Morning Yoga and Parm-Crusted Flounder

I needed an energizing yoga session this morning. mrC had an oh dark thirty pick up for his trip today and that interruption in my sleep left me feeling sort of blah when I woke up later.

When I want to do yoga at home, I always go to Yoga with Adriene. She has the best at home yoga video options and the best voice. Today I did the Energizing Morning Sequence and Yoga To Get The Juices Flowing.

It's been awhile since I've done yoga because my achilles was firing up when I went into downward dog, but today it felt ok. I didn't force the pose like I would have a month ago. Instead I focused on how my legs were feeling. They were a little tight.

The whole session felt really good on my muscles that were feeling a bit sore from yesterday's full body workout. 

The weather was not as soothing as my yoga session. This rolled in very quickly mid-morning and then hung around most of the day.

What I ate on low calorie day

Breakfast: the usual

Lunch: I wasn't that hungry (and didn't even eat all of the turkey), but felt like I should eat something. I always seem to have less of an appetite on rest days...unless it's fast day. Then I want all the food because I can't have it!

Dinner: parm-crusted flounder. This is such an easy recipe (see below) and I could eat it every other day.

Parm-crusted {fill-in-the-blank with your favorite fish} Recipe:

Drizzle each fillet with coconut oil

Cover with shredded Parmesan cheese

Sprinkle some Cajun seasoning, paprika, parsley flakes

Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees on a cooking sheet lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray.

Snacks: I snacked on some strawberries and dry Honey Nut Cheerios, too.

Macros: Low calorie day always makes me nervous, but then it turns out to be easier than I thought. I had room for more carbs and a few more calories, but I was content.

Do you use yoga for more than just a workout?

Do you eat more or less on your rest days?

Lower Body Exercises, a Survey, and Eats

I really liked the video workout combination I did on my last regular calorie day, so I did a repeat today. My hips and thighs still need some toning up and I like the exercises in the videos for the lower body.

Most of the exercises are combo moves. 

Side lunge with double jump in the middle. Switch to other side.

Skater jumps with reverse lunges.

The hardest exercise is a combo of warrior 3 and reverse tricep curl. It's really hard to keep my balance while trying to stay parallel to the floor.

I added on the same exercises I learned during PT again because they are good lower body exercises. I really felt these afterwards the last time I did them. I do three sets of lateral band walks. 10 steps one way, 10 steps back. 3x. Then hamstring curls on the balance ball (no picture).

I've been seeing a lot of surveys on social media lately and this one is my favorite because I love emojis!

Can you do it? Only emojis!

 Current mood: 😍

 Relationship status: 👫

 Kids: 👩🏼👱🏻👩🏼

 Pets: 🐶

 Favorite color: 💙

 Favorite food: 🍕🍉🍷

 Favorite Animal: 🐕🐈

 Favorite season: 👙☀️⛱🕶

 Favorite holiday: 🎄

 Favorite sport: ⚽️🏈🏃🏻

 Most Used emoji(s): 😘❤️😉

 Occupation: 🏡🍎📚

What I ate for regular calorie day

Breakfast: not as fun when mrC isn't here to join me.

Lunch: plus some sweet potatoe chips

Dinner: That was a bowl of chicken noodle soup...plus some Baked Lays potato chips

Macros: I did pretty well today, even with all the chip eating and the mini Oreos I snacked on. That's the thing about IIFYM (if it fits your macros) diets...you don't HAVE TO give up your favorite foods. You just have to eat in moderation.

Do you like to repeat the same workouts?

What was the last survey you did?

Picture Caption Fun Post

The Time I Forgot to Workout and It Was Ok!

Have you ever had one of those days where you have everything planned out perfectly so that you can get everything done and do what you want, but then it doesn't play out that way?

That was me today.

I started with some easy plank flow stretching for the next to last day of the plank challenge. I had time to do my full body workout but decided to do it before dinner (aka my biggest meal on feast days). 

I had an early meet up with the girls to head over to Hong Kong and spend the day at Golden Beach.

After a day in the sun, we stopped at Tuen Mun Town Center to do some quick and dirty (cheap) shopping for some of our favorite things before crossing the border back into China. 

The bus ride across the border, immigration, and two more buses all combined took about an hour to get back to the apartment where mrC had a delicious dinner and flowers (awe!) waiting for me in all my sweaty stickiness. 

It wasn't until after we ate, cleaned up and I was working on this post that I realized I completely forgot to do my feast day full body workout! Big whoops!!

I am so programmed to do my workouts in the morning, that even when I don't do them, my brain thinks I must have because I always do. Honestly, I was ok with it. I didn't jump up and rush to change into workout clothes and get it done. It's one day. I walked A LOT today. I carried over-weight grocery bags across the border of Hong Kong and China. In the 90 degree 94% humidity. It's ok.

Moving on, here's what I ate today

Breakfast: 

Lunch: packed a bunch of stuff for the beach, but only ate the pb&j rice cake sandwich. 

Dinner: TWO servings of gluten free spaghetti

Dessert: flourless cake (one of my favorite things to get in Hong Kong)

Macros: not enough calories overall, but a good job hitting goals.

What would you have done? Workout or pass?

Do you like the beach?

A Diet I Don't Recommend and Today's Workout

I mentioned in my last carb cycling and intermittent fasting program update that I wasn't feeling that great. Those tummy troubles kept me up most of that night and in bed for the next two days! Not much eating and no working out took place.

Low Calorie Day - So I spent my low calorie rest day REALLY resting. I couldn't even attempt to make the cauliflower pizza crust recipe like I was hoping. It was extra time for my muscles to recover from Saturday's at home workout though. That's one thing I love about mixing up workouts, you can literally feel the difference.

Regular Calorie Day - mrC was home and went to the pharmacy to get me some Imodium because I think I was never going to leave the apartment again without it. Between the medicine and literally sleeping the day away, I finally started feeling human again.

After a stomach issue, a BRAT (banana, rice, apple sauce, toast) diet is recommended. I went with pb&j sandwiches. Half at a time because the first time I thought I felt better and ate, it didn't turn out so well.

This morning I woke up feeling like the stomach storm had finally passed, so we headed to the fitness center for our low carb day workout: 20 sprints. I was shocked that I was able to get through them. I guess those sandwiches pack some power. I guzzled that bottle of water and more during my cool down walk on the treadmill and still felt a little dehydrated, but other than that I was feeling ok.

I used up most of my energy on the sprints, but still managed to do some of the plank challenges that I'd missed while under the weather. Each one got progressively harder, and I did fewer. 

Since the blue skies of Shekou were calling, we hung out at the pool for a bit. I'm pretty sure I needed that cold water.

Eats for low carb day:

Brunch: 3 tacos for Taco Tuesday (plus some chips and salsa)! 

Dinner: Chicken breast and some veggies. 

Macros: 

Screenshot didn't make the blog post, but I met the low carb goal of less than 50 net grams of carbs.


What's the worst diet you ever tried?
What do you like to eat when you're sick?