Who Needs A Gym?

I saw an infographic on the myfitnesspal app about how different fall activities can burn calories. I have been so sore since doing the Core de Force and PiYo buns so I knew I needed to do something different. Plus, I have a backyard full of leaves!! So today I raked the yard. It only took an hour and it was kinda fun. It was a beautiful day! I had my helper with me - she helped keep the bags open so I could put the leaves in, she helped pick out sticks and she rescued a few ladybugs from the trash!! The only down side is that every time the wind blew, a whole new crop of leaves fell. By the end of today, I'm going to have to do it all over again!!

Before & After:

My Helper:

She really liked jumping in the leaves and finding all the ladybugs:

Tomorrow I will be back at it with a "regular" workout. I haven't decided what it will be yet. 

(FYI: an hour of raking the leaves burns 207 calories. However, a Tim Horton's chocolate chip muffin which is delicious beyond words, is 420 calories.) I only point this out to illustrate how important nutrition is over exercise. I cannot, no matter how hard I try, exercise a chocolate chip muffin away. I will however, indulge from time to time because I know my overall nutrition is going to balance it out. Exercise is good, nutrition is more important. Eat well, move more.)

Buns o' Steel

Today's workout is brought to you by PiYo Buns. I have to admit. I've always liked my legs and butt. In my opinion, they're pretty good for someone who just celebrated her 34th birthday. But I want to keep them that way. On Beachbody on Demand, they will offer the Challenge du Jour. Basically, a selection of all different videos. I like this feature since it gives me a chance to try out exercises I normally wouldn't because they aren't free and I don't want to spend $100 on a workout I know nothing about.

One of today's selections was PiYo Buns. It was a 35 minute workout which is as long as I will go. Anything longer just feels too long and anything under 20 minutes feels like it isn't worth it. So that's my range. It's taught by Chalene Johnson who also teaches the Turbofire workouts that I like so much. I can definetly feel it in my legs and butt! So I guess I did a good job. I also has sweat dripping down my arms - gross. Like I always say, sweat is fat crying.

I'm planning to rake leaves tomorrow so I probably won't have a Beachbody workout to talk about. Raking is it's own workout!! So until I post again, here's me and my tired backside.

Core de Force

I'm always looking for new and different workouts. I guess I get bored easily. When I heard that Beachbody was coming out with a new workout, I was pretty excited. I like the workouts that are either pretty traditional cardio, or have some weight training or boxing/fighting. Core De Force is a boxing/street fighting/MMA workout. (I don't like the dance ones because I get too self-conscious and  just feel stupid.)

Little background - my 8 year old daughter has been taking Taekwon-do for the last three years. It's embarrassing that she can throw a better punch than me. But I think that since this workout, I might have her beat - so to speak. It was a pretty intense workout but the minutes flew by. I was never bored and I never wanted to give up. That's my biggest problem with a lot of these workouts. I get bored partway through and just quit. Not in this one. Unfortunately, this is only a trail run - sneak peak so there's only one video available. I am eagerly awaiting the whole program release. This might just be my new go-to exercise!

Here is my before and after workout pics!

Back at It (Again)

I swore when I started this blog that I was going to be more disciplined about posting on a regular basis. But here I am. The excuse I'm using today is that the Blogger app sucks! It constantly crashes and I lose everything I've entered. I take pictures on my phone so I want to be able to post them. Transferring the pictures from my phone to my computer may seem easy, but for whatever reason, it's not. So I need the phone app to upload pictures but then the computer to update the blog. It's getting to be a multi step process. One that kinda bums me out. But I'm here now.

Last week, I was not feeling well. At all. I think it was something I ate. But I got completely bloated - I'm talking 6 month pregnant looking bloated. And I felt so nauseous that I started believing that I might actually be pregnant! But then I remembered you don't go 0-6 months overnight. It gradually faded after 3-4 days so I tried to get back into exercising. I just started a new program called Turbofire and I really liked it. But like anything, once I get out of it for awhile, I have a difficult time getting back in. I went along with the video for about 5 minutes before completely abandoning it. So much for that.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. One of those days in fall that you know winter is around the corner so you can't waste this blessing of a day. So I took my little one out for a walk. In my neighbourhood, there are two schools and two other separate playgrounds. Tons to choose from. Usually we go to the school that my older daughter goes to but I always feel weird playing at the playground when school is on. And I wanted to go for a longer walk so we walked down the block to a different playground. She loved it! She ran from place to place with a giant smile on her face! She especially loved the teeter-totter. We must have spent a lot of time on it because on the walk home, I could barely use my legs! Then she wanted a piggy back!! So needless to say, I got my leg day in!! And I think that was the kick I needed to get back into it!

I woke up this morning with some pretty sore legs! But I knew I couldn't quit here. So I found Turbofire Upper Body 20 on my Beachboy on Demand app and went to work. The workout flew by. My arms were lead by the end but man do I ever feel good! Maybe this is what they're always talking about with the endorphins filling your body after a workout! I don't usually get that - I just get tired! But I feel good - like I can take over the world. Once I updated his blog and go have a snack. I bought cottage cheese and a bunch of fruit so I'm set for the day. Until next time....

As Simple As ABC Extreme

Abs, Butt & Core. That's what I worked today. And I found that I can now do a pretty decent sit up! Not bad for someone who used to have to roll over in order to sit up!
Since I took a long weekend and didn't do too much, I'm trying to make up for it today. I did a good 30 minute workout this morning and I'm planning to bake buns after I finish posting this. You wouldn't think that baking would be a great workout but there is a lot of strength that goes into kneading dough. That is if you want nice, fluffy buns, or as my youngest daughter calls them, puffy buns. So rock hard buns for me, nice fluffy buns for lunch!

Yoga

I took the weekend off from working out. By Saturday, my body was so sore and exhausted that I couldn't exercise even if I wanted to. So I was all excited to start today. But then...

I don't think I like yoga. My workout today was supposed to be Yoga Fix Extreme. And I am ashamed, I quit. But I found it so boring! I guess it's supposed to be relaxing and I'm sure it hard work but it's SO BORING!! Tomorrow's workout is Lower Fix Extreme so hopefully it will be a better day. 

Excuses, Excuses

I had so many excuses not to exercise today.

• I've worked out all week
• It's Friday
• I started too late so I'm out of my routine 
• My daughter will be bored while I work out

But I decided to start anyway. Then the video wouldn't play. I've been streaming the 21 Day Extreme BOD on my Apple TV but it wouldn't even play on my phone! So I closed the program and tried again. I finally got it to play on the tv. Then my husband called - someone is coming to the house in an hour, will I be around? Lol, I'll probably still be working out at this rate!! I got off the phone and started the video again. Then the app crashed! So I tried it again (at this point I seriously consider just turning off the tv and calling it a day). But, you create results, not excuses. So I pushed on and thankfully nothing else happened and I finished the work out. I think the only thing that kept me going was the drive to show that nothing can stop me, and maybe the possibility of a sweaty selfie. I love me a good sweaty selfie!!

Today's sweaty selfie is brought to you by Dirty 30 Extreme. And no excuses!