It's Like Christmas Morning!

I'm anxiously awaiting the newest edition to the Tone it Up Nutrition Plan that is due to come out today.  According to their post in the community section of their site,

The update includes new grilling recipes, superfood snacks and entertaining dishes to share with all your girlfriends. We've also included new ice-cream pops & fruity summer treats... YUMMM ♥ Remember, all new updates and new editions are free for members of the Tone it Up Nutrition Plan.

 I have hit 'refresh' on my email no less than 9 million times since I got up this morning.  Since they are in California, I know this is a waste of time since it probably wont come until lunch time but still....so excited!  The updates to the nutrition plan is one of the reasons why I finally plunked down the $150.00 for it.  Love that they do regular updates and once you pay for the plan, you are a member for life.  Sooooo....I'll keep hitting refresh then do a blog update as soon as it comes letting you guys know what I think!

Awesome Workout Combo!

After yesterday's rest day hangover day, I felt particularly motivated to get my workout on this morning.  Nothing like sitting on the couch shoving carbs in your face all day to get a girl moving!  After downing my big 24oz cup of water, my TIU Meta-D and a mug of green tea, I decided to try the Sunrise Circuit Workout from Peanut Butter Fingers.  Side note: you really should follow her on Pinterest because she posts some awesome workout ideas!  The circuit looked innocent enough by I have to say, once I finished, my legs were shaking big time!  I did the workout exactly as instructed.  The only change I made was for the jump rope portion.  I don't have a jump rope so I did the air jump rope move.  I really liked this circuit.  It's quick (only took me about 13 minutes) but very effective.

After that, I made a smoothie for breakfast.  Check out the purple gorgeousness!

In it is 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used this which I love), 1/2 frozen banana, handful of blueberries and some ice.

After getting my older son off to camp and doing some mom-chores, I hit the treadmill.  I haven't gotten the sprint challenge in since Tuesday so I really wanted to include that in my day; I'm obviously not going to get all five done this week, stupid wine.  I decided to combine the sprints challenge from Sweaty Beatties with the Tone it Up in 30:00 workout that the TIU girls sent out on Tuesday.  Their workout calls for 8 minutes of cardio followed by five strength moves for 60 seconds each, a 2 minute sprint then repeat (total workout to be done 3 times).  I chose to do the sprints challenge first then tack on the TIU in 30:00 workout.  I warmed up for 3 minutes at 6.8, did my 5 30-second sprints at 9.4 with a 45 second rest in between. Now for the second workout.  I dropped the speed down to 7.0 and ran for 8 minutes then did the strength moves.  After three rounds, I was seating like mad, huffing and puffing like a 3-pack a day smoker and ready to be done! This was a killer combination.  Both workouts took me about 40 minutes total.  Of that, 24 minutes were spent running for a total of 3 miles.  I really need to be running more miles but workouts like this just feel so much more effective to me.  I'm always short on time - my younger son was upstairs while I got this in - so what time I do have, I really want to get the most of it.  Once they are back in school, I'll start working on upping my mileage.  Until then, I'm loving these interval workouts!

I was starving after my workout.  Lunch was a giant green salad along with a piece of toast smeared with hummus and a few slices of avocado.  I had a handful of nuts as well.

The toast with hummus and avocado has got to be one of my favorite things.  So simple but oh so good!  Now I have to vacuum the house.  Does that count as a third workout of the day?  I say yes!

Sprints Challenge!

Because my workouts have been so sporadic this summer, I feel all
nasty and bloated more often then not. This is all in my head, I know,
because despite the fact that I'm not in the gym anywhere near what I
am when the kids are in school, I still make a big effort to eat
clean. Yesterday morning I was feeling particularly blah but had zero time
to try and squeeze in a treadmill run because I had to take my son to
the doctor.

Morning cocktails

I started the day with the usual 24oz glass of water, my
Tone It Up Meta-D drink and 2 cups of green tea. I pulled out a packet
of Perfect Fit Protein with the intention of making a protein pancake
but then I remembered a link Workout Mommy posted on Facebook
the day before....it involved sprints.

I found the link she posted and was
excited to see that it was a super quick sprint challenge on The Sweaty
Betties site. The August challenge (in addition to giving up
artificial sweeteners) is to do five 30-second sprints (with a short
recovery in between) five days a week. For the entire month. Wowzers!
I'm so in!!  I probably shouldn't say this until the end of the month
but this workout really seems like a zero excuses workout. Check out
the time on my treadmill:

Done before I had time to think!

Twelve minutes and thirty seconds. Who doesn't have 12:30 they can
spare to get this done?  I warmed up and cooled down for 3 minutes
each. My warm up pace was 6.5; sprints were 9.0 and my recovery was for
60 seconds at 7.0. Done!  I'm certainly not saying this should be your
only form of exercise but for a quick wake-me-up first thing in the
morning, the 'I'm a badass' feeling cant be beat!  And yes, I know if
I really were a bad-ass I would have set my alarm, gotten up super
early and gotten this challenge in plus full body strength training.
Stop judging me.

After the sprints, I had just enough time for a quick shower and a
smoothie before heading to the doctor. This morning's concoction
featured 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 cup water,
Tone it Up Perfect Fit Protein Powder, 1 tsp chocolate PB 2 (I'm so obsessed with
PB2!), 3 big handfuls of spinach, 1 carrot, 1/2 apple and 1/2 of a
frozen banana. Yummmmm!

Later in the day, right after my lunch my mother in law was nice enough to let me drop off my boys so I could get to the gym.  The plan was to run then take Body Step.  About midway through my run, I knew I wasn't staying for the class.  I'm a total moron and ate lunch about a half hour before getting to the gym and was experiencing quite the heartburn.  It was all I could do to get 5 miles in before I decided to stop.  So frustrated with myself because I very rarely get to the gym in the summer and I totally screwed up my opportunity.  Today is another day though!  Going to get my sprint challenge done then head to the outlets to take advantage of tax free shopping!

Tone It Up Nutrition Plan

Have you heard of Tone It Up?  It's this great fitness/nutrition community founded by two trainers, Karena and Katrina.  They have a blog, tons of YouTube exercise videos, a DVD, a nutrition plan and they even recently came out with their own (vegan - yay!) protein powder.  I have been thinking about purchasing the nutrition plan for quite some time.  I really like the trainers from Tone It Up, I watch the videos, read their blog, even bought their workout DVD.  The nutrition plan is expensive though so I had a hard time making a decision.  When my mother-in-law gave me money for my birthday, I knew just what I was going to do with it.

Best Birthday Present Ever!

The cool thing about the plan is that you can purchase the regular plan, gluten free plan, vegetarian or vegan plan.  Once I knew I was going to buy, I spent another week trying to decided between the vegetarian and vegan plan.  I ended up going with the vegetarian plan and I now kind of wish I had picked up the vegan plan.  Regardless, I really like it!  Some great recipes and a lot of really helpful hints about what to eat and when and an exercise plan.

There is also a section called the 7-Day Slim Down in the full plan and the 5-Day Slim Down in the summer edition (when you purchase their plan, you get all the updates as free downloads - bonus!).  Karena and Katrina challenged the community to join them on the 5-Day Slim Down starting this past Monday.  I don't feel the need to drop any weight (I'm more of a maintenance kind of girl) so I wasn't going to do it but then on Tuesday, decided to try it and see how doable it is.  The result?  In five days, I lost 2.5lbs (and to be totally honest, that is without giving up my wine!).  But more importantly, I feel incredible.  It was a wake up call to how much random snacking I was doing.  A handful of gluten free crackers here, a couple pieces of chocolate there.....etc, etc.  While on the 5-Day Slim Down, I stopped the mindless 3:00pm eating and followed the plan pretty much to a T.  The only variation was in the recipes.

My new favorite lunch - tofu and veggie romaine wrap!

I took their recipes and tweaked them just a bit to my liking without adding any additional calories.  My new favorite lunch - veggies and tofu wrapped in romaine lettuce - is now an addiction! I was never hungry on the plan, always felt full and satisfied.  I can't believe how good I feel.  I feel way more toned which I know sounds crazy, but I guess without the excess bloat of snacks/sugar/salt, that's what happens!

If you are interested, I highly recommend Tone It Up.  Check out their website - there are a ton of good recipes on there along with printable workouts.  And then head over to YouTube for some good quick workouts.