Today’s 44 was a lunge but because I held a dumbbell overhead (15 pounds) I also got some nice core work.
readyright lungeLeft lunge
I counted a right and left as 1 rep so it was a total of 88 lunges while holding the 15 pounds overhead!!!
I did The Biggest Loser 8 Minute DVD – this is actually an hour because there are 7 total sections. I like the format – each section is 8 minutes and you do 11 different moves for 30ish seconds followed by a 10 second rest. Plenty of strength work but you will also get your heart rate up!
I’m planning to go outside for a run later today – it is supposed to get into the mid-70s!!! Can’t wait!!!!
Curtains, blinds, shades – whatever window coverings you have – do you open them every day or keep them closed?
Living room windows/doors
With the time change it is still dark outside right now but I have already opened up the house for the day. I love to have natural light and by the time I get back from taking the boys to school it will be light!!!
Lately, driving around, I’ve noticed that lots of people keep their house closed up during the day – every single window is covered.
If our blinds were down, I would miss scenes like this gorgeous sunset from the other night when it was too cold to be outside.
gorgeous sunset
And, much as I’m not a fan of the snow and gray days, I still want to be able to see outside when I’m hibernating!!!
So, are you an open or closed kind of person???
Happy Monday!!!
Kim
BTW – Hunter got 2nd in his competition yesterday!!! (and it wasn’t just 7th grade – it was all middle school) His first cash prize!!!
Today’s 44 really worked my hamstrings!!! I did a single leg dead lift (starting with the right leg) followed by a right kick. About the time my right leg was jelly, I switched to the left for a second set of 44!!
Yikes – I should have sucked in my stomach during this move – oops!! I used 15 pound dumbbells for this move and I know that I will feel this in my hamstrings and butt later!!
Still trying to juggle Michelle Bridges with other workouts. I’m pulling out parts of some of the daily MB workouts to do in addition to other workouts and that is working well for me. Today I did TaeBo – Extremely Ripped. This is 60 minutes of fast pace TaeBo with weights for the 2nd half!!! I started with 8 pound weights but because of the fast pace had to drop down to 5s!!
The other day Chris and I watched this movie. It wasn’t at all what either one of us were expecting!!! I truly thought the premise of the movie was gambling – WRONG!!!
The basic premise is that Matthew McConaughey’s character has AIDS. He is given 30 days to live – goes to Mexico finds a DR that is using medicine that hasn’t been FDA approved yet and 3 months later has improved. He sneaks the drugs in and instead of selling the drugs/vitamins he sells monthly “memberships” to the Dallas Buyers Club with access to unlimited meds.
Beyond the movie itself, I think what really got me was the drastic weight loss that McConaughey underwent for this role. Depending on what source you read he lost approximately 38 pounds and went from being fit to a skeleton.
He is about 5’11” -6′ (again depending on the source) and went from 170ish pounds down closer to 130 for this movie.
Actually, several of the actors in this movie underwent drastic weight loss to play their roles.
Here is my problem – actors do this kind of extreme weight loss (or weight gain) for roles fairly often and aren’t criticized by the media. In fact, often they are praised and rewarded by nominations for awards.
However, for 2 weeks now, Rachel from the Biggest Loser has been blasted by the media for her weight loss. Whether she lost too much or not isn’t up to me to judge – I think that she played a game (because that is what The Biggest Loser really is all about) to win and she did just that.
I don’t think she looks any worse than McConaughey and he lost the weight much quicker than she did!!
I guess my whole point is that the extreme weight loss happens in lots of areas and while I don’t think it is ever healthy, I don’t understand why in one case the person is overly criticized and in the other case they are praised.
Have you seen The Dallas Buyers Club?
Do you think that it is more acceptable when actors go through extreme weight changes (very quickly) to play a role than when other people do the same thing?
Today for the 44 I did donkey kicks. You start in plank (although after starting to kick I never went back to plank) and kick your feet up in the air.
This is one of those moves that it takes a couple of reps to get into the rhythm. Even though the demo just shows slow ones, I mixed it up and did 5 slow and then 5 quick until I completed all 44.
I did another new Biggest Loser DVD today – Calorie Knockout. Overall it was a good workout. The first segment was with Anna Kournikova and she led it sort-of like she led her team the season she was on The Biggest Loser (not that well!!!). It was supposed to be 15 minutes and at 12 she said we were done – WHAT?!
Thankfully the next 2 segments were really good and very intense – one with Bob and the other with Dolvett!
Since it’s Friday I thought it would be fun if we had happy hour and all y’all are invited!!
What will you bring? And more importantly what are you happy about?
I’m probably going to bring some wine (Moscato) because I LIKE WINE!!! And I might also bring some chips and guacamole because that sounds good today!!! (Feel free to bring a protein shake if that is more your style!!)
I’m happy that this weekend is a 3 day weekend for all of us – Chris is off on Monday and the boys don’t have school!!! Actually Chris has a 4 day weekend since he is off today – glad I only have 2 meetings this morning and the rest of the day free!!!
I’m happy that this weekend is supposed to be warm again – 63 is the predicted high for Sunday!! I will definitely take that in January!!
I’m happy that I know someone who is at least thinking about running the 50 mile race with me in May!!! I hope it works out, Carmen!!!
I’m also happy that in the last year I have made so many great bloggy friends – I appreciate all of y’all who stop in and read my ramblings – I enjoy getting to know you and also love to see people that I already know over here!!!
Today’s 44 required a resistance band. I decided that since I worked my biceps yesterday with the 44 today I would work my triceps. I did tricep pulses with the band.
readydown
This was actually really tough – the resistance of the band made the last 15 or so brutal!!!
I did a new workout today – The Biggest Loser Power X-Train. Besides a warm-up and cool down, there are 3 15 minute segments: metabolic circuit, power training and all about reps. The metabolic circuit was 14 moves, 1 minute each and alternated between a power move and a cardio move. Power training was more about whole body training with strength, core and plyo. All about the reps was my favorite section – 4 moves done for 1 minute each 3x. The goal was to increase the number of reps each time through!!
I’ve noticed over the past year that blogging tends to be way down during the weekend. I actually have more time to read on Saturday and Sunday so I thought I would share a few of the great things I read.
3. Chris @ The Mom Cafe has a devotional series and invites guest bloggers to share their stories. This week Dana from Kiss My List wrote a great piece about Judaism!
4. Taylor @ Lifting Revolution shared about her attempts to master a hand stand in her yoga class recently. The real point of her post was that sometimes you are going to fall no matter what you are trying to do – what do you do after falling?
5. Carla @ Real Into had an incredible post about just being you. She said that you don’t have to do something new to be unique!!! I’m so excited because she said that she is going to be sharing more of her unique self in the future and I can’t wait!!!
7. Biz @ My Bizzy Kitchen is so amazing!! She just spent the last week working her full time job plus a new part time job, dealing with horrid weather (scraping snow off of part of her heating unit most mornings), plus trying to spend plenty of time with her husband who spent the first week of 2014 in the hospital (and while he was there she organized a DVD drive for the kids wing of that hospital!). After a particularly rough day she wrote a post listing all of the ways that she is blessed!!! What a great reminder that life really is good. (Plus, Biz shares some really tasty recipes almost every day!!)
I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t Pin at least 5 recipes from some of the amazing bloggers I love!!! This weekend was no exception!
9. Davida @ The Healthy Maven always has some of the most amazing recipes. Most of them are way above my ability level (lots are for tasty baked things!!) but I’m pretty sure I can handle this one: White bean kale & artichoke dip with quinoa flatbread (remember I’m going to try quinoa this year!!) I can’t wait to try this!!!
10. Jill @ Fitness, Health & Happiness is so consistent with weekly meal planning and sharing new recipes. This breakfast salad (or lunch, dinner or even snack) looks super tasty and full of good things. There is an omelet and a sunny side up egg in this salad!!! And feta – one of my favorites!!!
I don’t know yet if I will make this a standard Monday feature (I haven’t ever done a set daily thing) but I love to share – there are so many great posts out there!!!
