Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Get Your Heart Rate Up And Lose Weight With This!

When it comes to fitness, I’m the kind of gal who typically likes to just get into the gym and do my thing. I lift weights (pretty heavy) and I do my fair share of cardio to get a nice sweat going. I like to change it up though. As with food, variety is a key ingredient to staying motivated with exercise. I mean…who are we kidding? There are usually other things people would rather be doing than exercising – that is until NOW!

Here is one of my favorite ways to exercise while having FUN at the same time. Exercise-Fun? Oxymoron some of you are saying??? I think not! This is the perfect activity for all of you who regard exercise as a 4-letter word (you know who you are). It’s rebounding! This is one of my all-time favorite ways to get my lymph circulating, heart rate up and have FUN at the same time! Seriously.

Having a rebounder in your living room by the TV is a great way to get more exercise into your life without ever having to step foot in a gym if you don’t want to. It doesn’t matter what level of exercise you’re used to (or not used to, I should say – haha).

The proof is in the pudding…It even worked on my mom! She was one of those people who hated exercise (4-letter word is what she’d say to me in response when I would tell her she needs to do it more). True story here – She went to meet her husband at the gym to work out, but she didn’t feel like exercising because she hated it. So, here is what she did. She arrived at the gym a few minutes early, went to the water fountain and splashed water on her face. Then, when her husband arrived to work out, she said, “WHEW! I’ve been here for a while now, just had a great work out, sweatin’ my butt off, as you can tell. Well, I’m heading home now.”

So, you see…she has always hated exercise until now. Ever since she started jumping on her rebounder, she’s HOOKED! She loves it. It’s helping her lose weight, giving her confidence, and making her feel better than ever.

Here is what she does: Every day while she’s making her juice, she sets her kitchen timer in 15-minute increments. Every time it goes off during her time in the kitchen juicing, she jumps on her rebounder for 5-minutes (that’s all it takes to start getting a good workout). She’ll do this a few times a day and before you know it, she’s had some great physical activity to take her health to a whole new level. It’s quick, fun, and effective. Personally, I like to keep mine in front of the TV so I can jump on it during commercials.

Here’s a popular Rebounder. Have Fun!!!

Buzzing with Beautiful Energy and Loving It!

by Kristen in energy, fitness, smoothies

Here it is, after one o’clock in the morning and I am still buzzing with energy. It must have been that delicious Super Star Chocolate Vanilla Power Smoothie I made earlier. Or, maybe it was my Blueberry Omnipotent Smoothie (water, frozen blueberries, hemp protein powder, maca powder, Vitamineral Green Powder, cinnamon)…Or maybe it was the awesome salad sandwich I had for dinner. Who knows, but here I am, still buzzing with beautiful energy so I thought I’d do a little planning for my Saturday.

I’m going back to the gym tomorrow (or, actually later today – haha) and I can’t wait. My plan is to do 30 -minutes of “circuit” type training for cardio and 30-minutes of circuit weight training.

Circuit Cardio: Time to start sweatin’ again! I love doing a circuit cardio routine, because it changes it up with all of the activities and the time flies.

1 minute: jump rope

10 minutes: high inclined treadmill at a speed of 3.7-3.9

1 minute: jump rope

10 minutes: eliptical machine

1 minute: jumping jacks

5 minutes: stairstepper

2 minutes: jump rope

Circuit weights: circuit three times through, with each exercise having 8-10 reps. Weight training is definitely a major key in keeping my sassy, sexy body lean and firm with strong bones!

Chest: Dumbell press

Tri’s: Tri kickback

Back: Overhead pull down (wide grip)

Bi’s: Barbell curls

Shoulders: Triangle shoulders

Legs: Walking lunges

Abs: Crunches

Food Plan:

I’m sure I’ll have a smoothie upon waking before I head to the gym. After the gym, I’ll have another smoothie with Manitoba Hemp protein powder and Vitamineral Green powder added for extra “post-workout” nutrition. Later in the day, I have a feeling that my body will want a delicious, huge, fresh green salad with an amazing dressing, Raw Hemp Oil Za’atar, drizzled on top (YUM!!! and so nutritious!). For dinner, we’re celebrating my boyfriend’s mom’s birthday at a Mexican restaurant so I’m sure I’ll enjoy guacamole and salsa as part of my dinner. And, last but certainly not least, I just took some Raw vegan chocolate coconut treats out of my freezer to snack on tomorrow for dessert (gotta get my chocolate fix!).

Tuesday’s Exercise and Food

by Kristen in energy, exercise, fitness, raw food

It’s been a wonderful day! The sun was shining bright, the sky was brilliantly blue, and I was filled with vibrant energy all day long. Lovely.

Exercise:
I didn’t get to the gym, so I jumped rope 3 separate times (2-3 minutes each). I followed each jump rope session with a set of 35 push-ups and a set of walking lunges down my street. I wore my ankle weights all day, everywhere. And, my dog walked me around our big block twice.

Food:
Breakfast: 4 cups smoothie (1 cup water, 3 bananas, 3/4 pound strawberries, 2 tbsp fresh rosemary and dill combined)
Dinner: veggie bowl of 4 cups diced carrots and cucumbers, 1 cup packed alfalfa sprouts, 1/4 cup fresh basil, and 1/4 cup mustard seed dressing
Dessert: large piece of pumpkin pie

“What you want to be eventually, you must be every day. With practice, the quality of your deeds gets down to your soul.“

~Frank Crane

Today’s Workout and Food

by Kristen in exercise, fitness, raw food

I kicked butt at the gym today and took names! If you’re not exercising by now, what the hell are you waiting for? Remember…to be considered optimally healthy, you must be physically fit. The longest living cultures in the world have excellent diets, yes, but they are physically active daily! Are you?

Exercise:
Weights: Biceps; 4 straight sets for each exercise; low reps, heavy weight
*Barbell curls, Hammer curls – lifted til my arms felt like falling off
Cardio: Jump rope between weight training sets, run on treadmill for 10 minutes, walk at high speed on treadmill for 5 minutes
Music: Linkin Park, Kelly Clarkson, Apryl Electra, Joe Budden

Food:
Does anyone really care what I’m eating? Should I bother blogging about it? So far today, a gigantic salad of cucumbers and carrots dressed with my Deviled Mango Dressing…which you don’t have in your hot little hands….yet! It’s coming though! I’ve been eating it on veggie salads for three days now, so clearly….it’s a winner!

My Workout Today

by Kristen in exercise, fitness, weight loss, weight training

Food is important to a healthy lifestyle…but so is physical fitness. You will get much more out of Raw when you add physical fitness to your lifestyle. These together strengthen your body from the inside out.

Two days ago, I went to the gym and that damn jump rope kicked my ass. It was really tough! But, yesterday, I kicked it’s ass and owned it! My heart was pounding, pulse racing, body sweating, and it felt GREAT!

For a really super workout, I have to listen to music ranging from “this gets me moving and pumps me up” to tunes that make me wanna say “gggrrrr“… so I have all kinds on my mp3 from Linkin Park to Trick Daddy to Seal to Madonna to Rhianna and more. Sometimes I just start doing a little dance right there in the gym….okay, not usually in front of people – ha ha…but I just love music and can’t help myself sometimes!

~Yesterday’s workout
Weights: Chest; 5 straight sets for each exercise
*Flat dumbell press, Incline dumbell press, Decline dumbell press
Cardio: Jump rope before weight training, between many of the weight lifting sets, and after lifting.
~Today’s Workout
Weights: Back; 3 straight sets for each exercise
*Chins, Seated cable row, Reverse bent over flies, Wide grip pull downs
Cardio: Jump rope and get on the treadmill for a short journey while I read VegNews magazine.

“A strong body makes the mind strong.”

~ Thomas Jefferson

Back in the Gym

by Kristen in energy, exercise, fitness, gym, health, jumprope

I’ve taken a couple of weeks off from going to the gym because my schedule was jam packed trying to get my Raw recipe ebooks out on my website. Yay! The first series is done. I always like to still do some form of exercise when I’m not able to get to the gym, so here are the things I do when I’m in that position.

Push-ups! I drop to the floor and crank out as many as I can…just until I’m about to fall flat on my face. Push-ups are great because they pretty much work your entire upper body and abs. Then, I go out into the street in my neighborhood (wearing ankle weights) I do walking lunges. Sometimes it’s just one set, but hey, it’s better than nothing. I keep my ankle weights on while I’m at home so I can get all the help I can get.

I also have a jump rope hanging by my desk. Jump rope is phenomenal exercise…hard core and only takes a minute of doing it before your heartrate is way up. Jump rope is so great for your body that you can do about 15 minutes of it (doubt you’ll do 15minutes straight though, it’s too hard!)…anyway, it’s comparable to doing other forms of cardio for 30-45 minutes. This makes jumproping awesome for people who are short on time. So, what I do is about 2-5 minutes of jump rope 2-3 times a day. This keeps me in great shape!

I also have dumbells in my bathroom, on the floor by my sink. (I do everything I can to make it easy on myself to exercise, so having the stuff there and ready, makes it hard to say no). Every other day or so, I grab my dumbells and do some bicep curls, tricep kickbacks and shoulder triangles. All of this keeps me in great shape when I can’t get to the gym or if I’m short on time.

Anyway…all that to say that I’m going to the gym today (and getting back to consistency with that) and I’m psyched! I feel so empowered and awesome after leaving the gym. Physical exercise does just as much for your mind as it does your body. Today, I’ll focus on cardio and spend time getting my heartrate up. Then, tomorrow, I’m hitting the free weights.

My quote for the day:
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ~author unknown