I have 3 meals, 2 reviews and 1 workout to share with you.
Take it from the top.
Breakfast
1 sliced banana + 1 cup low-fat plain Wild Harvest yogurt + 4 drops 365 brand vanilla stevia drops + 2/3 cup Wild Harvest Crunchy Vanilla Almond granola + a sprinkle of frozen cherries.
The banana was a sunken treasure (TWSS?).
Snacks and Lunch
Leftover curried tofu stirfy + "side" salad of CSA fixin's and Raspberry White Balsamic Vinegar 1 oz. Grafton Village cheddar cheese in a cute red wax wrapper + handful of raisins and raw almonds+ morning snack of 1 Tropical Fruit Tart LARABAR + afternoon snack of 1 Cameo apple.
This is what I brought with me to work- a very typical Rhea feast.
Dinner
A chicken protein masterpiece with a smile: 2 eggs, over easy + 2 mini slices whole grain toast + 2 links Al Fresco local (to me!) and organic buffalo chicken sausage + 5 cherry tomatoes. Oh yeah, and some CSA fennel sprigs on top. For class.
See it smilin'? It tasted like a healthy chicken wing.
Dessert
1 coconut water popsicle left over from last night's Mexican feast.
Reviews
One from my belly and one from my head.
First up: the previously mentioned Tropical Fruit Tart Larabar.
I love eating bars in the morning. For some reason, I am hungriest between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM no matter what I eat for breakfast and lunch. I space out my meals so I can tear into a mid-morning snack between 10:00 and 11:00. Lately, I've been packing ClifBars and Larabars out of convenience and Laziness. The Tropical Fruit Tart flavor was... interesting.
Internet, it was like a Fruit Stripe gum flavored granola bar.
Not great, not terrible, but unique. The ingredient list is a bit longer than what I like, especially for a Larabar, and it contained Orange Juice Concentrate, which is probably why it tasted sort of like candy.
Would I buy it again? Probably not. For a Larabar, the flavor was middling. However, Larabar flavors are pretty phenomenal, so it has some stiff competition
Would I recommend it? Yes, for the sheer novelty. Try it once, then move on with your life.
Bottom line? Fruit. Stripe. Gum.
Round two: headgear.
My mom sent me two Bondi Bands as an early birthday present! I've been eyeing them for a while, since I usually just slap a few errant bobby pins in my hair and call it a run. I like the zippy colors and designs, and I love the fact that they're made of wicking material. Have I mentioned that I sweat a lot when I work out? I'm very sweaty. Not a cute girly sweaty, but just SWEATY. I also learned that they are a local company- well, sort of. They're based out of Lewiston, ME, which is a few miles from where I grew up!
Needless to say, the Bondis haven't wowed me. My mom picked out beautiful colors, but apparently only the solids are wicking; the patterned band I got is made out of some slippery, janked up Lycra. They're supposed to stay put, too, but mine did not.
Ladies, this is all you need to know:
Before workout:
"Hooray, my Bondi Band is so pretty and it's going to stay just where I put it!"
After workout:
"Why is this happening to me?"
Would I buy it again? Sadly, probably not. I really, really wanted to like these, but I'm disappointed. They were a sweet gift and I'll wear them every workout, but they definitely don't stay put. The solid color did a pretty good job of soaking up my beast sweat, though.
Would I recommend it? Look at the after picture.
Bottom line? Maybe I'm just too sweaty and slippery for my own good.
Workout
Today I opted out of cardio to save myself for an exciting new type ofcalf raise that comes with the Boyfriend Seal of Approval. He promised me it would make my legs feel like two slices of Jello-O if I "did it right". Game on.
- Get yourself situated on the machine, be it seated or raised.
- Flex your calves. DON'T raise yet, just flex.
- Sl-o-o-o-o-wly raise. Slowly. I mean it! Like, two or three counts slowly.
- At the top of the raise, keep flexing and hold for a pulse.
- Slowly lower to starting position. Slowly, just not as slowly as in Step three.
- Weep.
- Repeat.
I won't do this every day, but it was good to switch things up a little with a challenge. I usually fly through my calf workout, but this exercise took me three times longer than it would before the Jake method. It was awesome.
Here's my whole workout for the day:
- Dumbbell bench press 8 x 3 x 35
- Bent over row 8 x 3 x 25
- Overhead tricep pull 10 x 2 x 25
- Bicep curl 10 x 2 x 30
- Calf raise of death 130 x 2 x 15
- Bicycle crunches 20 x 3
- Supermans 20 x 3
I'm off to hit the showers.
(from Jake)
ReplyDeleteThe calf workout is from your favorite Lyle, Lyle McDonald.
Yeah I forgot that doing them this way takes FOREVER because each rep is something like 5x longer than it usually is. Even with a really light weight this can burn...
If anybody cares, here's the exact program as he wrote it:
"done twice per week or once every 5th day (i.e. Mon/Fri/Wed/Mon/Fri/Wed)
but no less frequently.
A straight leg calf exercise (i.e. leg press calf raise or standing calf
raise)
5 sets of 5 reps (after warmups) with a 2-3 minute rest between sets.
Start from 1-2 second dead pause on each rep, 2 seconds up, 1 second
squeeze, 2 seconds down. When you get all 5 sets of 5, add weight. The
pause is key, don't rush it. Be prepared to use big weights on this.
Bent leg calf raise (i.e. seated calf raise)
3 sets of 12-15, 1-1.5' rest. 2 seconds up, 2 seconds down, 1-2 second
pause on each rep. When you get all sets of 15, add weight.
Do this as part of an overall bulking/size gaining program (meaning
hypercaloric diet).
Lyle"
keep in mind the purpose of it is to gain size in your calves while eating a 'bulking' diet, but if you just want a challenge for a day I suppose it's a 'fun' thing to try.