Workout Wednesday & Weekend Photos

Wow, I must say the little break from social media was sort of nice this past weekend!  I posted on Instagram, but that was about it.  We were busy with Thanksgiving, traveling to Maine for my little sister's baby shower, & holiday decorating.  It was fun!  Here are a few of my fav photos from the weekend:

Thanksgiving cooking with my little helpers, they gave me their biggest cheeseball smiles for the photos:

 

The view on my Thanksgiving morning run:

We ended up staying home & having a huge feast just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving & we then went over to a friends for drinks & dessert.  It was nice not to travel, especially since the girls & I headed to Maine the following morning (a 2 1/2 hour drive) for my sister's shower.

Me & my beautiful lil sis at her baby shower:

100 Burpees on Sunday for the Elf For Health Challenge:

Decorating the Christmas Tree on Sunday:

Our Elf on The Shelf, Elfkin arrived & turned the milk green:

And your Wednesday Workout:

That workout is a little hard to read with the coloring on there not to mention my super messy handwriting, huh?

Here it is again:

Perform each move for 10-12 reps (besides the added cardio & abs) & repeat each segment 3x before moving on to the next.

Deadlift
Front Squat
50 Jumping Jacks

Push-ups
Bent-over row
50 High Knees

Split Squat
Weighted Bridge
50 Skaters

Shoulder Press
Tricep Dips
50 Jump Rope

Plank Spidey-25
Weighted Russian Twist-25
50 Mountain Climbers

Perform each segment with as little rest as possible & rest 2-3 minutes between segments.

Do you have a specific notebook or journal where you keep track of workouts or an online app?  Or do you just have a million random notebook pages spread everywhere with different workouts (yep that's me. 

Have you decorated for Christmas/gotten a tree yet?  Any fun holiday traditions you want to share so I can have some new ideas?

Workout Wednesday & Elf 4 Health Update!

Can you believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving?! I can't wait!  :)

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm taking part in the Elf 4 Health Challenge.  The challenge is a month long and we each have an "Elf" buddy to help keep us accountable.  My "elf" Aly is super sweet and we're having fun getting to know each other via e-mail.  We are actually both originally from Massachusetts, only a couple towns apart!  Here is the calendar of daily challenges we have taken on for the month:

Day 1 was Meatless Monday and this was a first for me!  I noticed it forced me to focus a lot more on what I was eating & I tended to include a lot more veggies in each meal.  Win!  I think I will try to do a Meatless Monday each week! I kept track of my meals for the day over on instagram (@gosupermamago). 

Day 2 we were to unsubscribe from at least 3 e-mail lists.  I ended up unsubscribing to about 100, seriously!  I don't even know how I ended up on all those lists!  I also took the time to purge my e-mail.  At one point a couple years ago I didn't check my e-mail very often & deleted NOTHING.  It is embarrassing how many e-mails I had piled up, but I'm almost done cleaning house.  I'm so thankful for this day of the challenge because it forced me to finally get that done!

Day 3 is a new workout!  My "elf" Aly e-mailed me the following workout that she did with a trainer friend the other day:

Do the circuit 4 (or 5)times though with 2-3 mins rest in between each set:

10 push ups 

20 burpees

30 mountain climbers

40 jump squats
50 second plank

 

So that will be my workout for the day!  Should be interesting because I am already super sore from Monday & Tuesdays workouts.  I am doing a little 30 day challenge with myself.  I am going to be sure I am doing something active every day from now until Christmas.  (I started Nov. 25th)  Some days will be active rest, but I am also going to really push it.  I lost strength during marathon training and I am ready to get it back.  As soon as the knee is back on track I will start building up my mileage as well. 

 

If you are looking for a new workout to do today check out these links for workouts I have posted on the blog in the past:

 

Martini's & Muscles

 

Workout Wednesday & A Couple Fall Crafts

 

Three Things Thursday

 

 

Have you set any goals/challenges for yourself lately?

 

What is your favorite Thanksgiving day food?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Fun

We started off the weekend with a lazy Friday night & a movie (The Princess & The Frog).

On Saturday my Aunt Kathy and I took the girls to get their Christmas Pictures done.  Here's a few that were taken:

Yup, they are just gorgeous (yes I know I'm biased) and I want a copy of every single photo taken.

Today is bitter cold up here in the Northeast.  Perfect day for a slow cooker pot roast & fresh homemade rolls.  I had this roast cooking in the slow cooker by 9am.  It was amazing and falling apart when we ate it at 5ish.

I managed a (mostly) pain-free 2.5 mile run this weekend.  So I'm hoping this is a good preview of pain-free runs to come.  I will also admit that my run was just a little miserable.  Running about 45 seconds slower than marathon pace and feeling out of breathe is certainly humbling.  But you know what, I'm just going to be happy that I'm able to run at all.  Running makes me so happy & I know I am blessed to be able to do it!

I joined in on the Elf For Health Challenge.  Check it out if you are looking for a fun holiday health challenge and to meet new people!  It's closed for the first round, but you can still join in and have lots of fun during the second round.  Here is the link: http://www.theleangreenbean.com/elf-for-health.

Tonight I'm waiting for Sunday night football.  My least favorite time (because I'm going to fall asleep during the game.)  Anyways, GO PATS!!!! :)  While we are waiting hubby and  I are watching : "Alaska the Last Frontier" and I want to move there every time we watch. I'm sure Skinnyrunner can talk me out of it (or not). :)

Do you keep up with football this time of year? 

What is your favorite cold weather meal?

Martini's & Muscles

Happy Friday!

I was actually looking forward to Thursday more than Friday this week because my Sister in Law Amanda was coming to visit for the night.  She came down and we took the girls to the book fair at Devin's school and then we went out for dinner & drinks.  We ended up going to a nearby Italian/Mediterranean Restaurant.  They have $7 martini's on Thursday nights & yummy grilled pizzas.  We ended up with a stuffed Portobello appetizer and we shared two grilled pizza halfs.  My fav of the two was the Pear & Prosciutto Grilled Pizza.  It was delicious! 

After dinner we grabbed a bottle of red wine & a couple chocolate bars.  We brought them back to my house and chatted all night while we had some vino and dessert.

                                        Shiraz, Sea Salt Almond & Coconut Dark Chocolate

I am so blessed to have Amanda as my sis in law.  She is absolutely amazing & super supportive.  (My brother Jack (her hubby) is also pretty great too.) :) She also is responsible for getting me into racing.  I don't know what I would do without her, she deserves her own entire separate post one of these days.

Now on to the muscles part of the post. A full body workout that I did yesterday (you know to burn off the drinks & pizza in advance).   I love total body workouts.  Even more I love total body workouts that incorporate jump training & keep your heart rate high the whole time.  This means you burn more calories in a shorter amount of time.  I am all about short bursts of high intensity work. 

This is a circuit workout, which means you will complete each move  as many times as you can during the interval (with good form) before moving on to the next.  You can do it 2-3x through for a 20-30 minute workout.  I did it 2x.  The intervals are 50 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest. 

• 1 Leg Weighted Lunge (L)
• 1 Leg Weighted Lunge (R)
• Jump Lunges
• Incline Push-ups
• Burpees (Full)
• Plank Toe Touch
• Butterfly Sit-ups
• Jump Squats
• Weighted Sumo-Squat with knee to elbow
• Push-up to side plank

The best part about interval training is that it can be adjusted to you.  You aren't doing a certain amount of reps, you are doing as many reps as you can in the given time.  Interval workouts are a great way to gauge progress.  Keep track of how many reps you can complete.  Go back in a few weeks and perform the same workout again to see how much improvement you have made.  I am going to make a point of this over the next 30 days.  Since right now I'm (very) limited on my running, I am trying to get stronger.  I think this will be important during my next marathon training cycle.

The above workout can also be done without weight, it would still be a fantastic workout using your own body weight.  Just be sure to push harder to get as many reps as possible (with good form) done during each interval.

Do you keep track of your strength gains?  Whether it be in running, strength or flexibility, how do you keep track to make sure you are improving?

Thanksgiving Plans & Menu Ideas

For the past few years we have headed up to Maine for Thanksgiving to my brother & sister in laws (Jack & Amanda) house.  We would head up the night before or morning of and  I would help my Amanda cook all day (with mimosas of course).  My family and her family would all come over late afternoon and we would have a big yummy dinner.  We would follow up dinner with beer tasting and games until late into the night.  Unfortunately, this isn't our plan this year.  Amanda had to go ahead and graduate from Med School, so her and Jack moved to Connecticut for Residency. (the nerve huh?)  :)

Anyways, we took a while figuring out what we actually would do this year for Thanksgiving and ultimately decided it would be nice to stay home just the 4 of us.  My mom will be doing dinner at her house in Maine, but not until 6pm because she is flying out Sunday to greet my brother Kevin in Kentucky as he returns from Afghanistan on Monday or Tuesday. (YAY!)  She is actually spending the morning with him on Thanksgiving and flying home in the afternoon, so she won't be around most of the day.  And my little sister's (Meaghan) baby shower is on Saturday, so the girls and I are going to head up on Friday and spend the night and get in some family time then.  We do have other family we could visit, but since we will be doing a lot of traveling over the weekend it will be nice to just stay home and relax on Thanksgiving.

                                      Yes that is her (Meaghan)-------------------^ How cute is she?

I think this is the first time we have stayed home for Thanksgiving since having the girls, so I want to make it fun.  The girls and I have started menu planning and have picked a few fun Thanksgiving crafts to make over the weekend for decorations.

Like this Banner:

And this Thanksgiving Turkey:



And a centerpiece of some sort.  I haven't found one I really like that is possible to make as a craft with the kids.  Let me know if you have any ideas!

I'm still deciding on our complete menu.  I want to have all of our favorites, but with only 4 of us I don't want to have loads of leftovers.  So here is what I have so far:

Appetizers:

• Crab Stuffed Mushrooms
• Cheese & Crackers

Main Course:

• Turkey
• Ham (hubby is allergic to poultry, yes for real.)
• Mashed Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole (I will make this fresh, no canned soup here)
• Roasted Butternut Squash
• Brussel Sprouts made with pancetta or bacon
• Homemade Corn Bread

Dessert:

• Peanut Butter Pie
• Mini Apple Pie's

I may add or take away some of these.  Like I said I don't want too much food, but I want everyone to be happy.  I have to ask hubby if he is set on stuffing because he is the only one who will eat it, but if he really wants it I will make it.  I was trying to think of another appetizer that the kids will eat because they won't eat the stuffed mushrooms. They love shrimp so maybe I will get a little to cook up as an app.  I will be sure to add some of the recipe's I will be using as we get closer to the big day, so be sure to check back if you are looking for any ideas!

We are planning to do a family hike this day, probably before dinner.  Otherwise we will just be hanging out, spending time together, watching football & maybe a family movie!

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?  Do you spend the holiday at home or visiting family/friends?  Any fun traditions?

"Long" Run & Sunday Funday

It's just super sad to me when my "long" run is 3 miles.  But, I'm still trying to figure out my knee issue & have been running only once a week for the past 4 weeks(since marathon Sunday).  Each weekend I'm hopeful things have changed, but as of now they just haven't.  I'm stubborn, but not dumb and this pain is not just a little nagging muscle issue.  I'm not real sure WHAT it is, and if I can't fix it through rest/stretching/icing/foam rolling I will go see a specialist, but I'm trying all that first.

Here are some photos from Sunday Funday:



The girls did a little cookie decorating with a friend.



And had a healthy snack to balance off the frosting and sprinkles... (thank you Pinterest)

Hubby set up a tire swing "for the kids"

Yup, very believable ;)

I had a few mimosas with a friend & I enjoyed a little of my new favorite beer:


If you are a fan of stouts I think you should give this a shot because it is fantastic.

How was your weekend?

Slow Cooker Beef & Barley Soup

Tuesday we had our first snowfall!  Cori (my 4 y/o) let us all know bright and early (by waking everyone up) that it had snowed "even though it wasn't Christmas yet!" She says the cutest and funniest stuff all the time.  I really should write more of it down.  Anyways, seeing as how these next couple of days are going to be the coldest so far I decided it would be a great day to pull out the slow cooker.  I'm in desperate need of a trip to the grocery store, but thankfully we had a roast on Sunday and I had enough leftovers to make some beef & barley soup.  It came out delicious and my house smelled amazing all day!  And better yet, it is kid approved.  My kids both said they didn't like beef and barley soup (they like to change their mind a lot about liking or not liking foods), but once they tried it (again) they both liked it.

Slow Cooker Beef & Barley Soup

1 lb leftover roast (I usually use a bottom round roast, I'm sure other cuts are fine too)*
6 cups of water
2  1/2 Tbs. Low Sodium Better than Bouillon
1 Tbs. Butter (I used Smart Balance, I'm sure you could use Olive Oil too)
1 1/2 C Carrots
1/2 C Barley
2 Small Potatoes
1 medium sized onion
2 tsp. Italian Seasoning*
1Tbs. Tomato Paste*
1 Cup of Green Beens*
1 Cup of mushrooms*

*I didn't measure any of these items so I'm guestimating on the amount.

This is really an easy recipe to make.  Just chop the meat & veggies.  Boil the water and then add the Better Than Bouillon until dissolved.  Then add everything to the slow cooker except the onions, butter, Italian Seasoning, green beans, and mushrooms. Sauté the onion in the butter and once its softened add the Italian seasoning and mix it well, then add that to the slow cooker.  I waited until about an hour or so before we were planning to eat to add the mushrooms and green beans (we don't like mushy green beans around here). I cooked on high for a few hours and then turned it down to low for a total of about 5 hours.  I am sure you could also cook it on low for 6-8 or high for 4 or so.

This is a pretty forgiving recipe and I think you could change the recipe around a bit to fit your tastes and it would still come out tasty.  If I would have had red wine on hand I probably would have thrown in some of that too. Guess next time I'm thinking of making this soup I'll try to refrain from drinking all the vino first..

I also made a loaf of fresh whole wheat bread in the bread maker to go along with the soup. Yum!

Do you use your slow cooker a lot in the winter?  What is your favorite meal to make in there?