Summer Shape Up: This Past Week's Workouts

This past week was full of some awesome workouts and lots of long walks!

Sunday

30 minute elliptical

3 sets of 12 tricep extensions

2 sets of 10 bicep curls with plie

50 crunches on stability ball

50 sitting twists on stability ball

2 sets of 15 standing leg lifts (Right and Left)

Monday

4 mile walk

Tuesday: Card Workout! (To read about my card workout go here)

15 minute cardio warmup on elliptical

7 planks with arm twists

4 bicycles (abs)

7 lunges (Right and Left)

10 minute cardio on elliptical

7 push ups

8 tricep dips

7 minute cardio on treadmill (walk)

5 russian twists

10 jumping jacks

3 minute run

9 booty blast squats

13 jumping jacks

9 crunches on stability ball

9 sitting twists on stability ball

4 bicep curls

10 second wall sit

6 tricep extensions

9 reps pec-fly

1 minute plank

15 pec-fly

5 calf raises

8 squats

3 tricep dips

2 minute run

10 side bends with weight (Right and Left)

14 standing side leg lifts (Right and Left)

Thursday

6 mile walk

Friday

15 minutes on elliptical

2 sets of 20 side bends with weight

3 sets of 12 tricep extensions

25 standing twists with medicine ball

3 sets of 10 standing leg lifts (Right and Left)

3 sets of 10 bicep curls with plie

10 lunges with weight (Right and Left)

50 crunches on stability ball

50 sitting twists on stability ball

3 sets of 12 pec-fly

3 sets of 12 lat pulldowns

15 mountain climbers

10 booty blast squats

Saturday

5 mile walk

All in all, I think I had a pretty successful week!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend ladies, xoxo

Summer Shape Up + Meals

We've had some awesome weather this week so I have definitely taken advantage of being outside and taking some long walks. Here are my workouts from this past week:

Monday

10 minutes elliptical

2 sets of 25 side bends with 15 lb weight, right and left

4 sets of 25 crunches on stability ball

4 sets of 25 side twists on stability ball

2 sets of 25 standing twists with 15 lb weight

2 minute walk/run intervals on treadmill for 10 minutes

3 sets of 15 tricep extensions with 10 lb weight

3 sets of 15 bicep curls with plie

3 sets of 12 booty blast squats

Tuesday

25 minute elliptical

Wednesday

4 mile walk (may have been more!)

Thursday

Killer Card Workout

Friday

3.5 mile walk

All in all, a pretty successful week when it comes to working out! I also made a few yummy meals. Beginning with Easter:

Baked ham with a Brown Sugar and Spice glaze

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

Homemade Mac n' Cheese

Roasted Chicken

Peas

Leftover Mac n' Cheese

Caesar Salad

Spicy Angel Hair Pasta

(made with EVOO, garlic, red pepper flakes, basil, parsley, parmesan cheese)

I love fixing some yummy homemade meals for me and my hubby and I have learned that a ramekin is a great tool to help with portion control. I was totally wanting some creamy mac n' cheese but I didn't want the guilt. With some tweaks in the recipe which swapped out heavy cream for skim milk and only having a small portion, my craving was satisfied and I didn't consume a ton of calories.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend ladies!

xoxo

Fun, New Workout...thanks to Miss Carrie Underwood!

I found an awesome new workout thanks to this post over at Southern Curls and Pearls. Carrie Underwood is in this month's Self magazine and she shares a workout that she does when she's not with her trainer. Read the post here to get the idea of the workout.

The workout involves a deck of cards. I used my Lilly Pulitzer playing cards, of course ;)

So here's what I did. It's a little different from Miss Underwood's regiment but that is what is so great about this. You can change it up and really make it what you want! Okay...

1) Take a deck of cards and shuffle them really well.

2) Use the whole deck or split them up. I'm using half the deck right now and hoping to work my way up to the whole deck by the end of the month. Baby steps y'all!

3) Make sure there is a Joker in the deck.

4) Assign each type of card an area of the body. For example, I use the following:

Clubs= Arms

Spades= Legs

Hearts= Cardio

Diamonds= Abs

Aces= 1 minute plank

Joker= 10 minute cardio

5) Go through the deck and write out your workout. For example, let's say you flip over the first card and it's the 6 of spades. You could do 6 squats or 6 lunges or 6 reps on your favorite machine. Your next card may be 9 of diamonds so you'll go do 9 regular crunches or 9 reps on an ab machine. Just continue this until you're through the deck.

Starting with a 15 minute warmup on the elliptical, my workouts have taken a little over an hour and that's with me including a 10 minute stretch at the end. Seriously y'all... this workout is the bomb.com! It kicks your booty but it's fun because you're constantly doing something different and each time you do the workout, it's new because you never know what the cards have in store for you. My card workout from last week is listed below in my Friday workout. I'm anxious to know what y'all think if you try it!

Summer Shape Up

(workouts from last week)

Monday

31 minutes on elliptical

3 sets of 12 lat pull downs at 40 lbs

5 sets of 12 pec fly at 25 lbs

2 sets of 25 standing twists with 10 lb medicine ball

4 sets of 25 crunches on stability ball

Tuesday

25 minutes on treadmill

Thursday

30 minutes on elliptical

2 sets of 10 lunges, Right and Left

3 sets of 25 calf raises

3 sets of 25 standing twists with 10 lb medicine ball

50 crunches on stability ball

3 sets of 12 bicep curls with 10 lb weight

3 sets of 12 reverse tricep extension with 10 lb weight

3 sets of 10 tricep dips

Friday

"Card Workout"

15 minute warmup on elliptical

15 reps pec fly

15 crunches on stability ball

5 bicep curls

1 minute plank

13 lat pulldowns

10 standing twists with 10 lb medicine ball

2 minute run on treadmill

10 jumping jacks

4 lat deltoid raises

7 tricep dips

5 minutes on elliptical

13 calf raises

6 squats

9 ab twists on stability ball

8 lunges, Right and Left

2 squats with stability ball

10 reverse tricep extensions

3 bicycles (abs), Right and Left

10 minute walk on treadmill

13 jumping jacks

1 minute plank

10 second wall sit

3 bicep curls on stability ball

6 lat deltoid raises on stability ball

3 crunches on stability ball

4 squats

9 reps pec fly

10 minute stretch

(I told y'all....the "card workout" is a booty kicker!)

Saturday

40 minutes yoga

5 minutes "Booty Blast"

Have an awesome night, ladies!

Summer Shape Up

I can not believe it is March! While it still feels super chilly outside, we know that warm weather is right around the corner... and that means swimsuit season will be upon us soon. I am so, so, so ready for spring/summer, time at the beach, and lots of sunshine!

For me, March always means that it's time to kick my workout routine up a notch. I may need to start a little slow as this past month my schedule has been all over the place and this lady has not been good about hitting the gym... oops! I have learned a few things as I continue to explore the world of "fitness". I use the term "fitness" loosely when I talk about it because I am hardly a gym guru ;) Anywho...

1) Do what you can, when you can

I have learned that it is silly to stress out over missed gym sessions or not feeling like I did a good enough workout. Anything is better than nothing and I refuse to beat myself up over working out. I've done that before and I was absolutely miserable and I hated exercising.

2) Find a balance

Just because we workout doesn't mean that we can eat whatever we want! As much as that pains me to admit, it is true. I'm pretty good about balancing what I eat and how much I work out and I have learned that eating well is just as important in order to lose a few pounds.

3) Keep it fun!

I don't know about y'all but I get bored pretty quickly if I'm not entertained by something. During the winter, I suck it up and get on the treadmill or elliptical but I would much rather be outside and actually be going somewhere while I run, ha! I never do the same workout twice in one week... for real... never! I honestly just do whatever I'm feeling that day. One day I may do 45 minutes on the elliptical and the next day I just do hardcore abs. I tend to find myself on a yoga mat pretty frequently but I count a 5 mile walk around downtown as a workout as well. Mix up and keep it interesting... if not, working out will be super boring!

So what's on my workout agenda tonight? Some light cardio and maybe some abs... we'll see how I'm feeling after the cardio!

I figure it is better for me to post some of my workouts here on a weekly basis so I can be accountable for what I'm doing. If not, I would probably just sit on the couch with a bag of Doritos and cupcakes watching Will and Grace, ha!

Have a great day ladies :)

xoxo