Gym Paparazzi

Breakfast

Casey and I had the wonderful opportunity of sleeping in pretty late this morning without one or both of us having to wave up early for work. It was awesome! We slept until Zeke woke us up to take him outside for a pee, so we decided to go for a nice long morning walk.

When we got back, I had a bowl of Rice Chex cereal with flax milk and peanut butter on top. I gobbled it all up because we had a big day ahead of us!

Spring Cleaning

We had decided to make today our official spring cleaning day where we could go through every single thing in our apartment in order to reorganize, donate or throw out everything.

We had quite a lot of stuff to go through, but it only ended up taking us until the early afternoon to complete. We ended up having two industrial-sized garbage bags of things to throw out, two garbage bags of things to donate and everything was officially organized.

Every thing had it's place and we even organized our storage closet, including labeling every bin so we knew exactly what was in them.

 

Lunch

About halfway through spring cleaning, we needed a bit of refueling for lunch. I munched on about 2-3 cups of Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Dill Pickle popcorn as we cleaned.

 
I also had a green monster smoothie for lunch which was made by blending up a frozen banana, a few handfuls of frozen baby spinach, a cup of flax milk and a half scoop of vanilla protein powder.

Afternoon Refreshment

After our spring cleaning was finally complete, we headed out to run some errands and picked up Starbucks' Refreshers on the way home. I ordered the Cool Lime Refresher while Casey ordered the Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher. They were delicious and helped quench the thirsts we had developed from cleaning!

Workout

We both headed off to the gym afterwards to get in a good workout. The gym ended up being empty, so I took advantage of Casey being at the gym with me and turned him into my own personal gym paparazzi! We both started off by completing a 20 minute HIIT warm up on the elliptical, followed by a full body workout.

Bosu Pushups (3 sets of 10 reps)

Bosu Pushups (3 sets of 10 reps)

Squatting 140lbs (3 sets of 5 reps)

Squatting 140lbs (3 sets of 5 reps)

Squatting 140lbs (3 sets of 5 reps)

Medicine Ball Squat and Press Across Body (3 sets of 10 reps)

Medicine Ball Squat and Press Across Body (3 sets of 10 reps)

Medicine Ball Squat and Press Across Body (3 sets of 10 reps)

Regular Pushups (3 sets of 10 reps)

Pilates Pushups (3 sets of 10 reps)

Dinner

We took Zeke out for another long walk as our cool down from the gym and then it was time for dinner. We cooked up a rack and a half of honey garlic ribs on the barbeque along with some steamed green beans. I ate about two thirds of a rack of ribs and enjoyed every last bite. Deeelish!

Victoria Day Fireworks

Later on in the evening, a few friends, Casey and I went out to see the Victoria Day fireworks. We went a bit early to make sure we got a good spot, which left us lots of time to chat, read a magazine and play games. Just as the sun was setting and it looked like the fireworks were about to begin, some crazy storm clouds started rolling in. Check out those ripples in the clouds!

We decided to play it safe and left early in case the fireworks were cancelled. On our drive home, we read online that we had made the right decision. The fireworks were indeed cancelled due to the threatening storm and were rescheduled to next weekend.

Now it's time for me to head off to bed! I have a 3-day orientation starting tomorrow morning to get back into the Before and After School Program where I worked last year. Since I took a year off for school, I need a bit of retraining before I have the opportunity to take over the supervisor position at a different school in the city. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also a little nervous to be thrown right into the program with only a month of school left. Wish me luck!

Good night everyone!

Maximize Your Life with Jillian Michaels

I've had a super busy long weekend so far, so please don't kill me for not posting this right away. At long last, here is my post about my experience seeing Jillian Michaels live during her Maximize Your Life tour!

I went to see Jillian Michaels' Maximize Your Life with a friend and fellow blogger Megan from The Jelly Bean Exchange on Friday night. As you may or may not know, Jillian Michaels is one of my idols who has been on my bucket list as a person to see live since the first time I watched her on The Biggest Loser. The day had finally come and I was ECSTATIC! To make things even better, our tickets were upgraded from the third level to the first!

Before the show, we purchased JM Strong hats and Maximize Your Life Tour t-shirts.

I will be happily sporting both of these items everywhere for the next few months!

The show was divided into two parts separated by an intermission. In the first half of the show, she discussed nutrition and fitness. In the second half, she discussed maximizing your life and being the best version of you.

She made time fly by with her jokes and shenanigans! I couldn't stop laughing throughout various parts of the show. She was so entertaining!

Nutrition

Jillian emphasized a few points in this section of the show. She stressed examining not only quantity of the food you consume, such as portion size, caloric intake and using your BMR to determine how many calories you should be consuming, but QUALITY of the food you consume! This includes reading nutrition labels to ensure what you are eating is in fact real food, eliminating toxins and obesogens from your food, and filling your diet with good quality food.

Here is Jillian's recommend list that should drive your food choices, particularly when buying food at the grocery store. There are some "clean" foods that tend to absorb less pesticides and toxins anyway; therefore, you do not need to waste the money on buying organic with these items. There are also "dirty" foods that have a high absorption rate of chemicals; therefore, they should be avoided or bought as organic. Finally, there are some ingredients that are man-made frankenfoods that should be avoided at all costs and should never be in any of your foods.

Fitness

This section of the show was a lot less new to me, not that I had never seen any of the above nutrition facts before. She stressed getting the most out of your workouts, including working multiple muscle groups simultaneously to get the most burn for your buck. She encouraged us to incorporate High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT into both our strength training circuits and cardio in order to burn more calories in less time. She also really emphasized that spending endless hours in the gym is not always effective, nor is it safe for your body. It is important to get in a mix of strength training and cardio HIIT, preferably in the form of a circuit, for roughly an hour a day five days a week. Finally, she said what everybody always knows...this will only work if you are consistent! If you are not going to be able to sustain these workouts over weeks or months, try doing something active that you love to do so that you are more likely to continue to do it over time.


Maximize Your Life

During the second half of the show, Jillian shared her person struggle with weight loss, low self-esteem, a poor relationship with her father and a history of bad relationships and how she overcame all of that in order to become the best version of her self. In this part of the show, she shared with us how we can start living in the present by letting go of our past. We need to focus on what we can do at the present moment instead of bringing all of the baggage from our past to the table and having the mindset of "In the future, I will do..." or "When I am skinny, I will be..." or "After I get a good job, I can do...". We need to create goals for ourselves that are tangible and measurable, such as reducing my cholesterol or walking my children down the aisle instead of simply "being healthy". We need to create our own "why" (why we do what we do, why do we want to be healthy, why am I special and deserving just like every other individual) and create goals as our "how" (how are you going to be your best self, how will you get there, how can you life your best life now?).

Alright, so that all sounded a lot more graceful when Jillian said it on Friday! I tried to remember as much as I could so I could share it all with you.

Here are some of the key points I walked away with that night...

• I need to start living in the present instead of always looking to the future. I tend to miss out on what's happening around me because I'm always anticipating what's about to happen next.
• I need to re-examine all of the "should" statements I say to myself and think about what purpose they serve in my life, such as "I should have a full time job by now", "I should eat healthy all of the time", or "I should go to the gym more often". Are they really necessary? Is there any way I can get rid of them? What function are they serving in my life? Is the function helping me or hurting me? Are these defense mechanisms?
• I need to start doing things for myself NOW rather than putting them off until I reach a certain point in my life. There is no better time than the present and I will still be the same human being inside at that
  "magical point" in my life where I think everything will be in order.
• She helped me see that I think I am on the right track in terms of my fitness routine. I am incorporating a mix of time spent in the gym with time spent riding horses or doing other activities I love because this is sustainable for me. I would like to incorporate more muscle groups into my exercises though so I'm not working out single muscle groups at a time. This is a bit of a waste of time.
• Finally, I need to re-think what I am putting in my body. I would really like to follow her lists of foods to avoid or foods to consume more often, particularly when it comes to the quality of meat I consume. This is something that may cost me an extra $20/week in the beginning; however, the health benefits are worth it in the end!

Alright folks, that's it! I would like to know what you think of all of this information. Did you see the Maximize Your Life Tour? Did you think the information was helpful? Were there any foggy areas or do you have any questions about any of the information?

Big News!

Breakfast

Today was a good day! I woke up to the bright sun shining through my window and I enjoyed the warm weather by taking Zeke out for a walk first thing in the morning.

When I came back home, it was time for breakfast. I had a bowl of Rice Chex cereal with flax milk and peanut butter on top. I love this combination!

Workout

I went to the gym straight after breakfast because I knew I likely wouldn't go if I didn't go right away. I would have likely spent the entire day outside if I could! Instead, I did a 30 minute interval workout on the elliptical followed by 40 minutes of lower body work primarily with resistance bands and a bosu ball. I ended with 15 minutes of good stretching which make me feel fabulous! I felt really strong in the gym today! I can see my body getting stronger every day and it makes me so happy knowing I'm finally giving it what it needs.

The walk back to my apartment was glorious! I took my time walking back to enjoy every last ounce of sunshine.

  
Lunch

When I got home from the gym, I made myself a protein shake to refuel after my workout. I combined a frozen banana, a cup of flax milk, two big handfuls of frozen baby spinach, a tablespoon of peanut butter and half a scoop of vanilla protein powder. This shake really hit the spot and kept me full all throughout my short afternoon shift at work.

Dinner

After work, I was super hungry. Casey had burgers on the grill before I even got home from work so we could enjoy them right away. I ate my burger with two slices of gluten free flax bread, ketchup, relish, red onions and lettuce. I also had a gigantic garden salad on the side. Do you want to know why I had such a big salad?

Because I picked up a bottle of East Side Mario's garden salad dressing on my way home from work!!! Oh my goodness, I LOVE this stuff! I could seriously drink it.

Even after that gigantic garden salad with my burger, I was still craving more so I had another bowl of salad with this mouthwatering dressing. Yum!

Evening Snack

Casey and I spent the evening relaxing on the couch and watching reruns of Hell's Kitchen. I had a few tablespoons of pure crunch almond butter as a little snack in the evening before calling it a night.

Big News!

Alright everyone, here is my big news! I can't believe I've gone so long without telling any of you. I think I put it to the back of my mind so I wouldn't go crazy waiting for tomorrow night to come. Are you ready for it? Here it is!

I'm seeing JILLIAN MICHAELS tomorrow during her Maximize Your Life tour!!! 

This is a dream come true! Jillian Michaels has always been my idol. I truly look up to her and her perspective on life. I can't wait to finally be in the same (very large) room as her and cross one thing off my bucket list! It's going to be fantastic!

Yesterday Slipped Away

Breakfast

I ended up falling asleep last night without blogging because I was so tired from my busy day. Here is what my day was like yesterday, and I'll be writing another post about today later this evening. Enjoy!

I woke up ready to go yesterday! I made myself a protein shake to fuel my body for a the busy day ahead. I blended together a cup of frozen mixed berries, half a scoop of vanilla protein powder, one cup of flax milk and a few handfuls of spinach. It wasn't quite a "green" monster smoothie, but there was spinach somewhere in there!

After I finished my smoothie I took Zeke out for a walk before heading out the door for the day!

Lunch

The first thing on my agenda was going out of town to my dentist for a check-up. As always, my teeth betrayed me and they ended up finding two small cavities. The dentist said they were super small, but he would like to fill them as soon as possible so they don't get any bigger. I had to schedule two more appointments to have them filled as they are both in different sides of my mouth. Boo!

On my way back into the city, I grabbed a grilled chicken wrap with a whole wheat wrap, no cheese and light on the mayonnaise. I knew I would be driving all over the city for the next few hours, so I needed something to keep my hunger away. I also had an apple which I had brought with me.

My next stop was to get the oil changed in my car. The people at the shop were very nice and I had my oil changed in about 5 or 10 minutes after this van was finished. I was out of there in no time!

Afternoon Snack

I drove to the other end of the city to drop off some paperwork so I can start actively looking for respite families before heading back home. I did a quick change at home, took Zeke out for a walk and headed off to work at the barn. I needed something a little bit stronger to keep me going for the rest of the day, so I stopped at Starbucks and picked up a tall caramel light frappuccino as my afternoon snack. It was delicious!

Workout

I spent the rest of the afternoon teaching at the barn before hopping on Ginny for a nice 45 minute ride out in the sunshine. We had a great time! I don't know if it's the bond I've formed with Ginny or just her smooth mellow gate, but there is something about riding her that is very therapeutic for ME! I always feel so calm and relaxed after riding her and I know she feels the same. She was licking and chewing her entire way back to the barn then almost fell asleep in the crossties as I pampered her before putting her back in her stall for the night!

Dinner

I didn't end up taking any pictures of dinner, but it was split up into two parts. I had the last little bit of brown rice crackers at the barn along with another apple, then I headed home and had a hard-boiled egg and a few handfuls of cereal before calling it a night.

That was about it for yesterday! I'll see you later tonight for what my day was like today!