Tag Archives: squats

Butt, Fitness, Quad, Squats

Counting Down with Gratitude

December 3, 2013 Kim 77 Comments

Today’s 44 was a fairly simple move made a little more challenging with a band – a small tight band.

I did a step out to a squat – right and then step out left for 1 rep. (so each rep had 2 squats)

The 44 went quickly but my legs were burning by the end.

Insanity the Asylum vol. 2 was up again – Upper Elite. YIKES!!! 60 minutes of upper body with just a few cardio bursts thrown in. More push-ups than I cared to count, biceps, triceps, shoulders, upper back, core – some of everything!! I’m still shaking and I finished over 30 minutes ago. I actually had to do some of the push-ups on my knees – hopefully next time through I will get them on my toes.

December is the month of counting down!!! We started doing Christmas count-downs years ago and the boys still do them even though they aren’t little any more.

Every night the boys do all of the different count downs. Years ago they used to fight about whose turn it was so I started the odd/even – whoever is the odd age gets odd days. This system has worked perfectly for many years!!

We have a couple that you just change the numbers –

One that you move a little star around –

A Santa full of doors – we start with all of the doors open and close one each night.

A Santa with a big beard that starts out empty and will be full on Christmas –

But my favorite countdown is one that requires a little more effort. We have a row of 25 little stockings –

Every night during the month of December each of the boys take a little piece of paper and writes down something they are thankful for. At the end of the month (or when I take down the decorations), I type up the list. It is really fun to go back and look at lists from years ago. (I type it exactly as they wrote it – spelling and grammar errors and all!!)

I love Christmas but I really want our boys to know how very fortunate they are and for them to take the time to appreciate all of the goodness in their lives.

Do you have a count down tradition?

Happy Tuesday!!

Kim

Butt, Fitness, Quad, Squats

We Really Only Need 4 Basic Things!!!

October 22, 2013 Kim 71 Comments

Today for my 44 I did a squat on a wobble disc –

Just standing on the disc is a challenge for your balance! I started with my hands reaching up –

then reached my hands down to my toes during the squat.

There were lots of wobbles before I completed all 44 of these!!!

And, Tuesday means Garage Boot Camp!!! (not sure how fun this will be in the winter!!!) Today we did one of my favorites – ABC Boot Camp. Because we have a shorter amount of time than we did in the summer, we only did 1 minute of each move (in the summer we did 75 seconds). Still a great workout!!!

Entitlement: the condition of having a right to have, do, or get something (Merriam-Webster)

Have you ever met people who feel “entitled”?

More and more lately it seems that people feel like someone (that ubiquitous entity) owes them! I don’t get it!!!

When our boys were little we told them they needed 4 things: food, water, oxygen and love.

We made sure that they had all of those (I guess we didn’t really have much control over the oxygen thing!!!) things and everything else was just a bonus!!!

I still believe that we can boil our needs down to the basics – everything else (and there is plenty) is like icing on the cake, sunshine at the beach, the star on top of the tree!! It’s EXTRA!!

Last Thursday (cleaning, set-up, ironing day), the bride of the weekend called me. She wanted to know if they could have the venue (for free) Friday night since they had rented it for Saturday. She felt like I “owed” her that even though the rental for a Friday night is completely separate!!!

I’m pretty sure if we book a hotel and then call them up and tell them they should let us come in a day early for free they would laugh and/or hang-up on us!!!

I think that we all need to remember that we can live with –

What do you think? Do people have more of a sense of entitlement these days?

Happy Tuesday!!

Kim

PS – I let the wedding party have their rehearsal at the venue on Friday evening like the bride wanted.

Fitness, Push-Ups

Favorite Exercises

October 20, 2013 Kim 47 Comments

Today’s 44 was another push-up variation and it was hard!!! I used –

Step Stability Ball — Step
Stability Ball

To do the push-ups, I put my toes on the step and my hands on either side of the ball.

Just getting in this position was hard – I don’t think you can tell but my arms were shaking!!! From here, I just did normal push-ups.

I couldn’t get my chest all the way to the ball without killing myself so I went as low as I could. Using the stability ball for push-ups is always super hard for me!

It’s no secret that I like to workout and try new moves! Today I thought I would share

Push-ups: As few as 5 years ago, the only way I even attempted push-ups was on my knees. Quite honestly, I never even considered trying them any other way. Now I like to try all sorts of push-up variations. Here are just a few:

Alt. sides of the BOSU - walk over in between — Alt. sides of the BOSU – walk over in between

Squats: Squats have always been one of my favorites!! I used to do 100s of squats at a time way back in my 20s!!! There are so many ways to do squats but I’m just picking a few today!

lift and hold — Start on ball – lift, hover, hold before lowering back down

single leg squats – right toe is barely touching floor

Burpees: Burpees are one of those moves that many people hate. This is another move I used to dread. There was a time not many years ago that when I did workout DVDs and burpees were included, I used that time as a water break!!! Now, I have all kinds of fun with this move!!!

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

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thv3mJioVSA’]

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCSfRRoiuA4′]

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQT6e33BNuM’]

Burpees with rotating squat jump:

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtBPSB1xiDo’]

I could actually go on and on with my list of favorite exercises because I like to work every part of my body and there are really only a few moves that I still don’t like – JUMPING LUNGES!!!

What are some of your favorite exercises? Do you like to do different variations?

Happy Sunday!

Kim

Butt, Core, Fitness, Shoulders, Squats

A Man/Boy in Uniform

October 9, 2013 Kim 59 Comments

Today I worked my entire body with the 44. I did a squat with a torso twist using a 10 pound dumbbell.

I did 44 with a left twist and then I did another set of 44 twisting to the right.

Between lifting my arms overhead after each twist and the squats themselves – this move was a challenge!!!

This year is the first year for the Air Force Junior ROTC program at our high school.

Jordan decided to be in the program which, of course, makes us happy!!! Today was the first day that they have worn their uniforms.

Hard for me to think of Jordan as a man and not my little boy. Yes, he is taller than Chris!!! He will be 15 in a month – YIKES!!!

Thankfully, he still has plenty of boy left in him!!!

Umm…this is semi-normal!!!

And, if you are going to stand in a chair in the kitchen, why not just do your homework on top of the fridge?!

Some days it seems like my boys are growing up way to fast and then other days it seems just about perfect and they remind me that they are still boys!!!

I’m just here to enjoy the ride with them!!!

I think I will run long and drink wine!!

Uniforms – yes or no?

Happy Wednesday!!!

Kim

Butt, Core, Fitness, Hamstrings

An Attempt at Being Crafty

August 16, 2013 Kim 48 Comments

Today for my 43 I combined a couple of moves and ended up with a pretty good overall move!! I started with a pair of dumbbells (10 pounds) and stepped my right foot out wide. From there I lifted my left leg and hinged forward trying to make a straight line with my body parallel to the floor (balance work!!). After I stood, I did a squat with my feet together before stepping wide to the left and repeating the series with the other leg to complete 1 rep.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mybm5CsTBwM’]

Clearly, I have some wobbles but I enjoyed this move – 86 balance challenges + 86 squats to complete all 43.

I had plans for the rest of my workout but I had to add an extra trip to the middle school (before 7am) to drop off some stuff and be home in time to drive the boys to school and by the time I finished the morning drive I decided that today would be a good day-off!!! It’s rare for me to randomly decide to skip a workout but today is one of those days!!

Too bad it is just a day off from working out and not a true day off – spent on the beach in the sun – I guess I will just pretend to be on the beach!!!

I know people who are super crafty and creative – they come up with some of the neatest ideas. I am not one of those people!!! Crafting is not a strong point for me and my creativity is almost nonexistent!

However, every once in awhile I make an attempt to be a bit crafty. This week I have been working on a welcome back to school gift for all of the middle school teachers (all 80!!).

After finally deciding to get them gift cards from Starbucks, I decided that it would be fun to jazz up the presentation of the gift card. After a trip to Hobby Lobby, Starbucks (for the gift cards and cup sleeves) – I printed out a little thank you and then did lots (and lots) of gluing!!!

For a noncrafty person like me – I think it came out OK (I hope so anyway!!!).

My stacks of 80 cards ready to be delivered (the reason for the 6:30 trip to the middle school!!!).

Are you crafty? Do you enjoy the whole act of being creative?

Happy Friday!!! I’m going to enjoy my pretend day off!!!

Kim

PS – this was a gift from the PTO for the teachers not just from me!!! I somehow ended up as co-president of the PTO for the middle school this year and we didn’t have anyone who signed up to help with teacher appreciation so it sort of fell to me to get something done.

Day With KT