Tabata and Salads

For 4 days Mike worked a 12 hour shift, that left me with Kellen in the hotel all day long. I couldn't make it down to the "dream gym" on the second floor so I knew I'd have to exercise within our hotel room. I decided the best way to go about my fitness plan for these 4 days was to do bodyweight exercises using the Tabata method. If you're not familiar with Tabata, it's a very intense but short in time duration type of training. It incorporates a brief 20 second period of intense exercise followed by an even more brief 10 second period of rest done for 8 total repetitions. The entire set lasts only 4 minutes but by the time you're done that four minutes should have gotten your heart rate more than just elevated and the target muscle properly fatigued. I downloaded a free interval timer onto my iPad and set the work sets to 20 seconds, rest time to 10 seconds, with a total of 8 rounds. My first exercise? Burpees! I don't like them but I know they're a great full body exercise. After my first Tabata I rested 2 minutes then did two additional Tabatas, first was push ups, second was jump squats. I then performed some planks and crunches followed by stretching. My entire workout required no equipment and lasted only 20 minutes from my warm up all the way through my cool down. I did this high intensity interval training 3 of the 4 days in my hotel room. The other day Kellen and I went down to the pool and frolicked! As for my diet I've made myself a rule, eat like a lizard! Lol, yep, I've been eating salads like its no ones business but mine! It's been working for me in a sense that I can control my calories, I know I'm getting all my servings of veggies, I'm well hydrated and... I keep regular. And by regular I mean no constipation here! My family, friends and clients always complain about getting "backed up" while on vacation. Most of the time this is contributed to a high fat, low vegetable and low hydration issue. So if you eat a salad for lunch and dinner this resolves that issue. I know some of you are thinking, "I really don't want to eat salads on my vacation!" but let me tell you I've had some of the most delicious salads ever these last two weeks! My favorite place by far is Sweet Tomatoes because I make my own salad. My favorite toppings are beets, carrots, corn, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives. So yum diddly um. Kellen likes Sweet Tomatoes too, he prefers the plain rotini pasta, olives and cucumbers. Then he always chooses the grapes over the chocolate brownies. Is that weird my kid chooses fruit over the processed food?! I'm a proud momma! 

Baja Fresh and Migraines

I think I'm officially addicted to Baja Fresh. Today, the third time I've ate there in the last four days, I walked in and both the manager and cashier said welcome back. Kellen and I are becoming regulars. I ate the Skinny Chicken Bowl but substituted the rice for lettuce. Kellen ate half a veggie burrito. In the gym today I did a 30 minute circuit style workout including uphill sprints in the sets to keep my heart rate up. The workout included dumbbell push ups, shoulder presses, lateral raises, tricep overhead extensions and 1 minute 15% incline sprints. That is one whole set. I completed this circuit 5 times and then did light stretching. Around 2ish I felt a migraine coming on so I took a nap in hopes I could deter it but I awoke an hour later and it was there, nausea,  eye pain, sensitivity to light. It's no walk in the park taking care of a toddler with a migraine. The gift shop in the lobby didn't carry any Exedrine so I went back to the room and tried a more homeopathic way of relief with peppermint oil. Hopefully it will go away by tomorrow.

House Arrest

Sicilian truck/transportation drivers have been on strike since Monday. Because of this, no gasoline, food, mail, and many other goods can come onto the island. As of early Wednesday morning, all gas stations ran out of fuel. Right now, there is no end to the strike in sight so my husband and I have decided I will not drive the vehicle until gasoline returns to the island. This means... NO GYM. I was crushed this morning, but didn't let it stop me from getting in a decent workout. I hit my chest, shoulders, triceps and abs with only a stability ball and 15lb kettlebell. Yep, that's all. I decided to take a little video for you all so you can see that not having a gym membership is no excuse. This video is only a little excerpt.
The full workout was as follows; Circuit Set 1: Stability Ball Seated Shoulder Press (10 reps), Stability Ball Incline Chest Press (10), Stability Ball Chest Press (10), Kettlebell Windmills (10), Kettlbell Push Ups (10). Perform all exercise with left are first, then with right arm. That's one set. Perform set 4 times through. Circuit Set 2: Elevated Push Ups on Stability Ball (10), Single Arm Shoulder Lateral Raise (10 each arm), Overhead One Arm Tricep Extension (10 each arm), Stability Ball Crunch (20). Complete giant set 3 times through. Last and Final Circuit Set: Stability Ball Seated double arm front kettlebell raise (15), Standing Overhead double arm tricep extension balanced on one leg (20), Bicycle Crunch (20 total), Side Plank (30 seconds each side). Do this last set 3 times through.

Switchin It Up

Today I couldn't make it to the gym. No babysitter, the daycare is closed because it's an Italian holiday weekend, I have two batches of cookies to make for the ladies fellowship tomorrow, a house to clean AND a Christmas Party to go to. Yep, I'm busy. But not busy enough to not blog this AND definitely not too busy for exercise. So I knew I'd have to make my workout short and intense whilst Kellen was slumbering upstairs in his crib. I pulled out the old Insanity videos and hopped to it once Kellen went down for his midday nap. The different training techniques kept me on my toes and dripping sweat and heart pounding. You see, I have been doing mostly strength training these last three months and my body was absolutely SHOCKED to get this blood pumping plyometric type exercise. So remember, cross train to keep your body guessing and beat those plateaus. And also, there is no excuse to not exercise. I only used my body today to get a full body workout. ;)