All posts by Kim

I am a 44 year old wife, mom and athlete. I started running in high school and have loved it ever since. As I got older, I had to stop running every day so I added in weight training and all sorts of fun work-outs like Insanity, P90X and Turbo Fire. I'm a certified personal trainer and I love all aspects of fitness.

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Turning a Negative into a Positive

June 2, 2014 Kim 1 Comment

For as long as I can remember (at least 20 years) I have loved to read magazines and pull articles from them. I have recipes, workouts, decorating ideas, parenting tips and much more.

I try to keep the articles organized

and over the past few years I have gotten to the point that I mostly just pull fitness stuff and recipes with a few random things in the mix.

The other day I was going through some of my files and I came across a clipping that I thought was very much worth sharing! The sad thing is I cut out just the little piece that I wanted to save and I don’t have any idea where or when I saw this. (Based on the looks of it, I think it has been many years since I cut it out!!)

10 Ways to a Better Life (thanks to Amy @ Long Drive Journey for the source – Mother Teresa)

1. People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

2. If you do good, People will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

The thing I like about this list is that each negative statement is turned into a positive!!!

What negative statements have you heard lately that you could turn into a positive?

Happy Monday!!

Kim

Back, Chest, Fitness, Hamstrings, Push-Ups, Running

Furniture as Fitness Equipment (5/25-5/31)

May 31, 2014 Kim 48 Comments

This week I decided to take a basic piece of furniture and use it for all of my daily 44s. I used one of the little footstools in our basement –

Sunday 5/25 – 44 elevated plank with extended arm and opposite arm row.

Can you tell that my arm is in front of me? Positioning my arm like that instead of under my shoulder made this move HARD!!!! And, I had to do a set of 44 with my right arm!

I think I need to do more planks with my arm out in front – I felt that for days!!!

Monday 5/26 – 44 triceps dips with hands on my step and feet on the foot stool (so they were higher than my hands). This move is similar to one that Josie (Yum Yucky) showed recently – advanced tricep dips!!!

Total burn during this move!!!

I did a fun workout – Prevention 3-2-1. I like this workout because the format makes the time fly by. You do 3 minutes of cardio, 2 minutes of strength work and 1 minute of core for 6 segments!!!

Tuesday 5/27 – 44 split leg dead lift with one foot on the foot stool.

After finishing one set and having a hip on fire, I had to do 44 on the other side!

I love dead lifts and this was a fun way to do them – the key is make sure that most of your weight is on the leg/foot on the ground!!! (12 pound dumbbells)

I started back on one of my favorite weight lifting programs – Chalean Extreme – Burn Circuit 1. (for the record I’m still sore today!!!)

And, after that, it was time for Hunter’s final long run – his best one ever!!! We continued with our 5 minutes of running/1 minute of walking because he likes that and wants to do that for the half – 10.65 miles in 1:41.26 (average pace 9:31).

Wednesday 5/28 – 44 single arm bent over row with one foot on the foot stool and a wobble ball under the foot on the ground. (12 pounds)

This week had lots of days that had 2 sets of 44 – always fun!!!

For some reason, I spent all of Tuesday night with a stomach ache so when I got up Wednesday I decided to do something fairly simple – I just walked 8.25 miles with an 11% incline. (It took just over 2 hours!)

Thursday 5/29 – 44 hip lifts with feet on the foot stool (toes up).

Another day of weight lifting – Chalean Extreme – Burn Circuit 2.

Friday 5/30 – 44 push-ups with feet pressed against the side (at the top) of the foot stool.

And, for the record, Chris took a bit to take the 2nd picture – pretty sure I said “Holy Hell, take the picture already!!” This move was HARD!!!!

It was a running day again – 9 miles in 67:47 with 1.5% incline + 2.5 miles easy!!!!

Saturday 5/31 – 44 box jumps using the foot stool – fun times!!!

And, yesterday when I was reading blogs, Taylor @ Lifting Revolution had this great Weekend Warrior Workout as well as a statement that I took as a challenge – she said to set a timer for 30-40 minutes for the workout but that “we weren’t going to finish and that’s the point.” Of course, that meant I had to try it!!!

The workout includes:
1 mile run
500 jumping jacks
400 squats
300 leg raises
200 push-ups
100 burpees (either dead man or with push-up)

The moves can be broken up any way you want to but the plan is to keep moving for the entire time and see how much you can get done.

Total time – 48:40 broken down to 41:35 for the moves + 7:05 for the mile. I did all the push-ups on my toes and deadman burpees for all of them.

Pretty sure that I will be moving slowly the rest of the weekend after that workout!!!

Do you ever use furniture for your workouts?

Happy Saturday!!

Kim

Uncategorized

There Are Some Things I Just Don’t Get

May 30, 2014 Kim 72 Comments

There are lots of things I don’t think I will ever understand!

1. How can a 15 year old boy sleep over 12 hours day after day?!

2. How is it possible that no matter what road I take, no matter what time of day it is I always get behind someone who refuses to drive even close to the speed limit? Yesterday I followed a guy who literally drove between 15 & 20 mph when the speed limit was 35 (which, of course, means I prefer to drive 40!!).

3. How can I be cold all day (unless I’m running or laying out!) and hot all night?!

4. How come I can remember trivial information that is pretty much totally useless but the things I really need to remember I have to write down if I hope to ever think of it again?

5. How could I be anything but happy today?! It’s Friday and after I finish cleaning and ironing at the venue this morning my weekend will pretty much be started!!!

What things baffle you?

Happy Fun Friday!

Kim

Pasta, Recipes, Seafood

Asian Shrimp Noodles

May 28, 2014 Kim 38 Comments

I could probably eat pasta every single day!!! I love having pasta mixed with flavors besides traditional Italian ones.

This dish is such a great combination of flavors and the fact that it can be eaten cold makes it perfect for summer!!!

Ingredients:
Angel hair pasta – cooked
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/3 c honey
2 T rice vinegar
2 T sesame oil (this ingredient makes the dish!!!)
2 T soy sauce
1 t ginger
1 pound shrimp
carrots, thinly sliced
snap peas
1 red pepper, sliced
1/2 c green onions, chopped
cilantro, minced (handful)
salted peanuts (about 1 cup)

For the dressing, whisk the oil, honey, vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger.

Combine pasta and all chopped veggies. Sprinkle peanuts on top.

Pour dressing over all and mix well. Refrigerate until serving.

This was a huge hit with the entire family – I’m sure we will have this again!!!

Fitness, Uncategorized

Sometimes Sore Is Good…

May 28, 2014 Kim 106 Comments

Not long ago I made the comment that I rarely get sore.

I thought that last week I did a pretty good job of easing back into strength work and that I would be ready to really hit it hard this week!!

Umm….I can barely lift my arms above my head after a couple of tough workouts this week!!!

It has been a long time since I felt like this and I can’t decide if it is another (in a long list) sign that I’m getting old(er) or just because I took an extended break from serious strength work. (I think I will go with the last choice!!!)