My phone apparently ran out of room for photos! Can ya believe it? Well, actually I can, because I take a ridiculous number of photos of my food (like, seriously Steph? 15 photos.. for a smoothie?) and I never seem to delete any of them.
Well, today was a different story and after I reassured myself that all the photos I wanted to keep and look back on were either on this blog or Instagram, that it would be alright to get rid of a fair chunk hanging around on my phone.
I think I deleted around 500!
Anywho, that was just today's little drama. Now I want to broaden this post's horizons with a look at the week in the form of workouts!
As you may have caught in some of my previous posts, I'm back in that season of life where workouts are feeling GREAT! I feel like I'm crushing new goals every single day and I'm pushing myself further than I've ever gone (but feeling good with it, don't worry!!)
Last Saturday's post-long-run-endorphin-filled-hunger-shot :D
So today I wanted to share with you some fitness inspiration/ ideas/ insight into my workout routine, a little break from the food for ya!
Now, yes, you all know I run. Steph looooves to run. But more recently, Steph loves to do a whole bunch of other stuff to strengthen, tone and awesome-i-fy her body.
Here's what this past week looked like for my activity:
Sunday:
We'll start at the very beginning with the all-essential rest day! Now I am not going to fake anything on this blog and in all truth and honesty- I hate rest days. I feel lazy, sluggish, tired, not my usual self. There's a hint of guilt, I will admit, whenever I sit down to my usual gigantor sized meal with my brain telling me I don't need that much food on rest days. I practically never sit down on rest days because there's that part of me that says, 'You haven't earned it.' and I try and keep myself as busy and distracted as possible.
Geared up for a walk on the beach... in winter :D
It's a bit sad because I should relish this time of rest and recovery, let my mind rest too, so the following day I can truly enjoy my workout after given my body the time off it needs. I know all this in my heart, but the brain always seems to take over doesn't it?
Anywho, on this particular rest day I went for a beautiful winter's walk on the beach and if I thought the beach was stunning in Summer, a Winters beach is a whole other story!
Monday:
It's mid-year holidays for me (yep, I literally have one more term of highschool left... ever!) so I can enjoy a bit more of a sleep-in (to around 6:30am- the body's natural wake time) before I whip on the workout clothes and smash in a good sweat session!
Monday saw a huge arm session (with some legs and core thrown in for good measure) as I headed into a little make-shift gym at home, picked up the dumbbells and got to work! I spent around 40-45mins in there doing a routine I seem to have downbeat now; involving moves such as bicep curls, shoulder presses, deadlifts (both single and double legged), tricep rows, shoulder hunches (don't even know if some of these names are right! :P) until my arms are jelly and I'm sweating like a pig.
It's workouts like these that don't necessarily leave me completely out of breath (but close to it!) instead making me feel so strong and powerful!) Following this I made sure I got a good amount of protein into me!
Tuesday:
Tuesday was another awesome session- probably the highest intensity, toughest and most exhausting of the week.
I had already planned to do Blogilate's Train Insane HIIT video (my favourite when I want to work up an intense sweat and inability to breath!) and so when I had finished that all flushed and jittery:
I knew the only thing that would calm my shaking and jittery muscles was a bit of a run, just to calm the body down. So, that bit of a run ended up turning into around 5.5km and by the end, I was DONE! So, once again, I fell into a delicious breakfast, caught my breath and felt incredibly strong and capable to achieve anything the day could throw at me!
Breath caught, hair re-brished and ponytailed, shoes on, and out the door!
Wednesday:
I knew I wanted to work on abs today. What I didn't know was that upon waking I'd decide to do Blogilates Extreme Abs. Yep, those insane videos of ab destroying torture. And I purposefully left out the specifics as to which one I did because, I kid you not, I did all. 3.
Consecutively.
It hurt.
But was so, so good!
Hello there little baby abs!! Welcome to the world!
If you think you've got pretty good core strength and you've been working on your core for a while; give that challenge a go- super awesome! (that's the key word here, I've been doing blogilates ab workouts for quite a wile now; starting with 1 Extreme Abs video, slowly moving up to 2 and now only just managing to complete 3. It takes time people!)
Thursday:
Thursday= sprint day!
Hill sprint day!
Lose the entirety of your ability to speak, breath and pull acceptable faces when running day!
Just kidding- I love sprint day. I love raising my heart rate that quickly, letting it drop back to normal and then going again. It hurts, sure, but afterwards those endorphins are real!
Yes, my hair will and always be a frizz bomb after exercising- if it isn't, I wasn't working hard enough! :P
My plan with hill sprints is that I give myself the task to complete 10 (a challenge in itself!) and then after I'm done the ten I can do however many I want before I give in and head into the house for brekky!! Today, the body decided to do 15! Happy days!
Brekky following sprint sesh- banana green smoothie (2 frozen bananas, handful frozen zucchini, kale, spinach, greek yoghurt, water- whaz!) with a side of warm, crunchy, home-made cinnamon and peanut butter granola.
Friday:
I knew that after a few days of high intensity, tough workouts, it was time for another slower, strength building session and what better than a few Blogilates videos? Seriously, I am obsessed- the right amount of challenge and fun!
I started off with a quick fat burning cardio video to get the heart pumping (great when you want to strengthen and tone other muscles later on) followed by a calf strengthening video, then an arms video, back video, finishing with a booty video! It may seem like a lot but these were all quite short videos (I think the total workout ended up being around 30 mins?) and I felt really good after it!
I started off with a quick fat burning cardio video to get the heart pumping (great when you want to strengthen and tone other muscles later on) followed by a calf strengthening video, then an arms video, back video, finishing with a booty video! It may seem like a lot but these were all quite short videos (I think the total workout ended up being around 30 mins?) and I felt really good after it!
Saturday:
Long run day!
After a week of very different, very challenging workouts, I love to round it all out with a nice, long, easy-paced run. I get to think, breath and let my legs go where they will. Long runs can be the worst workouts sometimes. but when you're in that state of simply plodding along, mind drifting to far off places... it's something nothing else in life can really offer me.
This particular Saturday saw 14.3 kilometres and I was quite happy with that for the weekly long run! however with around 4km to go, I started to feel a niggle in the side of my left knee and that continued to grow until the pain got a bit too intense and I cut off the last hill of my run. Hopefully with a nice relaxing rest day tomorrow and plenty of roller-ing throughout the week, it should be good!!
ALWAYS need a good brekky to follow a big run!
Enter banana cinnamon maca steel cut oats, with nut butter dolloped throughout and topped with some fresh banana slices:
Mac does something amazing to oats- it brings this kind of nutty, caramel-y flavour and hey, if it offers some great recovery benefits (hellooo potassium!) then why not add it for a delicious hit to the mug of oats??
And truthfully friends, my procedure with the nut butter is some smooth PB on the bottom, mixed crunchy nut butter in the middle, topping it all off with some more melty, smooth, warm PB. I don't go lightly with the peanut butter folks! #peanutbutteraddict :P
And when you hit that mid-oat nut butter bomb:
It's a beautiful, beautiful moment. :)
Whiccchh brings us all the way back to today; Sunday! And yes, a much needed and highly loved by the body, rest day!
Plans for today? Eat (drink?) a delicious HUGE green smoothie, get some study down (ain't no such thing as holidays for the year 12 student!), spend some time with family playing board games, eat some lunch, read, and just relax. Sounds pretty perfect to me!
Your turn:
What did your weekly workouts look like this week?
Fav workout of the week?
Fav post-workout meal of the week?
I realise this post was very much fitness oriented, but I think as my horizons in my own health and fitness lifestyle broadens, so too will the focus on this blog, so whilst there will still be plenty of food posts with drool worthy recipe ideas and inspiration, there will also be some little dibs and dabs into more fitness based and lifestyle oriented posts too- little bit of everything right?
Now, with that said, have yourself a rockin' Sunday, spend time with friends and family, relax, recover and rejuvenate for the week to come, because I have a feeling it's going to be a good one! Bye for now friendly friends! :D
P.S. EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!!
ALWAYS need a good brekky to follow a big run!
Whiccchh brings us all the way back to today; Sunday! And yes, a much needed and highly loved by the body, rest day!
Plans for today? Eat (drink?) a delicious HUGE green smoothie, get some study down (ain't no such thing as holidays for the year 12 student!), spend some time with family playing board games, eat some lunch, read, and just relax. Sounds pretty perfect to me!
Your turn:
What did your weekly workouts look like this week?
Fav workout of the week?
Fav post-workout meal of the week?
I realise this post was very much fitness oriented, but I think as my horizons in my own health and fitness lifestyle broadens, so too will the focus on this blog, so whilst there will still be plenty of food posts with drool worthy recipe ideas and inspiration, there will also be some little dibs and dabs into more fitness based and lifestyle oriented posts too- little bit of everything right?
Now, with that said, have yourself a rockin' Sunday, spend time with friends and family, relax, recover and rejuvenate for the week to come, because I have a feeling it's going to be a good one! Bye for now friendly friends! :D
P.S. EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!!
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