Pre-Weekend Workouts and Nutrition

Happy Friday!
This is an especially exciting Friday for me because I have a friend visiting from out of town for the night. Our plans are dinner & drinks and enjoying being in Burlington with the warmer weather…although I think there may be rain in the forecast 😦 Oh well!

Weekends are so much fun because you get to to meet up with friends, get things done (like laundry…) and just relax at the end of the week, which is always good. On a day like today when I know I’m going to be partaking in weekend evening activities like eating tasty food and enjoying a beer or two, I try to make sure that two things happen throughout the day leading up to the nighttime fun.

1. Make healthy food & drink choices throughout the day
-For me, this means having a healthy breakfast, clean snacks such as fruit and nuts, and drinking lots of water… more than usual 😉

This is my 33oz water bottle that I bring everywhere!! I’ll drink about 3 of these today 😉

2. Quality workout
– Plenty of cardio
– Upper or lower-body weights plus Abs

With that said, here’s today’s workout:

I warmed up with a quick 2 miles on the treadmill and 10 minutes on the bike.

This workout alternates between upper-body exercises and abdominal exercises. It works the chest, upper back, biceps, triceps, shoulders, and abs. As usual, I did the workout in groups, taking small breaks between each group…so I completed all three sets of both the dumbell fly and the single-arm row, rested for a minute, then moved on to the next set of exercises.
The reverse crunch and v-up were really tough and I’ll definitely be doing these more often. Whew!

In Personal Trainer news, I’ve been reading, taking notes, and making flash cards for a few hours each day. It’s all really interesting information and the books are very well-written. I just finished reading all about joints and am about to start reading the section on skeletal muscle for a few hours until my friend arrives!

Have a great Friday! If you’re going out tonight, remember to stay hydrated and eat clean throughout the day so you can enjoy your night out!

Springtime Gym Goals: Abs

When it gets to be spring, I start evaluating my fitness goals. After wearing puffy winter coats and sweatshirts for the last hmmm 4 months (New England people know how that is) and celebrating quite a few holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, etc.), spring is the time when I begin thinking about how I’m going to feel in a swimsuit over the summer. So it makes sense that this is when I try to clean up my diet a little and move towards more “Swimsuit-y” exercises.

SO I called today’s workout the “Springtime ‘Get-Your-Abs-Back’ Workout.”

Because this is a workout meant to tone and uncover your Abs after a loooong winter, I recommend pairing it with 45 minutes to an hour of cardio. I did 30 minutes of biking and 30 minutes on the elliptical. The Abs portion took about 15minutes so it’s pretty quick but it gets those muscles working! All of the moves can be done with just your body-weight but I like to hold a weight while doing the Oblique Extension 🙂

As important as abdominal workouts are when trying to get your ideal beach body, nutrition is just as important – if not MORE important!

Here are a few things that I like to do to clean up my eating habits:

-Instead of my typical toast + peanut butter at breakfast, have fruit+ peanut butter most days
-Eat fruit + nuts or yogurt for snacks instead of Easter candy and/or graham crackers (ahem)
-Drink more water! Water is very important in terms of digestion and cleansing your body so I drink a lot of it when I’m trying to tone up
-Increase my vegetable portions at lunch and dinner

In other news, something exciting happened today!

My ACSM Personal Trainer study materials arrived!! I am very excited to start studying all of this material. I’m going to make up a little study schedule for myself tonight and get right into it tomorrow. Yay for moving forward with plans.

OK well if anyone tries the springtime Abs workout, let me know how it goes! And feel free to share any tips that you have for cleaning up your diet in preparation for summer clothes and beach time! Woo Hoo!