We have been walking by this little healthy shop, Kosmo, for a year and were finally motivated to go in. The owner, "Alan" (he's Chinese) has been in Shekou for 15 years! He makes shakes, smoothies, and some food items. You can even buy protein in his shop. He modified the recipe to be dairy free: strawberries, soy milk, whey protein.

Dinner: chicken breast, green beans, water

I love a simple crock pot meal. Easy peasy and mrC cleans up!

While the chicken was in the crock pot, I decided to try a new recipe for peanut butter protein bars that I found on Run Eat Repeat.

Only I added two mashed bananas and 3/4 tbsp cinnamon Iike the recipe I already use (you can see it here). I could barely wait for them to cool off before having one. 

My calories and macros were pretty much on target today and other than my knee, it was a great day. I'm loving that I don't feel like I'm starving even though I'm eating less than I was a week ago.

Ever have active trigger points?

Leg Workout and Getting Settled

There is always a ton of things to do when we return from an extended trip away.

Turn the water and gas back on in the apartment

Restock the fridge

Order water bottles for delivery
Sort the mail and newspapers

Unpack and do laundry

Workout

I took full advantage of the comfortable morning weather for an outdoor workout. It won't be long before the high temps and humidity make this option less appealing. mrC and I found a nice little area with a breeze to do our thing.

It was all about leg strength using body weight. I could still feel some soreness from my last full body workout, but I was able to do most of the exercises. I only had to modify one that bothered my knee. And holy squat jumps and lunge jumps! My legs were jello! I don't even know how I was able to do a 20 minute walk after.

That was a nice amount of calories burned for a twenty-ish minute workout.

My grocery order arrived right on time. It is seriously convenient! This order was filled with mostly fruits and veggies (and a little Coke zero for my occasional caffeine craving).

When I had a chance, I took all the separate lettuce that I bought (iceberg, romaine, and red leaf) and created a little DIY mixed salad just like I buy pre-made in the US. I'm all about convenience.

What I ate for Regular Calorie Day

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with ham, pb&j rice cake, and coffee

mrC made this post workout breakfast for us. The eggs were extra good with the addition of Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Seasoning that I brought back with me. 

Lunch: dairy free protein smoothie, 3 turkey slices

This is my nice and pretty smoothie but before this it was a mad mess all over the kitchen walls. Long story short: stick with what works. Smoothie ingredients: frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries, almond milk, coconut oil, spinach and protein powder.

For the protein powder, I tried another sample from Naked Nutrition. I admit that I am partial to whey protein, but this brand has so many positives that make it stand out from others I have tried: one ingredient only, gluten free, non-GMO, grass fed in the USA. It's worth the money in my opinion.

Dinner: spicy chicken salad, water

I put that DIY salad to use. The only thing I forgot to buy was dairy free dressing, so I splurged with the Ranch that was in the fridge. 

Snack: grapes

I only ate these to try to increase my carb intake for the day. It didn't help much and I wish I had been hungrier so that I could've enjoyed them more.

I was way under my total calories goal for the day (but not hungry) and my macros were not quite up to par either. 

Tomorrow I get another try at it. 

Ever watched your smoothie ingredients fly across the room??

Today I'm linking up with www.marathonsandmotivation.com & www.ilkasblog.com.