Core

406 Wall-Sits (1 minute each) – DONE!!

February 28, 2013 Kim

Today was a Pilates kind-of day! I even did a Pilates move for my 43. Double-leg drops – great for about the first 15 then….

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6Lp38H-Dk’]

I tried to do a smooth 2-count down and 2-count up until I reached finally reached #43.

This was a rest day for Les Mills Combat but I didn’t want to take the day completely off. I did a Crunch DVD – Fat Burning Pilates. I’m happy with my choice to do something but I knew I wasn’t up for a hard-core workout!! I needed a bit of a break!

At the beginning of February I started a new self-challenge. I decided to pick an exercise and do it every day for the month of February equal to the day of the month.

For some crazy reason, I choose to do 1-minutes wall-sits. Fine for the first few days but the past week and a half have been HARD!!!

Some stats – 406 wall sits = 406 minutes = 6 hours 46 min

February: 24(hours) x 28(days) = 672 hours 672(hours) x 60(min) = 40,320 minutes

406/40,320 = 1%

That’s right!! I spent 1% of the month of February sitting on the wall with my quads burning!

I had to make tally marks to keep track!! So thankful for my phone to use as both timer and entertainment!!!

Chris and Hunter have also participated in the February daily challenge – Chris with push-ups and Hunter, burpees. They still have 28 for today and then they will be challenge winners!!! Way to go, guys!!

Time to think up the next fun challenge – love having little goals!!!

For now though, I have a school newsletter to pull together, type, print and get 400 copies made before 3:30 today!!! Gotta get busy!

Happy Thursday!

Kim

Back, Fitness

Using Muscles in New Ways…

February 27, 2013 Kim 21 Comments

Today for the 43, I decided to take some advice from MizFit and be a superhero. Well, sort-of. I did 43 supermans today. This is a great exercise to strengthen your back – and it actually feels pretty good!

Start by laying facedown with arms and legs fully extended.

Lift your legs up and at the same time lift your arms and pull them back so that you are really squeezing your shoulder blades.

Today, I held the above position for a 5-count (you can vary the amount of hold time). This really was a nice 43.

The rest of my workout today was Les Mills Combat Combat 45 – this one has some really fun moves!!! Besides my 27 minutes worth of wall-sits, I decided to let that be the extent of the workout today because yesterday about did me in!

It’s funny that you can think you are fit and strong but then you do an activity that you don’t normally do and BOOM – not so tough now!! Yesterday I experienced that when I spent and hour and a half shoveling snow.

Today muscles I didn’t even know I had are sore! Who knew?!?!

Jordan used some different “muscles” yesterday, also. He cooked dinner for us! He wanted to do a Mexican bake and planned to just make stuff up. I recommended that he try to find a recipe to at least partly follow. I told him that as he cooks more he will learn to just “wing” it!!

So much fun to work with him in the kitchen! And, of course, part of cooking is the clean-up!

He did a great job and dinner was delicious!

Thanks, Jordan!

Hunter uses his “mental muscles” to solve his Rubik cube:

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua8q8lPUuM0′]

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIVS7KXTAOg’]

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3gfoaloSKc’]

3 attempts – all in under a minute!! His fastest so far is 35 seconds! Crazy.

What muscles have you worked in a new way lately?

Happy Wednesday!

Kim

Fun

Snow Fun – Can those 2 words even go together????

February 26, 2013 Kim 4 Comments

First off – if I haven’t said it (today) – “I hate snow!” There isn’t a single thing about snow that I like! In fact, usually when we have a snow day I never leave the house!!

So, here is how I spent part of my morning!

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSLcgQF8GqM’]

I mean, seriously, I look like that Sasquatch thing/creature that the boys are always talking about!! I have on so many layers that it’s a wonder I could even move.

I’m not gonna lie – it was hard!! But, about 1.5 hours later it looked like this:

hey - I got most of it!! — hey – I got most of it!!

Then I went around to the front of the house and did the sidewalk.

dang - that is a long sidewalk! — dang – that is a long sidewalk!

I just kept telling myself that it was a ~~good~~ great workout and to keep going.

The real reason that I sucked it up and went out into the ~~arctic tundra~~ snow –

I didn’t want Chris to work all day and then come home and have to shovel! True love!!

Cardio, Fitness, Plyo

Plyo, Plyo, Plyo – Just Jump!!

February 26, 2013 Kim 6 Comments

Today I did a little bit of plyometrics (also known as jump training) for my 43. Years ago (over 20 now) when I ran college track, we used to do a little bit of plyo training. After college I pretty much quit that ~~nonesense~~ type of activity. However, several years ago when I realized I needed to do more than just run to maintain my ~~hot body~~ desired body size (and shape), I started Insanity! Hello, plyo!!!! Now, I actually enjoy the act of jumping a lot!!

So, for the 43 I did a series of 4 jumps:

air jack
forward hop
backward hop
tuck jump

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZZicZ1KWYQ’]

All I had to do was repeat those 4 jumps 43 times! I was ~~dying~~ panting hard but I did it!! (Not sure why I have a hard time keeping my balance on tuck jumps but who cares? Just Jump!!!)

And…Great News! Today in Les Mills Combat it was time for Plyo HIIT – 30 more minutes of jumping!!! After that I decided to pull out a workout I haven’t done in a while – Jillian Michaels 6 Weeks to a Six Pack. Today I just did Level 1 – 35 minutes of both standing and floor core work. I think what I really like about all of Jillian’s programs are that she uses basic moves and just combines them in different ways! I always feel like I’ve worked hard after completing any of her workouts!

Another snow day here in Kansas! I’m beginning to feel like I live in the mountains! OK – maybe it’s not quite that bad but I’m having to work harder this week to be pleasant about the snow!!

One nice thing – the boys are home from school AGAIN!!! Hopefully they will want to hang out with me. Maybe a game of

Happy Tuesday!!

Kim

Drinks, Recipes

Educated Cosmo

February 25, 2013 Kim 6 Comments

Years ago (about 10, actually) – Chris and I were in Biloxi, MS for our anniversary. We took a little get-away every year for our anniversary for the first 10 years we were married. And then…..Life happened! (Really the only reason we haven’t for the last # of years is we haven’t had any one to watch our boys.) It’s OK – the boys are such a fun age now that we like to be with them all the time!

Anyway, one night in Biloxi, we went out to a really nice place (can’t remember the name) and I had my first ever Martini!!! The waiter suggested I try an Educated Cosmo – so good I think I had 2!!

After we came back to Kansas I tried to order one wherever I went – no luck – no one knew what I was talking about! Finally, Chris figured out the basic ingredients and came up with our version of this awesome drink!!!

The Educated Cosmo