Category: Live Fit Trainer
2 Workouts, 1 Day
| January 16th, 2013 | Live Fit Trainer, Living |
yesterday after work I had to stop by Target to pick up a few essentials, which turned into some other random items and before I knew it I spent more than I expected. Why does Target always do that to me!? Any one else have this problem?
As I was looking through the home section, I saw these adorable Valentine’s Day-inspired dachshund decorations!
I keep telling Bryan that I need to get a dachshund already so it will be acceptable to buy random dachshund decorations for our apartment. I think he doesn’t want to get a dog just on principle that I’ll be a crazy dachshund lady with figurines all over the place.
Live Fit Trainer – Day 7
Because I took a rest day on Monday (Live Fit Day 5) and Tuesday (Live Fit Day 6), I had to catch up on the Live Fit Trainer. This morning I did the workout I had planned for yesterday.
I grabbed my wine bottles and got at it! Luckily, I was able to do all of the workouts without much modification – minus the exercise ball crunches. For those, I just did regular crunches on the floor.
I’ll have time later to get the second workout done. I’ll be actually heading to the gym for this one! Thank goodness, because I really need to get some cardio in. I’ve been feeling rather sluggish this week – work has been crazy!
Talk to Me
- If you have pets, do you have themed decorations in your house?
- Do you leave Target with way too many things in your cart?
- What’s your favorite type of wine? (Random!)
Weekend Recap (1/11- 1/13)
| January 14th, 2013 | Live Fit Trainer, Weekend Recap |
This weekend flew by, unfortunately. Although I did a lot this weekend, it didn’t seem that long. With some unfortunately events on Saturday, I wasn’t in that great of a mood, but I’m over it at this point. I’m just happy to have had a few days of relaxing before a crazy week ahead.
Friday
After work on Friday, Bryan and I drove out to Staples so I could pick up supplies so I could make my Wedding binder. I tried using the wedding organizer I got at Barnes and Noble, but there was so much information in there that I didn’t need. It was actually making staying organized harder. I’ll do a post this week about my new Wedding Binder and how it’s all set up.
By the time we got home, it was already pretty late and still raining, so there was no motivation for me to walk over to the gym to get in my Live Fit workout. So what did I do instead? I did it at home and used props from around the house – wine bottles!
Check out my at-home Live Fit trainer bicep and back workout here.
Saturday
Saturday morning Bry and I had an appointment with a wedding venue nearby. Let me preface this by saying that although the quote the catering manager gave me was at the top of our budget, I had some hopes that everything would work out. From the very beginning, the last place I wanted to get married was in a hotel or a country club, so when I booked a tour at a country club with an attached hotel I was desperate.
Still I was optimistic. Once we got there, I knew it wasn’t right. It felt too corporate and not like Bryan and I at all. There wasn’t many options for an outdoor ceremony and the ballroom she showed us looked like a cafeteria. All in all it wasn’t right for us and I’m glad that I didn’t like it. It was a stretch anyway and for the price it should have been 100% perfect for us. On to the next!
After the tour, I was super bummed out. We came home and watched some Weeds onDemand, but I was itching to get out of the house for a while. We drove over to a park near our home and found this really cool bird watching deck overlooking the entire park.
The weather was gorgeous! It was in the mid 50’s so for the Philadelphia area that was warm! I was beyond excited, because I got to wear my new J Crew puffer vest! It’s super comfortable and sometimes I forget I’m still wearing it when I come home.
Live Fit – Day 4
Saturday night was leg day for the Live Fit Trainer. I decided to do this workout at home too. I’m getting pretty creative when it comes to at-home workouts. That or I’m just too lazy to get myself to the gym on the weekends.
Sunday
Sunday was a pretty decent day. I met up with my friend Lauren for brunch and finally got around to asking her to be my bridesmaid! I now have officially asked everyone! Woo!
After I got home from brunch and mimosas, Bryan and I met up with his parents at Parx Casino. An old co-worker’s band was playing! They are always so great live. They are called Field of Play- now go check them out.
Live Fit – Day 5
I decided to take my second rest day on Sunday. I probably had enough energy to go to the gym, but I didn’t make the best food choices on Sunday and felt super bleh by the time I got home. Oh well.
Talk to Me
- What did you do this weekend?
- Do you have casinos in your town? Do you go frequently?
- If you are married, how long did it take you to pick a venue?
Sneakers and wine
| January 12th, 2013 | Live Fit Trainer |
I typically don’t post on the weekends. But I have something really interesting to tell you.
If you saw my instagram post from last night, you saw this photo and caption:
“You’ll never guess what I did tonight”
No, my friends I did not get drunk and register for a marathon. Although I never thought I would register for my half last year – and I was sober when I registered!
No, I did not drink two bottles of wine after a hard workout.
Let me give you the back story.
I was able to leave work early today because of the time I spent in NYC this week. However, with all the traffic, a trip to Trader Joes and Staples, AND a terrible rain shower there was no way I was going to the gym. But since I took off on Thursday, I knew I had to get my workout completed. On the agenda… biceps and back. So what did I do? I used props around the house – 2 wine bottles!
Sure, the wine bottles weren’t that heavy, but since I’m in Phase 1 of the Live Fit Trainer, it’s all about repetition right now. The heavy weights come later in Phases 2 and 3. I laughed at myself while I was doing the exercises, but it made me happy to know that I was getting it done!
Live Fit Trainer – Day 3
I used the wine bottles for each and every exercise. I had to get creative for the wide grip lat pull down and the underhand cable pulldowns, but it worked. I even broke a sweat! I’m pretty sure this just means that I need to get at-home fitness equipment [real weights, resistance bands etc]. But for now, it worked.
If you’re interested in getting a work-out in and don’t have any free weights available, you can certainly grab whatever you have around the house: wine bottles, cans of soup, text books. It makes it easier if you have real gym machines and equipment, but for these workout sets the wine bottles worked out fine. You just have to get creative!
Talk to Me
- What is the craziest at-home prop you’ve use to work out?
- What workouts are you doing this weekend?
- How many times do you blog per week (if you’re a blogger)?
Friday Favorites
| January 11th, 2013 | Friday Favorites, Live Fit Trainer |
YAY! It’s Friday. This week felt so long. I think that was due in part to traveling to NYC earlier this week. I have a lot lined up this weekend: touring a wedding venue on Saturday, brunch with a friend on Sunday, and probably more wedding planning tasks. I haven’t written about the Wedding much on the blog yet, because not much has been done. I’ve made a secret pinterest board with all of my top favorites to keep it under wraps until the wedding. Once we set on a date and a venue, the real fun begins!
Besides wedding planning, here are some of my Friday Favorites from this past week.
A surprise package from Chobani on Tuesday
The enormous shower at the Westin in Times Square during my stay on Monday night
This adorable mug from my friend, Danica!
Live Fit Trainer – Day 2
I used yesterday as one of my rest days from the Live Fit Trainer. I got out of work late and with the traffic coming home, I didn’t get home until after 6:15 and by that time I was starving! I plan on running a few errands after work today and heading to the gym right after.
Talk to Me
- What are your favorites from this week?
- Do you have a favorite coffee mug?
- What type of coffee do you drink? What do you put in your coffee?
Berry Spinach Vanilla Protein Shake
| January 10th, 2013 | Breakfast, Food, Live Fit Trainer, Recipe |
I’m finally back into the swing of things! Yes, it took some time, but I am finally starting to get back into my old routines again. Yesterday for breakfast I made one of my protein shakes. This time instead of strawberries, I used frozen mixed berries. It definitely tasted different than usual – not bad, just different. Want to make this too? Here’s what you need.
Berry Spinach Vanilla Protein Shake
[Ingredients]
1 cup frozen mixed berries (mine had blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries)
large handful of spinach
handful of ice cubes
one scoop of vanilla protein powder – same kind used here
1 cup Original Almond Milk
1/4 teaspoon xantham gum
a splash of orange juice
[Instructions]
Place ingredients into blender
Blend
Serve
Nothing that complicated. I have the same core ingredients in all of my shakes, but from time to time I will switch it up and 90% of the time the outcome is tasty. Because this time I didn’t have any bananas on hand, the shake was a bit more icy than I’d like. Don’t worry I stocked up on bananas for the rest of this week!
Jamie Eason’s Live Fit – Day 1
I told you yesterday that I’d be finally starting the Live Fit Trainer again. Half of you probably thought, “No, she’s not. She keeps putting it off. She’ll never actually try it again.” Well, my friends. I did it.
**EDIT: clearly I don’t know what year it is…
After getting home from work, I had two pieces of bread for some needed carbs, and headed to the gym. Goodness, it was crowded! Both treadmills and both bikes were taken, so I started with 15 minute warm-up on the elliptical. My gym has a hybrid of a stair stepper and an elliptical. The machine was definitely more difficult than a normal elliptical. I stayed on it for 15 minutes at resistance #6.
You can see the weight training exercises above. The only thing I didn’t do was the narrow pushup exercise. My arms were absolutely burning after everything else. I definitely have more leg strength than arm strength!
I didn’t take my binder with me, and I’m glad I didn’t. There was way too many people in the gym and I didn’t want to misplace my binder or worry about moving it around the gym with me. Instead, I wrote all the exercises I needed to do in Notes on my iPhone, and filled in the weights as I went along. When I got home, I added everything to the workout sheet.
So far so good. I’m looking forward to keeping up with this routine and seeing how my body changes with the weight training.
Talk to Me
- What’s your favorite ingredients to add to your shakes or smoothies?
- Do you have more leg strength or arm strength?
- Do you use a community gym at your housing complex, a gym at home, or a larger gym like a LA Fitness?
My Decision.
| March 21st, 2012 | Live Fit Trainer, Uncategorized |
I’ve decided to stop using the Live Fit Trainer. The thought of heading to the gym everyday with my white binder started to make me cringe. I always said that I would never force myself to do a certain fitness program, just because everyone else was doing it.
Let’s back up a bit. I started the Live Fit program with good intentions– to gain muscle mass and to increase my strength. I remember finding the free program and thinking, “This is the best thing in the world.” I still believe that the program is great, it just isn’t something that I want to continue doing everyday. I didn’t follow the program perfectly. First, my very small gym in my complex did not have all of the needed machines for the daily workouts. That became frustrating almost immediately, because I felt like I was cheating. Second, I had to take 2 weeks off in the middle of the program: one because my gym was closed for renovations and again when I got a nasty cold. Taking time off made me lose my motivation very quickly.
Now that the weather is starting to warm up (but honestly, did the Philadelphia area even have a winter?!), I can’t wait to start doing more of my exercising outside: running, tennis, yoga. The plan just didn’t have room for fun workouts.
I was following a few bloggers’ progress on the program, and honestly felt like I had to keep doing it because I was tracking progress here. Every day felt like I had to complete my homework before logging into blog. “What would my readers’ think if I didn’t post my progress on Live Fit!?” I know it sounds crazy, but that’s exactly what was going on in my head.
After Clare made the decision to end her Live Fit training, I finally took the plunge as well. I chatted with her a little bit the other day and we talked about guilt and how our love for exercise should not be determined by posting each one of our workouts to the blog and being tied to a binder at the gym. I was glad to talk with someone who knew exactly what I was going through.
In conclusion, would I try Live Fit again? Probably not. However, I do plan on using the weight training workouts when I do head to the gym– just not in the rigid was the program was designed. I want to continue getting stronger, but would much rather head outside for some workouts as well.
Live Fit Phase 2
| March 9th, 2012 | Live Fit Trainer, Uncategorized |
Now that Phase 1 is officially over, let us take a look at what’s up next!
Phase 2 involves the following:
- Building muscle: working out at 85% maximum effort
- 6 day/week workout
- Longer rest periods between sets: 2 to 3 minutes rest
- Supersets: performing an exercise set immediately after a different exercise set with no rest in between
- Lifting to failure: on the last set of an exercise, instead of lifting to a set number, continue lifting until the muscle is so tired that another rep cannot be performed
- Cardio: 4 days of medium-intensity cardio in 30 minute increments to facilitate fat burning, while also minimizing the risk of losing any muscle
I honestly can not wait for cardio. Phase 1 restricted cardio for the purpose of building important muscle. Now that underlying muscles have been developed, it’s time to start some fat burning.
Although I feel stronger, I’m not gonna lie… I don’t look like this yet:
I took a look my log sheets for the weight training that I’ll be doing, and I had to look up videos of how to do some of the exercises! I don’t think I’ve ever attempted some of these exercises. Well, there’s always a first for everything.
Any one else on Phase 2?
Happy Hours are Important
| March 8th, 2012 | Live Fit Trainer, Uncategorized |
Good morning everyone! Check out this amazing weather we are having here today.
70 degrees today!? YES!
Today was a rest day from the gym, but yesterday was a shoulders and abs day. Since we’ve been having great weather lately, I was able to wear my one of my high school’s gym shorts. (Yes, you read that correctly:: “one of my high school’s”. I went to 3).
Shoulders/abs day went well. I finally am finished Phase 1. Since I took a week off in the middle, this first Phase felt so long. I am starting to feel strong enough to lift a little bit more each week! Although I am starting to really enjoy these exercises, I started to get bored. I am very excited for new exercises in the next Phase… oh, and some cardio!
After a very busy day at work yesterday, my coworkers and I decided that Happy Hour was in order. We headed over at precisely 5 o’clock to our favorite place. I, of course, ordered a margarita. It is so important to just relax and not think about work for a few hours. Bryan met me at the bar after he was finished with physical therapy. It was nice for him to meet all my work friends, and with no surprise he liked them all!
This morning I slept in until 7:10. I am really starting to feel sick. This cold/flu has moved from just my throat and chest to my sinuses as well. No good. I can’t wait to spend an entire day in bed this weekend. It will be very much needed.
Ok, time to go get ready for work. I have to iron my spring khakis!
How’s the weather in your area?
Bachelor: The Women Tell All
| March 6th, 2012 | Live Fit Trainer |
Cough. Cough. Sniffle.
That’s how I feel today. It was a struggle to get out of bed this morning at 6:15 to get ready to go to the gym, but I did it. Now that I am in this new morning workout routine, I find that I love having my nights free. For instance, last night I came home from work, went grocery shopping, made dinner, showered and relaxed on the couch to watch the Bachelor: The Women Tell All. Side note: does any one believe Courtney is being genuine? I sort of do.
By the way, she looks gorgeous.
This morning was legs day again. When I took that week off, my workouts had to be rearranged. However, somehow since its the end of Phase 1, I put two leg days back to back. Not a big deal, because those days are my favorite anyway.
I increased my weights this morning for the leg press by 10lbs. I love having strong dancer’s legs. I only have one more workout until I am done Phase 1. A Phase 1 review will come probably by the end of this week. I have a lot to say about the program, both good and bad!
My walk home from the gym was a bit colder than usual, but I still enjoyed all the sunshine. So much better than the dreary weather we’ve been having lately.
Who was your favorite lady from the Bachelor? Mine was Nikki. I was really rooting for her.
Something’s Going Around
| March 5th, 2012 | Live Fit Trainer |
This morning was legs day! A few weeks ago, I cringed at the thought of squats. Today, I embraced them! Squats make me feel strong and healthy. My legs have always been my strongest muscle group, but I still enjoy making them even stronger.
I really wish my complex’s gym had a seating calf raise machine. An alternative for next time will be to do the calf raises while holding dumbbells. I didn’t think about that option until after completing my workout for the morning.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that I increased my weights a little for leg presses. I do leg presses instead of curls, because my knees snap while doing them… and that just doesn’t seem healthy. Does anyone else have this problem?
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On another note: something is going around. Everyone is getting sick. There are so many colleagues in my office who are coming down with something. Luckily, I haven’t picked up anything serious yet; which is shocking since I see these people 8+ hours a day. Today, I woke up with a runny and congested nose, but other than that I feel alright. I don’t know what the rest of the week will bring, but I plan to keep taking my daily multivitamin and drinking vitamin C.
What do you do to avoid getting a cold?
