Pre-Turkey Day

Hello everyone and happy day-before-Thanksgiving! It's the calm before the storm in many ways here in Maine. Not only are the roads and airways about to get backed-up with millions of people travelling for the holiday but we are supposed to get a massive snow storm tonight and into tomorrow. I'm hearing upwards of 8-12 inches. Yuck!

Today was my cardio-only day at the gym so it was a boring sweat sesh on the elliptical for me. Luckily I chatted-it-up with the lady on the machine next to me the whole time so it flew by quickly. After a quick stretch I was back home getting ready for the day. It would have been a perfect lift day since the place was so empty! Hopefully it stays that way for the rest of the week.

The past few days I have been functioning on very little sleep so I'm seriously looking forward to taking some PTO starting tomorrow. I've been battling a small cold this week and while I fall asleep easily I end up waking around 3:00 am needing a nasal decongestant and then I can't fall back asleep. Pre-workout and coffee are keeping my eyes open.

What's everyone doing for the holiday? My family lives right down the street from me so luckily I don't have to travel anywhere. Just gotta make my fav cranberry-orange sauce and head on over to fill my belly up with delicious turkey! I'm not stressing over the possibility of weight gain for many reasons:

1. I factor-in a "cheat meal" each week anyway so having some extra fat and sugar with dinner isn't going to destroy my plan.
2. Not having to work means I have extra time to get in some additional cardio tomorrow morning pre-meal.
3. I naturally don't even like dishes with lots of butter and cream (stomach literally can't handle it and I'll end up on the toilet for the night) which are most of the side dishes at my family's southern-influenced table so I basically fill-up on turkey and cranberry sauce.
4. As the saying goes; "one "bad" meal won't ruin your progress just like one "good" meal won't give you results".

Therefore, we should all just enjoy ourselves and sample a little of everything! I'm not saying go on an all-out binge fest but do allow yourself a little treat. It's one day out of 365 and you don't want to look back and think "gee I wish I had had a slice of that homemade pecan pumpkin pie"! Mmmmm pie :D

Anyway, I have lots of items to check off my task list today so I'm out. Have a fantastic holiday with friends and family, enjoy some festive homemade cooking, stay safe on the roads, and keep life fit, fierce & fun! xo

Friday at Home

Good day & happy Friday everyone! After an excruciatingly long, frigid, and exhausting week in the office I was lucky to be able to work from home today. I had a plumber come to work on my shower faucet which has been leaking for several months so I had a good excuse to be home! I got up at 5:00 today (no drive into work meant I got to sleep-in an extra 15 minutes) and after some Coffee by Design pumpkin coffee and a bowl of hot apple & cinnamon oatmeal, I was off to the gym to train back and chest. My oatmeal was so good I'll share with you the simple recipe:

½ cup oats

¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce

Dash cinnamon & stevia

½ chopped apple

½ cup liquid egg whites

Refrigerate overnight and pop into the microwave when ready to eat!

Kind of a random crowd at the gym this morning. Fridays are typically a little quieter which is nice when you are on a time-restricted agenda! My workout was really great and consisted of these exercises:

Stiff-leg deadlifts

Standing T-bar rows

Decline DB chest presses

Incline DB shoulder presses

Wide-grip lat pulldowns

Flat bench DB flies

Cable straightbar standing pulldowns

3 sets of 8-12 each

A little stretching and I scooted home to walk the pup and get ready for my workday. Once I had my computer all set-up I mixed a delicious post-workout shake with whey and iced coffee. I usually have this with just water but since I was WFH I brewed extra coffee and refrigerated it while at the gym. I highly recommend this mix. Protein for your muscles + coffee for your brain = fantastic re-fuel!

At lunchtime I scooted out to the grocery store to do my weekly food shopping. It was an expensive order this week as I needed to re-stock on all of the expensive proteins (chicken, salmon & steak) and Mugsy was also running low on both food and treats! One great thing about this time of the year…citrus season! I got some delicious Ruby Red grapefruit and a gigantic crate of clementines. Clementines are such a great snack to have on-hand. They travel well, peel easily, are super healthy, and taste delicious! I plan on adding a couple into my annual cranberry sauce that I'll make for Thanksgiving next week. Yum! Hmmm that just gave me an idea for Thanksgiving themed oatmeal! :D

While at the supermarket I also picked-up a Vietnamese shrimp spring roll to have for lunch. Nothing in my fridge was appealing to me. Believe it or not I sometimes get sick of my usual chicken breast salad!

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing various work items on my laptop. Overall not a very eventful day but it was sssoooooo nice to be warm in my own home! The office has been so cold I've had to wear my smart wool socks, hiking boots, full North Face parka, scarf, and running gloves (thin fabric so I can still type) AT MY DESK. Even with all of this my circulation issues are at an extreme already this season. Yesterday my toes hurt so bad I had to try not to cry at my desk. Yes, I do have a doctor's note saying that I have a medical issue and need to be allowed the use of a space heater but I have not yet been allowed to use one by the company I work for. I won't go into details (I probably have mentioned it in prior years) but it's not something I can live with for much longer. I try to get up and walk around to get the blood flowing to them at least once per hour but I'm scared the lack of circulation could lead to amputation. I know that sounds drastic but my toes literally get so cold they turn purple/blue and burn. I can't even get a pedicure this time of year because it's too painful to touch them. I end up doing self-pedis on the weekend after a post-gym hot bath soak. Pathetic.   

Anyway, I'm toasty at the moment since I'm wearing socks, slippers, and sitting near my heater. I don't even keep my house that warm since I live alone and fuel is expensive. It ranges from high 60's when I'm home to low 60's when I'm away. I think it's more a matter of not having to sit stagnant for 9 hours with A/C blowing on me. Something's gotta give pretty soon.

I'm currently debating what to have for dinner tonight. To make something or to get a Whole Foods burrito which never disappoints? Hmm decisions, decisions. Friday used to be my "cheat meal" night but I'm going out to my favorite pasta restaurant tomorrow night and I plan to order the super decadent baked truffle mac 'n cheese. Saturday is of course my training off-day but I'll use the carb-load for my Sunday morning leg sesh! What are you all having for dinner tonight? Give me some good ideas! Cheers! xo

Sunday Funday Legday

So, I'm still on the Sunday legday routine as legs always take so much longer to train than any other muscle group and the weekdays just don't have enough time to get through my whole routine. Basically this means that I cannot walk correctly when I start the week out at work every single Monday LOL but oh well, no one seems to notice (or care!). This month my routine is pretty similar to last month except that I took out the RDLs which didn't seem to be giving me a booty burn anymore and replaced them with lunges which I haven't done in 2 months. Let's be honest, I HATE LUNGES! I didn't used to mind them when my workouts were less weight-focused but when you are constantly dealing with super tight quads and other random leg aches and pains they are a bitch. In order to get myself to not skip them I let myself choose the type of lunges I do each week. Last week was walking DB lunges (pure torture) and today I did walking lunges with Med Ball core twists. These weren't so bad as they were more balance than weight-focused. Other options I might use are stationary BB lunges, side-to-side lunges, or raised-leg lunges (I think these are called Bulgarian lunges?). I find the best way to keep yourself motivated is to do what you enjoy so if you hate what you're doing, find a better method! Anyway, here's the breakdown of November's leg routine:

4 sets of 8-12 each:
-BB back squats
-Hack squats
-Lunges of choice (2x length of gym)
-DB goblet squats on two parallel benches (Doing them raised lets you get really deep - I LOVE these!)
-Standing calf raises. 2 sets with toes forward 1 set each with toes facing in and out. This lets you get your calves working from all angles - another trick I love!

I then finished off with 15 minutes on the elliptical to loosen-up my stiffening muscles, 3 sets of hanging leg raises not only for a little core work but also to really stretch out the upper body since I'll be hitting shoulders tomorrow, and then finally some stretching and foam-rolling on the mats.

This takes about 2 hours in total so I try to get in really early and not use-up too much of my day. On my way out of course I was starved so I had a delicious Pure Fit peanut butter toffee protein bar and then stopped into Coffee By Design for a small iced which I mixed-up in my shaker with my whey. I bought a new flavor recently, chocolate caramel I think its called, which I am not a fan of but the coffee addition made it so much better! Adding caffeine to your protein shake is not only a great way to refuel those broken down muscles but also fantastic for re-energizing yourself after completely burning yourself out for 2 hours! I'm so ready to take on the rest of my day now haha! When I got home I soaked in a hot bubble bath filled with Epson salts for a while prior to showering. The salts feel so good on your sore muscles, soften your skin really nicely, and the heat and lavender scent really help to rid any lingering stresses. Plus, its freaking frigid here and the thought of sitting in an ice bath when the air temperature is not much warmer was really making me cringe!

Despite my post-workout nutrition I'm already dizzy from starvation so I'm going to go make myself my typical chicken breast salad for lunch before getting on with my Sunday chores. Thank goodness I took tomorrow off as a PTO day...so much to do and so little time lately!

Do you readers reserve your favorite or most time-consuming workouts for the weekends or do you prefer to take the weekends off? What's your favorite post-workout snack? I'd love to see some comments below! Happy Gymming all! xo

Election Day

Hello gym rats and happy Election Day! I woke bright and early and hit chest and back on this frigid Tuesday here in Maine. As the start of a new month, all of my workouts are changed-up this week. It's always my favorite week of lifting! Today's split consisted of the following:

-Straight-leg DLs

-Wide-grip T-bar rows

-Decline DB presses

-Incline DB presses

-Cable lat pull-downs

-Flat DB flies

-Straight-bar standing cable pull-downs

I have to say, 3 days into my new schedule and I am spent! My ass hurts so bad still from Sunday's leg sesh (but hurts so good!) and doing back right after yesterday's shoulder sesh probably wasn't my brightest idea ever. I may switch my back/chest day with my bicep/tricep day (Friday) going forward.

Another thing I love about a new month of offseason building is that I get another calorie increase to my meal plan. I have been testing a monthly increase in calories each month since my last show. So long as I feel like I'm burning it and not getting pudgy, I keep it going. This month I'm up to 1,800 and I feel great. I am noticing huge gains in my "troubled" areas and my abs, while not as defined as I prefer, are still flat and sports-bra appropriate LOL! My macros are still around 45 C / 20 F / 35 P but I'm honestly not as strict as I have been in the past. This sport is such an experiment and I find it's better to listen to your body rather than sticking to a super stringent routine that may be slowing your gains. Unless you're cutting…in that case stay on plan! Side-note: I posted a great recipe for sweet potato quinoa patties to my recipes page a week or so ago so if you haven't already, go check that out. They are delicious!

In other updates, I'm still ridiculously busy and have zero down-time. That's why the blogs have gotten so infrequent lately. I will however be updating you all in the next month or so and my lack of posts will suddenly make much more sense…just in time for a 2014 re-cap and discussion of New Year resolutions past and future! I can't believe the year is coming to a close again. I know it's only the start of November but time flies and we'll be baking Turkey's and hanging stockings soon enough! It even snowed here this past weekend. Yuck! It snowed all effing day long on my "Sunday Funday" but luckily it didn't accumulate. The weather has been so strange lately. 34 degrees when I got up this morning and supposedly it's going to be in the 60's tomorrow. Make up your mind already!

Anyway, I gotta get back to my day here. Have a great Tuesday and don't forget to vote! Make your opinion count.

P.S. I would really love to add some new online clients to my book in the coming year. Talk about a perfect holiday gift to give! I create monthly PERSONALIZED fitness routines and diet plans for folks of all kinds. And no, you don't have to be a seasoned exerciser or a bodybuilder. I work with my clients to create a routine that both fits their schedule and incorporates things they'll enjoy doing. Fitness is supposed to be fun! Visit my site at www.FitFierceFun.com or e-mail me at FitfierceFun@gmail.com I might even offer-up a deal if you mention this blog post J