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Weekly Moves and Grooves XXV {When School Gets Crazy}

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This weather has me OFF THE WALLS right now.

In a good way! I’ll gush about it more tomorrow, but today I’m coming at you with a recap of weekly moves and grooves from the past two weeks since I skipped last Sunday for Easter!

I’ve gone to the gym three times in the past two weeks just due to a hectic schedule. But I always feel better when I exercise, so I fit it in when I can!

weekly moves and grooves

Sunday

jog to the gym + leg workout

My butt and hamstrings were sore for THREE DAYS after this. Oh my word.

Monday

Rest

Tuesday

gymnastics warmup + circuit workout a la dorm

4 rounds:

  • 10 modified handstand pushups
  • 15 burpees
  • 20 modified v-ups
  • 25 plank jacks
  • 20 straight leg tricep dips
  • 15 supermans
  • 10 side crunches each side

This took about 23 minutes. I wanted to do a quick workout focused on upper body and core exercises to give my sore posterior chain some more rest. Oof.

Wednesday

sun salutations (lots of down dogs, planks, pushups) + bodyweight circuit + random burpees

4 rounds for time:

  • 10 pushup burpees
  • 16 jump lunges
  • 20 pushups
  • 30 mountain climbers
  • 40 air squats

This was another workout in the dorm. I usually go to the gym with my buddy PJ on Wednesday mornings, but I skipped it this week because I needed an extra half-hour of sleep and extra time to study.

I still enjoy working up a sweat and getting my blood flowing before sitting in class for three hours straight though, so I did another bodyweight circuit workout. The pushups are what got me on this one! I finished in 15:00 flat.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Active rest/bodyweight workouts

I really don’t remember what I did on these days because Holy Week festivities are dominating any other memories of those three days.

{Easter} Sunday

Tabata workout in the dorm

4 rounds of each // 20 seconds hard work: 10 seconds rest

It was a glorious Easter morning! I slept in didn’t have much time to spare before choir practice, so I got the blood flowing in the dorm.

Monday

gymnastics warmup + 100 burpee challenge

I PR’d again!

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Wiped.

This time I broke it up into sets of 35, 15, 20, and 30. I had to dig deep to do 30 in a row for that last set.

Tuesday

circuit workout in the dorm

3 rounds:

A great, quick workout! This took about 18 minutes.

Wednesday

jog to the gym + upper body workout + rowing thruster workout

The upper body workout consisted of assisted pull-ups, arnold presses, bent over barbell rows, decline pushups, seated rows, and lat pull downs.

The rowing thruster workout was 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 cals on the rower with 8 thrusters (40#) between each set.

Thursday

Rest

Friday

12 minute HIIT from Purely Twins + 8 minute ab tabata

I had approximately twenty minutes to fit in a workout [before showering] before class, so I went for it! The 8 minute ab tabata included v-ups, ankle taps, cross body mountain climbers, and spiderman planks.

20 minutes is all it takes these days!

Saturday

dynamic warmup + lower body + 8 minute ab tabata + squats and burpees

I went to the gym with my friend Christine (who has a blog too!) yesterday!

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We started off doing our own workouts first. So I did some lower body weights:

  • 4×12 lunges each leg (50#) (two sets reverse lunges, two sets front lunges) // 30 side jump lunges between each set
  • angled leg press: 1×10 (180#), 1×8 (200#), 1×6 (210#), 1×5 (220#) // 10 pushup burpees between each set

Then we met up for an 8 minute ab tabata:

  • weighted Russian twists
  • leg lift crunches
  • mountain climbers
  • spiderman planks

And Christine requested that we do squats and burpees, so we ended with 3 rounds of 15 goblet squats + 10 burpees.

We were both sweaty beasts beauties. 😉

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Off to do homework and stuff. I’ve been using the nice weather as an excuse to procrastinate all day ahh!

So tell me:

What was your favorite workout/way you moved this weekend?

Have you recently had a workout that made you sore for DAYS?

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Weekly Moves and Grooves XVII

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Happy Sunday!

It’s been a while since I’ve shared weekly workouts (last year was the last time I did!), and since I can’t do daily posts throughout the week, I thought I’d bring them back on Sundays again. I do these posts for myself too as a way to track progress and see how I feel in terms of fitness on a week-to-week basis!

weekly moves and grooves

Sunday

5 minute stair master warmup + leg workout

Then a ton of foam rolling and stretching! I’ve been trying to spice up my strength training by decreasing reps and increasing weight and sets. It definitely makes for a waddling Alison the following day.

Monday

18 minute plank workout + “Run the World” gymnastics warmup

Lori and Michelle’s plank workout NEVER seems to get easier. You only need a little bit of space for the workout (I did this in my dorm room on our snow day!) and it’s low impact, yet you feel totally spent by the end.

Tuesday

Dirty Burpee Workout

dirty-burpee

This was an early morning workout, woohoo! Although, I was very sleepy in my first class after this.

Embarrassing story: I missed the sign on the track that tells you which way to run depending on which day of the week it is. I didn’t know there were rules, so I was running the way I ran when I first used the track just the week before, but everyone was running the other way (why I didn’t just conform from the start, I don’t know…I’M SPECIAL). Then a guy came up to me and told me I was going the wrong way and that there was a sign with rules for each day. Heh.

Wednesday

5 min. row + shoulders and abs circuit workout

Another early morning with my friend PJ! I came up with this workout to work my upper body since my legs were beat from the past three days of workouts.

5 Rounds // 45 seconds work: 15 seconds rest // 12.5 lb. dumbbells

Thursday

active rest day // bodyweight countdown workout

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 rep scheme of:

burpees, air squats, pushups, and situps

My arms were a lot more fatigued from Wednesday’s workout than I thought (those hand release pushups killed me), so I had to do pushups on my knees in order to move through this workout quickly and keep good form. Still a good way to move in under 10 minutes!

Friday

500m row warmup, then…

5 rounds of: 5 weighted pistol squats each leg (15#) + 500m row

I finished with Lori and Michelle’s 12 minute interval workout that kicked my butt.

Saturday

upper body workout + 8 minute ab tabata

I did some assisted pull-ups, seated rows, pushups, burpees, lat pull downs, and weighted tricep dips. My body was pretty worn out from the week, so it was telling me “nuh uh” during some of the exercises. I just felt kind of weak and tired overall. One of those days!

The 8 minute ab tabata was great though. 4 rounds of 20 sec work: 10 sec rest of weighted Russian twists, weighted toe touches, spiderman planks (first two rounds), modified v-ups (first two rounds), and side plank hip raises each side (second two rounds).

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Hope you all have a great week! Hopefully we have a full week of school this time around (although, it’s supposed to snow again tomorrow).

So tell me:

What is your favorite leg exercise?

How have you moved and grooved this week?

 

I Eat With Gusto

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Hello from Beantown!

And happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to my American friends! Fun fact: he received his PhD at Boston University, hollaaaa. In honor of such a courageous and exemplary man, here are some of my favorite quotes of his:

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

I have decided to stick to love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

We must use time creatively.

Thank you, MLK Jr. ♥

Friday

My train commute to Boston was smooth and swift, thanks be to God. Mom even packed me a bag full of pomegranate arils because she is sweeter than the pomegranate itself.

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complete with a plastic spoon

Ben was also kind enough to help me take my bags from the train station to my dorm since I’m a chronic over-packer and had about twice the bag/weight limit. I took him out to lunch afterwards at one of our favorite spots— Mei Mei’s!

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We both ordered “The Double Awesome” scallion pancake sandwich (Mei Mei’s special), which has local greens pesto, Vermont white cheddar, and two oozy eggs. Sounds like heaven, tastes like heaven. Ben also shared a bite of his fried pork dumplings and sriracha rice with me. Mmmm.

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That orange is not cheese. It’s yolky deliciousness that I got on my face, on my sweater, and in my hair. It’s all or nothing with this kind of food. Ben and I were sitting at the window barstools, so the world could see us grappling with our sandwiches and fighting to catch every drop of egg yolk.

Ben wants to try to make this at home, but he said, “I need to perfect the art of the egg. Like, how do you make it watery?”

Me: “You mean…runny?”

Ben: “…yeah.”

Silly dude.

So, uh, college life. I do love it, but I was living off of naked salad and yogurt for the first couple of days when the dining halls were still closed. I went to Whole Foods and picked up a small box of spring mix with herbs and five Fage Greek yogurt cups that were on sale.

Behold, dinner.

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I ate the salad with just salt and pepper because I didn’t want to spend money on dressing for just two days. It tasted…green. But honestly, these are some of my favorite foods anyway, so I’m not complaining. Protein, greens, and peanut butter. Got my food groups covered.

Saturday

Moves to start the day: 100 burpee challenge!

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Breakfast involved yogurt and oats a la microwave.

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How a proper lady would eat this: one bowl at a time.

How I eat this: dip my spoon back and forth between bowls to get some yogurt and some oats in every bite and licking my spoon clean of all the nut butter.

I worked for most of Saturday and ate more of my greens for lunch, plus two Wasa crackers with Laughing Cow cheese, curry powder, and black pepper. You need to try that combination!

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I quite enthusiastically ate handfuls of pomegranate arils immediately after work because crackers and leaves aren’t a substantial lunch for me and I was hungryyyy. Then I came back to my dorm and ate yogurt #2 of the day.

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Afterwards, I braved the cold and jogged to the gym for an upper body workout. When I jogged back, expecting to eat dinner in the dining hall, I was greeted with disappointment. Dinner was only from 5-7 pm Saturday night instead of the usual 5-9 pm.

To Subway I went!

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grilled chicken, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and honey mustard on wheat

Subway is so good. I followed this up with the rest of my greens, snap pea crisps, and yogurt cup #3.

I was FaceTiming with mom when I was eating dinner, and she remarked at my large mouthfuls of salad. It’s true— I can’t eat salad in a pretty manner. You either eat one leaf at a time or you look like a brontosaurus. I prefer the latter so that I can actually taste the salad.

Don’t get me wrong, I like to take my time when I eat, and I can eat like I’m with the Queen of England if I wanted. But sometimes (most of the time) I just eat with gusto.

Sunday

The dining hall was open all day yesterday, so I definitely hit that up for breakfast!

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oatmeal with coconut, honey, peanut butter, and banana + egg white, veg, cheese omelet

Fill.ing.

I went to Mass at the Catholic center and had a hug fest with all my dear friends again. Ugh, so happy. Then a couple of my friends and I made our wallets cry when we went to buy/rent books for classes. At least you get a reusable bag when you spend over $400.

I ate a super late lunch of veggies and chicken, and little later, moves were done with my pal Albert! We did abs and ran two miles on the treadmill.

Dinner was weird because I had a late lunch, but I wanted to eat before the dining halls closed. That being said, it was tasty!

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salad + whole wheat corn muffin + pear

I saved the pear for later because I wanted my fruit in another form…

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apple crisp a la mode!!!

The crust was buttery, sugary perfection. Oh, what BU dining hall desserts do to me.

We have today off for MLK Jr. day so this is my last day before we dive into the real work. If you also have a day off today, have a great one! If you don’t, still have a great one!

So tell me: 

Are you an enthusiastic eater?

I can buy three things from the grocery store to eat for the weekend. I buy___, ____, and ____. 

Labor of Love

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We’re back in the tundra!

“Tundra” meaning New York, meaning below freezing temperatures, meaning I’ve been warming up by standing next to the crock pot and wrapping my face in laundry straight out of the dryer.

Florida has made me soft.

Fortunately, we had smooth travels on both the auto train (a train running between Lorton, VA and Sanford, FL both ways that takes you and your car!) and on the drive back home from the train station. The auto train had some snazzy food for dinner that was quite impressive. Mom and I both tried their salmon with pesto, rice pilaf, and steamed veggies.

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Not the least bit shabby for train food, I’d say!

On our drive back to New York from the train station in Virginia, we stopped by Woody’s Crab House for some crab cakes. We were in Maryland, so why not? These were some fantastic crab cakes too!

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shared house salad to start

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my crab cake sandwich with coleslaw and steamed veggies // mom’s two crab cakes with sweet potato fries and corn on the cob

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she wanted me to take a picture of the copious amount of lump crab meat in those cakes

We picked off each other’s plates (I helped her out a good bit with those sweet taters) and agreed that the crab cakes were phenomenal. It was worth going backwards 10 miles to this place just because Yelp told us it had stellar reviews. The labor of love for good food.

Speaking of a labor of love, we are also willing to go the distance to get a sweet taste of one of the most time-consuming fruits out there.

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massacre

Pomegranate! It takes a good 10-20 minutes to get all the arils out of that sucker, while it takes only 10 minutes to consume all of it if we really wanted to. Especially when you eat it with a spoon like my dad and me.

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But after my moves last night, which consisted of this cute (yet challenging) gymnastics core routine and the 500 rep workout from Purely Twins, I went for a more classy route of eating the rubies I harvested.

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atop plain Greek yogurt sweetened with cherry vanilla stevia + BelVita biscuits for dippin’!

My friends and I always used to call pomegranate arils juicy little explosions of flavor. If you have never tried pomegranate, you must experience the tiny yet amazing explosion! Even if it means taking every single aril out of the rind. Or just buying pre-harvested arils.

P.S. we’ve already finished that whole pomegranate.

Breakfast this morning was a delicious “dough boy” smoothie inspired by Kath Eats!

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Last night I combined the following ingredients in a blender (just stirred them, not blended) and let them sit overnight in the fridge.

  • 1/2 c. almond milk
  • 1/2 c. quick oats (regular rolled oats would work too)
  • 1/3 c. plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 very ripe banana
  • 1 tbsp. chia seeds
  • 1 heaping tbsp. peanut butter
  • dash of cinnamon and nutmeg
  • splash of vanilla extract
  • pinch of sea salt

This morning I added another 1/4 cup or so of almond milk and then blended it all up! The result is a thick, doughy, creamy smoothie that will make you smile. Unless you don’t like happiness in a mug.

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topped with cereal (times five) for crunch and eaten with a spoon!

I came to the realization that I want to make so many breakfast recipes before going back to college on Friday that I might just have breakfast for every meal of the day. #WinterBreakBreakfastMission isn’t over ’til it’s over.

I am currently blogging from my parents’ desktop computer because my laptop froze last night and will not start up, even after letting it load up throughout the whole night. I might have to take it to the Mac Store if it doesn’t cooperate. Meep.

Have a splendid day, folks! Here’s an awesome list of 25 ways to stop feeling overwhelmed and overworked, which is something we all need in life, especially as we get back into our working routines.

So tell me:

Is there a food for which you are willing to make a “labor of love”?

Do you like pomegranate?

Have you ever tried an overnight smoothie?

What are you doing today!?

I am going to pick up a new graphing calculator (my previous one got soaked in my backpack when it rained in Boston…I’m having the best luck with technology recently), pack and prepare for going back to school, work out, and see Daliza tonight!

Weekly Moves and Grooves XII

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Oh, hello.

I totally disappeared last week after I posted on Tuesday. That was completely unintended, but life threw some curve balls as it always does, so I did not get a chance to check in again. Sad face.

Luckily, I have a hefty life update post coming for ya tomorrow, so brace yourselves!

For today, I have this week’s workouts! It was all about quick, efficient workouts this week due to the craziness and shortage of time.

weekly moves and grooves

Sunday

5 min. stair master warmup + leg workout

  • 3×10 squats @ 115# + 20 jump squats after each set
  • 2×10 squats @ 95# + 20 jump squats after each set

3 sets of each:

  • 10-12 hamstring curls (80#) + 30 side jump lunges
  • 15 curtsy lunges (40#) + 16 jump lunges
  • 20 sumo squats

My quads were dying for the next two days. I had never squatted more than 100# before, so this was definitely something spicy, especially with those jump squats in between.

Monday

5 minute jump rope warmup + 18 min. plank workout with double unders 

I took this workout outside by the river since the weather was lovely on Monday. I did Lori and Michelle’s 18 minute plank workout with 50 double unders between each set of exercises. Since my quads were crying from the depths of my muscle tissue, I took it slow and just enjoyed the sunset.

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Tuesday

Rest/Walking

Because my legs were even more sore this day and because a bunch of special people came to visit Boston and it was fan-freaking-tastic, so I needed to soak up every minute with them! Details tomorrow 🙂

Wednesday

Lori and Michelle’s 5 x 50 workout a la dorm

Wednesdays are my long days in terms of classes, so I did this quick but incredibly sweaty workout in the dorm in between classes. (Sorry if I smelled like butt, classmates.)

I ♥ burpees.

Thursday

3.5 mile run + yoga

It took some major morning pep talk to get myself to run in the morning, but I was happy I went (is that what all runners are supposed to say?). Slow and easy at a 9:09 pace.

Friday

Lori and Michelle’s bodyweight arm workout a la dorm (subbed burpees with proper T pushups for the burpee rows)

I’m obsessed with Lori and Michelle’s workouts. They’re quick, intense, and often do not require equipment. Perfect!

Also, do not let the bodyweight aspect of this workout fool you. The power of pushups is real.

Saturday

5 min. row warmup + functional training workout from Julie

This workout is super fun because it moves quickly from one exercise to the next, but it’s also unexpectedly challenging. You think, 10 reps of 7 exercises for 10 rounds? Easy.

But no. At least for me. These kinds of circuit workouts are my faaaavorites though!

Alrighty then, I’m off to tackle the day! Lots of work to do including class registration for next semester (so much stress, holy cow), choir practice, Mass, studying, and blogging!

So tell me:

When was the last time a workout made you insanely sore?

What was your favorite workout this week?