Beating the Boredom Back to School Workout

Every once in awhile I realize that I have neglected the "Strong" portion of the blog. Fear not, it is still happening!

Yes, this is me (okay, its not).

The start of school, and for me, work, means that my workout routine needs to drastically change. If I learned one thing from student teaching earlier this year, it is that, when I am stressed out, I don't work out. I know, working out should be a stress reliever, but if it is piled on too high, I lose motivation. So I have been working out in the morning. I don't know about you, but here, school starts pretty early, and honestly, I'm lucky that I can get up at 5 and have time to work out, shower, and be at school on time.

Additionally, I've been working out in our building's basement gym. I love it because there is rarely anyone there (regardless of the time of day), so I can walk around and sing to my iPod like an idiot. I don't like it, because I am dealing with limited resources. I pretty much have dumbbells, a bench, and a few machines.

Yes, this is from my building's website

Plus, I do really only have half an hour. If you are short on time, or just want a quick workout, this is the way to go.

Su: 1 hr cardio

M: leg workout

T: 30 min cardio

W: chest workout

Th: 30 min cardio

F: back workout

Sa: 1 hr cardio

Simple. And versatile. I pick 5 workouts that work a range of muscles in the targeted area for the day, and do it for 5 reps, circuit style, for 5 sets.

Confusing? It's not, I swear. Here's an example for today, which was the back workout:

5 reps of Dumbbell Rows

5 reps of Dumbbell Curls

5 reps of Rear Lat Raises

5 reps of Seated Cable Row

5 reps of Hyperextensions

Do all of these in a fairly quick succession, and repeat 4 more times.

You don't have to do these exercises. You just want to be sure that you are hitting all the muscles, which to me are the upper back, lower back, and rear shoulders. If you are unsure of what exercises correspond with which muscles, this is a really great website that I have been using for years.

For chest day this week I did:

5 reps of Dumbbell Chest Press

5 reps of Front Raises

5 reps of Dumbbell Kickbacks

5 reps of Pushups

5 reps of Dips

*I also did 20 situps between each circuit*

I like working out like this because it goes by VERY quickly, and you work up a sweat if you keep it moving. You'll also notice that instead of dedicating a day to arms and/or shoulders, I add triceps in with chest day, and biceps in with back day. I do shoulders every time I lift.

Leg days usually look something like this:

5 reps of Dumbbell Squats

5 reps of Straight Leg Deadlifts

5 reps of Calf Raises

5 reps of Leg Extensions

5 reps of Shoulder Presses

I never do the same workout twice, I am always changing up what I do, using variations on exercises from books, online, magazines, etc. Its important to change things up because it keeps your muscles guessing, and it beats gym boredom. I always joke that I have gym ADD, but I really am way more likely to work out if I know it isn't going to be plodding through the same old routine.

Another way to beat boredom? Plug in the iPod! Some of my favorites on my current "Gym" playlist:

Here in Your Bedroom - Goldfinger

Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand

Redeeming a Monster - Broadway

Scattered - Green Day

I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor - Arctic Monkeys

Let's Dance to Joy Division - The Wombats*

The Magnificent Seven - The Clash

*I have suggested this song before. That is because it is REALLY good, and fun, and there is almost never an inappropriate time to listen to it.

After my cardio tomorrow, we will be heading to the beach with a bunch of friends and family.

Sadly, not this beach, this picture is from when we were in Hawaii. But we do have a busy weekend planned at a beach, and it is supposed to be a perfect weekend. Hopefully you all have the weekend off and will be able to get outside, feel healthy, and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Vegan in the Cities

I had a kind of interesting weekend.  Mainly because I spent over 15 hours of it traveling.  I think what made it so interesting is that I am still feeling quite sane. 

Yesterday started pretty great.  Since I am somewhat used to getting up early now, I was up at 7, and decided to make something fun for breakfast before yoga.  

Waffles!  Chocolate Cherry White Chocolate Chip Protein Waffles, to be exact.  I know you're all saying "recipe, please?" (maybe not, but I'm pretending you are), but I have some things I want to change.  They're based off of the Brownie Waffle recipe from Veganomicon, and they're good, but they are not quite deserving of recipe sharing yet.  They will make a great portable breakfast this week though.  

After yoga, I went down to Brooklyn to have dinner with some friends.  It is only about an hour train ride to the city.  But the train that comes closest to my house runs pretty infrequently on the weekends, so I drive down to Jersey.  That is about a half hour.  Then the train itself takes about an hour and a half, counting the waiting and switching trains once.  Then, walking to the subway station, waiting for the subway, and getting to his house...another hour, easy.  I know that doesn't add up exactly to 3 and a half hours, but that was how long it took.  

Whenever I go to see this particular friend, we get Thai food.  It is my most favorite type of food.  Who doesn't love a good Thai curry?  So, first we went to Trader Joe's because I had to get a gift certificate, and then we found a little Thai place that ended up being awesome.  It was called Cafe Chili.  I didn't get any pictures, but I had the Vegetable Spring Rolls and Panang Curry.  One of our friends, who was also down this weekend, studied abroad and then lived in Thailand for quite awhile, and he was telling me how he had actually been to Panang.  I googled it, and I think he meant Penang, but close enough, right?  My husband studied abroad in Thailand too, so I've heard more than I really want to hear about the place.  Anyway, my curry was fantastic.  I have Thai food rarely, so its okay that it is one of the only time I am a member of the Perfectly Spotlessly Clean Plate Club.  I never eat white rice, but as soon as I have a bowl of curry sauce in front of me, I am using it to sop all that up.  So delicious.    

After that, we hung out for a little, and then I made the trek back to my house.  It would be so much faster to drive, but I'd much rather chill out with my music then stress about driving in the city.  Normally, a day like this would irritate me so much, but the playlist the iTunes Genius created was so awesome, that I was completely relaxed and happy the whole time.  

This is a small sampling of said playlist, which is 100 songs based off of 'I Believe in Symmetry' by Bright Eyes:

'Hooray' - Minus the Bear

'Sundress' - Ben Kweller

'People as Places as People' - Modest Mouse

'Yankee Bayonet' - The Decemberists

'Act appalled I' - Circa Survive

'Pink Bullets' - The Shins

'Across the Sea' - Weezer

'I'm Ready, I Am' - The Format

'The Same Boy You've Always Known' - The White Stripes

'Cashmir Pulaski Day' - Sufjan Stevens

'Ask Me Antyhing' - The Strokes

'My Mind' - Portugal.  The Man

'Play Crack the Sky' - Brand New

'Time' - Ben Folds

'Still Take You Home' - The Arctic Monkeys

'Come on Home' - Franz Ferdinand

Those songs are some of my favorites.  If you're curious, or just want some new music, leave me a comment, or send me an email (its in my profile), and I'll send you a CD!

I wanted to post this all yesterday, but I was up against this:  

Sorry Mommy, I'm using the computer right now

Moving on, today I went up to Boston with my family to see my brother and his wife, for her birthday.  After yesterday, I actually went home and bought the new(ish) Format CD, B-sides and Rarities, which is both a bunch of new songs that weren't previously released, and some demo versions of older songs.  If you aren't aware, The Format is longer together, which is very sad.  So, I've been listening to that, Ben Folds, Flight of the Conchords, and Ben Kweller.  Loveliness! 

Now, I mentioned above that Thai food is my favorite, but I rarely get to have it (I don't exactly live in a cosmopolitan area), so imagine my surprise when my not-so-adventurous mom agreed to my brother's suggestion to get Thai!  Twice in one weekend!  Plus, I'm sure I'll be having it in Hawaii this weekend too.  

I don't remember the name of this place, but it wasn't as good...but I also didn't get what I normally get...because I had it the day before!  

For an appetizer here, we had the Vegetable Triangles, which was actually curried potatoes in peas in little fried wrappers.  Pretty yummy!  

My main dish was pretty healthy, steamed veggies with tofu and peanut sauce on the side.  I didn't want to go crazy after having all that curry and rice the day before.  It was good, and the peanut sauce kept getting better as I kept eating it.

After that...oh after that.  We went to the Amsterdam Cafe for frozen yogurt.  They had chocolate and vanilla yogurt, as well as sugar free vanilla, and dairy free vanilla.  They called it "tofu frozen yogurt"...geez, way to turn people off.  Anyway, they had a list of about 30 possible mix ins.  As would be expected, this took me quite awhile.  Minty?  Cookies?  Candy?  Fruit?  Nuts?  Oh my goodness, too many decisions!  I ended up getting the dairy free vanilla with peaches and coconut.  

This was so good.  I almost wanted to move to Boston for it (they even deliver!!)....then we walked outside again and I changed my mind, haha.  It was COLD.  

Now I am back home and it is nice and warm.  

I hope everyone had fabulous weekends!  I am getting all geared up for Hawaii this coming weekend, and I am mucho excited.  We're staying on the North Shore, at Turtle Bay (in case you wanted to stalk me), which...normally I would rather stay in Waikiki or a B&B on the East Side, but my husband wanted to stay there, and now that I've seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall a bunch of times, I really want to go!  I am so looking forward to going back, I totally miss it.  

I also start classes this week, which I am not looking forward to.  My thesis class is going to be a crazy amount of work.  I can bring my computer to class though, haha, so it'll probably give me some time to catch up on blogs and other internet things, actually!  For a teacher, I'm not a very good student.   

Oh, and I wanted to set a goal for myself for this week.  I've gotten the sleep schedule under control, I've got the feeding schedule under control too.  But I definitely have not been drinking enough water.  So, my goal for this week is 4 liters a day.

Let the week begin!