Week Back Workouts: Tough Tuesday & Thursday 11/27&29

This was my first week back to teaching Group Fitness classes in a long time.  With Superstorm Sandy hitting New York and my trip to Disney to run the RunDisney Wine and Dine Half, I barely had time to be at the gym. However, this week I picked up 2 classes plus my 2 regular spins.

For both we used a step, 2 sets of weights and a mat. Both of these are to the best of my memory.

Tough Tuesday Workout - 50 minutes

Warm Up
Run/Jump Rope/Jacks
Squats/Lunges
Stretching

Workout (3 sets of each of 50 sec on 10 sec off, 1 minute rest in between)
Power Squats
Squat/Curl/Overhead press with heavy weights

Mt Climbers w/bench
Pushups

Hot Feet (30sec) 20 seconds lunge jumps
Reverse lunge with heavy weights

High Knees (30sec) 20 seconds butt kicks
One legged row with weights (left then right then switch and do regular rows)

Squat Thrust
1st set Left Leg Step Up 2nd set Right Leg 3rd set Alternate w/ bench

Hot Feet with one Light Weight (curl and press overhead)
Side Raise to Front Raise with Light Weights

Abs for 10 minutes - I made it up as went and I would do sets of crunches, planks and hit all the target areas.
Cool Down and done!


Thursday Sculpt Throwdown - one hour
Warmup the same as Tuesday

Workout

1. Starting on Right
10 squat curl press
on the bench 20 reverse lunge on the right halfway add a curl, curl press for 10 reps (I used 8lbs)
20 curtsy squats, side raise for 10
20 side steps, alternate front raise for 10
10 pushups with hands on step, right leg stacked on left

2. Start with Squat Curl Press for 10 again and go through all the way to pushups on the left.

3. Squat Curl Press for 10, alternate lunge with curl for 20, 10 regular pushups

4. one leg on bench, heavy weight in opposite arm single arm rows on right for 20, double arm tricep press, sitting on bench do one arm curl on the right, tricep dips,

5. switch sides and go through whole set on other side

6. 20 double arm row with deadlift.

7. no weights single leg squat on right after 20, hold and pulse for 8, repeat OR jumps on single leg for 8.  20 squats with heavy weight and repeat on other side, 20 squats with heavy weight

8. Single leg down curl press, 10 on each side, 20 plie squats.

9. Chest press for 15 w/ heavy weights, sitting on step and leaning back on sit bones legs in and out for 10, repeat 3 times except in 3rd set instead of chest press lower weights and do chest flye.

10 Abs - 20 crunches, 20 crunches legs right and 20 left, 20 reverse crunches, Plank hold for 30 seconds, side plank hold for 10 and 5 reach arm under, switch sides.

Cool Down and done!


These workouts were both really hard and I totally felt them in my legs while going up and down my stairs to the 5th and during spin class on Wed and Friday.  I added in a bit on the elliptical both T/Th and did a bit of running on Wed on the treadmill (awful!).  I went old school in spin classes since I did not have time to prepare music but we had some old school tunes.

Favorite Post Thanksgiving Day Leftover Recipes: Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese, TDay Recipes & Soup

I tried a few new things with leftovers this year as we had quite a few. Mom and Dad were very generous when they came to us for thanksgiving this year. We were lucky they came to us since we'd been in Spain until Wednesday watching a cousin get hitched. YAY! We tried all kinds of new foods in Spain including Churros (yum), snails, duck, and prawns.  Very interesting, but I think we were happy to be home consuming good ol' turkey on Thanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving my favorite leftovers is the plain ol' fashioned fixens sandwich.  Just pile the mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, and gravy on toasted potato bread and I am a happy girl. I contributed a few things to Thanksgiving including Ina Garten's sausage and herb stuffing, and homemade cranberry sauce. I also made spinach dip (based on Alton Brown's recipe but I cut back on fatty ingredients and put in some Greek yogurt).  I also made stuffed mushrooms thanks to a recipe from Rachael Ray. They were delish.

After Thanksgiving and polishing off 3 sandwiches each, we had some sweet potatoes left, corn muffins, turkey and lots of cheese. What to do?

This. I found this sweet potato mac and cheese online and made the adjustments. It was SUPER good. And it came from a healthy food website. You can see I did not have all the ingredients and added one leftover corn muffin and parm topping and baked it.

http://www.healthyfoodforliving.com/sweet-potato-and-brie-mac-cheese/

Sweet Potato and Brie Mac & Cheese (I did not use brie I didn't have it, added a half cup more the amount of Cheddar and added a 1/4 cup of parmesan also on the top before baking in oven added crumbled corn muffins and parm on top with butter.)

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 8 oz uncooked macaroni or other pasta, preferably whole wheat or whole wheat blend pasta
• 1 cup sweet potato puree (bake a few sweet potatoes at 400°F for 1 hour, or until soft; puree flesh until smooth; measure out 1 cup)
• 1 cup milk (skim or 1%)
• 2 oz (about 4 Tbsp) 1/3-less-fat neufchatel cream cheese
• 1 cup freshly grated 50% reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese *added a half cup of not so sharp cheddar
• 1/2 cup good-quality double cream brie cheese, rind removed, cut into cubes *didn't use
• tiny pinch of ground nutmeg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• added parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions (I actually prefer to cook my pasta a minute or two less than the lowest cooking time on the package for al dente pasta); drain.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together and heat sweet potato puree and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until just starting to simmer.
3. Reduce stove heat to low. Whisk in cheeses until fully melted.
4. Stir in nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Stir drained pasta into the sweet potato-cheese sauce and mix until thoroughly combined.
6. At this point, the mac & cheese might appear a bit soupy. If this is the case, let the mixture sit off of the heat for a few minutes. The cheese sauce will firm up as it slightly cools.* I instead baked it in the oven - Billy liked this, this makes it less cheesey and soupy and a little more potatoey. I liked the gooey cheese but Billy ate it better baked.
7. I addded in a cup of frozen peas and stirred them in
8. Baked at 350 for 20-25 minutes with a topping of crumbled corn muffins and parm cheese and pats of margarine.
9. Serve with an extra dusting of nutmeg, if desired.

With the turkey I made Michael Chiarello's  next day Turkey Soup. Since we loved his restaurant in Napa, it seemed perfect.  We're having it tonight with homemade pizza. YUM! I did add some leftover herbs to this recipe I'll admit and tried to use as few pots as possible. For veggies I used brussel sprouts and broccoli.

Happy Thanksgiving and Keep on Tri'n!
 

Finally - Post Sandy Stress Reliever Workout

Due to Hurricane Sandy - the gym in Hoboken had been closed for a week and upon reopening had no early AM classes, meaning no workouts for me, especially with the commute taking forever.  I had been meaning to venture over there since we opened over the weekend but the sunny weather drew me outside to run, especially in prep for our RUN DISNEY experience this weekend.  But our storm blowing in for today and dropping temps meant I wanted to take my workout inside.

So with the help of FB and Twitter, this morning a fellow instructor and I met with a member to FINALLY get in a little bit of cardio and weights in the gym.  It was a nice break from running and my quads and calves were on fire, especially with all the extra stair climbing post Sandy.  5 flights up and down plus lots of subway stairs.  Goodness!

We also got in a good pre workout trekking up the 7 flights to Sky Club in Hoboken.  We alternated instructors for 2-3 minutes for about 45 minutes, getting in a good workout and burning 400-500 calories. YES! I am hoping I remembered everything we did - hopefully if I missed something trying to remember between this morning and work - it can be added in the comments. Thanks!

Post Sandy Stress Reliever Workout
Need: Step with one riser, mat, heavy and light weights

WarmUp
3 laps around the Studio
Side Step (L&R Lead) 2 laps
1 lap of High Knees
1 minute run
1 minute jacks (holy calves)
1 minute jump rope (again!)
Stretch!

2 minutes up and over on a low step
1 minute of burpees

Break

2 minutes - Off the skinny edge of step mt climbers (try to get your feet to the outside of the step)
4 cts and 4 cts jump lunge.

1 minute of squats with heavier weights

Break

1 minute per side - leg lift and row (L leg extends up as you reach down with right hand and row up with weight in left hand - my compliments to Kerry) Alt L&R side.
1 minute holding boat pose from Pilates (hard!!)

Break

2 minutes burpee with a pushup in front of the step step forward and knee up on the step (alternate sides)
1 legged squat, curl and press (L&R)

Break

1 minute of upper body work (side raise, press front with straight arms, pull back, lift up and release to sides - another killer Kerry combo)
1 minute row and tricep press.

Break

1 minute Low Jack on the Step 
1 minute power squat (stay low and jump, land softly) with hands interlaced behind your head

Break

30 seconds for obliques - side plank (fully extended or knee down) reach hand that's in the air under your side
30 seconds hold
Switch sides

Stretch!