Work It Out: Embrace Your Inner Puma

July 30, 2013 By Laura

In my head, I look like a Puma when I workout.

In reality, notsomuch.

No matter. I workout hard and encourage my inner puma to shine. One thing you learn early on in weight lifting is that half of it is mental. There are many times when I am sure there is no way a weight was going to move, but I talk to myself. I tell myself that I can do it, that its only 5 lbs more than what I just lifted, that I am strong. ~~And there are times that they guy next to me just did it and my ego won’t allow me to back down.~~

Since my surgery, I’ve had to dig deep to find my inner Puma. It’s been hard working with new physical limitations and with the way my body as changed as a result. I refuse to hold myself back though! Today’s Work It Out is dedicated to working with limitations, reaching deep, and grabbing your inner Puma by the tail.

Lucky me, PUMA just so happened to challenge me to design a workout while trying out some of their new gear! I knew immediately what I would do – legs! It’s the area that I can really push myself on right now.

The awesome folks at PUMA sent over the ribbed performance tank, tech performance wear compression pants, and Formlite XT Ultra Shoes.

The tank is nice. It’s clearly well-made and I like the breathable material. It IS pretty long, so if you are a short-waisted person (like me) you might check out another style.

The Formlite Shoes rock! They are super light and flexible. They don’t quite provided the support I need for running, but they are great in the gym. I also love the bright orange color. Normally I’m opposed to bright color, but on my feet I like a little neon. 🙂

And now my favorite. The Performance Bodywear Tech ACTV Long Tights SHOCKED me with their perfect fit and breathability. Typically I only workout in shorts because I hate feeling over-heated, but these actually kept me cooler than my booty shorts during the leg workout below!

Puma describes them and “next-to-skin” and they aren’t exaggerating! The really cool part is that they’re compression tights lined with a sort of athletic tape that works to enable energy supply to muscles and maximize performance. Basically, it feels like an extra boost during a bangin’ leg day!

Puma Performance Bodywear Tech ACTV Long Tights

Rock out with your Puma out!

I wore my tights for a killer leg day. This Puma-like leg workout left me sore for a solid 3 days, which is hard for me to do on my own. When I have leg day with my trainer I am guaranteed to be using the handi stall, but without a sport I find it hard to go as heavy. These pants were like a mini-spot.*

*I swear I’m not exaggerating.

Click the links below for an explanation of each move:

This post was sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Puma. As always, all opinions are 100% my own!

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Speaking of leg day… yesterday I did a leg workout with my trainer in my fancy tights. I’m sore, but I do think they helped a bit with recovery!

What makes you feel like a Puma?

Do you struggle to push your weight or pace as hard when you workout alone?

Work It Out On Vacation

July 23, 2013 By Laura

Vacation is a time for relaxation.

I would say rest and relaxation, but I’m not good at being still.

Taking a break from your exercise routine doesn’t have to mean being sedentary. Being active away from home is one of the best ways to explore a city! Today’s Work It Out is dedicated to a few of the ways Lisa, Heather, and I stayed active in Napa* last week.

*Raising a wine glass doesn’t count as lifting. But not for lack for trying.

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The cottage we stayed in had bicycles available to guests, so on day 1 of our trip Lisa and I decided to cycle from winery to winery. There was plenty of entertainment, as neither of us bicycle. As we were pulling out of the cottage area, a couple stopped to tell us we needed to take a few practice laps before we got on the road. Haha!

It was a blast – we went up and down some hilly roads on the cruiser bikes (read: no gears or handle breaks). Talk about a killer quad workout! The unexpected value add was that it kept us from buying too much wine – you can buy more than you can fit in the basket on the front of the bike! That is, until we discovered a winery that offered to deliver to our cottages. Tee hee.

Photo courtesy Lisa

On day 2 we’d planned to ~~take a break from wine gluttony~~ enjoy the town. We set out on a 7 mile hike up Oat Hill Mine Trail. The trail was filled with flora and fauna I’d never seen before.

This tree’s red bark fascinated me:

We were rewarded for our hard work up the winding trial with a stunning view:

Then we were rewarded again with a mud bath that afternoon. No pics of that (it was a nude area), but it was certainly a fun experience (if not a teensy claustrophobic).

Heather arrived the next day. She is doing the Live Fit program right now and needed to run 30 mins of sprints. I tagged along and pointed us down the Silverado Trail. I hadn’t been in that direction on the bike, and it was fun to watch the fog lift from the valley in the cool morning air.

I don’t normally run with other people, so it was also a nice change to have Heather there. I definitely wouldn’t have done 30 sprints without her encouragement!

Photo courtesy Heather

Added bonus: after being so fit you can feel good about flexing in front of a giant bottle of wine from Del Dotto Vineyards called “The Beast.”

Nevermind the fact that the winery owner was looking at me like I was nuts. #shameless

Finally, we took one long, long walk to dinner. I thought we could cut down a side street to get to dinner… it ended up making a 3/4 mile walk more like a 3 mile walk. I don’t recommend this method of exercise unless you have very patient friends.

The upside was seeing a gorgeous sunset over the vineyards.

The downside was walking the last mile in the dark… rockstar Heather ran the last mile to get them to hold our reservations.

***

Exercising without knowing you’re exercising is a blast. So is getting home and back to a routine… vacation wears me out!

How do you stay active on vacation?

Have you ever taken the long way on accident? I’ve gotten lost on runs more times than I would like to admit.

Work It Out: Booty Building

July 16, 2013 By Laura

When one door closes, another opens.

Or maybe another butts in? Hee hee…

I’ve written multiple Work It Out posts about the booty. My mission is to get one. Last season I made some great progress, but there’s a lot of room to grow. Since I am limited on my upper body, I’ve been really focusing on my butt.

I knew I was in trouble when I told my trainer that my new additions made my arms look smaller and he replied “I bet they make your butt look smaller too.”

He was right. Doh.

After speaking to Lisa (who competed in Bikini at the last show I did), I took her advice and put together my own booty building program. I am now training glutes 3 times a week! Before you tell me that’s too frequent, know that I’m still not able to go heavy so a 2-3 day cycle works. 😉

I shake things up each time, but this has been my favorite ass-kicking workout to date:

Click the names for explanations:

Side Lying Clams
Single Leg Glute Bridge
Deep Squats (you can do these with or without weight)
Weighted Hip Lifts
Low Jacks

***

Thank you all SO much for all the birthday love yesterday. It make the day that much more special. ♥♥♥

How deep do you squat? Try going ass-to-the-grass. The ~~soreness~~ level of effectiveness is glorious.

What is your favorite booty-builder?

Homemade Ricotta and Thoughts on Identity

July 11, 2013 By Laura

With my 30s staring me down, I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation.

4 more days…

There has been a lot of post floating around lately about exercise – what’s the “right” way to do it, how much is a too much, when you should rest… much like my No Shit Diet, I think exercise should be a personal choice.

I posted this on Instagram yesterday:

It sums up my thoughts pretty well. When you exercise, do it for YOU. If you want to do it twice a day or twice a week, make sure it’s because that’s what your mind and your body are telling you to do. Just because someone is banging out an hour of cardio and an hour of weights every day doesn’t mean you need to! Conversely, you don’t need to do yoga 3 days a week and that be it just because someone else has found that works for them.

Play with your diet. Play with your exercise. Find what’s right for you. Find something that motivates forward progress. Have fun!

In true fashion, Kat was in my head again as she wrote her post this week. I love this post for more than just the cheese recipe (though that IS a big factor 😉 ). Kat is the perfect example of marching to her own drum and not letting others define her.

But I’m going to step off my soap box now and let her tell you about all that…

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Homemade Ricotta and Thoughts on Identity

I saw a really old man, moving really slowly, but moving/jogging along the BeltLine. He must have been in his late 70s, and his feet were shuffling. He really made me think about whether I’ll do that at his age, in that condition. (Editor’s note: I saw a women running with a TRIPLET stroller. I was amazed.)

Why do we keep going? Because we love it? Because we identify as runners and that’s just who we are?

It also hit home this week when I attended the defense of a prospectus (the first 3 chapters of a dissertation) for a PhD student. The question that made me think quite a bit was, “Do you see yourself more as a scholar or a researcher?” Society is always trying to get us to define who we are. Why can’t we just be?

Ironically enough, she is doing post-structural work, which is not even supposed to need to have structures to define being (or, that is my understanding of it).

I think it would be nice to just “be” sometimes, but also find myself wanting some sort of structure as to what it is that I am, especially this summer, when I’m not an attorney, and I’m not a student. (Editor’s note: I get that – having this surgery made me re-think my gym rat identity.) In the in-between, what identity can I cling to? Runner?

And then I realized I can choose more than one, or I can choose none. In a chaotic world, it seems natural to want to choose something… but you don’t have to and it’s okay to change! Just be yourself and life your life authentically. Yes. Reminding myself of this.

You are not your career. You are not the activities that you do. It matters so much less in the long run than what kind of person you are.

Change happens. And change is created. I played with a recipe this week inspired by the fact that we have the power to create and change things into something we really want or crave.

So I turned Milk into Cheese. (Editor’s note: I swear I’m just moving in with you so I don’t miss this stuff.)

This week I made homemade ricotta! I hadn’t done this in quite sometime, since I went to Hawaii in November and played with a recipe with my sister. I made some changes to it, and I like my version MUCH better. It’s a little sweeter, perfectly creamy, and has a wonderful consistency.

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Homemade Ricotta

1 gallon of whole (or raw) milk
4 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 T white vinegar
½ tsp citric acid
1 tsp Kosher salt

Bring the gallon of milk to 190 degrees (medium high heat). Stir continuously so the milk doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom. Then prepare your strainer. Wet cheese cloth and place it over a fine strainer.

Once the milk is fully up to temperature, mix the salt, vinegar, lemon juice, and citric acid.

This is what it should look like when you turn off the heat

Keep it at 190 degrees for about 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. At this point, the milk will look like it’s curdling and everything is separating.

Now the hard part… waiting. Just let it sit there at room temperature. Don’t touch it for at least 20 minutes.

Pour the entire pot over the cheese cloth and strainer. Let sit for 10 minutes at room temperature, then put in the refrigerator, and continue to let it strain and cool for 30 minutes.

That’s it! One gallon of milk will make about 3.5 – 4 cups of cheese.

When you taste it, your first thought will probably be how FRESH it tastes! It’s really awesome!

Use this delicious homemade cheese in lasagna, with berries for dessert, in cannoli, or on top of crackers with marmalade or jam! Wonderful addition to fresh summer recipes!

Note: This works best with raw, unpasteurized milk. However, it’s almost impossible to find because it’s illegal to sell for human consumption in most states (including Georgia). Alternatives? Find Organic, Pasteurized, Non-homogenized (cream on top) Whole Milk. AVOID Ultra-Pasteurized… it WILL NOT come out right, and it will not taste the same or have the same texture. It’s hard to find, but you can do it for amazing homemade ricotta!

Side note: I really want to get some different plates! Black is terrible for picture-taking! (Editor’s note: Now you are a “real” food blogger.)

***

To clarify: I’m actually excited about turning the big 3-0 (especially since it involves a trip to wine country). I just think it’s bizarre… didn’t I turn 21 last year?!

Who do you feel like you are?

What fun kitchen experiments have you done lately?

Weekend Update + WIAW

July 10, 2013 By Laura

I get behind in my over-sharing.

Thank god for Instagram!

There has been a lot going on lately that I’ve just run out of time to blog about! Hump Day seems the perfect time for a download.

I’ve been getting some good runs in (between all the summer storms). This is taken on the GA Tech campus. Saturday marked 5 years since my dad died. Without intention, I found myself heading to his alma mater for a run.

It was nice to run by all the places we used to walk past on game days and relive some of my own memories from grad school. The rain didn’t hold off for long – about 5 mins after I took this pic the sky turned black and it started pouring.

Sunday I met some of my favorite Atlanta bloggers for lunch at Dough Bakery, my favorite local vegan spot. That’s (very pregnant) Alayna, Tina, Lee, me, and Heather. Heather is former Atlanta blogger… she left us for Colorado. 😛

I always have so much fun with these ladies. We talked and ate for a long time before I had to run back home to get ready for dinner. That’s right – I said run. I ran a total of 6.65 miles there and back thanks to Atlanta’s new Beltline trail! ~~I’m lucky my friends would be seen with me sweaty and dressed like a bum.~~

The dinner I was running home to was at one of Atlanta’s best new restaurants: King + Duke. I’m too lazy to write full review, but let me just say… if you are in ATL or are coming to visit make a reservation. So. Good.

Their wine program is excellent, which you know makes me happy, and the food is even better. Don’t skip the roasted beet and carrots with feta and harissa, the roasted bone marrow with smoked mushrooms, blackberries, and short rib marmalade, and the “Dates & Ale” (a fantastic sticky toffee pudding with Sweetwater IPA cream).

Meat butter

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This WIAW was less indulgent than this weekend. Thank god. I love going out to eat, but whoa. I was dragging on Monday after eating half my meals out over the weekend. I jumped back on the healthy eating train with reckless abandon.

Read on for my eats, and then check out Jenn’s link up for everyone else’s delicious days.

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Breakfast:

My morning cocktail (apple cider vinegar, water, Glutamine, and Fitmixer Aminos) was of course the start to my day.

If you follow me on Instagram you saw that I have a mini crisis: my air conditioning quit working. I live in the South. It is HOT. I was really glad I thought ahead and made a nice, cool breakfast: overnight oats!

This bowl is a little different because I combined a few protein sources. The oats, cottage cheese, and protein powder made for the most deliciously creamy bowl of cheesecake-like oats I’ve ever had!

Blueberry Cheesecake Overnight Oats

1/4 C oats (I use Bob’s Red Mill GF)
1/4 C cottage cheese
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 T peanut flour
1 tsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Blueberries
Stevia, to taste
1/2 C almond milk (or other liquid)

Combine everything in a bowl, cover, and place in fridge overnight.

Remove from fridge in morning. You may need to add additional liquid, especially if you choose to heat it.

Top as desired and enjoy!

Note: I order my peanut flour from iHerb – I like it better than PB2 because it is less processed and doesn’t have the added sugar and sodium. Use my discount code – USO924 – for $5-10 off your order!

Mid-Morning Snack:

I love making random mixes with no salt deli turkey. Often I do fruit, but today I had some celery to use up. I broke up the turkey and mixed it with nutritional yeast, cayenne, pepper, herbs de provence, and apple cider vinegar. Then I chopped up my celery (and some of the celery leaves) and stirred that in.

Lunch:

I’m getting low on groceries, so I had to bust out the emergency veggie burger. If you’re going to eat frozen food, the Lightlife burgers are pretty tasty.

Eaten with spinach salad, celery, kabocha, and a quick dressing made from spinach hummus, apple cider vinegar, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Yes, I spent time “plating” this at work. People stared.

Mid-Afternoon Snack:

This was fancy-looking, but I’d made it the day before. Baked swordfish in a foil pocket with veggies and Indian spices. It was fast and the clean up was easy – just throw away the foil!

I posted the recipe here on Facebook if you’re interested.

Dinner:

Did I mention my A/C is broken? It was 85 degrees and humid in my condo. I couldn’t think of a single thing to eat for dinner because I was SO hot. So I got creative.

Egg pizza. The idea was to cook the egg in a big pan so it would be thin like a pizza crust, then top it and finish in the oven under the broiler. It would have been perfect had a greased the middle of the pan a little better. It stuck. No worries… I just ate it out of the pan. Less dishes to wash!

My toppings: broccolini, edamame, tomato, spinach, and ricotta salata. It was really good! Will try it again, this time properly greased to get onto a plate.

Midnight Snack:

I ate some snacks at my mom’s… she made a quiche and had these yummy chocolate-salted nut things from Trader Joes… but it was just bites and when I got home I still needed a little something.

Despite the heat, I wanted cake (when do I NOT want cake?). I made my favorite 150 Calorie Chocolate Microwave Cake, topped it with a peanut flour “icing,” and served it with a side of cookies and cream Arctic Zero. And a little Stevia-sweetened Smuckers strawberry jam… it went really well with the peanut butter icing!

***

In less than I week I turn 30. And I identify with just about all of these 30 Signs You’re Almost 30. My mom likes to remind me of #19.

What do you eat when it’s too hot to eat?

Do you make and effort to have your food look pretty at work? It’s so much nicer than eating out of tupperware! This should probably be added to the signs you’re almost 30…

Work It Out: Post-Augmentation Exercises

July 9, 2013 By Laura

Resting makes me restless.

I tried to be good. Really.

After my surgery I was forced to rest. I knew it was good for me as my body healed, but as my energy returned I got anxious. Today’s Work It Out is dedicated to easing back post-surgery. Patiently.

These tips may be applied to other types of recovery as well. Use at your discretion. 🙂

Disclaimer: I am NOT a doctor. Don’t do any of this without asking a doctor. Don’t sue me if you hurt yourself. This plan is mine and mine alone. What works for you will vary by your fitness level and how your body heals.

The main concern with working out after a breast augmentation is overusing the pectoral muscles – particularly with those who have implants are underneath the muscle. The actual muscle needs time to heal. After surgery there is a capsule that forms in the pocket holding the implant. Think of it as the body’s way of protecting against a foreign object (this could be any implant). Doing too much too soon can cause the capsule to become hard. The goal is to allow the capsule to form in such a way that it is undetectable.

If the capsule thickens too much, is causes capsular contracture. This is what makes the implant feel like a rock and can make the shape look wonky. Bottom line: Avoid overuse of the pectoral muscles.

Below is a summary of what I’ve been able to do at different points post-augmentation. Again, consult a doctor before you do ANYTHING! Be sure to wear a super supportive sports bra when doing any activity. For the first time in my life I am actually wearing 2 bras at once!

Post-Augmentation Exercise

First 4-5 days 1: Rest (seriously). It’s good to move around a little to keep blood flowing, but I’m talking walking from the couch to the kitchen. Even that will probably wear you out on days 2 and 3.

Next 5-10 days: I started light cardio in the form of walking. I probably went further than they would have liked, but I wasn’t moving to fast and I kept it to the cooler times of day. You don’t want to get hot or elevate the heart rate to avoid infection and swelling (which increases risk of contracture). The girls need to settle!

Week 3-4: After you regain energy, work with a doctor and – if available – a knowledgable trainer to outline an exercise regimen for you and your specific needs. This is my plan:

Low-impact cardio is ok here. My doctor said I could run as long as it was cool and I kept it to 50-70% of maximum effort. There is no sprinting anywhere. The elliptical (without arms) and stationary bike are also good choices.
I was released to do leg work. We have to start slow with mostly body weight. Barbell squats are a no-no.
SOME isolated upper body weight lifting – I was warned that it must be light weight and limited to isolated biceps and triceps.
Lower abs are free and clear!

So with all those limitations what do I do?! Since the exercises I can do are limited, I keep the reps varied. You can go one day for strength (8 to 10 reps) and one day for endurance (15 to 20 reps).

Moves that are easy on the chest:

Legs:

Lunges – walking, single leg, side, and backwards
Leg Presses – wide, normal, and close stance
Leg Extensions (be careful not to grip handles and strain chest)
Body Weight DEEP Squats
Pistol Squats
Standing Hamstring Curl
Adductor/Abductor
Hyperextension
Butt Lifts
Step Ups (no weights)
Calf Raises – toes in, out, and forward

Upper Body:

Bicep Curls
Hammer Curls
Single Arm Preacher Curls (using incline beach)
Cable Curls (2 arms, with straight bar and/or EZ bar)
Tricep Pushdowns with rope and/or bar (if you have the equipment, do the one where you stand with your back against the machine to prevent you from rolling your shoulders in and using your chest)
Reverse Grip Tricep Pushdowns

Note: Chest, overhead, and any jumping around (high impact) exercises should be avoided like the plague! ~~Damn – no burpees for me.~~

Abs:

Weeks 5-6: TBD! I go back to the Dr and should be cleared for a little more. 🙂

To give you an idea of how I’m using these moves, here’s a workout I did last Friday.

From the above menu of options, I choose 5 leg/butt moves, 2 biceps, 2 triceps, and a series of abs. I adjust the amount of abs based on how I’m feeling at the end of each workout, but 3 ab exercises seems to be a good number for me so far.

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?

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I wrote this with the “twins” in mind, but this workout is good for anyone – especially those who’ve had upper body injuries.

Do you have any moves to add to the list? Isolated triceps are not easy to do!

What is the exercise you’re most excited to get back to after a forced rest?

Back to the Gym + WIAW

July 3, 2013 By Laura

Patience is a virtue.

That’s what I keep trying to tell myself.

Monday I was cleared by my surgeon to begin light exercise. Good thing because I had already scheduled an appointment with my trainer for that night. 😉

Going back to working out after surgery (or any long break) is humbling. I started with a leg extension weight 100 lbs lighter than I did 3 weeks ago.

We did a lot of lower body – mostly body weight stuff – and then 2 isolated bicep and 2 isolated tricep exercises. It was really light, but I realized I’d have to go slow… especially when the twins got hot and swelled up. It was crazy!

I’m going to do something similar on my own today. Being careful. It’s really hard knowing what I could do before, and seeing how much I lost in my arms in such a short time. BUT it’s not forever. I got there before, and I can do it again. *deep breaths*

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This WIAW was fun for me because I was actually hungry from working out! It’s a totally different feeling than regular hunger, one I didn’t fully appreciate before!

Read on for my eats, and then check out Jenn’s link up for everyone else’s delicious days.

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