Weekly Menu, #21 +T25/P90X3 Schedule Week 3

Before I get on to business I feel like this weekend's epic-ness deserves a little recap..

Friday I wasn't at home all day. I started it off with a 5 a.m. bike ride picnic with the teenager. It was the best. Next time we do this we are going to bike all the way downtown to see it over the Ij. The teenager thinks I'm a little insane but deep down I know she loves it. 

Then, I rode a total of 36km +/- with my friend to Muiderslot Castle. 

After that the teenager and I headed to the beach. Still pretty epic, but as soon as we got there the skies opened up on us. We still enjoyed the opportunity to sit in the ocean-front restaurant and enjoyed watching the storm. 

We did manage to put our feet in the ocean before we left though!

Saturday we went to a polish-style housewarming. I brought my typical Dutch treat housewarming gift/what I lay out for guests when they come to our house the first time and are new to The Netherlands. It consists of Vla, these s'more's -ish waffles, and stroopwafels, usually I put some haggelslag in there as well, but I forgot sadly.

Sunday was Amstelanndag which was a festival highlighting all the fun stuff to do near my house. This is the same area as I take you through in my post from last week, a Spring Bike Ride through the Dutch Countryside.

It was a packed weekend, I am hoping to make this next week a little more low key, but since quite a bit of sun is predicted I doubt that will happen! haha

One more thing before moving on..if you haven't linked up your travel posts with our #Reasons2travel link-up please to so here!

Last week was very successful. I joined a group of ladies who are determined to work out everyday this month, even if it is just an easy walk or stretching. Just doing something everyday to keep in the fitness groove and remind us why we aren't hogging down on hot dogs and m and m's! haha So, even though my workout schedule wasn't exactly like I had planned here is what I did do...

Sunday: Rest/Stretch-Yoga
Monday: T25 Alpha Cardio/P90X3 The Warrior-Piyo Sweat (late, late, late at night) plus 10km biking running errands
Tuesday: T25 Lower Focus/P90X 3 MMX
Wednesday: T25 Ab Intervals/P90X3 Agility X + 50km biking and sight seeing-I was exhausted
Thursday: T25 Speed 1.0/P90X3 Pilates-Workout with the teenager-HIIT Run and a half hour stair workout
Friday: T25 Total Body Circuit/P90X3 Dynamix-36+km bike ride sightseeing...I decided to sleep when I got home to recover after being in the hot, hot, hot sun all day.
Saturday: Blogilates 100 Burpee Burnout/T25 Cardio-Yoga. I was really sore and my hips were all out of whack.

I've learned a bit about myself this past week. I am going to keep up the double workouts as I've been completing a lot, but I do need to focus and start getting up earlier to get my workouts completed before I start going for the day. I hate working out late in the evening, so getting up with the sun will be helpful for me I think. 

This week's workouts:

Sunday: P90X Stretch

Monday: Dynamic core/MMX

Tuesday: Speed 2.0/Accelerator

Wednesday: Core Cardio/Decelerator

Thursday: Pilates X/Cardio

Friday: Total Body Circuit/Agility X

Saturday: X3 Yoga-then we are sight seeing so keeping it short :)

Goals

Last week: 

• Get gifts mailed out (one is really belated, so I really have to get to the post office)-Done!
• Stick to workouts and menu-Done!
• Get the courage to list a few items I've made in my Etsy store-Still not done :(
• Visit two more museums on my list-Done! I managed the Hermitage and Amsterdam Museum
• Take two bike rides-Done! One to Amsterdam Noord, the other to Muiderslot.

This week:

• Visit two more museums on my list
• Sight seeing trip to Enkhuizen
• Stick to menu and workouts
• Increase unique page views by 100 this week
• Actually list the items in my Etsy shop
• Find at least 3 link parties to link up to each day
• Post more content on my Facebook page, increase interaction

Breakfast:

• Sunday: Granola with banana slices
• Strawberries and cream oatmeal x2
• Acai Bowl x2
• Friday: Egg scramble with toast
• Saturday: French toast with berries

 Lunch:

• Sunday: Omelettes, toast (homemade bread), nectarine slices
• Monday: Half a baked potato topped with mixed veggies
• Tuesday: Sandwiches
• Wednesday: Leftovers
• Thursday: Sandwiches
• Friday: Leftovers
• Saturday: Picnic of hard boiled eggs, bread and butter, fruit, cheese

Dinner:

• Sunday: Tacos/taco salad
• Monday: BBQ chicken breasts with sugar snap peas and brown rice
• Tuesday: Lentils topped with BBQ chicken (leftover), and mixed veggies
• Wednesday: Hubby's last night here so we will eat out
• Thursday: Coconut crusted fish with mango rice
• Friday: Veggie pad thai with any leftovers
• Saturday: Eat out...will be doing a lot of sight seeing so hope to find some where scenic and unique to eat dinner.

That is it for me this week! Tell me, what makes for the perfect weekend for you?

P.S. Linking up with Mommy Run Fast, Jill Conyers, and I'm an Organizing Junkie and Single Mother Ahoy.

Menu Plan Monday +Workouts: Moving Edition

Wow, wow, wow! Easter Monday here folks.

We had a wonderful weekend full of games with friends, dinners with friends, and egg hunts! There was a poor decision of a donut and one of those Lindt Cream eggs for breakfast on Easter Morning but it was totally worth it ;)

Org Junkie Link Up

As you know from my last post that we are undergoing a huge move to Amsterdam, Netherlands. This means very busy days of selling and tossing stuff. So, the menu is full of easy, quick stuff that doesn't require any more than a pan, a pot, and/or a baking sheet.

Breakfast Choices:

Oatmeal cups, cereal cups, eggs & veggies, shakeology, paleo pancakes with pb, 

Lunch:

Monday: Leftover's from Easter Dinner Out

Tuesday: me: eatout, teenager: spaghetti leftovers & salad 

Wednesday: me: tuna salad, teenager: lunch out with her friends

Thursday: Driving to Washington to take care of US needs, eat out

Friday: munchies plate: any fruit and veggies that need to use up, cheese, nuts OR Chicken Salad

Saturday: Grilled cheese with salad

Sunday: Omelettes or Cream of Wheat

Dinner:

Monday: Baked potatoes/baked sweet potatoes with zucchini and sugar snap peas

Tuesday: Tacos with salad

Wednesday: Chicken breasts topped with cheese & veggies/salad

Thursday: Spending the day in Washington taking care of US stuff, eat out

Friday: Hamburgers with veggies & potato skins

Saturday: Homemade Hamburger Helper with salad

Sunday:  BBQ pulled pork sandwiches with cheese, corn, and zucchini

Snack Choices: Shakeology bites, apples with peanut butter, paleo pancakes with pb

**Update** Paleo Pancakes
This recipe is adapted from the Big Ass Pancake...

2 tablespoon coconut flour
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk (I use almond but you could use full fat coconut, coconut almond, or-gasp, even regular milk haha although then it is not quite so paleo anymore, I think that is "primal" then)

Put the coconut flour in a mug & break up any big lumps, add milk & eggs. Mix together with a fork until not lumpy. Cook in a small skillet, mine is about a 6-8" skillet and it takes up the whole bottom of the skillet. I top it with sunbutter, peanut butter, or almond butter. Many times I will mix my nut or seed butter with some coconut oil to make it a little runnier & more like a "syrup"-ish thing.

Workout Schedule

Not only are we moving, but I am having a crazy week with starting a new work project that will need a good amount of my attention. This means workouts will need to be quick, yet effective. 

Monday: 100 Burpee Burnout +insanity cardio abs

Tuesday: 1 mile run and X3 Yoga

Wednesday: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Thursday: Doing some traveling and stuff so will try and do some foam rolling

Friday: P90X Cardio X

Saturday: 3 mile run, foam rolling

Sunday: Yoga at Lulu Lemon

Flex Friday! P90X3 Results!

So I am doing something a little different today. As I said in Monday's post I finished P90X3 last Sunday. That was my final rest day. I wanted to work up a nice post for y'all so I could give you an honest opinion. I will be forward...I am a Beachbody Coach. I am not very good at it as I don't want to pressure people and I don't want people to think I am out to "love" every programme because I'm not. All programmes are for different people and one I may really dislike you may love. I could get into that but I want to focus on X3 for now.

Here are my results:

Yes, I completely forgot to take the 60 day ones! Oops. But you get a good idea. The ones in the pink shorts were actually my final results from T25. I actually felt like I didn't gain a lot of muscle, but I do feel like I lost a lot of fat. In fact I think my results of that were a 2% body fat decrease. Day 30 you can see where I gained a bit of weight and muscle. But, by day 90 it was all trimming out and you can really see the muscle come out.

My biggest areas of improvement were fat loss on my upper thighs and my booty area. I can see where my stretch marks are closer together and aren't as "stretched" as they were prior. Also, my shins are much more muscular, even when not flexed. My calves gained at least an inch of muscle. My jeans are tight there, but loose in my thighs and butt! Ha! 

I noticed a huge increase in my back muscles, as you can see in the final picture.

Also, I will note I didn't really watch too much what I ate. I kept it reasonable but definitely not strict. Also, the last two weeks I was in Hawaii on vacation with my best friend and we spared no calories! So, my results probably could have been even better.

I don't actually take measurements as I begin to get a little obsessed, but I will give you a better look at my photos:

These are my T25 After Pictures/P90X3 Before pictures, I did them back to back.

Now I am skipping straight to the after's because my 30 day pictures are a bit embarrassing. My daughter didn't warn me that I looked like I just escaped from the insane asylum lol So...here are the 90 day P90X3 pictures.

So, all in all, I feel like X3 was a great program. They have the classic, lean, mass, and doubles route for you go. I started with classic but had to switch to lean due to an injury. I will say I don't feel like my results were as awesome because 1) I didn't eat as well as I should have-oops and 2) there wasn't any straight core work that came with the base programme. There are three "elite" dvd's available for separate purchase-I feel this is where Beachbody is getting greedy and it makes me angry. I think these DVD's should have been included especially since one of them is an ab ripper. I feel with as much as we are paying they could have at least thrown in the ab ripper. I feel like that is the only place X3 lacks is in just one straight ab dvd, but you do get decent ab work in some of the other DVD's such as pilates.

Now, just to promote myself lol I will be starting a 30 day group May 1st. It is completely free. Contact me if you would like more info!

What I Ate Wednesday +week in review of workouts: Aloha Edition

Today I am going to let my pictures do the talking mostly: 

Shrimp, rice, salad

Mai Tai by the pool

After the beach a refreshing fruit boat and cottage cheese

I've been loving putting real whipped cream on my coffee some mornings ;)

This turkey burger was  awesome! I still have. Half to eat! It was turkey with gruyere,  sautéed onions, & pear!

This was a tasty dessert: it was chocolate& caramel latte ;) nom!

My workouts have not suffered since being in Oahu:

Last Thursday: X3 Yoga

Friday: rest

Saturday: triometrics

Sunday: rest & stretch

Monday: MMX & tumbling...I haven't tumbled in nearly 20 years....decided to break out the back bends & stuff...see my Instagram for the videos! Haha

Tuesday: Woke up super sore! Doing back walkovers & stuff after not doing them for a while makes one crazy sore! But did Decelerator & swimming 

Today: triometrics, tumbling, and stretching. 

So far it has been so fun here in Oahu, weare having a great time. Any suggestions of must see stuff while we are here? We have one more week!

Linking up at:

<center>

<a href="http://www.peasandcrayons.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f210/klutzycutie16/WIAWbutton.jpg" /></a></center>

What I Ate Wednesday + my week in workouts!

This past week I have been trying to make sure I eat a lot healthier than I had been. I am in my final block of P90X3 so I want to make sure I am really getting the most out of it!

This was our Saturday night dinner: chicken fried steak with a yummy cream gravy, caramelized onions and mushrooms, and broccoli! I sprinkled a little corn over mine because the Mr. had that and I couldn't resist.

Monday, since it was so gorgeous here in downtown the kiddo & I went for coffee after school, she obviously talked me into a chocolate chip muffin. We were going to sit out side but it was a bit too windy for that. I love the reflection in the table.

This was Tuesday's lunch and afternoon snack. On the left is strawberries, blueberries, and banana with coconut yogurt & a hard boiled egg. On the right is a big hunk of peanut butter-because ya know, sometimes life just calls for a scoop of PB-and a hard boiled egg.

Tuesday's coffee...I was feeling fabulous so I went for the Vegas mug ;) 

This was dinner one day last week a big salad with my delicious apple cider vinegar dressing and PaleOMG's Almost 5 Ingredient pizza pie.

Weekly P90X3 Review:

Wednesday: Eccentric Lower

Thursday: X3 Yoga...after eccentric lower I needed it!!! I was s-o-r-e!

Friday: Triometrics-This one is so funky because you do one exercise for 1 minute, but every 20 seconds he makes it a little harder...so you wind up doing one exercise 3 different ways! o_O It is exhausting, but oh-so-good!

Saturday: Eccentric Upper. This was the first time I remember doing this one. It was ok, not my favorite.

Sunday: Active "rest". I felt so poorly about Saturday's workout, even though I was sore, I didn't get the sweat I wanted so I did dynamix. If you want a sweat session without anything overly intense this is the workout for you!

Monday: MMX...after dynamix yesterday I woke up super sore. So, I was glad it was MMX but I must be getting it way better shape because I am working harder and harder during this workout every week and this one is a serious sweat session with serious hard work!

The silly selfie lol this was me after MMX...I was exhausted and so sweaty! 

Tuesday: Decelerator. This workout is funny. I feel indifferent about it...I don't necessarily like it, but I don't despise it either. This one has what I call the "impossible exercise": crane push ups...if anyone out there can do these please check my about page & email me a picture I would love to brag on you!

Today: Pilates. Was supposed to be Triometrics, but I feel like I need the stretch from pilates, so that is what I am going with, trio tomorrow.

So, that's it for this week...What have you been munching on this week?

My X3 ends in a few weeks and my original goal from the new year was to start half marathon training. However, due to some things that have come up I won't be able to attend the half I was planning on, so that is out....trying to figure out what to plan for those 12 weeks...any suggestions?

What I Ate Wednesday: Treat Edition

Hey, hey, hey!



Who remembers that?! Fat Albert was my favorite as a kid! I also thought it quite appropriate since he eats a lollipop during that song and I am basically bringing you a treat edition of 

This past week was not a great week for me nutrition wise, but I am still posting because guess what...I am human and those weeks happen. I don't punish myself for it because that is counterproductive. I won't be gaining anything from it and I can't change it. Instead, I shall embrace it!

Mmmmm...Calzone....

Nutella pizza...this was amazing. To read more about this dish click here. 

Great end of dinner treat...Americano!

Hot cocoa with lots of marshmallows on a snowy winter's day...we barely moved from the bed that day.

This is an award winning Kiwi Martini. Made with a delicious kiwi puree...Had a be careful though because it was just so good!

I suppose it wasn't all bad...these were our breakfast on Tuesday. Fruit parfaits (& a little X3).

As you can see I am still on track with X3. I just entered the second transition week. I love this week because it is all total body work. Nothing super high cardio, just deep down muscle work, then lots of stretching. I think these weeks are where I see the most improvement in my body.

So, here's what I've looked like this last week:

Wednesday: X3 Yoga (my fave!)

Thursday: MMX

Friday: CVX

Saturday: Incinerator

Post workout Saturday. This was an accomplishment because it was the workout I almost didn't do. I was so busy Saturday morning I didn't workout first thing. Usually if it doesn't get done early, I don't do it. But, it was snowing and there was nothing to distract me so I focused and pressed play!

Sunday: Rest day...and rest we did! It was snowing all day, the teenagers cheer was cancelled so we literally laid in bed, watched TV (Guy's grocery games is my new favorite show), and napped.

Monday: Isometrix

Held crow for 10 seconds, but was able to hold
the position almost the whole time!

Some sort of dancer something. This stretches the hips
nicely!

Tuesday: Dynamix

Breathing hard through left banana. My core is
becoming so strong!

Me pre-workout, I was doing a bit of photography,
so decided to snap a pic of myself...don't let that smile
fool you, my feet were really numb!!! Our balcony
was super icy.

Tell me, what did you do for yourself this week?

What I Ate Wednesday +my workout week in review

Happy Wednesday y'all! I am back in Canada and so happy to be back with my little one. However, I miss my husband terribly. It is awful being not even close to in the same time zone. It was hard with the little one and it's hard with him. It's tough being away from those we love, but Friday will be here before we know it!

So this past week I actually took a few rest days due to my trip to England. I didn't work out while there honestly out of pure laziness. I knew we would have enough electronics to keep charged without adding my laptop to that heap. I also knew I would want o be out exploring as much as possible so for the sake of life experience I used my walks each day as my exercise. I did make sure to get in a bit of stretching each day though.

Wednesday: X3 Yoga

Thursday: MMX- this is sort of similar to Kenpo X...there is a lot of kicking and punching. I woke up the next day to my arms and obliques and back being 100% worked over! It felt so good, but really was a huge surprise because I honestly felt like I could have been working a bit harder!

Friday: CVX-last workout before leaving for our short holiday.

Saturday: rest day with some stretching, took a much needed nap and then a nice evening walk through Cambridge.

Sunday: London in a day. This was a whirlwind of a day whipping around the city and seeing all the sites. Did a bit if yoga when I got back to the room before a nice nap and a good walk through Cambridge that evening.

Monday: walk all through Cambridge exploring the city. Did a bit more stretching when I got home and took a much needed nap.

Tuesday: rest day. I was so exhausted when I got home I fell asleep from at about 9:30. 

Wednesday (today): X3 Yoga. Originally I was going to do a double, but my body is super fatigued so I think just this one will do me good. Pick up where I should be & when I'm feeling better I will add in some doubles! This is easily my most favorite workout. It's challenging yet fast and relaxing.

Now for what I ate! This past week has been a super fun week of trying new things Some are old favorites of course, but once we got to the UK I made sure to try some things it hadn't had before, always good to keep the tastebuds on their toes, after all!

Drinking my shakeology and packing for England!

Doesn't that coffee look amazing?! Breka in downtown Van is the best!

Dates with coconut manna and raw cacao powder.

Last meal before we left off England: BBQ chicken thighs, peas, and corn....tasty!

Had this bit of deliciousness out first evening in Cambridge. It was from a place called Revolution. It is the "skinny burger".85 comes with no bun, on just a small bed of lettuce and it came with three nice sized sweet potato fries. It was fantastic! I highly recommend the place if you are ever in Cambridge!

I had this breakfast nearly every morning we were in England. It is just a bit of back bacon, baked beans, and scrambled eggs! The baked beans and scrambled eggs together are delicious! I never would have thought to combine those two so glad I kept and open mind and did! The portions were huge too, I couldn't even come close to eating all of that!

On Monday I had planned to have a much grander lunch at a pub in town! but I jumped on the wrong bus from our hotel and wound up 45 minutes out of my way from Cambridge. By the time I made it back it was 2:30 in the afternoon and too late I felt for a proper lunch. So, having my nerves a tiny bit frayed I figured I deserved some organic carbs and an americano. The pastry was a very soft almost doughy bread. I got an americano because the coffee shop didn't really serve drip coffee to my knowledge and I still wasn't quite sure what a flat white was but the one time I got it my coffee was a bit on the cool side.

Dinner Monday night. This is just from the hotel bar. It was a burger with back bacon and rarebit, which is a type of cheese. It was creamy, likes a Brie. I wound up cutting the burger in half, taking a. Few bites and then just eating the bun with toppings lol getting a bit tired of meat these days. This is how I know I couldn't be 100% paleo lol

I don't usually eat dessert, but Sunday night I wanted something super sweet and found this in our hotel. It was super fudgy, warm, and covered in chocolate sauce. I opted for whipped cream instead of ice cream ;) I also had this Monday night, I couldn't help myself and knew I'd never be staying there again.

Breakfast this morning was a couple of crumpets and a sausage (not pictured lol). I am absolutely obsessed with crumpets after this trip, they are amazing and super soft! Much different in texture than an English Muffin.

Snack before boarding the plane back home: organic 5 berry parfait (Greek yogurt, berries, and granola) and some yoghurt covered cranberries. It was amazing. I handmt had any fruit other than green tipped bananas and green apples since doing the 21 day sugar detox and forgot how much I loved fruit!

That wraps up my week in food and workouts. What was your favorite food you ate this last week? How about your favorite workout? I think my favorite things I ate this past week were the eggs & beans, that's as such a fun combo, and that heavenly brownie! For workouts, my favorite one was London in a day. It was so exhilarating and I got to do it with my husband so that was definitely a treat!