Personal Training
Tabata Workout, Boxing Class and Summer Fun!
Hey! I hope everyone had as great as a weekend as I did! It was pretty gloomy, cloudy and rainy, but that is no excuse to stay inside and mope around all day long! I took my butt out and about pretty much all weekend!
First I will back up to last week when it was HOT and I took to the grill…my ‘go to’ way to cook food in the summer time. Easy clean up, delicious, versitile and I just love to grill!
First up, a salad I had for lunch last week. It was arugula, orange peppers (these were the BRIGHTEST peppers I have almost ever seen!) sprouts, chives, mushrooms and persian cucumbers
Grill time! We have here grilled asparagus, red and orange peppers, mushrooms, tofu with peanut sauce
Chicken (marinated in the peanut sauce that is on the tofu) and eggplant disks
I pounded out the chicken with a tenderizer which helps to keep it juicy and flavorful. I also keep some sauce on the side, and once I flip the chicken, I baste it with the leftover sauce. Just a tip to help make your chicken extra delicious!
Ready to eat! It was so delicious.
Some kale chips on the side (baked at 350 degrees for approx 15 minutes, flipping throughout. I seasoned these with sea salt and italian seasoning)
Side salad. Pretty self explanatory here, and obviously covered in mustard. The dressing was balsamic vinegar and truffle oil. Oh my gosh, truffle oil is so amazing. It is acutally made from the truffle mushrooms and it is quite expensive, but I happen to have this dinner at my parents house, and my mom always keeps some on hand. It has a nutty, strong aroma and flavor that turns any salad into something pretty amazing.
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Another reason I love the summer time, besides the grilling? Fresh berries. Throughout the winter, I get accustomed to buying frozen fruit because the price on some fruit, especially berries is through the roof, not to mention they aren’t at their peak of flavor.
I picked up my first pint of raspberries last week for $1.99! They were the most gorgeous color and bursting with flavor. I could easily eat well over 100 raspberries in a sitting.
Right away I made some breakfast of egg whites, fresh berries and oatmeal. Lately, I have been mixing my oatmeal with a bit of unsweetened cocoa powder and nutmeg and it is such a delicious combination together!
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Well Saturday, I did something I have wanted to do for so long. Me and two friends went to Peter Welches Boxing gym in South Boston and took a “Fighter Conditioning” Class! It was AMAZING.
Class Description: Bring your fitness to a new level. This class mirrors a fighter’s conditioning camp minus the full contact of sparring that is geared for all levels. If you are new to Peter Welch’s Gym, or still working your way into shape, we will show you easier modifications of exercises that a professional fighter would be doing. You will do dumbbell complexes, medicine ball drills, line exercises, heavy bag drills, P.A.T drills, tripleko combos, cardio combos – just to name a few exercises. Your trainer will guide and keep you motivated while offering tips for proper form and technique.
(source)The above photos are just from the website, I forgot to bring my camera inside of the facilities when we walked in–but this gives you an exact idea of what the class looked like! We did different drills all in 4 minute intervals. Teh class was a combination of using the heavy bag for some punching drills, and then floor work where we did “Tabata” style drills (squats, jump squats, burpees, medincine ball work, push ups) and then we also incorporated sprints all across the floor.
It was fun, new, different, challening and I loved it!
I am always all about trying new classes, trends in the fitness industry, workouts, races…you name it, I will try anything once! I definately want to take this class again soon!
After we showered up and got out of our workout gear (and a snack! I had quinoa, greek yogurt, apple slices and almond butter) We hit the road for some shopping!
Shopping AFTER we got some grub of course. We decided to to to Piattini Wine Cafe on Newbury St in Boston. I have wanted to try out this little, quaint cafe for SO long and never had gotten around to it. They are known for they’re authentic delicious italian style panini’s, pastas and salads.
Me and my beautiful friend, Ashley patiently awaiting the arrival of our food!
Nichole! Isn’t she gorgeous?
Crusty Italian bread with fresh olive oil
Nichole ordered the Gnocchi which was spinach with huge chunks of fresh tomato and pesto cream sauce.
Ashley and I split two dishes between us.
Dish 1: Pollo Panini Oven roasted chicken breasts, pesto, artichoke hearts, romaine lettuce, tomatoes
Dish 2: Salmon salad: Smoked salmon, mixed greens, capers, tomatoes, lemon basil dressing
Oh my gosh, this sandwich was SO amazingly good. Grilled chicken, fresh homemade pesto, tomatoes, artichokes…What could be better. The bread was crusty outside, doughy inside…very “foccacia’ like
Sandwich wins over the salad. Both were amazing, but Sandwich wins hands down!
We stayed warm from the outside and rain with Starbucks! I got a grande Misto (half coffee, half steamed skim milk, but I ask for more like 3/4 coffee, 1/4 milk) A few shakes of cinnamon and 1 stevia, and I am a happy gal.
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So today I woke up, and took a little extra sleep which I needed. Sometimes I go to the gym ebfore work, sometimes I don’t it just depends. I love ‘playing it by ear’ when it comes to working out, and never forcing myself to do it even if I don’t want to. I woke up and didn’t feel like getting into my car to head to the gym, so I created a quick 12 min workout that I did right in the comfort of my own home! Remember, its all about having a HEALTHY AND BALANCED summer
I know I talk about how EASY it is to make your own, kick butt, at home workout…and really…it is SO easy! Do you have 12 minutes? Then you can get in a great workout! The good news about a 12 minute workout is that you subconciously push yourself even harder knowing you only have 12 minutes to WORK.
I have a Tabata App on my iphone that I rarely use, but recently I have been using it for quick, timed workouts…its really an awesome app and I highly recommend it.
- Tabata is a type of HIIT workout. You can choose any exercises, as long as you go all out for 20 seconds at the highest intensity that you can do, then rest for 10.
- Classic Tabata goes through 8 ‘work periods’ of 20 seconds, with 10 second of rest for a total of 4 minutes
- Tabata delivers BIG results in a short amount time due to the intensity that you are working at
- If you are short on time, want to sweat and want to work…Tabata is an answer to all!
The Tabata app basically sets up a Tabata timer so you don’t have to think about ‘what is 20 seconds’ and if you keep the volume up on your phone, it will beep to let you know when to work and when to rest. You can choose:
- How many rounds
- How long of rest
- How long the ‘work’ periods are
I set the timer to 8 rounds of 20 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest in between each ‘work’ period
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Right backwards lunge with kick forward
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Left backwards lunge with kick forward
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Mountain climbers
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Floor jacks
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Speed skaters
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Push ups (I changed this to a push up with a burpee)
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Back lunge, side (I changed this to just lateral lunges)
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High knees
Notes:
***Each exercise is 20 seconds of work, with 10 seconds of rest in between each one
***In total 1 complete round was 4 minutes long
***I went through this sequence a total of 3 rounds for a total of 12 minutes of work
***If you PUSH and go ALL OUT…this is an awesome workout!
Tabata Lite! (I can;t remember if its free or not. I think it is, if not it was 99 cents.)
I was READY! I had some tunes playing in the background and worked it out!
Then this greeted me. egg whites, fresh raspberries, oatmeal mixed with nutmeg and unsweetened cocoa powder!
Hope you all had a great Monday!
Questions:
1. Have you ever put together an ‘at home’ workout that really surprised you in how hard you worked?
2. What is your favorite thing to grill that is ‘out of the ordinary’ Mine would be grilled pineapple!
